By Maria Saporta
After a pow wow on water at the Governor’s Mansion earlier today, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin gave a luncheon speech to the Buckhead Business Association, where she praised Gov. Sonny Perdue for taking a lead on this issue.
The water summit followed last week’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson that most of metro Atlanta does not have the legal right to access water from Lake Lanier. The judge gave
By Maria Saporta
Although Gwinnett County is planning to remove its signature water towers along I-85 proclaiming that “Gwinnett is Great,” the county continues to anticipate strong growth for the next 20 years.
Economist Roger Tutterow of Mercer University participated in Gwinnett’s first annual “Transportation Summit” on Wednesday at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce’s headquarters.
By 2030, Tutterow said that Gwinnett will
By Maria Saporta
Tom Bell, who retired earlier this summer as CEO of Cousins Properties, is carrying the flag for free enterprise.
Bell is vice chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is in line to lead the organization from July, 2010 through June, 2011.
But starting in September, Bell will chair the U.S. Chamber’s Campaign for Free Enterprise, a national campaign that is expected to last through the 2010 mid-term elections.
Readers,
After five months online, SaportaReport is delighted to let you know of some improvements to our site.
Most significantly is the addition of Lyle Harris, a longtime colleague of mine at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Lyle was a reporter and later an editorial writer focusing on the environment, housing, land-use and transportation issues.
Now he will be contributing his expertise
By Maria Saporta
Spreading the word.
James Shepherd, the inspiration and co-founder of the Shepherd Center, used Facebook to send his friends the message, along with this link, that the Atlanta hospital is among the top 10 rehabilitation centers in the United States.
U.S. News & World Report has just put out a ranking of the “Best Rehabilitaton Hospitals.” Atlanta’s Shepherd Center ranked 9th among a list of more than 150 hospitals in the country.
The rank was based on Shepherd’s reputation by specialists in the medical
By Maria Saporta
City of Atlanta bonds already allocated to the proposed Center for Civil and Human Rights will pay off the balance of a $32 million loan used to buy a premier collection of Martin Luther King Jr.’s papers.
The finance/executive committee of the Atlanta City Council just approved the plan this afternoon in a 4-0 vote. The plan still needs to be approved by the full council and the Atlanta Development Authority.
Three years ago, Atlanta leaders came together to buy the King papers on the eve before they were to be sold at a Sotheby’s auction. Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin
Two metro Atlanta leaders are working with the Obama administration to establish its urban policy agenda.
Catherine Ross, director of the Center for Quality Growth at Georgia Tech; and DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis, were in Washington D.C. Monday as part of a round-table discussion advising the new White House Office of Urban Affairs.
President Barack Obama addressed the urban and political leaders in the afternoon explaining how the federal government can develop policies to improve housing, education and transportation systems in urban areas.
“The president is going to put his
By Maria Saporta
U.S. Sen. SaxbyChambliss (R-Georgia) gave Atlanta Rotarians today the minority party’s perspective of the changes being proposed by the Obama administration.
In short, Chambliss’ message was that the administration was shifting the nation to having a government-owned and managed automobile industry, the insurance and banking sectors and health care.
And the administration’s policies will mean higher taxes for the richest Americans and record deficits that are unsustainable.
By Maria Saporta
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is providing a grant of $1.28 million to help expand “Smart Start” — the early learning initiative of United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta.
The two-year grant will be used to replicate a program called “SPARK,” a national school readiness model thw creates broad community partnerships among early learning centers, faith-based organizations and family and social service nonprofits.
The Early Learning Community Based Partnerships help make sure that children are prepared for school by
By Maria Saporta
It’s not unusual for campaigns to change over their staff, said Stacey Abrams, the new campaign manager for Lisa Borders’ mayoral bid.
Abrams spoke to me on Friday explaining all the changes that have occurred. That includes Abrams coming on board July 1 as the new campaign manager, replacing Verna Cleveland; and the replacement of five other key campaign officials.
“With the exception of one, every one resigned,” Abrams said, adding that the former staff members have worked closely with the campaign during the
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta BeltLine Inc. has reached an agreement to buy nearly 3.5 miles of the railroad corridor that’s currently owned by the Georgia Department of Transportation for $13.5 million.
The property includes the southwest section of the BeltLine as well as part of the Southeast portion.
The BeltLine has a three-year option to acquire the property, and a one year option to buy it at that price. If it doesn’t exercise the option within 12 months, then the property will have to be reappraised, according to ABI spokesman Ethan Davidson.
The UPS headquarters in Sandy Springs was the perfect place to throw a “hometown” celebration for Ann Stallard, who recently became chair of United Way of America.
Stallard, CEO of Graphic Communications of Lawrenceville, is an Atlanta treasure who has been a longtime civic player in women and social issues. There was a lot of local pride Wednesday evening that she had been tapped by the national United Way to chair that board.
So why was UPS the ideal place to celebrate Stallard’s new role?
The Atlanta-based Fortune 500
This email just came into my inbox.
It’s from Rick Blalock, a longtime media/public relations player in Atlanta who most recently has been with the Lisa Borders mayoral campaign.
Don’t know the story behind the story, but personnel changes are not that unusual in the ups and downs of the political scene.
Here’s Rick Blalock’s email:
Good evening:
This is to inform you that effective today, I am an no longer the communications manager for the Lisa Borders for Mayor campaign, also
As the Obama administrations works on its urban strategy, it is turning to Atlanta’s own Catherine Ross to help.
Ross, director of the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development at Georgia Tech, has been asked to be part of the recently created White House Office of Urban Affairs.
President Barack Obama established the Office of Urban Affairs to give greater emphasis on the needs of cities.
Specifically, the office is coordinating the various federal agencies that impact cities and urban policies. The office also will explore policies that “best leverage the assets of our metropolitan areas,”
Fireworks displays for this year’s July 4th celebrations were scaled down this year because of the economy.
But someone forgot to tell Centennial Olympic Parkl.
Mark Banta, general manager of the park, defied the recession Saturday night by putting on a fireworks extravaganza that was 25 percent bigger than previous years.
It was a phenomenal display. Fireworks of all colors not only sparkled in the sky. But fireworks fired up from the roofs of nearby buildings, creating the sensation of hundreds of shooting stars — creating a candy for the eyes. There
The Peachtree Road Race ended at its rightful finish line today — Piedmont Park.
It was wonderful to be able to see the thousands of runners and walkers return to Atlanta’s common ground as they picked up their T-shirts and accomplished their personal goals for the 6.2 mile (10K) race.
Last year, the Peachtree Road Race was forced to change its route and end several blocks away at 10th and Juniper Street because city officials did not want crowds of people in Piedmont Park because of the drought.
The city’s anti-people policy makes no sense. In a serious drought,
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin deflected credit or congratulations on getting both a 3 mills property tax increase and the 2010 fiscal year budget passed by the Atlanta City Council today.
“It’s good for the city,” said Franklin in a wide-ranging phone interview this afternoon. “It’s our job to do what’s best for the city longterm.”
Had the budget and property tax increase not passed, the mayor said the city would have had to continue furloughs of employees, and it would have had to drastically reduce funding for parks and public works.
The Atlanta Committee for Progress plans to keep going — at least until a new mayor is elected.
The committee, which was put together in 2003 by Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, includes the top CEOs in the metro region who serve as a kitchen cabinet to help the city implement its priorities and work through its challenges.
The committee met this morning for its quarterly meeting at the World Trade Center. The mayor had to leave right after the meeting to monitor the Atlanta City Council votes for a mil increase and for the city’s budget.
An interesting juxtaposition occurred at Thursday’s Atlanta Regional Commission board meeting.
First, new urbanism planner Andrés Duany briefed the board about the Lifelong Communities projects that his firm — DPZ — has been conducting in the Atlanta Region. The goal has been to design communities that work best for the region’s aging population.
And then, Mike Alexander, ARC research division chief, presented the latest regional snapshot showing that the metro area’s population will top 8.3 million people by 2040, roughly an additional 3 million residents.
How can I say no to Paul McCartney?
The Piedmont Park Conservancy has just announced that Sir Paul McCartney will perform for its second “Green Concert” on Saturday, Aug. 15. The former member of the Beatles will be the headline act for the evening.
Two years ago, the Piedmont Park Conservancy held its first Green Concert with the Dave Matthews Band and the Allman Brothers. (I couldn’t say no to that one either).
Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Monday, June 29th at 10 a.m through Ticketmaster.
