Category: Latest News

By Maria Saporta

The Buckhead Coalition, a group of key business leaders based in Buckhead, is taking a stance in the city’s upcoming elections.

The Better Community Political Action Committee, the PAC of the Buckhead Coalition, interviewed the top candidates for mayor. It decided to divide its $2,400 contribution on a proportional based of a straw vote of the members present.

City Councilwoman Mary Norwood, who lives in Buckhead, was the top vote getter, receiving 56 percent. That meant the BC PAC wrote her a check for

By Maria Saporta

More and more students are being drawn to Georgia State University, according to its relatively new president Mark Becker.

Becker recently spoke to the Kiwanis Club of Atlanta saying “the future is nothing but bright” for Georgia State University.

Despite the recession, the number of applications to the university was up about 20 percent; and GSU accepted its largest freshman class ever — 3,000 students.

“In 1995, only 2,225 applied to go to

By Maria Saporta

We now know at least three gubernatorial candidates who will be seeking support from the environmental community.

At Wednesday night’s Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s Annual Patron Appreciation Dinner, two Democratic candidates for governor and one Republican candidate came — each making sure to work the room among some of the region’s top environmental leaders.

The first candidate I saw upon

By Maria Saporta

At today’s Atlanta Regional Commission board meeting, three men declared their intention to seek the chairmanship of the 10-county planning organization.

The three, in alphabetical order, are: Charles Bannister, chairman of the Gwinnett County Commission; Tad Leithead, a former executive with Cousins Properties who is now building his own public policy and lobbying firm; and Jack Smith, the chairman of the Fayette County Commission.

One of those three, or possibly someone

By Maria Saporta

Metro Atlanta is facing a tremendous transition in leadership, beginning with the chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

Sam Olens, who has been chairman of the 10-county body since December 2004, is planning to step down so he can launch his campaign to run for state Attorney General.

Olens, who is also chairman of the Cobb Commission, has served two, two-year terms as ARC’s chairman.

At ARC’s board meeting this coming

By Maria Saporta

Internationally-renowned Atlanta architect and developer John Portman was given the Lifetime Achievement Award Thursday evening at the revived Governor’s International Awards.

The awards were co-sponsored by the World Trade Center Atlanta and the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

For Portman, it was an opportunity to look back at the evolution of the global profile of Atlanta. He started design and construction on the Atlanta Merchandise Mart in the late 1950s and it opened in

Brian Leary remembers hearing about the Atlanta BeltLine from its very earliest days when he was working on his master’s in city planning at Georgia Tech.

Ryan Gravel, a fellow student, had been working on a master’s thesis about a 22-mile railroad corridor that encircled the inner city of Atlanta and how it could be redeveloped into one of the greatest urban revitalization projects in the city’s history.

“To me, there’s no greater opportunity to positively impact the future of Atlanta and its quality of life than the BeltLine,” Leary said in an interview Wednesday,

By Maria Saporta

The board of Atlanta Beltline Inc. has just selected Brian Leary, vice president of design and development for Jacoby Development and Atlantic Station, as its new president and CEO.

Leary is succeeding Terri Montague, who stepped down Sept. 1, but has remained as a consultant until her replacement was named. Montague was the founding CEO of Atlanta BeltLine Inc., the public entity in charge of developing the 22-mile railroad corridor that encircles Atlanta’s

By Maria Saporta

The Atlanta Streetcar — through the Georgia Transit Connector partnership — is making its best pitch to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

A public-private partnership between the City of Atlanta, MARTA, the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District and the Midtown Improvement District today is submitting its application for federal stimulus funding.

The proposal for up to $300 million for “shovel-ready” funding includes two

By Maria Saporta

Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent has lived in some of the greatest cities of the world. So when he talks about Atlanta’s potential, it’s worth paying close attention.

“Atlanta has an opportunity to become a world-class sustainable city defined by smart growth, quality transportation infrastructure and world-class educators,” Kent said. “The greatest cities in the world are moving in that direction fast. Atlanta has an incredible opportunity take a lead.”

Kent spoke those words at Monday’s

By Maria Saporta

Cobb County Chairman Sam Olens and DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis stood like bookends at a recent DeKalb Chamber of Commerce’s breakfast that provided a snapshot of the region.

Despite being of different races and different political parties, the similarities of the two men is striking. Both are roughly the same age — in their early 50s; both are lawyers. And both appreciate the importance of the region as a critical part of being leaders in their individual counties.

By Maria Saporta

Two buildings face each other across the street — one a symbol of despair, one a symbol of hope.

On the north side of Memorial Drive downtown is the Atlanta city jail, officially known as the Atlanta Department of Corrections. It’s a building that houses broken laws and crippled lives

And on the south side of the street is Welcome House — a perfectly-named place where people are encouraged to rebuild their lives.

None of that symbolism is lost on

By Maria Saporta

More on the 14th Street bridge. Little did I know when I wrote a short item about the reopening of the 14th Street bridge that it would generate such thoughtful commentary from friends and readers.

According to people familiar with the project, the $88.5 million project cost identified by the Georgia Department of Transportation did not reflect the true actual cost.

It cost the state up to $106 million to acquire the right of way for the project,

By Maria Saporta

A ribbon-cutting ceremony to reopen the 14th Street this morning was moved to the nearby Courtyard by Marriott because of rain.

And even after the ribbon-cutting, the bridge would not be opened for a couple of more hours, a disappointment to several folks in cars who were waiting to be among the first to traverse the new bridge.

Speech after speech heralded this new east-west connection between Georgia

By Maria Saporta

Planned Parenthood of Georgia is merging with Planned Parenthood of Alabama.

The merged organization — Planned Parenthood Southeast — was supposed to have begun its operations on Tuesday, Sept. 1, but it has been delayed for a month to dot a “few more ‘i’s,'” according to Leola Reis, the vide president of external affairs for Georgia. The merged territory will cover all of Georgia, Alabama and most of Mississippi.

“Combining our two organizations will

By Maria Saporta

One of the architects of our modern MARTA system has passed away.

Alan Kiepper, MARTA’s general manager and CEO from 1972 to 1982, passed away on Aug. 26 in Annapolis, Md. at the age of 81.

I received an email from one of his successors at MARTA — Ken Gregor — who wanted to make sure Kiepper was recognized for the influence he had on Atlanta’s growth.

By Maria Saporta

DeKalb County and the Clean Cities Atlanta Coalition has been awarded a $14.9 million grant by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The grant will fund programming designed to reduce the use of fossil fuels in transportation vehicles.

In a statement, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin said: “I want to personally thank the Department of Energy and the Office of the Vice President for pushing this

By Maria Saporta

Georgia’s continued lack of progress on building a commuter rail line towards Griffin is costing the state millions in lost stimulus dollars.

Unless the state acts quickly to get the project moving, it is extremely vulnerable to losing the $87 million federal funds already allocated to the project.

Those are two concerns expressed by U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-Georgia) earlier

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin believes Atlantans have moved beyond the racial divisions that afflicted the city decades ago.

After reading a position paper of the Black Leadership Forum, thought to have been written by Aaron Turpeau, the mayor felt she had to respond.

In the paper, Turpeau wrote that the black community needs to rally behind

By Maria Saporta

Race has entered the Atlanta’s mayor’s race.

A position paper by the Black Leadership Forum, written by Aaron Turpeau, is urging the black community to rally behind one black candidate to make sure Atlanta doesn’t end up with a white mayor — notably City Councilwoman Mary Norwood who currently is ahead in the polls.

Turpeau then urges black leaders