By Maria Saporta
During his press briefing Friday morning at City Hall, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed wanted to make two points about the Atlanta Hawks.
One, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver supports keeping the Atlanta Hawks in Atlanta – no matter who owns a majority of the team.
Two, Bruce Levenson, who currently represents the majority ownership share of 50.1 percent, needs to move forward with the sale of his interests as quickly as possible before people in Atlanta begin lose patience with him.
By Maria Saporta
It has been nearly a month since Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson announced his intent to sell his interest in the team. Levenson, and his partners in the Washington, D.C. area, own 50.1 percent of the Atlanta Hawks.
But according to people close to the team, Levenson has yet to hire an investment banker to help market his interest in the team, and it is not known if and when he will proceed with the sale of his interest in the team.
By Maria Saporta
When Atlanta hosts the 2015 Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates next November, it is guaranteed to not repeat the mishap of the now-cancelled 2014 Summit that was to have taken place in Cape Town, South Africa from Oct. 13 to 15.
The annual summit was officially cancelled Thursday after six Nobel Peace laureates pulled out of the event – protesting the exclusion of the Dalai Lama. The South African government denied a visa for the Dalai Lama – the spiritual leader from Tibet – after receiving pressure from China.
By Maria Saporta
At two separate events over two days, Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus spread his message of social business and peace in Atlanta.
It was his way to kick-off next year’s 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Summit that will be held in Atlanta from Nov. 15 to Nov. 19 – expected to be the largest gathering of people and organizations of people who have received the Nobel Peace Prize since the founding of the annual summit.
By Maria Saporta
The Atlanta Hawks may be trying to get top dollar when it comes to selling the team, but right now the team is not a hot ticket on the road.
TickPick, a no-fee secondary ticket marketplace, just released a study showing that the Hawks rank near the bottom in road team popularity – 25th among the 30 teams in the National Basketball Association.
By Maria Saporta
Late Saturday, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra sent out a press release saying that the ASA management and its musicians had agreed to mediation to try to find consensus on a contract.
The ASO management and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players’ Association (ASOPA) agreed to restart collective bargaining agreement discussions using a federal mediator.
The mediator is Allison Beck, deputy director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. She served as the mediator during the Metropolitan Opera Musicians’ labor dispute in August.
By Maria Saporta
Before flying up to New York City to meet with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said he was optimistic the Atlanta Hawks would be in good hands based on the number of potential owners he has talked to.
Reed made his comments in an interview with only two reporters following the quarterly meeting of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, a blue-ribbon panel of business leaders that is advising the mayor on key city initiatives.
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has made a couple of significant appointments these past couple of days – promoting two of his key staff members.
On Wednesday, he announced that he is nominating Amy Phuong as commissioner of the Department of Parks and Recreation. Phuong has been serving in that position as an interim commissioner since May after George Dusenbury left the administration.
Just the day before, Mayor Reed appointed Melissa Mullinax as a senior advisor. She will provide guidance on legislative issues and manage Reed’s external relationships with government officials, neighborhood and community organizations.
By Maria Saporta
In the 24 years since the founding of the Georgia Research Alliance, federally-funded research and development grants to Georgia’s universities has increased five-fold.
The state’s total share of federal research funding increased to nearly 3 percent, ranking 12th and one of only five of the top 16 states that is increasing its market share.
These are the findings in new report prepared by consultants for the Georgia Research Alliance that was presented to the board at its recent meeting.
By Maria Saporta
From homes to cars.
Atlanta-based Home Depot is eagerly testing a new business opportunity – the “Do-It-Yourself” automotive segment.
Carol Tomé, chief financial officer for the Home Depot since 2001, disclosed the company’s interest during a talk to the Rotary Club of Atlanta Monday.
In response to a question about what was the next area of opportunity for the company, Tomé said the company currently had “Do-It-Yourself Automotive” in pilot “right now” in some of its stores.
By Maria Saporta
Mayor Kasim Reed is going to do all he can to keep the Atlanta Hawks in town within the city limits, he pledged during a press conference Tuesday in his office Tuesday.
Less than a year ago, the mayor held a press conference in the same room reacting to the news that the Atlanta Braves would be leaving Turner Field to build a new stadium in Cobb County.
The Braves announcement had caught the city off-guard. And it was readily apparent on Tuesday that Mayor Reed wasn’t going to let another professional sports team leave the city under his watch – if he could help it. (Atlanta’s professional hockey team – the Thrashers – were sold and moved to Winnipeg in 2011).
By Maria Saporta
More than 100 community members filled the meeting at Fort McPherson Tuesday evening – mainly to complain about how they had been left out the process of deciding the future of the 488 acres strategically located between downtown Atlanta and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
It was a regular board meeting of the McPherson Implementing Local Redevelopment Authority (MILRA), a body that has been meeting for about seven years on various plans and ideas for what would be the best use of the site once the base had closed.
By Maria Saporta
What a week it has been for Valerie Montgomery Rice.
She was inaugurated as the sixth president of the Morehouse School of Medicine (and its first woman president) during a multi-day series of events that would be exhausting for an ordinary person.
After the investiture ceremony on Thursday, President Rice participated in six community service projects Friday morning to highlight the six different president of the Morehouse School of Medicine.
By Maria Saporta
Just as a local authority is negotiating the sale of 325 acres of Fort McPherson to movie mogul Tyler Perry, the Salon.com news site has published an article declaring an end to the Atlanta actor/director’s reign.
The article – “The reign of Tyler Perry is over: Finally, black thrillers come to the big screen” – could cause some to want to put their foot on the brakes of the rapidly-moving effort to try to seal the Perry deal by mid-October.
By Maria Saporta
The Atlanta-based CDC Foundation has received a $9 million donation from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to help combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
The funding will support CDC’s efforts to establish emergency operations centers for the countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa currently has 3,700 suspected cases and 1,850 deaths.
By Maria Saporta
A pillar of Atlanta’s environmental leadership will be getting her send-off in style.
Sally Bethea, who founded the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper 20 years ago, will be retiring as its executive director, and a new leadership team will be taking over at the beginning of 2015.
Bethea’s leadership of the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (CRK) and the transition to a new team will be celebrated at an elegant gala on Oct. 14 at the InterContinental Buckhead.
By Maria Saporta
Racial tension has permeated the Atlanta Hawks organization during the leadership of Danny Ferry, according to Tommy Dortch, a leading African-American businessman in Atlanta.
Dortch said that tension has been evident in the way the team has treated its all-time star player – Dominique Wilkins.
For two years, Dortch has been trying to get approval from the Atlanta Hawks to construct a 15-foot tall statue of Wilkins that is to be placed in front of Philips Arena’s ticket window.
Wilkins is the most celebrated Atlanta Hawks player in the history of the franchise and deserving of this recognition, Dortch said in an interview Tuesday.
By Maria Saporta
Updated with new info and photo.
The best evidence of the growing popularity of the Atlanta BeltLine takes place as the sun goes down on the first Saturday after Labor Day.
That’s when thousands of people light up the sky and our imagination with the annual Lantern Parade.
The Lantern Parade came on the scene in 2010, but I think it must have been one of Atlanta’s best kept secrets for its first couple of years of life.
Matthew Garbett (this week’s guest columnist), sent me an email early Tuesday morning saying that Chantelle Rytter deserves credit for starting the parade and should get “some recognition for this amazing gift she has given the city.”
By Maria Saporta
Dozens of people gathered Friday night in front of what had been one of Midtown’s most endangered historic buildings.
The striking Victorian-looking home along Juniper Street between Fifth and Fourth streets had been one of three homes that Saint Mark United Methodist Church had wanted to demolish several years ago so it could have convenient parking for its parishioners.
But the Midtown Neighbors’ Association strongly fought the demolition, and the City of Atlanta would not approve the demolition.
By Maria Saporta
When Music Midtown 2014 takes over Piedmont Park Sept. 19 and 20, it will do so without the support of the Midtown association and Neighborhood Planning Unit-E, which surrounds the southern and western portions of the park.
NPU-E voted unanimously to “not support” the Music Midtown 2014 festival appiication at its meeting on Sept. 2 – validating the position of one of its constituent communities – the Midtown Neighbors’ Association.
Both the NPU and the Midtown Neighbors Association knew that their position would not stop the festival from taking place.
