Category: Sections

By Maria Saporta

Mayor-elect Kasim Reed reached out to the Atlanta business community Monday morning at the quarterly meeting of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a blue-ribbon advisory group set up six years ago by outgoing Mayor Shirley Franklin.

Reed, accompanied by City Council President Lisa Borders, had to leave directly after the meeting at SunTrust Plaza and wasn’t available to answer questions.

But ACP Chairman Jim Wells, CEO of SunTrust Banks, said the meeting between the business leaders and the

By Jeanne Bonner

Hope tinged with realism marked Friday’s Sustainable Roundtable on the future of transit in Atlanta held at All Saints Episcopal Church in Midtown.

Or was it realism softened ever so slightly by a bit of a hope?

Speakers Erik Steavens, director of the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Intermodal Programs, and Lee Biola, president of Citizens For Progressive Transit, sketched out the current status of transit in Atlanta and Georgia.

They both made a case for why one

By Maria Saporta

For the first time ever, the Atlanta Regional Commission has elected a citizen member as its next chairman.

Tad Leithead, a consultant who used to be an executive with Cousins Properties Inc. (NYSE: CUZ), was elected chairman on the third round.

He will succeed Sam Olens, chairman of the Cobb County Commission, who decided to step down as ARC chair so he could run for state Attorney General next year.

By Maria Saporta

Whose bright idea was it to hold city council committee meetings on run-off election day?

It took nearly four hours for the Atlanta City Council’s Committee for Human Resources and Community Development on Tuesday to finally take some kind of action on the proposed Sustainable Building Ordinance.

The ordinance, introduced to council in July, has been held in committee for months as environmentalists and

By Maria Saporta

Foreclosure on the Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter has been averted, at least for now.

Two lenders had filed for foreclosure notices that was supposed to go forward on Dec. 1.

But on Monday, the Metropolitan Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless was able to reach a temporary agreement with the lenders to keep the shelter open for at least another three months.

William “B” Wardlaw, who has been the

By Maria Saporta

The Metropolitan Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless has been at odds with the downtown business community and others — ever since it purchased the Peachtree-Pine building 12 years ago and turned into the city’s largest shelter.

Now William “B” Wardlaw, the Task Force’s top benefactor and supporter, acknowledges that the shelter’s days are numbered.

Two of the Task Force’s lenders — the Denver-based Mercy Loan Fund and the Institute for Community Economics —

By Maria Saporta

Mayoral candidate Mary Norwood has received a significant endorsement from State Rep. Margaret Kaiser, a Democrat who represents House District 59.

In a telephone interview late Wednesday afternoon, Kaiser said that her first inclination had been to remain neutral in the mayor’s race.

But as the race has entered its closing stretch, Kaiser felt it was important for Norwood to be recognized for her leadership style.

“It was time for more pro-active

By Maria Saporta

It was a first for me.

For three hours this afternoon, I interviewed the eight candidates currently in run-offs in key City of Atlanta races in a novel format that included video streaming to the web world through the use of social media.

The forum was organized by the Committee for a Better Atlanta, a coalition of several business and civic organizations interested in electing the most qualified people to elected offices.

The interviews, which took place at the

By Maria Saporta

When students return to Morehouse College in January after the holidays, their ranks will be down by between 60 and 80 fellow classmates.

Morehouse College President Robert Franklin told the Atlanta Kiwanis Club today that the economy is taking its toll on some of the historically-black college’s most financially vulnerable students.

“Many of our students can’t afford to come back,” Franklin said.

Morehouse College is only one of three

By Maria Saporta

The Atlanta Community Food Bank has received a $100,000 grant to help it serve more than 400,000 residents in Atlanta and North Georgia.

Humana Inc. and its Humana Foundation provided the $100,000 grant as part of its fifth annual Atlanta Benefits program. Humana is a leading provider of health benefits in Atlanta.

Bill Bolling, executive director of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, said those funds will go towards creating a new Food Co-op that will go towards helping hundreds of thousands Georgians

By Maria Saporta

The board of the Metro Atlanta Chamber this morning adopted its 2010 legislative agenda calling for renewed initiatives related to water, transportation, education and economic development.

In the past several years, the Chamber’s legislative agenda has fared poorly in the General Assembly. And the fact that 2010 is an election year for virtually all of the state’s elected officials adds yet another complexity to the Chamber’s agenda this coming year.

John Yates, a partner of the Morris, Manning & Martin law firm who chairs the