Last year’s Virginia Highland Porchfest put up serious numbers. Organizers estimate well over 40,000 people attended the free, single-day neighborhood festival with over 100 bands at 50 porches-turned-stages. Things are changing this year. For the first time since it began six years ago, the May 16 Porchfest will be a ticketed event. Attendance will be […]
Category: Latest News
Gov. Kemp vetoes historic rehabilitation tax credit expansion to preservationists’ dismay
On Wednesday, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp vetoed 12 state bills before the signing deadline, including HB 376, a bill that would have expanded tax incentives for historic property preservation. The bill, passed in the House and Senate, would have increased the limit on the available tax credits from $30 million to $60 million. It was […]
How the Beltline generates billions, from ‘tacos to tech’
“From tacos to technology, and everything in between.” That’s how Atlanta Beltline, Inc. President and CEO Clyde Higgs sums up the Beltline appeal. The bustling attraction and “new business mode” has a little bit of everything –grocery, offices, retail, dining and plenty of people. In the early 2000s, the city of Atlanta was losing residents […]
Peachtrees are finally returning to Peachtree Street – temporarily
Atlanta has a staggering 71 streets and roads named Peachtree, but few are lined with their namesakes. That’s about to change. On May 8, Atlanta Way 2.0 announced PeachTrees on Peachtree, a three-week “immersive celebration” of the state fruit. 16 trees from Pearson Farms, one of the state’s remaining family-owned peach farms, will be placed […]
U.S. Soccer training center opens thanks to Arthur Blank and Dan Cathy
It’s official. Metro Atlanta is the new home for soccer in the United States. The Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center officially opened on May 7 at its new home in Fayette County, bringing together a cadre of civic and corporate leaders. Two central changemakers were instrumental in bringing the national facility to […]
Fox Theater gives $1 million to Rome, Thomasville for theater restoration
In the 1970s, Atlanta rallied around a campaign to “Save the Fox Theater” from imminent destruction. It rescued the building, preserving an iconic piece of the city’s landscape and a hub for the arts. Now the theater wants to pay it back. On May 6, National Historic Preservation Month, Fox Gives awarded $1 million in […]
ATLFF: Craig Zobel and James Ponsoldt on the fight to make Georgia films
Craig Zobel knows it isn’t easy to make a movie in Georgia. At an April 28 Atlanta Film Festival Creative Conference panel, the director of “The Penguin” and “The Mare of Easttown” got candid about the difficulty of creating in his home state. “The world doesn’t want you to,” he said. “You have to fight […]
Atlanta Regional Commission teases strategy for affordable housing across the metro
“It’s time to move from discussion and talk to action,” Atlanta Regional Commission CEO Anna Roach said. In September, the ARC will release its comprehensive strategic plan, the Housing Strategy for the Atlanta Region, to address the region’s growing housing affordability challenges. It will lay out what housing needs to be built or preserved, who […]
In southern Georgia, Earth Day was spent fighting fires that are still raging today amidst a drought
Last week, multiple wildfires caught flame in drought-stricken Georgia and have been raging since, burning through tens of thousands of acres and sending parts of Georgia into peril against the two largest active wildfires in the country at the moment. One of the main two fires, the Highway 82 fire in Brantley County that started […]
Leadership DeKalb and community partners host nonpartisan gubernatorial forum as primary race heats up
Just over a week before early voting opened for the May 19 primaries, Leadership DeKalb hosted a nonpartisan 2026 Gubernatorial Forum in collaboration with 13 community organizations. Attendees began to arrive at the Porter Sanford III Performing Arts & Community Center in Decatur at 6 p.m. as supporters of various candidates held campaign signs along […]
“Idiots” brings laughter and sold-out crowd to 50th Atlanta Film Festival opening night
The 50th annual Atlanta Film Festival opened with a bang. Or more accurately, it opened with raucous laughter at the sold-out Opening Night presentation of “Idiots” on April 23 at the Plaza Theatre. “Idiots,” a 2026 Sundance Film Festival hit, follows two “unqualified bozos” played by Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr., who are […]
Dickens talks youth investment at APC newsmaker event
Teens are still the talk of the town, but this time Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is weighing in. Dickens sat down with Atlanta Press Club Chair Mike Jordan for a conversation on citywide youth investment at the April 24 APC Newsmaker luncheon, where he covered everything from arts funding to “teen takeovers.” By all accounts, […]
Atlanta Press Club readies for largest debate series yet from April 26-28
The Atlanta Press Club is gearing up for its biggest debate year yet. From April 26-28, the Loudermilk-Young debate series will bring almost 85 candidates, ranging from governor hopefuls to the Public Service Commission, on the stage for 18 different primary election debates. “We’re like a little factory over three days,” Atlanta Press Club past […]
Filling in data gaps and potholes: Atlanta one of five cities areas to partner with Waymo and Waze on filling in potholes
Waymo, the self-driving automated car company that has been showing up more and more across the country, and Waze, a satellite navigation software company, are partnering to combine their data to fill in potholes across the country. Last week, the two companies announced a joint partnership with five cities — Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, […]
Gubernatorial hopefuls meet to discuss manufacturing in Georgia forum
The Georgia Association of Manufacturers (GAM) is hosting a nonpartisan Gubernatorial Candidate Forum on April 21 from 12:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Comcast Central Division HQ at The Battery, where candidates can talk about plans for manufacturing in the “number one state to do business.” The forum is the first event of its […]
Beltline cuts the ribbon on final chunk of Southeast trail
An all-ages crowd packed under a tent to watch the Atlanta Beltline open its final segment of southeast trail in Glenwood Park on April 16. It will mark the first time Atlantans can walk or ride their way on a paved path from Piedmont Park to Grant Park. “This is drawing circles, not lines,” Atlanta […]
Invest Atlanta greenlights $2 million for Andrew Young ‘peace institute’ in Vine City
On April 16, Invest Atlanta approved a $2 million Westside TAD grant for critical relocation work on the Vine City site of the planned Andrew Young International Institute for Peace and Reconciliation. It’s an essential step for the $100 million project. The grant will pay for the relocation of sewer overflow pipes on the property, […]
Midtown Alliance unveils plans for ‘Midtown Green,’ a ‘layered civic landscape’
One year after announcing plans to purchase the long-vacant lot at 98 14th Street, the Midtown Improvement District unveiled its vision for “Midtown Green” at the annual Midtown Alliance Meeting. Despite the working project name, it’s no run-of-the-mill greenspace. The neighborhood coalition aims to turn the four-acre site into a park, public and performance space. […]
WABE prepares for ‘100 percent community funded’ future in year two of funding cuts
As WABE enters its second year without federal funding, the public media organization is setting up for a “100 percent community-funded” future. It’s a big gap to fill. On July 19, 2025, Congress cut $1.9 million in federal funding to the public media organization, roughly 13 percent of WABE’s operating budget. It left the PBS […]
The World Cup is coming to Atlanta. Floyd Hall is taking a deeper look.
As the 2026 FIFA World Cup draws closer, local headlines ponder Atlanta’s “readiness” for the eight matches the city is hosting in June and July. MARTA makes hasty improvements to transportation infrastructure before the arrival of 300,000 tourists for the games. Businesses brace for impact. Floyd Hall is reading those same headlines. He, too, wonders […]
