By Maria Saporta
Thanks, but no thanks (I think).
So says former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin in response to an effort to recruit her to run as chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia. The petition drive says: “We believe that SHIRLEY FRANKLIN is by far the best candidate to chair our Party.”
Actually, Franklin said she believes she is too liberal to represent the Democratic Party statewide. She also believes that she has been a controversial figure, especially in her last couple of years as
By Maria Saporta
It was an interesting juxtaposition.
As President Obama’s bipartisan debt reduction commission was presenting its ideas on how to reduce the nation’s staggering deficit on Wednesday, Georgia’s Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness was meeting to talk about the proliferation of tax incentives for businesses.
In both cases, one thing has become painfully clear. It sure is easy to spend and give away money, but it’s a lot harder to take away government incentives or duct back programs once they’ve been established.
That’s why the President’s commission
By Maria Saporta
After giving a speech to the Atlanta Rotary Club on Monday, Georgia House Speaker David Ralston said he appreciates the role that MARTA plays in the region and the rest of the state.
“MARTA is an important part of our transportation future,” Ralston said in response to a question about how the state’s largest transit agency will be impacted by House Bill 277.
Ralston said MARTA ended up faring better in the bill than some earlier versions.
“We had to strike a very delicate balance between all the people,” the speaker
By Maria Saporta
In 2007, Atlanta launched the Americas Competitiveness Forum as a way to increase trade between North, Central and South Americas.
As a testament to continuity, Atlanta hosted the fourth annual Competitiveness Forum last Sunday to Tuesday attracting more than 500 dignitaries from countries throughout the Americas.
The forum has been able to survive from President George W. Bush’s administration through President Barack Obama’s administration; from Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin’s administration through Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s
By Maria Saporta
Closer cooperation between the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce is in the works.
At today’s Metro Atlanta Chamber board meeting, Georgia Chamber’s new president and CEO — Chris Clark — was in attendance.
“Chris is joining our board,” said an enthusiastic Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber.
“I’m excited about it,” Clark said. “There’s strength in numbers, and we want to work closely with all the local chambers in the state of Georgia.”
By Maria Saporta
Georgia is at a crossroads.
That’s how A.D. Frazier, chairman of the Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness for Georgians, began a short recap of his group’s work at Monday’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Atlanta.
Georgia has suffered through the recession proportionally more than other states. That has led to declining state revenues during much of the administration of Gov. Sonny Perdue.
He described it as “the seven lean years after the seven fat years.”
Frazier commended the governor and the
By Maria Saporta
If it were up to former President Jimmy Carter, he would let all the Bush tax cuts expire — including for those making less than $250,000.
President Barack Obama has been pushing to extend the Bush tax cuts for middle-class Americans, but have them expire for wealthier individuals making $250,000 or more.
“I would do away with the tax reductions that were put in place by President Bush, both for rich people and those making less than $250,000,” Carter said during a talk Monday to the Rotary Club of
By Maria Saporta
A design has been selected for the new playground in Woodruff Park.
The winner of the international design competition was Jeff Santos of Coquitiam, British Columbia in Canada, which is near Vancouver.
His design is a wooden playscape that spells out ATL in a stylistic letters.
The winning design was selected from more than 40 designs that had been submitted from around the world.
The idea for a playground in Woodruff Park was brought to Central Atlanta Progress (CAP) by the Atlanta Taskforce
By Maria Saporta
The message was clear Thursday night.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made it clear that if Atlanta ever wants to host another Super Bowl, it needs to build a new football stadium.
Goodell shared those sentiments during a pre-game reception on the roof-top of the Metro Atlanta Chamber — in front of both Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank and Gov.-elect Nathan Deal.
Asked about Atlanta’s chances of getting a future Super Bowl, Goodell quickly brought up the possibility of a new stadium for the Atlanta Falcons.
By Maria Saporta
Pedestrians and transit are interdependent modes of transportation.
That point hit home Wednesday evening during PEDS 11th annual Golden Shoe Awards.
PEDS, the group that advocates for pedestrians in metro Atlanta, highlighted the relationship between pedestrians and transit in several of its awards presented in the Dahlberg Alumni Hall at Georgia State University.
The Atlanta Regional Commission won two Golden Shoe awards for “pedestrian-friendly research.” One survey, conducted by Claudette Dillard, showed how most transit riders begin and end their trips on foot.
By Maria Saporta
Two pundits on opposite sides of the political spectrum found themselves agreeing more than disagreeing at Monday’s luncheon meeting of the Rotary Club of Atlanta.
The “Post Election Panel” was composed of Cynthia Tucker, the liberal Washington, D.C.-based political columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; and the conservative Ralph Reed, who is president of the Century Strategies, a political consulting firm, and served as the first executive director of the Christian Coalition.
Tucker started by saying that the “overwhelming issue was the economy”
By Maria Saporta
It was the HUD version of: “You need to get your act together.”
A year ago, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood came to Georgia and warned that the state would not get its share of federal grants until it got its act together.
And when LaHood came to Atlanta last month to award the $47.6 million streetcar grant, he told city leaders that they had gotten their act together, and he hoped the state would follow suit.
The latest message from Washington, D.C. came from Ron Sims, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of
By Maria Saporta
What a clean sweep.
In one day, Georgians have elected an all white, all male, all Republican slate to fill all the top jobs at the state.
Let this sink in.
We have gone from having a diversity among statewide leaders serving as constitutional officers in terms of women, Democrats and African-Americans to a total “good-ole-boy” administration.
This happened while Georgia is becoming a more diverse state in terms of African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians with more than half of its population being women. The election outcome can lead us to question the whole notion of
By Maria Saporta
Just a quick “morning after” observation.
One of the winners in yesterday’s election was MARTA — in at least two ways.
The transit agency’s nemesis in the Georgia House — Jill Chambers — lost her bid for re-election. Chambers, a Republican representative from DeKalb County for District 81, lost to Democrat Elena Parent, who won with 52.2 percent versus Chamber’s 47.8 percent.
For the past five years, Chambers has served as chair of the MARTA Oversight Committee (MARTOC) in the House. She has turned that position into a platform for attacking the transit agency in every which way she could.
By Maria Saporta
Advocates who favor the development of stem cell research in Georgia have a major Republican business leader on their side.
Bernie Marcus, co-founder of the Home Depot who is now a leading philanthropist in scientific and health initiatives, spoke last Thursday at the Life Sciences Summit put on by Georgia Bio.
Marcus, and his wife, Billi, were honored at the Summit for “their commitment in support of bioscience research and medical innovation.”
The Marcus Foundation has supported such organizations as the Marcus Stroke & Neuroscience Center at Grady Hospital, the Marcus Trauma Center also at Grady,
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed spent most of Thursday in New York meeting with potential investors in Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
The city (and the airport) is selling about $590 million in tax-exempt bonds to help finance the construction of the new international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson.
Feeling optimistic about his day in New York, Reed told people attending the afternoon session of the Georgia Life Sciences Summit that he felt the bonds “are going to be oversubscribed.”
In a quick interview afterwards, Reed said his optimism was based on
By Maria Saporta
When Arthur Blank talks about there being no finish line, he’s talking not just about his business interests but his own way of looking at the world.
“You need to enjoy the journey,” Blank said at the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Business Growth Expo at the Cobb Galleria on Thursday morning. “Success can be very fleeting. You need to enjoy the journey; have the right people in the boat with you; and move on to the next challenge.”
Blank has had his share of challenges. He was best known as being co-founder of the Home Depot, now the second largest retailer in the United States; today he is better known for being the owner of the Atlanta Falcons. But Blank
By Maria Saporta
Forget my journalistic objectivity. I must admit that I’m in awe of Beverly Scott, MARTA’s general manager.
Here is a woman with unlimited energy and a generosity of spirit who has been able to withstand all kind of attacks, criticisms and prejudices with a smile and an open mind.
When some in the region say that MARTA will never be accepted throughout metro Atlanta, Scott will say we should not get hung up on names, titles and past preconceptions. She has welcomed ideas on how one could create a truly regional transit system, whether it would be called MARTA or not.
By Maria Saporta
If only more male CEOs were as supportive of women as is John Brock, CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises.
Brock spoke at last week’s annual dinner meeting of the Board of Directors Network, an organization that promotes more women on corporate boards and more woman as executive officers on Georgia’s public companies.
CCE’s Brock was invited because that out of its 12 directors, four are women. It is the first year where there’s been some increases in the percentage of women on public company boards.
“The numbers are encouraging,” Brock said of the numbers showing that “there
By Maria Saporta
One of the key holdovers from Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin’s administration in Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration — Luz Borrero — is leaving City Hall.
Borrero, the City of Atlanta’s deputy chief operating officer, has submitted her resignation, effective. Oct. 31.
“I will be joining the executive team of Purpose Built Communities as a senior manager,” Borrero wrote me in an email. “Purpose Built Communities is a non-profit corporation dedeicated to breaking the cycle of poverty in neighborhoods across the United States through a comprehensive redevelopment strategy based on the successful East Lake model in Atlanta.”
