By Maria Saporta
What a difference 20 months can make.
Back in the fall of 2008, Delta Air Lines was writing letters to bond underwriters questioning Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport’s construction plans and the related costs.
It was pretty clear that at the time, Delta would not support the city’s plans to issue bonds to build the new international terminal at the airport and that the airline was questioning the projected costs of the project.
Now consider today’s news conference.
By Maria Saporta
The Atlanta Committee for Progress will have continuity of leadership for one more year.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed was able to convince Phil Kent, CEO of Turner Broadcasting, to continue serving as chairman of the business advisory group through the end of 2011.
For the first time, the ACP board also identified a vice chairman who will chair the organization in 2012. That person will be Jim Hannan, CEO of Georgia-Pacific LLC. Hannan recently chaired the mayor’s search committee for a new chief financial officer for the city.
By Maria Saporta
Usually when Nobel Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus visits a city, he comes in for half a day to give a talk and sign some books before going out to his next destination.
But when Yunus came to Atlanta last week, he came for the better part of four days.
“This is very special,” Yunus said of his stay in Atlanta after speaking to a standing-only crowd at Georgia Tech’s College of Management. “When I go to a city, I hardly spend half a day, so this
By Ben Smith and Maria Saporta
Friday, August 27, 2010
The world’s busiest airport needs more than a new general manager. It needs to replace a sizable chunk of its management team, too.
Within the past year, six of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s top 20 executives, including former General Manager Benjamin R. DeCosta, have left. Most appear to have moved on to better
By Maria Saporta
MACON – The two top candidates for governor addressed the Georgia Forward forum Wednesday in separate telephone conversations broadcast to the whole group.
Both candidates were asked the exact same questions, but of course, they had quite diverse answers.
For example, they were asked if they feel there is one Georgia, two Georgias or more.
“Certainly there’s only one Georgia,” said former U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, the
By Maria Saporta
MACON – While not indicative of the whole state, people attending the Georgia Forward Forum in Macon had significant consensus in a pre-conference survey.
Laura Meadows, associate director of the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, presented the findings during a Wednesday morning session of the all-day forum.
Asked what were the top issues facing their local communities, the No. 1 response was jobs, followed by education and the lack of public transit. All those
By Maria Saporta
MACON – A gathering of 200 statewide leaders from all sectors has come to Macon State College for an all-day forum on how to move Georgia forward.
The Georgia Forward Forum has been put together by Atlanta-based Central Atlanta Progress in an inaugural effort to unify the whole state.
Macon Mayor Robert Reichert compared the meeting to the thawing that occurs in the spring.
“Renaissance thinking begins slowly and surely with an increase in warmth and l
By Maria Saporta
Friday, August 20, 2010
In the end, the family marriage between the Atlanta Life Financial Group and Jackson Securities lasted less than four years.
Reuben McDaniel III, president and CEO of Jackson Securities, announced Aug. 16 that he was resigning from the job he has held since 1999. The two African-American financial institutions had connections to the late Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson.
Amnesty International is concerned about the impact of the latest federal district court ruling on Georgia death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis.
William Cordery, Amnesty International’s senior development officer for the Southern region, just sent me a press release that has come out of the organization’s Washington office.
Here is the release
(Washington, D.C.) – Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) today expressed deep concern that a federal district court decision puts Georgia death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis
By Maria Saporta
It’s been a wonderful summer of music.
And even though the heat of the summer is still with us, I know we’re quickly witnessing the end of our summer music season.
One of my guilty pleasures is going to hear live music — indoors or preferably outdoors. I bought tickets to several shows — and sadly the last concert on my dance card was the Jack Johnson show at the Aaron’s Ampitheatre (or as us natives would say — Lakewood).
It used to be that we would kick off the
By Maria Saporta and Ben Smith
Friday, August 20, 2010
The new general manager of Atlanta’s airport will have to deal with a full plate of managerial challenges and politically fraught decisions in the coming months.
The general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is arguably one of the most important public roles in the Atlanta region. As the world’s largest and busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson is the fuel that makes Atlanta the economic engine of the
By Maria Saporta
The two top candidates for governor each spent a half hour this morning talking to the executive committee of the Metro Atlanta Chamber. And both apparently had done their homework.
Former Gov. Roy Barnes, who is the Democratic nominee, was the first one to talk to the group of about 25 business leaders at their regular monthly meeting.
His visit was then followed by former U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, who is the Republican nominee for governor.
“They are both well-informed, and both
By Maria Saporta
Friday, August 13, 2010
The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta does not believe that now is a time to be stingy with its dollars. Last year it gave away $140 million to nonprofit organizations in metro Atlanta and beyond.
“Our payout last year was 22 percent,” said Alicia Philipp, president of metro Atlanta’s Community Foundation. “We are getting the money out there. We think that’s an important message. These high-net-worth individuals, who are our donors, want to get the money out
By Ben Smith and Maria Saporta
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Two former Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport employees, a current general manager from Indianapolis and a former CEO of Detroit’s airport authority are said to be in the running for general manager of Atlanta’s airport, sources say.
They are John D. Clark III, Lester W. Robinson, Steven Baker and Miguel Southwell, according to three sources familiar with the search to replace former GM Benjamin
By Maria Saporta
Friday, August 13, 2010
It’s no secret that Georgia has been a divided state. For decades, business leaders and politicians have talked about the two Georgias — metro Atlanta and the rest of the state.
But at an all-day event in Macon on Aug. 25, leaders from across the state will explore how Georgia compares to other states and what the different communities can do to help create a common vision.
By Douglas Sams and Maria Saporta
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 | Modified: Thursday, August 12, 2010
Tony Southeast Georgia resort Sea Island Co. became one of the state’s highest profile casualties of the economy and real estate crash late Tuesday, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing at least 1,000 creditors that are owed up to $1 billion.
The bankruptcy coincides with an agreement to sell its assets to New York-based Avenue Capital Corp. and Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital for $197.5 million. They
By Maria Saporta
After a year without a permanent director, the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club has hired Colleen Kiernan for that role.
The news was announced in an email from Mark Woodall, chair of the Georgia Chapter, which was distributed more widely in an email from Neill Herring, who handles legislative affairs for the chapter.
Kiernan succeeds Patty Durand, who left the chapter in June, 2009.
Kiernan is no stranger to the Sierra Club
By Maria Saporta
Metro Atlanta finds itself in an awkward position.
For decades, the Atlanta region has had a golden touch — despite up and down economic cycles, it always has managed to grow out of recessions and emerge even stronger.
But this past decade has been different. Metro Atlanta finds itself unable to rebound out of this downturn.
At Databank’s Mid-year Real Estate Symposium Thursday morning, two key
By Maria Saporta
Friday, August 6, 2010
Come January, Georgia will have a new governor and a new state school superintendent.
And the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education is poised to help the new governor and superintendent — whoever they may be — adopt a public education platform to help spur improvements in school systems across the state.
By Maria Saporta
It’s official. The fares for the Xpress bus service are going up.
The board of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority held its board meeting Wednesday afternoon and voted unanimously for a fare increase beginning in October.
People will now be charged based on the distance they travel, which translates into some fares going from $3 a ride to $4. Riders also will no longer have the ability to travel on MARTA for that one fare price. (See Maria’s Metro column).
The reciprocal fare agreement between
