Home » Posts

Posts

Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta’s future public art gallery takes step forward, at a $770,000 price to alter former AJC building

by David Pendered

Atlanta is on track to spend up to $770,769 to remodel space for an art gallery in the city’s office building that once housed The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The planned exhibit space will encompass 3,400 square feet and provide two galleries accessible through one entry, according to Camille Russell Love, who heads the city’s cultural affairs programs and who presented the plan Tuesday to the Atlanta City Council’s Community Development Committee. The council is expected to approve the spending at its June 17 meeting.

The proposal to spend money for a city gallery elicited a protest from Ron Shakir, an Atlanta resident who’s a regular opponent of spending proposals when they’re discussed at committee meetings. Councilperson Cleta Winslow pushed back, contending that support for public arts is a wise investment.

Posted inLatest News

Selecting a new Atlanta BeltLine Inc. CEO could be a day or two away

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

The naming of a new CEO for the Atlanta BeltLine could happen in a matter of days. But now the number of finalists has gone from five to four.

The board of the Atlanta BeltLine Inc. is scheduled to meet Wednesday morning when it is likely it will select its next CEO from the four remaining candidates.

One of the two out-of-town candidates — Aundra “Drew” Wallace — is the unanimous choice to become CEO of the Jacksonville Downtown Investment Authority. Wallace has been executive director of the Detroit Land Bank Authority.

Posted inLatest News

Nonprofits improving our town by using products we would throw away

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

What do the Atlanta Community Food Bank, MedShare and Lifecycle Building Center have in common?

Each nonprofit provides an opportunity for products to be used or reused, and each one of them prevent products from being thrown away and ending up in a landfill.

Executives from each organization were part of a panel discussion on Friday at the Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable on “Transforming the World through Reuse.”

Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta opens new fire, police station at time concerns for public safety appear low, off campaign agenda

by David Pendered

Atlanta has opened its newest facility in the city’s never-ending quest to improve public safety and promote neighborhood cohesion.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed presided over the ribbon cutting ceremony on June 6, the 69th anniversary of D-Day. Reed sounded little like a candidate for reelection, and a lot like a community leader, as he summed up a wide array of interests that are bound up in the new Fire Station No. 28.

“A building like this should represent the best version of ourselves,” Reed concluded. “God bless you. It’s only going to get better in the city of Atlanta.”

Posted inSaba Long

Students explore how to start their own businesses through Youth Entrepreneurs Georgia

by Saba Long

Often times when reading the story of a successful company, the entrepreneur started exploring business opportunities at a young age. It has been no different for JuShawn Carter, a recent participant of Youth Entrepreneurs Georgia (YE- GA) and a May graduate of Benjamin E. Mays.

“My family has always encouraged me to work for and support myself,” said Carter, a college-bound senior. “I even started a bean bag businesses with my grandfather once.”

During her junior and senior year at Mays, Carter honed her entrepreneurial skills through a Youth Entrepreneurs Georgia sponsored elective.

Posted inTom Baxter

Another water war comes down to court decision

Avatar photo by Tom Baxter

Later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to add to the evolving case law dealing with how states share their increasingly precious water resources.

This time it’s not our water war that the court is concerned with. But how it rules in a long-running dispute between Texas and Oklahoma could affect how ours turns out.

There have been 38 interstate water compacts,  two of which were involved in the water war involving Georgia, Florida and Alabama over how much water Metro Atlanta can draw from Lake Lanier. Both those compacts were allowed to expire, although the issues they sought to address continue. Another is the Red River Compact, agreed to by the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana in 1980 for the “equitable apportionment among them of the waters of the Red River and its tributaries.”

Posted inMichelle Hiskey, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

Clothes swap helps Atlanta moms reinvent and bond on a budget

by Michelle Hiskey

With her two-month-old baby strapped on, Brit St. Clair of Decatur was not in prime position for clothes shopping. Her body wasn’t back to where she wanted, and she didn’t want to spend a lot of money on an in-between wardrobe. On a rainy Sunday afternoon in late spring, she and 40 women enjoyed the girlfriend vibe as they reinvented their look for less by trying on each other's discarded clothes.

Given Take Boutique – a pop-up clothes swapping business – is the brainchild of energetic entrepreneur mom Adrienne Lewis Tankersley of East Atlanta. After she left her career to stay at home with her children, budgeting on a single income made her extra mindful of stretching a dollar.

“This is my first swap, and I’ve found pretty good stuff,” St. Clair said. “It’s an awkward transition between maternity and the size I was before. And I like the idea of recycling, that what everybody gives to the swap gets reused.”

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

On a run, Wright Mitchell discovered a forgotten cemetery, founded Buckhead Heritage Society to preserve other historic treasures

Avatar photo by adminmegan

When Wright Mitchell was on a run with his two dogs one day, he inexplicably turned up Chatham Road in Buckhead, a street not on his normal route. As he neared the top of the hill at West Paces Ferry, he looked to his left and saw a strange stone obelisk sticking out of the trees and bushes on an abandoned lot.

“It seemed completely out of place so I went in to investigate and discovered that one of Buckhead’s most historically significant cemeteries had been right there on the corner and had become completely overgrown and neglected,” Wright told us in our accompanying Moments HD video.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Sam Williams reflects on his 17 years at the Metro Atlanta Chamber

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, June 7, 2013

Fifty years ago, Sam Williams came to Atlanta for the first time as a Georgia Tech freshman from a small Tennessee town of 900 people “where you knew whose check was good and whose husband wasn’t.”

When his parents dropped him off at the doorstep of his Tech dorm, Williams saw Atlanta as “a great big, scary place.” He was a young man leaving the farm and a 4-H scholarship in Tennessee to study electrical engineering at Georgia Tech.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Atlanta — a birthplace of housing innovation — needs ideas to provide homes for today’s generations

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

For more than 75 years, Atlanta has been a birthplace of housing innovation for people with lower incomes.

It was back in early 1933 when an Atlanta real estate developer Charles Palmer drove through what was then Techwood Flats and became distressed with the living conditions in the 14-block slum area.

He organized a group of Atlanta leaders to write a proposal to the federal government for $2.375 million from the federal government to clear the slum and build public housing to give the poor an opportunity to get back on their feet.

Posted inDavid Pendered

First MARTA budget proposed by “new” GM provides for passengers, employees, capital investments

by David Pendered

The first annual budget to be presented by MARTA’s (somewhat) new GM/CEO provides something for both employees and passengers. The board is expected to approve the proposed budget Monday.

Keith Parker started at MARTA in December and made it clear during several meet-and-greet events that he intends to focus on both riders and employees. His goal is to improve the perception and reality of metro Atlanta’s largest transit system.

For passengers, MARTA’s budget proposal provides for a 12-month deferral of a planned fare increase, heightens sense-of-safety measures, and provides for the reopening of bathrooms in stations. For employees, there’s to be a no-cost package including a relaxed dress code and telecommute program, plus pay incentives. For system well-being, there’s $155.5 million in capital investments.

Posted inGuest Column

Adopting Common Core Standards makes business sense for Georgia

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist DANA RICKMAN, director of policy and research for the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education

Recently there has been no education topic more hotly debated than the Common Core State Standards.

For those of you new to this debate, the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards (CCGPS) are Georgia’s version of the national Common Core State Standards (CCSS). It is important to understand the purpose of the standards, why Georgia led the nation in adopting them and why they were created in the first place.

In 2006, it was evident that the United States was falling behind other countries in our ability to educate a competitive workforce for the global market. American 15-year-olds ranked 25th globally in math and 21st in science achievement on the most recent international assessments.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Two historic buildings in Atlanta show signs they’ll resist wrecking ball

by David Pendered

Sometimes in Atlanta, the news about historic preservation is measured in terms of buildings that weren’t demolished. This is one of those times.

The Atlanta City Council has approved a deal that will reduce the economic pressures to further develop the Georgian Terrace. The council authorized the owner to sever the development rights of the property and sell them at some point in the future to the owner of another parcel in Midtown.

In the heart of Atlanta’s downtown business district, a “For Sale” sign is hanging on the second floor office condo at the Healey Building. The proposed sale, priced at $840,000, indicates there are no dramatic changes planned for the building that was renovated in 2007.

Posted inLatest News

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed getting close to making an offer to buy Friendship Baptist Church

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said he is on the verge of making an offer to acquire Friendship Baptist Church to make room for a new Atlanta Falcons football stadium.

“My issue was to make sure the Congregational support was above two-thirds,” Reed said. “We are getting there.”

When asked about the timing, Reed said it will be in a matter of days.

“I want to move this forward,” Reed said, adding that the city would be presenting an offer to Friendship “definitely within the next 10 days.”

The Atlanta Falcons are anxiously waiting on the outcome of the city’s negotiations to buy Friendship as well as the culmination of negotiations that the Georgia World Congress Center is having with Mount Vernon Baptist Church, which is across the street from Friendship.

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

‘Frances HA’ — a funny, unexpected and adorable film about a dancer

Avatar photo by Eleanor Ringel Cater

Getting Greta Gerwig hasn’t been easy.

Cast in middling-important semi-glossy indies like “Greenberg” and “Damsels in Distress,” she seemed a kind of Parker Posey follow-up. Not that she is anything like Posey — who’s small-boned, beautiful, angular, and brunette. Gerwig is large-ish, pretty-ish, blonde-ish and more odd than quirky.

And as the title character in “Frances Ha” (the name is explained in a lovely last-minute moment), she’s not only irresistible; she’s spectacular.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Sun Trust, Operation HOPE to devise financial literacy program for working poor, may teach entrepreneurship

by David Pendered

An interesting meeting is set for June 10, one that will bring elite bankers together with street-wise advocates of the working poor in order to help a low-wealth community in Atlanta.

The goal is to devise a program that will teach financial literacy to those who don’t live in a world where financial advisors reach out to them. There’s a chance that lessons in entrepreneurship may be in the curriculum that is to begin this autumn.

Sun Trust Banks and Operation HOPE are partnering to offer the program. It’s a way for Sun Trust to return to its roots of community building, and Operation HOPE already is a good partner, Sun Trust executive Dan Mahurin said Wednesday.

Gift this article