By Maria Saporta
Published in the ABC on Friday, June 29, 2012
Metro Atlanta can thank the multiple Forward Atlanta campaigns for helping turn a small Southern town into one of the nation’s top cities.
Forward Atlanta campaigns can be traced back to 1925, when the business community began raising money to promote Atlanta as an emerging city.
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta leaders are not giving up on the possibility of becoming a regional location for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
But there was widespread disappointment that Atlanta was not among the four cities that already have been designated to become regional patent offices.
By Maria Saporta
A new transportation center for downtown Atlanta is moving from the idea stage to the design stage.
On July 11, the Georgia MultiModal Passenger Terminal team will provide the “first look” at the three alternative sites under consideration for the location of the proposed multimodal station.
The team will present different design sketches for the station, including elevations and street crossings at the public meeting, which will be held at 6 p.m. at the City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management at 72 Marietta St. NW (the former home of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution), which is adjacent to where the station would be located.
By Maria Saporta and Dave Williams
Published in the ABC on Friday, June 29, 2012
The once-thriving economy in metro Atlanta recently has been stuck in reverse — losing almost as many jobs as it created since 2000.
The Metro Atlanta Chamber now wants to change gears with its latest Forward Atlanta initiative by seeking to jump-start the regional economy with a multipronged plan that includes nurturing homegrown, cutting-edge companies and creating stronger partnerships between business and Georgia’s universities.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the ABC on Friday, June 22, 2012
The PATH Foundation has done it again.
Within days of going public about its latest fundraising campaign to build more multiuse paths throughout Atlanta, the PATH Foundation had raised enough money to meet its $11.45 million goal.
That was largely due to four major gifts — $5 million from the James M. Cox Foundation/Cox Enterprises Inc.; $3 million from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation; $1 million from the Kendeda Fund and $2 million from the O. Wayne Rollins Foundation.
By Maria Saporta
After seven years in the making, ground was broken Wednesday on the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in downtown Atlanta.
The ground also was broken in more ways than one.
The law firm of Jones Day announced that it was making a $350,000 gift, joining only a handful of other local law firms that have contributed to the Center, which will showcase the history, present and future of civil and human rights issues across the globe.
By Maria Saporta
The Metro Atlanta Chamber’s new strategic plan acknowledges that what has stimulated growth in the past no longer works in today’s regional economy.
Leaders from the Metro Atlanta Chamber unveiled the business organization’s Forward Atlanta plan Monday at the Rotary Club of Atlanta hoping that its new approach to economic development will restart the region’s economy.
The new strategic plan — which sets a plan through 2025 — was formulated with the help of the Boston Consulting Group and has been in the works for a year.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the ABC on Friday, June 22, 2012
NEW YORK — Delta has had a long happy marriage with Atlanta but that’s not stopping it from having an affair in New York City.
The airline currently is part of a $1.4 billion investment at the two major New York airports — $1.2 billion to build a new international terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport and $200 million to upgrade and expand its operations at two terminals at LaGuardia Airport.
By Maria Saporta
The Georgia Tech Foundation won a major victory this week in its quest to demolish most of the historic Crum & Forster building at 771 Spring St. in Midtown.
A report from a three-person Economic Review Panel for the Atlanta Urban Design Commission submitted June 21 agreed with just about every point made by the attorneys of the Georgia Tech Foundation.
By Maria Saporta
Sixteen years ago, Atlanta was busy getting ready for the biggest event in its history — the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
This year, it’s the City of London’s turn to enjoy its time in the international spotlight. Next month, it will host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
By Maria Saporta
Three U.S. representatives from metro Atlanta — John Lewis, David Scott and Hank Johnson — urged Gov. Nathan Deal and other state officials to ensure that the $104 million awarded to Georgia from the National Mortgage Settlement be invested in foreclosure prevention.
The fact that Georgia had decided to spend those funds on economic development initiatives rather than foreclosure prevention was brought to light in this week’s SaportaReport guest column, written by Kate Little.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the ABC on Friday, June 15, 2012
The quality of child care in Georgia experienced a decline for the fourth year in a row, according to a new report that is to be released June 15. The statewide survey was conducted by the Atlanta-based nonprofit group Quality Care for Children.
The nonprofit conducted its fourth annual survey of child-care centers in February and March, interviewing nearly 900 providers.
By Maria Saporta
Multi-faceted Atlanta entrepreneur Michael R. Hollis passed away Monday evening after suffering from a prolonged illness.
Hollis, 58, was a lawyer by training with a law degree from the University of Virginia. It was while he was at UVA that he was the first African-American to be elected the national president of the 30,000-member student division of the American Bar Association, the largest student organization in the world, according to an Atlanta Weekly profile written about Hollis in 1985.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, June 15, 2012
More than 300 Atlantans participated in the 2009 design competition for a proposed National Center for Civil and Human Rights. In a public forum, the five teams of finalists presented their vision for what was destined to become one of Atlanta’s marquee attractions.
By Maria Saporta
Backers of the one-percent regional transportation sales tax are still knocking on doors seeking to raise money for their campaign.
The referendum vote, which will take place during the primary election on July 31, is considered too close to call. It’s all a matter of who will show up at the polls (or vote early or by absentee ballot).
By Maria Saporta
NEW YORK — The annual shareholders meeting for Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines began at 7:30 a.m. and lasted about 20 minutes in the auditorium of the AXA Equitable Center.
Despite the large auditorium, a sparse crowd of fewer than 50 people — only about 10 of them outside shareholders — attended, and only one question was asked.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, June 07, 2012
A group of Olympic athletes are doing what they can to keep Atlanta’s Olympic legacy alive.
On June 23, Georgia’s Olympians and Paralympians will hold a “Walk to London” at Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta. The “Walk to London” is being held in cities across the country to help build awareness for the upcoming Summer Olympic Games that will be held in London beginning next month.
By Maria Saporta
At long last — some good news for metro Atlanta’s housing market.
After several years of significant oversupply, metro Atlanta now only has five months of inventory of homes that are on the market. That means that at the current pace of home sales, it would take five months to deplete the available inventory.
Atlanta-based Smart Numbers released its latest data at its semi-annual housing summit on Wednesday morning.
By Maria Saporta
The National Center for Civil and Human Rights revealed a new scaled-down, economically-sustainable design for what will become a signature attraction for Atlanta.
The new design was unveiled Monday evening at the W Hotel downtown, which is only a couple of blocks away from the site of the Center.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, June 07, 2012
It’s the beginning of a new era for the Woodruff Arts Center with the June 4 naming of Virginia Hepner as its next president and CEO.
Hepner, who will be the first woman to lead the multidimensional arts and cultural institution since its founding in 1963, comes to the table with a strong business background and with a deep passion for the arts.
