Note to readers: Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and his administration Friday morning released a response to Maria Saporta’s Metro column that posted earlier this week. We at SaportaReport welcome the conversation about parks and green space, and the column was intended as a challenge for the next mayor to dream big. It was not intended to be a critique of the Reed administration and what has been the significant progress that has occurred in the past seven years – as the Mayor’s administration outlines in its release below.
Category: Latest News
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Maynard Jackson’s burial site now marked with an obelisk of honed black granite
The widow of former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson’s family has unveiled a monument at his burial site in Atlanta’s Historic Oakland Cemetery – a 14.5-foot black obelisk made of honed granite from Africa.
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I-85 collapse prompted greater use of telecommuting, transit: CBRE report
A new report from the real estate firm CBRE on lessons learned from the collapse of Interstate 85 in Atlanta shows that telecommuting played a greater role than MARTA in helping employees continue their work while avoiding traffic congestion.
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Georgia now tracking saltmarsh sparrow in hopes of helping imperiled species
Georgia is joining an effort to track the migratory patterns of a bird that biologists predict could be extinct within 15 years – the tiny saltwater sparrow, which is barely more than 4 inches long and weighs less than an ounce.
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Hundreds attend ‘Comfort Women’ memorial dedication in Brookhaven
The new statue in a Brookhaven park of a seated woman is small — about five feet high. But the attention for the comfort women memorial was large, making headlines all the way across the Pacific Ocean and sparking opposition from the Japanese Consulate in Atlanta.
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Pullman Yard nominated for landmark status, which would curb potential demolition
Atlanta is taking steps to preserve the old buildings at Pullman Yard by nominating them for landmark status. The nomination follows an effort by the Atlanta City Council to protect land on which the yard is situated, including the headwaters of Hardee Creek.
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Delta soaring to record heights – a decade after emerging from bankruptcy
NEW YORK – The annual meeting of Delta Air Lines Friday morning became a high-flying affair as CEO Ed Bastian declared two all-time records.
The company’s market cap is approaching $40 billion, and Bastian said: “Last night, we closed at an all-time high.”
And then on Friday, Delta was expecting its busiest day ever.
“We will be flying 651,000 passengers,” Bastian said in a brief interview after the annual meeting. “It’s the highest in our history.”
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Neon Deion Sanders, Koch brothers, Snoop Dogg – odd bedfellows, indeed
Deion Sanders, a star of both the Atlanta Braves and Falcons in the early 1990s, has partnered with the politically conservative Koch brothers to fight poverty in Dallas. An “unlikely partnership” is how a reporter with the Associated Press characterized the relation.
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Georgia House leader signals openness to state funding for transit
A group of state legislators plus county and transit bosses convened in Atlanta on Thursday to start work on recommendations for the state’s transit systems. They heard a hint that state leaders may look favorably on Georgia contributions toward transit.
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Cuba travel plans safe, for now, according to diplomat
In a high-rise office in Midtown on Wednesday night, a former ambassador had some fairly good news for folks with immediate travel plans to Cuba. But for people and businesses with Cuba-related plans a little further out, Charles Shapiro suggested a look back to the past and some uncertainty.
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ATL Streetcar transfer to MARTA to take about a year: Public Works commissioner
The transfer of the ownership and management of the Atlanta Streetcar from the city to MARTA will take about a year to finalize and will be retroactive to July 1, Atlanta’s Public Works commissioner said Wednesday.
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Invest Atlanta to approve final financing for proton center, get new board member
Invest Atlanta is slated to approve Wednesday the final step in a financing deal that will enable construction to resume at the Georgia Proton Treatment Center, in Midtown, just as the Atlanta City Council is poised to appoint a new member to the development authority’s board.
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Morehouse College’s board names Harold Martin as its new interim president
The board of trustees of Morehouse College Monday voted unanimously Monday to name Harold Martin Jr. as the interim president of the institution.
Martin, who has been serving as secretary of the board, follows the sudden death of former interim President William J. “Bill” Taggart on June 7.
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Mayoral candidates pledge vigilance against any anti-gay legislative moves
Eight folks who want to be the next mayor of Atlanta laid out their platforms Friday at a forum held by the Atlanta Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and what they’d do as leader of a city that’s politically quite different from the state of which it is the capital.
All said they would be quick to help stop any efforts to pass something like North Carolina’s 2016 “bathroom bill” – a requirement from a conservative state Legislature that transgender people use public restrooms that that match the gender on their birth certificates. It came just after progressive Charlotte had passed an ordinance that let transgender people use public facilities that match their gender identity.
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Proposed sand mine in Wayne County could pump up to 11.5 million gallons of water a day
A proposed surface mine in Wayne County, near Georgia’s coast, will be allowed to withdraw up to 11.5 million gallons of water a day from the Altamaha River basin, according to draft permits announced June 23 by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
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Perdue blocks Brazil beef imports amid bribery scandal over rotten meat
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Thursday blocked the import of beef from Brazil. Brazil’s meat industry is embroiled in a corruption scandal involving $150 million in bribes paid by the world’s largest meat handler to presidents and state officials.
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Mayor Kasim Reed: $1 billion mixed use development around Philips Arena planned by Richard Ressler, brother of Hawks owner Tony Ressler
The Los Angeles-based CIM Group will develop at $1 billion mixed-use project around a renovated Philips Arena, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said in an exclusive interview Friday.
One of the key principals of the CIM Group is Richard Ressler, the brother of Tony Ressler, the majority owner of the Atlanta Hawks.
Reed confirmed the “transformative project” during an interview after the quarterly meeting of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, held at the Ponce City Market offices of Cox Enterprises on Friday morning. It also was Tony Ressler’s first ACP meeting.
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U.S. Ag Sec. Sonny Perdue lauds NAFTA in Savannah meetings with reps from Canada, Mexico
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue emphasized the value of NAFTA as he met this week in Savannah with senior government representatives of Canada and Mexico. Perdue’s support was evident in his tweets and his support of the joint statement released at the conclusion of the trade meeting.
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Settlement reached to close Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter – ending more than a decade of discord
After nearly a decade of legal battles between various parties, a settlement has been reached that will lead to the closing of the Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter, according to several sources close to the transaction.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Craig Schwall apparently signed a consent decree on Wednesday, but different parties did not want to discuss the settlement on the record until they had seen the signed agreement
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Proposed efforts to combat heroin, opiate use delayed for review by Fulton commissioners
Fulton County’s board of commissioners voted Wednesday to further refine its planned assault on the usage of opiates and heroin. The board voted unanimously to hold two items pending review – a proposed opiate abuse plan and a proposed $40,000 study recommended by Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard.
