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Posted inLatest News

Two key Atlanta directors — Keough and Williams — leaving Coke’s board

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By Maria Saporta

The Coca-Cola Co.’s link to Atlanta will change after the company’s annual meeting in April.

Two of its key directors — Donald R. Keough and James B. Williams — will not be standing for re-election, marking a new chapter for the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co.

Both Keough and Williams, who both are seasoned Atlanta executives, have had ties to the company for decades. In fact, both were associated with the company from the days when Robert W. Woodruff, the long-time leader of the company, was in charge.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: Subie Green to retire from Center for Visually Impaired nonprofit

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, February 15, 2013

Subie Green, one of Atlanta’s most respected nonprofit executives, is retiring as president of the Center for the Visually Impaired at the end of June.

“It’s really time, but it was a hard, hard decision because I have loved this job so much,” said Green, who has been CVI’s top executive since May 2001.

During her tenure as president, Green oversaw an $8 million capital campaign to buy and renovate a new Midtown home for the organization that serves people who are blind or with significant visual disabilities.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta Council looks for ways stadium deal could be required to help residents, nearby neighborhoods

by David Pendered

In about three weeks, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s staff expects to deliver to the city council the meat of the legislation that will enable the city council to vote to help fund a new Falcons stadium.

Given the level of support for the new stadium voiced by several councilmembers, its evident some of them will spend the next three weeks figuring out how to ensure that community benefits agreements are created to help city residents and the neighborhoods around. Such concerns were a major issue at the council’s four-hour work session Wednesday.

Falcons President and CEO Rich McKay assured the council several times that team owner Arthur Blank is committed to being a good civic partner. McKay emphasized that Penny McPhee, president of the Blank Foundation, will oversee that outreach effort.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Adams Park in southwest Atlanta listed on National Registry of Historic Places for landscape, stonework

by David Pendered

A portion of Adams Park, in southwest Atlanta, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of attributes including its landscape design and stonework.

The recognition is a reminder of the efforts underway in many of the city parks, in addition to headline-grabbing initiatives such as the Atlanta BeltLine and Buckhead Trail.

The Adams Park designation is the result of work by the Adams Park Foundation on behalf of a park that – like Chastain Memorial Park, in Buckhead – was originally intended to attract residents to the region by offering first-class recreational amenities. The same landscape company worked on Chastain and Adams parks.

Posted inLatest News

Andrea Barnwell Brownlee to receive High Museum’s 2013 Driskell Prize

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

The High Museum of Art will award Andrea Barnwell Brownlee with the prestigious 2013 David C. Driskell Prize.

Brownlee is an Atlanta resident, art historian, curator and writer. She currently is the director of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, the only U.S. museum dedicated to visual art made by and about women of the African Diaspora. As the ninth Driskell Prize recipient, Brownlee will be honored at the Driskell Prize Dinner in Atlanta on April 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the High Museum of Art’s Wieland Pavilion.

Posted inSaba Long

Fulton County Republicans propose legislation to fix dysfunctional county

by Saba Long

“Fulton County is dysfunctional and overtaxed.” That sentiment has been the hook to a long song being sung by North Fulton Republicans for many years.

Three years ago, as a member of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, Lynn Riley sat in front of the county’s ethics board in response to a complaint by a few Democratic state representatives from the Fulton County Delegation. Her attorney during the case was State Representative Wendell Willard.

Now serving as the chairwoman of the Fulton County Delegation, Riley has cosponsored, with Willard and other North Fulton representatives, legislation that will enact sweeping, “burn the barn down” changes to the governmental structure of the state’s largest county and parallel legislation to allow for the re-creation of Milton County.

Posted inPublic Relations, Thought Leader

Maker’s Mark gets a lesson in brand identity

by SaportaReport

They can go without their favorite bourbon for a little while if they have to, but don’t you dare water it down. That’s the consensus from the recent debacle in which Maker’s Mark found itself. Parent company of the Kentucky bourbon, Beam Inc., announced last week that they were becoming so successful, experiencing tremendous growing […]

Posted inMichelle Hiskey

Amid loss, no tears from these Atlanta clowns

by Michelle Hiskey

February in Atlanta is circus month, and but not all the clowns are goofing under the Big Apple and Ringling Bros. big tops.

Far from the spotlight, for all but two weeks a year, a local troupe of clowns managed to practice their craft for tiny, tough audiences: some of the sickest kids in Georgia, even some who are dying. As clowns, they’ve kept their show going on this year even after sudden loss in their own ranks.

For the surviving members of the Big Apple Clown Care Unit, creating laughter in the face of heartbreak has transformed them far more than wearing a funny hat, a fake nose and makeup ever could.

Posted inTom Baxter

Chattanooga: Eating our lunch in liveability

Avatar photo by Tom Baxter

When Atlantans look around for other cities to compare theirs with, they think major league all the way. They measure their growth against Houston and Dallas. They travel to Denver and Seattle to find civic inspiration and worry that Charlotte and Nashville are gaining on them.

But as we contemplate the hotter, wetter future we discussed last week, we might be better off taking a look at Chattanooga.

Yes, Chattanooga. Seldom do we think of our neighbor across the Tennessee line as much of a competitor. When they built an aquarium, we just built a bigger one. But for nearly three decades, since a group of civic leaders got together in 1984 and committed themselves to doing something about Chattanooga’s image as the dirtiest city in America, and in the view of some the dullest, they have been eating our lunch on the playing field of liveability.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta City Council set to grill stadium advocates on why city should help finance it by extending hotel tax

by David Pendered

Advocates of a new football stadium are to get a chance Wednesday to try to convince members of the Atlanta City Council that the city should help build a new facility.

The work session, set for 11:30 a.m., will be the first real opportunity for councilmembers to engage the advocates. Councilmembers already have raised questions about how neighborhoods around the stadium could benefit from its construction and operation.

Without the council’s support, Atlanta’s development authority likely won’t be able to borrow enough money to help build the stadium. No funding source other than the city’s hotel/motel tax has been publicly identified to fill the gap between what the NFL and Falcons are willing to pay, and the actual cost of construction.

Posted inLatest News

Hyatt Regency Atlanta honors architect John Portman with a plaque

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

Architect John Portman designed a hotel that changed Atlanta’s skyline and catapulted the Hyatt hotel chain to a worldwide brand.

The Hyatt Regency Atlanta is now returning the favor. It has placed a plaque in honor of the Atlanta architect and developer in the lobby of the iconic 1967 hotel.

In celebration of Portman and the placement of the plaque, the Hyatt threw a surprise party on Feb. 13 for Portman and invited his family, friends and close associates who have seen a city grow up around the Hyatt Regency Atlanta.

Posted inMoments

Larry Gellerstedt’s Moment led to creation of one of nation’s most successful children’s hospitals

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By Chris Schroder

In 1995, Larry Gellerstedt III had a difficult choice to make. For nine years, he had been CEO of Beers Construction, a $1 billion firm his father had led before him. The firm had successfully served two long-standing clients that were also bitter rivals by dividing Beers’ healthcare division into two teams.

Things got awkward when the Egleston board asked Larry to follow his father onto its board even though he had led construction for its biggest rival. “I went to the chairman of the board and CEO at Scottish Rite and asked if this would be OK,” Larry said. “And they said no, it would not be OK – they wanted me to be on the Scottish Rite board.’”

Posted inMaria's Metro

Poverty in metro Atlanta’s suburbs growing faster than in the city

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

Metro Atlanta’s profile is changing with a dramatic growth of poverty in the suburbs.

Several recent studies point to reality challenging the perception that the poor are concentrated in the central city while the middle-income and higher-income populations are living in the suburbs.

“In Atlanta, since 2000, the number of poor people living in suburbs grew by 53 percent,” said Elizabeth Kneebone, a fellow with the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, who was in Atlanta presenting her findings. By comparison, the number of poor people living in the City of Atlanta grew by 24 percent.

Posted inGuest Column

Atlanta prepares for its future as it builds its first modern streetcar

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist LEON EPLAN, former commissioner of the City of Atlanta’s Department of Planning and Development

As work progresses on the Atlanta Streetcar, the city has aken a giant step towards confronting its current and future traffic problems.

Construction on the entire 2.6-mile loop will continue until the day the line is open for public travel, now scheduled for spring, 2014. By then, planning for additional lines will have already begun.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Hip hop star Future keeps Atlanta’s music industry in national spotlight

by David Pendered

Atlanta’s newest music ambassador is a hip hop artist from the Kirkwood neighborhood whose photo appeared this month on a section front of The New York Times.

At a time the region is receiving little in the way of good news coverage from media around the nation, the performer known as Future is keeping the city’s music industry in the national spotlight.

Future’s photo appeared this month in The New York Times with a 1,000-word story about Atlanta’s ever-changing hip hop scene. On March 2, Future will appear as a headline act in the 20th annual 9 Mile Music Festival, at Miami’s Virginia Key Beach – a beach where blacks could gather during the segregation era.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Plan for big changes at MARTA receives little push-back, except from union; ready for vote at Capitol

by David Pendered

The most significant proposal in decades to reform MARTA is sailing through the legislative process at the state Capitol and could be up for a vote in the House as early as next week.

So far, no serious objections to the proposal have been raised in public by MARTA or the three governments that control MARTA – Atlanta, and Fulton and DeKalb counties, though union has voiced concerns. The sponsor said the bill intends to help MARTA serve its current and future riders.

“I hope that the bill is received in the way it is intended – and that is to improve MARTA’S financial conditions so that we can, hopefully, see some future expansion of the system,” said Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Brookhaven), who chairs the MARTA oversight committee.

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

‘Side Effects’ – a movie well worth taking in despite side effects

Avatar photo by Eleanor Ringel Cater

We all know those commercials for the miracle pill that’ll cure what ails you.

Some actor is lying around barely able to pet the dog. Then a handful or so of pills later, he or she is up and about, tossing Frisbees on the beach, embracing everything good and healthy.

But as we vicariously enjoy life as a day at the beach, the narrator’s voice gets just a shade more business-like. What follows is an endless litany of potential side effects. Everything, it seems, from difficulty sleeping to your arm falling off.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: Campaign launched for Chastain Park playground

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, February 8, 2013

The Chastain Park Conservancy wants to create an extraordinary space for play.

The conservancy is undergoing a$2.5 million capital campaign to transform its current half-acre, nondescript playground into a 6-acre hillside with green space and a 3-acre active play area for all ages.

“It’s a pretty sad little playground right now,” said Jay Smith, vice chairman of the Conservancy who is leading the fundraising effort. “And it is the only playground in a city park within a five-mile radius. It needs to be replaced.”

Posted inDavid Pendered

GRTA quietly making case to state lawmakers to fund Xpress bus service

by David Pendered

GRTA is working diligently at the state Capitol to support funding for Xpress, the regional bus service that is in line to receive $8.7 million in state funding, if state lawmakers support budget requests by Gov. Nathan Deal.

GRTA, which manages the bus system, is making the case to help lawmakers see the value in state funding for a transit system that reportedly takes 1.5 million cars a year off metro Atlanta’s roads with its 2.4 million boardings in fiscal year 2012.

Jannine Miller, GRTA’s executive director, on Wednesday walked GRTA board members through the presentation the agency is delivering to lawmakers. The message is simple: Xpress represents a good fiscal policy for lawmakers to support.

Posted inLatest News

Kasim Reed: Building new stadium is right decision at right time for Atlanta

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

At his fourth annual State of the City Business Breakfast, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said building a new $1 billion stadium for the Atlanta Falcons is today’s defining decision for the city.

Reed introduced his challenge to city leaders by providing a list of defining decisions for Atlanta over the decades.

Mayor William Hartsfield made the right decision at the right time when he gave a favorable lease to Delta Air Lines.

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