After retiring from the U.S. Army, Oswald “Oz” Hill went to work as a consultant — and later as a city of Atlanta staff member — working in emergency preparedness, disaster mitigation, security planning and other areas. He’s now running for Atlanta City Council District 1 and spoke to Saporta Report via email. Campaign website […]
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Responding to disasters on many fronts
Before there was Irma, there was Harvey. Before Harvey, there was an unnamed disaster in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Though you might not have seen it on cable news, Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, experienced unrelenting rains only a few days before Harvey made landfall in Texas. Nearly 1,000 people perished and thousands more […]
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Photo Pick: Chalk it up to Park(ing) Day – Broad St. Sept. 15 by Kelly Jordan
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‘Mother!’ – strong female cast in a long, chaotic movie
Darren Aronofsky certainly needed to get something out of his system… and here it is.
What it is, exactly, I’m not sure.
“Mother!” (yes, the exclamation point is part of the title, like, say, “Oliver!”) takes place in a remote Victorian fixer-upper where Mother (Jennifer Lawrence) does most of the fixer-upping and her husband, Him (Javier Bardem), a world-famous poet, struggles with writer’s block.
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Can a BeltLine park provide recreation on, beside, a drinking water reservoir?
By Guest Columnist MARK PENDERGRAST, an Atlanta native and author of ‘City on the Verge: Atlanta and the Fight for America’s Urban Future.’
Does Atlanta have the creative capacity and vision to develop the Westside Park as a true community asset? Will the new lake there be its beloved recreational center? The park is literally the biggest promise of the Atlanta BeltLine.
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Atlanta City Council candidate profiles: Post 2 at large
The race for a vacant at large City Council seat has attracted three men who are talking about ideas like free pre-K, decriminalizing marijuana and building a more equitable Atlanta.
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Atlanta City Council candidate Q and A: Bret R. Williams
Some comments have been edited for brevity and clarity. Bret Williams is a former federal prosecutor and is now in private legal practice. City Council would be the first elected post for the Virginia Highlands resident. Campaign website Q: What is your No. 1 concern for the city? A: Crime. … There are a couple […]
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Atlanta City Council candidate Q and A: Cory Ruth
Some comments have been edited for brevity and clarity. Cory Ruth is a partner at Mergence Global, an IT consulting firm. Atlanta City Council would be the first elected post for the Buckhead resident. Campaign website Q: What’s your No. 1 concern for the city? A: …If I had to choose a legacy item that […]
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Atlanta City Council candidate Q and A: Matt Westmoreland
Some comments have been edited for brevity and clarity. Matt Westmoreland was elected to the Atlanta Board of Education in 2013. Before that, the Midtown resident taught at Carver High School. Campaign website Q: What’s your No. 1 concern for the city? A: Equity and economic mobility. …I was born and raised in Atlanta, graduated […]
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Perdue tours Irma-damaged farms as his policy focus remains funding to fight fires
As U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue tours storm-damaged farms in Georgia today, his broader focus is on changing fiscal policy that seems to have contributed to the record-breaking wildfires out west – more than 2.2 million acres of national forest lands have burned as of Thursday.
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Fulton leaders may seek state help to blunt property tax spikes
In the aftermath of a taxpayers’ revolt over a surge in many 2017 Fulton County home property tax bills, local government leaders are trying to figure out how to dodge the pitchforks and torches next time. A cap on home property tax increases could be part of the plan.
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Atlanta Police Foundation raises record $20 million for campaign
The Atlanta Police Foundation celebrated raising $20 million for its most recent “Cutting Edge, Cutting Crime” campaign – far exceeding its initial goal of $12 million.
At the annual “Crime is Toast” breakfast Thursday morning, the chair of that campaign – Jeffrey Sprecher – made the announcement at the end of the event.
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Mayoral hopefuls’ pitch to business: partnership, permitting
Six top contenders for the mayor’s office told a business group’s forum that City Hall needs to change some of its ways.
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Metro Atlanta Chamber to emphasize region as hub for ‘Internet of Things’
The Metro Atlanta Chamber today is launching its latest initiative – IoT.ATL – at the GSMA Mobile World Congress meeting this week in San Francisco.
The initiative reflects Atlanta’s dominance in the area known as the Internet of Things (IoT) – the digital connection between items like cars and appliances and the internet. It is also a next generation of the Chamber’s Mobility initiative, which highlighted Atlanta’s strength in mobile communications.
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How the Internet of Things could save lives in disasters such as Hurricane Irma
Georgia Tech researchers are devising a way to track smart phones and other devices in ways that would enable rescue workers to locate folks who are in harm’s way even when a power outage knocks out the internet.
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When the Water Recedes: Inequality in Disaster
By John Hope Bryant, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Operation HOPE, Inc. It can take up to 20 years for a city to recover from a major disaster. However, for many low- to moderate-income families affected by unexpected life events like natural disasters, the recovery never really comes. The devastation of the disaster is ongoing; pulling […]
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The Power of “We” Part 5
The Atlanta BeltLine Partnership is promoting solutions to Atlanta’s affordable housing needs via a series of articles from our public, private, philanthropic, nonprofit, and community partners who – through “The Power of We” – can help define a coordinated set of policies, programs, and resources that build and preserve affordable living opportunities for all. Recently, Enterprise Community Partners discussed the […]
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For MARTA’s future, culture is everything
MARTA recently hosted its latest hack-a-thon, a high-tech competition inviting participants to create their own “hacks” or improvements to make the transit agency more effective, efficient and customer friendly.
Hack-a-thons aren’t new; large companies have been holding them for years. But for MARTA, they’re a really big deal. As the agency starts searching for its next CEO, that person should understand how such events foster a culture of openness and innovation that’s critical to MARTA’s forward trajectory.
Posted inColumns
Atlanta City Design 2017: A grand vision for people, nature and people in nature
In a City Hall conference room, Atlanta Planning Commissioner Tim Keane gently unrolled a mega-watercolor that Christian Sottile, an urban designer from Savannah, had painted of the new Atlanta City Design.
The watercolor captured the significance of the design process and its potential for Atlanta by using a graphic style that dates back to the early 1900s – depicting a desire fort this design tol become part of city’s landscape and identity for decades to come.
