Category: Latest News

By Maria Saporta

If there’s one thing Erroll Davis doesn’t like, it’s whining.

“Whining is one of our core competencies,” said Davis, who is the not-so-interim superintendent of the Atlanta Public Schools. In fact, he said there’s a saying at APS: “Shut up. Stop whining. Do your job.”

Davis was the keynote speaker at Monday’s Rotary Club of Atlanta when he used the opportunity to both look back and forward on the troubled school system that was marred by one of the most public cheating scandals in the nation.

“I’m in the 22nd month of a 90-day assignment,” said Davis, who obviously has become engrossed in his latest challenge. “May you live in interesting times.”

By Maria Saporta

The firm of 360 Architecture moved one step closer to designing the new stadium for the Atlanta Falcons.

The Georgia World Congress Center Authority’s Stadium Development Committee unanimously voted Monday afternoon to recommend 360 to the full board when it meets Tuesday afternoon. At that time, the board will be given a full set of the negotiated terms of the agreement that GWCCA has reached with 360.

Before the vote, William Johnson, senior principal with 360 Architecture, made a presentation to the committee where he unveiled a couple of different concepts of how the retractable roof on the new stadium could work.

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta-based MAP International is providing medical relief for Syrian refugees displaced by its Civil War.

MAP International, a global health organization is working in concert with Integral Alliance of Christian relief agencies, which is based in England. More than 1.4 million refugees have fled Syria, seeking safety in camps along the border in Lebanon and Jordan.

MAP is providing emergency health kits filled with enough medicines to treat 10,000 people for three months.  Reports indicate that refugees are suffering from illnesses due to the cramped conditions within the camps.  Refugees are also beginning to suffer from malnutrition and are afflicted with trauma resulting from war injuries, according to a MAP International press release.

By Maria Saporta

Atlantans celebrated the 65th anniversary of Israel’s Independence Day Sunday evening at the Temple — braving a steady rain to mark the significant date in history.

The event was organized by Israeli Consul General Opher Aviran, who welcomed Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed as honorary guests. Peter Berg, senior rabbi of the Temple, gave his introductory welcome. But it was Aviran’s event.

“In 1948, we were only 800,000 people,” Aviran told the crowd of more than 200 people who attended the reception celebrating Israel’s Independence Day. “Now we are 8 million.”

By Maria Saporta

When Keith Parker, MARTA ‘s general manager, came on board in December, the prospects for the transit system were dire.

The MARTA board had adopted a five-year budget plan that called for no salary increases for employees — continuing a practice that has been in place for five years. It called for a 25-cent fare increase in fiscal year 2014 (which begins in July) increasing MARTA’s base fare to $2.75 — among the highest transit fare in the country. It projected reserves declining from $109.7 million in fiscal year 2013 to $1.5 million at the end of fiscal year 2018. And it still expected that it would face an unsustainable healthcare business model.

On Thursday morning, however, Parker and his staff presented an alternate five-year plan to the MARTA board’s Business Management Committee — one that has a much brighter outcome for the transit system.

By Maria Saporta

After conducting a national search for a new dean, Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture ended up picking the internal choice.

Steven P. French, associate dean for research and professor of city and regional planning, will become dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture on July 1.

He will succeed Dean Alan Balfour, who announced last August that he intended to step down in June and rejoin the architecture faculty.

By Maria Saporta

The 2013 Coca-Cola Co. annual meeting began more like a fireside chat between CEO Muhtar Kent and the legendary Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the largest shareholder of the soft drink company.

For most shareholders attending the annual meeting at the Cobb Galleria Centre, Buffett’s presence was a pleasant surprise. Buffett had served on Coca-Cola’s board for 17 years; and his son, Howard Buffett, has been a director since 2010.

As Buffett walked on stage, the crowd of 850 shareholders and guests gave him a warm welcome.

By Maria Saporta

The environment certainly seemed to be front and center on everyone’s mind on April 22 — the 43rd anniversary of Earth Day.

Georgia Power announced that it had reached a deal to import wind energy from Oklahoma to Georgia by 2016. The move was applauded by several environmental organizations across the states — groups that don’t often find themselves on the same side as Georgia Power.

“We applaud Georgia Power for taking a strong step forward on 21st century clean energy solutions,” said Colleen Kiernan, director of the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club.

By Maria Saporta

Five candidates have been named as finalists to become president and CEO of the Atlanta BeltLine Inc. (ABI) — three from Atlanta and two from outside the state.

The Atlanta BeltLine executive committee selected the five finalists on April 10 in a closed session, but the names were not made public until eight days later because they had to make sure to touch all the bases, according to people involved in the search. The Korn/Ferry International firm assisted in the search on a pro bono basis.

By Maria Saporta

One can add Ben Bernanke, president of the Federal Reserve Bank, to the list of people in admiration of Tom Cousins.

Although most people in Atlanta know Tom Cousins as a real estate leader and developer who founded Cousins Properties, Cousins has gained national notoriety for his philanthropic efforts in the redevelopment of the East Lake Community.

At the Federal Reserve System’s Community Affairs Research Conference in Washington, D.C. on April 12, Bernanke’s speech showcased Cousins and his foundation’s redevelopment of East Lake as a national model of lifting a community in a holistic way.

By Maria Saporta

More than a year ago, Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson believed that having MLT Vacations under its own roof rather than in Minnesota made great business sense.

So on Wednesday afternoon, Anderson and Gov. Nathan Deal cut the ribbon on MLT Vacations new headquarters on the campus of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines. The move has meant 100 new jobs in Atlanta so far with the promise of more to come, according to John Caldwell, president of MLT Vacations, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines.

“I was very involved,” Anderson said. “We took the decision that they were going to move here.

By Maria Saporta

When the new president of CNN Jeff Zucker addressed the Atlanta Press Club on Monday, he emphasized the importance of Atlanta to the 24-hour news organization.

“I know that people know that I’m the first chief executive of CNN not based in Atlanta,” said Zucker, who lives in New York and had spent nearly his entire career with NBC. “I did not make my first luncheon with the press club of New York. Atlanta will continue to the home of CNN, and Atlanta will continue to be the backbone of CNN.”

Zucker did say that CNN does have a lot of programming based out of New York, and that is not going to change, but he went on to say that he is in Atlanta on a regular basis. And he added that we live in a virtual world.

By Maria Saporta

After four months as MARTA’s general manager, Keith Parker is reorganizing his executive team.

MARTA is expected to announce on Monday a realignment of its management organization and four new members of its executive team, MARTA spokesman Lyle Harris confirmed.

Gone is the position of deputy general manager. Parker decided that the transit agency would be able to streamline costs by no longer having that position. MARTA’s former deputy general manager, Dwight Ferrell, resigned just one day after Parker started his post on Dec. 10, 2012. At one time, Ferrell had been in the running for the top MARTA job.

By Maria Saporta

Sometimes you just have to take things in your own hands.

That the situation that Jim Durrett, a MARTA board member and executive director of the Buckhead Community Improvement District, found himself in on Saturday morning.

He was waiting for his wife and brother-in-law near the Lindbergh MARTA Station on Saturday morning reading an email on his iPhone. All of a sudden, someone grabbed the iPhone out of his hands and started running.

Durrett, a super well-fit 50-something, bolted after the young man who had stolen his iPhone. Not only did he catch the guy and retrieve his iPhone. Durrett also took a picture of the guy with the very phone that had been grabbed out of his hands.

By Maria Saporta

As Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture prepares to enter a new era, it is taking time to remember its past.

Any day now, the College of Architecture will be naming its new dean from three finalists — two outside candidates and one internal one.

Although Georgia Tech has had an architectural program for more than 100 years, the College has only been in existence since 1976 and has only had three deans during that tenure — William Fash (1976 to 1992), Thomas Galloway (1992 to 2007) and Alan Balfour (2008 to present). Douglas Allen served as an interim dean from 2007 to 2008 following Galloway’s sudden death.

By Maria Saporta

So far, so good.

Mark Emmert, president of the NCAA — which is putting on the 2013 Men’s Final Four event in Atlanta, could not be more pleased with how the championship festivities are going. And he offered encouraging words about Atlanta’s chances of winning future Final Four championship events.

“I can’t thank this community event for putting on this big event,” Emmert told members of the Rotary Club of Atlanta at lunch on Monday. “It’s been spectacular. I don’t want to jinx it.”

By Maria Saporta

Georgia Tech has found a way to capture Atlanta’s spirit with its annual Ivan Allen Jr. Prize in Social Courage award — by linking the greatness of the city’s former mayor with some of the most notable leaders of today.

This year, the prize went to John Lewis, a Civil Rights leader who has been representing Georgia’s 5th District in Congress since 1987. The prize was given on April 4, the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., which added to the poignancy of the award and its historical significance.

In fact, Georgia Tech’s Ivan College of Liberal Arts has made the awarding of the prize a major educational event that takes place over two days to give students an insight of the leadership that has set Atlanta apart from other cities over the years.

By Maria Saporta

Keith Parker, MARTA’s new general manager and CEO, must like a challenge.

After surviving his first session of the Georgia General Assembly, Parker seems no less enthusiastic about the potential to turn MARTA into a sustainable and beloved urban transit system.

At the monthly Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable breakfast gathering Friday morning, Parker presented his impressions of MARTA’s challenges and opportunities after being on the job for four months.

By Maria Saporta

Two well-known Atlanta-based design firms are merging as of today.

The architectural firm of Lord, Aeck & Sargent and the urban, planning and design firm — Urban Collage, are now one company, according to LAS Chairman Tony Aeck. The combination of the planning and architecture expertise into one firm will provide an added benefit to their clients, he said.

Urban Collage, which has an expertise in campus planning and has offices in Lexington, Ky. in addition to its headquarters in Atlanta, also will broaden the footprint of LAS, which has offices in Ann Arbor, Mi.; Austin, Texas; and Chapel Hill, N.C. Urban Collage plans to continue operating under its name, at least for now.

By Maria Saporta

The founder of StoryCorps came to Atlanta Wednesday evening to celebrate the opening of the “flagship” home for the ambitious oral storytelling initiative.

“We are here to launch StoryCorps Atlanta 2.0,” said Dave Isay, founder and president of StoryCorps.

StoryCorps, which has been taping stories of Atlantans out of StoryBooth at Public Broadcasting Atlanta’s WABE since October, 2009, has relocated to the Atlanta History Center. The StoryBooth studio is now based in the Franklin Miller Garrett library, named after the infamous Atlanta historian.