Category: Latest News

By Maria Saporta

It was like a breath of fresh air.

Republican David Ralston celebrated his first month as speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives on Thursday by giving a talk to the Atlanta Press Club.

Even Ralston seemed humbly surprised that he now was one of the most important elected leaders in Georgia.

“I’m truly honored to be the speaker,” Ralston said. “Three months ago, I was somewhat making a living in Blue Ridge as a lawyer. The world has changed.”

The twisted personal and political

By Maria Saporta

Uncertainty is the theme of the day when it comes to possible bills and regulations coming out of Washington, D.C.

That’s what former U.S. Sen. John Sununu (R-New Hampshire) said Wednesday to attendees of the 2010 Capital Connection conference put on by the Association for Corporate Growth’s Atlanta Chamber.

“Uncertainty affects everything,” Sununu said. “Uncertainty is the order of the day.”

As examples, Sununu said many initiatives are up in the air — health care reform, energy legislation, financial

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta BeltLine Inc. has selected a design team for the 22-mile BeltLine Corridor.

The design team will be led by Perkins+Will, including Leo Alvarez, John Threadgill and Ryan Gravel, who proposed the BeltLine project as part of his graduate thesis at Georgia Tech; and the firm of James Corner Field Operations, which recently completed the design of the High Line in New York City.

They were selected as part of a competitive bidding process that had received interest from dozens of architectural and design firms.

The board of Atlanta BeltLine Inc. selected the design team at its meeting earlier today. The design team will be charged

By Maria Saporta

As Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed seeks to build his administration, five executive search firms have signed on to provide their services free of charge.

On Monday, Reed and his transition team announced the search teams for a new police chief and a new fire chief.

The search firm of Russell Reynolds is assisting in the police chief search. And the search firm of BoardWalk Consulting is working on the fire chief search.

Three other key searches also are underway. The search for a new chief financial officer, the search for a new public works commissioner and the

By Maria Saporta

At the monthly Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable this morning, four state legislators were relatively upbeat on how the 2010 General Assembly will address environmental issues.

The biggest cause for optimism was the water conservation bill that was introduced by Gov. Sonny Perdue and his leadership team earlier this week.

Jill Johnson, program director of Georgia Conservation Voters, said such a water bill had been one of the top priorities of the different environmental groups in the state.

State Sen. Ross Tolleson (R-Perry), who chairs the Senate’s Natural Resources

By Maria Saporta

It’s baaaack.

The super, mega, wrap-around sign on the historic Medical Arts building on Peachtree Street downtown is all the evidence we need to show that our city is not working.

Complaint after complaint has been filed against the owners of the 384 Peachtree building — which is highly visible going north or south on the Downtown Connector — for violating the city’s sign ordinance. (see jump page for photo).

We are not supposed to be a city of billboards.We certainly are not supposed to be a city where advertisers can wrap an unsightly canvas pimping their

By Maria Saporta

We now know exactly when Jim Wagner became the front-runner to be the new president of Emory University back in 2003.

At the time, Emory was touting itself as being a university “poised for greatness.”

Wagner turned the tables on the search committee and asked: “How long does Emory plan to be poised for greatness?”

That was Wagner’s way of saying it would be better if Emory had already achieved greatness.

That story was told today by Ben Johnson, chairman of the Emory University’s Board of Trustees, as he was

By Maria Saporta

How sweet it is. Comme c’est bon.

Earlier this evening, I attended the grand opening of the new home for the Alliance Francaise D’Atlanta and the Goethe Institute Atlanta at Colony Square.

It was a celebration on so many levels.

This is the first time in the United States (if not the world) that the French and German cultural organizations have come together under one roof — showing a spirit of cooperation between two countries that often have been at odds for several centuries.

One of the most uplifting moments of

By Maria Saporta

Two of Georgia’s most notorious figures were inducted today to Georgia Trend’s Most Influential Georgians Hall of Fame — enlivening the lunch with their uniquely seasoned personalities.

What other way can one describe longtime political journalist Bill Shipp and Civil Rights leader and activist Rev. Joseph Lowery.

First Shipp was introduced by Georgia Trend Publisher Neely Young, who called Shipp a “franchise.”

After receiving a standing ovation, Shipp spoke from a wheelchair while sitting at one of the front tables in the the Ritz

By Maria Saporta

It just was time for him to move on.

That’s how Benjamin DeCosta, general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, explains why he would not be seeking to renew his contract when it runs out at the end of June. DeCosta sent a letter to the Atlanta City Council and Mayor Kasim Reed on Monday to let them know of his decision.

DeCosta has been general manager of the Atlanta airport since June, 1998. Before coming to Atlanta, DeCosta worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and he served as general manager of the Newark

By Maria Saporta

Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin was pleased that news outlets reported the facts about how violent crime has decreased in the city.

But she felt that stories “missed the significant role of public engagement in learning and exercising safety tips” as ways to combat violent crime. She also said the lower violent crime stats were a result of “increased investment in professional training of Atlanta’s police officers from top to bottom.”

(Click here to read WXIA’s report on the new crime numbers).

Franklin mentioned several other

By Maria Saporta

At breakfast this morning at the Commerce Club, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce rolled out the red carpet for Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

And Ballmer responded by saying Atlanta actually is the 10th largest high tech center in the country. He remembered coming to Atlanta five years ago to attend a breakfast sponsored by the Technology Association of Georgia, and he was impressed that it attracted 700 people that early in the morning.

Although Microsoft doesn’t have its headquarters here, Ballmer said Atlanta is an important base for the information

By Maria Saporta

Georgia House Speaker David Ralston was the special guest at today’s board meeting of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

And from the folks who attended the meeting, the word was that he impressed business leaders with his interest in moving beyond the dysfunctional (my word) politics of the last couple of years.

“He gave us a very nice overview of their agenda,” said Bill Linginfelter, this year’s Metro Atlanta Chamber chairman and Regions Bank’s area president for Georgia and South Carolina. “He seemed excited about the prospect for a transportation bill (coming out of this year’s legislative session).”

By Maria Saporta

Sometimes restaurants become friends of the family.

So when one of those restaurants goes out of business, it closes a chapter of memories.

That’s the way it is with the Old Spaghetti Factory on Ponce de Leon Avenue.

Yesterday, I got a call from my best friend, Francie, saying that the Spaghetti Factory was going to closing its doors at the end of the week.

It just so happens that her children’s grandparents — Joyce and Candler Lasseter — have been going to the Spaghetti Factory every week for years.

By Maria Saporta

When General David Petraeus came to speak today at the Atlanta Press Club/Commerce Club luncheon, he came with star power.

About a dozen photographers and television stations were on hand to hear his every word on Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan — all among the 20 countries under his purview in the U.S. Central Command.

Petraeus impressed the 600 people attending the lunch at the Intercontinental Hotel in Buckhead with the depth of his knowledge and analysis of one of the most complicated regions

By Maria Saporta

A whirlwind of activities surround the opening of the legislative session and the annual events of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

Since our esteemed media outlets will provide the straight-forward news, I thought I would share with you some of the highlights of these last couple of days (at least from my point of view).

First, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (and a former Republican presidential candidate) gave a mostly non-partisan speech as the keynoter on Monday evening at the Georgia Chamber’s annual meeting.

Huckabee, a hold-over from the days of

By Maria Saporta

It was the last “State of the County” address that Cobb Chairman Sam Olens would ever give to the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.

But folks attending the breakfast Monday morning would not have known that from just hearing Olens’ speech.

Olens played it straight — giving Cobb Chamber members a rundown of the county’s operations and progress in public safety, infrastructure, education, the county’s budget, its quality of life as well as acquisition of parks and green space.

The only indication that this would be his last “State of the County” breakfast was

By Maria Saporta

Georgia’s unusual politics this year is forcing the Georgia Chamber of Commerce to be more flexible than in previous years.

Traditionally, the Georgia Chamber holds its annual meeting on the Monday that marks the convening of the General Assembly. The annual meeting is tonight at the Georgia World Congress Center.

But where it gets tricky is that early the next morning, the Georgia Chamber hosts the annual “Eggs & Issues” breakfast when the state’s business leaders get to hear from the state’s top elected officials.

So on Tuesday morning, the Georgia Chamber will have Gov. Sonny Perdue

By Maria Saporta

It’s been exactly a year since the environmental website — Mother Nature Network www.mnn.com — was launched.

Founder Joel Babbit celebrated MNN’s one-year anniversary on Jan. 6 by talking to a group of Central Atlanta Progress meeting at the Il Mulino restaurant in the lobby of the 191 Tower — a building that has been integral to the website’s inception and operation.

What a year it’s been.

“We have about one million people coming to our site each month from 200 different countries,” Babbit said.

The major ratings firm for websites — Alexa — follows 6,200 websites in the environmental space. Of those, Mother

By Maria Saporta

After decades in the real estate business, Hal Barry took time Wednesday to reflect on his career and the state of the industry in a talk to the Atlanta chapter of the Urban Land Institute.

He has seen the ups and downs of Atlanta real estate economy, and what he has seen is that “the playing field has changed and it’s changed again and again.”

Barry has not been immune from the downturn in the economy, but he has seen other real estate recessions in Atlanta.

“I have no idea where 2010 is going to take us, but I feel it’s going to be better than 2009,” Barry said.

Up until 2007, there was a range of