By Maria Saporta
At today’s Atlanta Regional Commission board meeting, three men declared their intention to seek the chairmanship of the 10-county planning organization.
The three, in alphabetical order, are: Charles Bannister, chairman of the Gwinnett County Commission; Tad Leithead, a former executive with Cousins Properties who is now building his own public policy and lobbying firm; and Jack Smith, the chairman of the Fayette County Commission.
One of those three, or possibly someone
By Maria Saporta
Metro Atlanta is facing a tremendous transition in leadership, beginning with the chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Sam Olens, who has been chairman of the 10-county body since December 2004, is planning to step down so he can launch his campaign to run for state Attorney General.
Olens, who is also chairman of the Cobb Commission, has served two, two-year terms as ARC’s chairman.
At ARC’s board meeting this coming
By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 18, 2009
Two global organizations are partnering with each other — United Parcel Service Inc. and UNICEF.
The Atlanta-based UPS Foundation is making a two-year, $1 million commitment to UNICEF to improve the emergency response capacity for its disaster preparedness program in the Asia-Pacific region.
The gift, which includes $700,000 in cash and $300,000
By Maria Saporta
Internationally-renowned Atlanta architect and developer John Portman was given the Lifetime Achievement Award Thursday evening at the revived Governor’s International Awards.
The awards were co-sponsored by the World Trade Center Atlanta and the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
For Portman, it was an opportunity to look back at the evolution of the global profile of Atlanta. He started design and construction on the Atlanta Merchandise Mart in the late 1950s and it opened in
Brian Leary remembers hearing about the Atlanta BeltLine from its very earliest days when he was working on his master’s in city planning at Georgia Tech.
Ryan Gravel, a fellow student, had been working on a master’s thesis about a 22-mile railroad corridor that encircled the inner city of Atlanta and how it could be redeveloped into one of the greatest urban revitalization projects in the city’s history.
“To me, there’s no greater opportunity to positively impact the future of Atlanta and its quality of life than the BeltLine,” Leary said in an interview Wednesday,
By Maria Saporta
The board of Atlanta Beltline Inc. has just selected Brian Leary, vice president of design and development for Jacoby Development and Atlantic Station, as its new president and CEO.
Leary is succeeding Terri Montague, who stepped down Sept. 1, but has remained as a consultant until her replacement was named. Montague was the founding CEO of Atlanta BeltLine Inc., the public entity in charge of developing the 22-mile railroad corridor that encircles Atlanta’s
By Maria Saporta
The Atlanta Streetcar — through the Georgia Transit Connector partnership — is making its best pitch to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
A public-private partnership between the City of Atlanta, MARTA, the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District and the Midtown Improvement District today is submitting its application for federal stimulus funding.
The proposal for up to $300 million for “shovel-ready” funding includes two
By Maria Saporta
Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent has lived in some of the greatest cities of the world. So when he talks about Atlanta’s potential, it’s worth paying close attention.
“Atlanta has an opportunity to become a world-class sustainable city defined by smart growth, quality transportation infrastructure and world-class educators,” Kent said. “The greatest cities in the world are moving in that direction fast. Atlanta has an incredible opportunity take a lead.”
Kent spoke those words at Monday’s
By Maria Saporta
Cobb County Chairman Sam Olens and DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis stood like bookends at a recent DeKalb Chamber of Commerce’s breakfast that provided a snapshot of the region.
Despite being of different races and different political parties, the similarities of the two men is striking. Both are roughly the same age — in their early 50s; both are lawyers. And both appreciate the importance of the region as a critical part of being leaders in their individual counties.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 11, 2009
The Southern Center for International Studies, an Atlanta institution since 1962, is in a major state of transition.
The center’s headquarters at 320 West Paces Ferry Road recently was sold to the Watson-Brown Foundation of Thomson, Ga., which plans to restore the historic residence designed by famous Atlanta architect Philip Trammell Shutze.
By Maria Saporta
Two buildings face each other across the street — one a symbol of despair, one a symbol of hope.
On the north side of Memorial Drive downtown is the Atlanta city jail, officially known as the Atlanta Department of Corrections. It’s a building that houses broken laws and crippled lives
And on the south side of the street is Welcome House — a perfectly-named place where people are encouraged to rebuild their lives.
None of that symbolism is lost on
By Maria Saporta
More on the 14th Street bridge. Little did I know when I wrote a short item about the reopening of the 14th Street bridge that it would generate such thoughtful commentary from friends and readers.
According to people familiar with the project, the $88.5 million project cost identified by the Georgia Department of Transportation did not reflect the true actual cost.
It cost the state up to $106 million to acquire the right of way for the project,
By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 4, 2009
After five years, David Ratcliffe stepped down as chairman of the Georgia Research Alliance at the organization’s quarterly board meeting on Sept. 2. Ratcliffe is chairman and CEO of Southern Co.
He was succeeded by Bill Linginfelter, area president for Georgia and South Carolina for Regions Bank, who has been serving as vice chairman.
John Rice, vice chairman of General Electric Co., was elected as the new vice chairman.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, September 4, 2009
In the end, it all comes down to memories.
On Nov. 16, 2006, Jill Albert passed away from cancer entrusting her husband, Jon Albert, and their two young children to carry on her legacy of family and fond memories.
That’s how the Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation was formed. The national foundation based in Atlanta provides families with a terminally ill parent a special gift of lasting memories.
By Maria Saporta
A ribbon-cutting ceremony to reopen the 14th Street this morning was moved to the nearby Courtyard by Marriott because of rain.
And even after the ribbon-cutting, the bridge would not be opened for a couple of more hours, a disappointment to several folks in cars who were waiting to be among the first to traverse the new bridge.
Speech after speech heralded this new east-west connection between Georgia
By Maria Saporta
Friday, August 28, 2009
John Somerhalder may not know what this year’s United Way goal will be until moments before the campaign kicks off on Sept. 1.
Somerhalder, CEO of AGL Resources Inc., who is chairing this year’s United Way campaign, is still meeting with executives to push the goal number “as hard as we can.”
The 2008 United Way campaign raised $80.5 million,
By Maria Saporta and Dave Williams
Friday, August 28, 2009
The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority’s (GRTA) decision to award two contracts worth up to $4.5 million without competitive bidding is being questioned by several people in both the public and private sector.
The two sole-sourced contracts have been awarded to McKinsey & Co., a consulting firm, to advance Gov. Sonny Perdue’s IT3 initiative, which stands for Investing in Tomorrow’s Transportation Today.
By Maria Saporta
Planned Parenthood of Georgia is merging with Planned Parenthood of Alabama.
The merged organization — Planned Parenthood Southeast — was supposed to have begun its operations on Tuesday, Sept. 1, but it has been delayed for a month to dot a “few more ‘i’s,'” according to Leola Reis, the vide president of external affairs for Georgia. The merged territory will cover all of Georgia, Alabama and most of Mississippi.
“Combining our two organizations will
By Maria Saporta
One of the architects of our modern MARTA system has passed away.
Alan Kiepper, MARTA’s general manager and CEO from 1972 to 1982, passed away on Aug. 26 in Annapolis, Md. at the age of 81.
I received an email from one of his successors at MARTA — Ken Gregor — who wanted to make sure Kiepper was recognized for the influence he had on Atlanta’s growth.
By Maria Saporta
DeKalb County and the Clean Cities Atlanta Coalition has been awarded a $14.9 million grant by the U.S. Department of Energy.
The grant will fund programming designed to reduce the use of fossil fuels in transportation vehicles.
In a statement, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said: “I want to personally thank the Department of Energy and the Office of the Vice President for pushing this
