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Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta audit: Water rates, now highest in U.S., can remain unchanged for four years

by David Pendered

An internal city audit of rates charged for Atlanta’s water and sewer services presents findings that show Mayor Kasim Reed should be able to fulfill his vow to not seek a rate hike before 2016.

The audit also confirms the widely held opinion that Atlanta has the highest water and sewer rates in the country.

The findings comprised the first of two pieces of good news for consumers. A federal court last week approved a 13-year extension of the city’s timeline to complete required upgrades to the sewer system. The approval of the extension, to 2027, was forecast in a May 31 press release from the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: National Philanthropy Day to honor exceptional Atlanta women

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By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, September 14, 2012

Women will take center stage at this year’s National Philanthropy Day Awards luncheon at the Georgia Aquarium on Thursday, Oct. 25.

Bobbie Bailey is being honored as the 2012 Philanthropist of the Year; Lovette Twyman Russell as the 2012 Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year; and LeighAnn Costley as the 2012 Philanthropic Leader of Tomorrow.

Posted inLatest News

It’s official: MARTA’s Beverly Scott will head Boston’s MBTA system

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By Maria Saporta

MARTA’s Beverly Scott has been chosen as the new general manager of Boston’s MBTA, according to the State House News Service on the website of WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation board voted unanimously to hire Scott following public interviews with Scott and her fellow finalist, Dwight Ferrell, MARTA’s COO. Ferrell had been a finalist to succeed Scott as MARTA’s general manager, but he did not make the cut to the final two candidates.

Scott will begin her job running one of the top five transit systems in the country on Dec. 15, almost the exact date of when her five-year contract with MARTA runs out. According to WBUR, Scott will earn $220,000 a year under a three-year contract.

Posted inDesign, Design and Our City, Thought Leader, Thought Leadership, Uncategorized

New Learning Environment Geared Towards Success in Workplace

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In this last column in a series on K-12 design, Barbara Crum, Principal and Market Sector Leader for K-12 at Perkins+Will, discusses a new type of learning environment that mirrors a traditional work place. The Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) in Overland Park, Kansas, provides high school juniors and seniors with unique educational programs […]

Posted inMaria's Metro

Let’s make Atlanta as beautiful as it can be — so advise five legacy architects who helped build our city

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Five “legacy” Atlanta architects came together on Sept. 21 and agreed that our city could be more beautiful.

The panel discussion, titled: Reflections — Atlanta Legacy Architects, was part of the AIA South Atlantic Region Conference that took place at Midtown’s Loew’s Atlanta hotel. It was a fitting location for five men to reflect on the evolution of Atlanta’s architectural heritage.

Tom Ventulett, chairman of the TVS (Thompson, Ventulett, Stainbeck & Associates) architectural firm, championed the message that Atlanta could and should be more beautiful.

Posted inDavid Pendered

MARTA seeks to hire federal lobbyist as furor over its use of consultants has subsided at state Capitol

by David Pendered

MARTA is seeking to hire lobbyists to help it win federal transportation funding from Congress.

Terms of the contract estimate the cost at $750,000 for a two-year base, with options for three one-year renewals. The board that oversees MARTA voted to issue a request for proposals from companies interested in the work.

MARTA hasn’t been in hot water over its lobbying contracts in two years, not since the former head of the Legislature’s MARTA oversight committee, former state Rep. Jill Chambers, lost her bid for reelection to the House.

Posted inTom Baxter

Alabama vote reflects national concerns about social safety net

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With all the exciting politics going on these days, it’s small wonder that a vote last week on a referendum to change the Alabama Constitution received scant attention outside our neighboring state. But obscure votes like this one can sometimes tell us more about the changing political winds than polls or headlines.

To put this in a national context, we should note that Alabama lies in the heartland of Mitt Romney’s 47 percent – certainly not the 47 percent that will always vote for Barack Obama, but the 47 percent that doesn’t pay federal income taxes. It ranks fifth in the country in non-payers, and sits between Mississippi and Georgia, the states which rank first and second in this category.

Posted inSaba Long

Reducing U.S. dependency on foreign oil is vital to our national security

by Saba Long

As we move into the final weeks of the presidential campaign, $1.84 is a figure we’ll likely hear during the debates. This was the price per gallon of gas just days after President Barack Obama’s inauguration. This number has doubled in just under four years with no real expectation for a significant reduction in the price of oil.

Renewable energy sources provide for roughly 10 percent of American consumption, with 35 percent being provided by oil and the remainder coming from natural gas, coal and nuclear energy. Presently, the Department of Defense uses 22 gallons of petroleum daily per soldier in combat. It costs the Department of Defense — and ultimately taxpayers — $1.4 billion annually for each $10 increase in the cost of a barrel of oil, notes Phyllis Cuttino, director of the Pew Project on National Security, Energy and Climate.

Posted inLatest News

National Institutes of Health $8.3 million grant will make Atlanta a new Autism Research Center of Excellence

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By Maria Saporta

An Atlanta-based coalition of institutions will receive a grant of $8.3 million from the National Institutes of Health — creating a new Autism Research Center of Excellence, only one of three in the country.

Gov. Nathan Deal will announce the “transformational grant” on Thursday, Sept. 27 at 10:30 a.m. in the north wing of the Georgia State Capitol.

The grant only reinforces the work that is underway on autism research and treatment through an Atlanta coalition that includes the Marcus Autism Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University’s School of Medicine and the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Larrie Del Martin’s Moment led to renovating intown homes and building Atlanta’s Habitat for Humanity

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By Chris Schroder

President and CEO of Atlanta Habitat, Larrie Del Martin, had her Moment in 1972 when she and her husband Joe decided to live in and contribute to what was then a struggling intown neighborhood for the sake of community rather than an easier lifestyle.

At the time Larrie Del and her husband were making this decision, intown Atlanta was struggling. A desegregation lawsuit was negatively affecting the schools, and the Georgia Department of Transportation was bulldozing houses and trees in Inman Park and Virginia-Highland to build Interstate 485 towards Stone Mountain. Families were fleeing and property values were sinking.

“We purposefully decided, ‘this is where we want to be, this is going to be our downtown community and we are going to make a difference,” she said. “That was who we were – we didn’t ever take the easy road. We didn’t know how hard it would be, but it was the right thing.”

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

‘Trouble with the Curve’ — Clint Eastwood throws late career curveball

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Clint Eastwood’s “Trouble With the Curve” has nothing to do with his recent Trouble with the Chair.

Except, I guess, that he’s in full Crusty Old Coot mode in both — sort of Dirty Harry as played by Walter Brennan.

This is full-press “Gran Torino” territory, with the modified Clint squint and lip-curl. As Gus, an aging scout for the Atlanta Braves, he doesn’t want to face up to his failing eyesight and aching bones. But an old pal (John Goodman) in management knows that Gus just isn’t up to snuff anymore. Rather than force him to retire, he convinces Gus’s reluctant daughter, Mickey (Amy Adams), to go on the road with him.

Posted inLatest News

Annie Hunt Burriss leaving Georgia for Virginia’s George Mason University

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By Maria Saporta

Long-time Georgia economic development leader Annie Hunt Burriss is leaving the state to become CEO for George Mason University’s Prince William campus — an institution with about 4,000 students on a 134-acre campus about 30 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.

Most recently, Burriss has been director of economic development for the Georgia Health Sciences University, where she has worked since 2007.

“I never dreamed I would be leaving Georgia,” Burriss said. “I’m an 8th generation Georgian.”

Posted inMichelle Hiskey

With service in their marrow, metro teacher gets transplant from British student

by Michelle Hiskey

“Everything is hard the first time,” Asa Valente tells her fourth graders at Berkeley Lake Elementary in Duluth. “Don’t get discouraged. Hold yourself up and keep trying.”

The lives she touches there were in the balance as Valente battled acute lymphoblastic leukemia. To stay in the classroom as a vibrant, inspired teacher, Valente needed a stem cell transplant. This forced her to live out what she had been teaching her students, and put her lin the path of a stranger 4,200 miles away who was using education to help people survive.

A few days before Valente and her stem cell donor met in Atlanta, national TV anchor (and former Atlantan) Robin Roberts highlighted stem cell transplants by receiving one from her sister.

Posted inGuest Column

Georgia students must be better prepared for global competition

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist PAUL BOWERS, CEO of Georgia Power and board chair of the /Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education

We at the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education are celebrating our 20th Anniversary.

As chairman of the board, I feel it is important to take this time and not only reflect on our past and how we started, but to also think about our future: the future of the Partnership, the future of our educational system, and the future of our state’s economic health and well-being.

There is a lot riding on what we have done in the past, what we do today, and how well we prepare for tomorrow.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Have an app for that? Make certain Atlanta has enough air waves to serve mobile wireless users, group says

by David Pendered

Everyone in metro Atlanta who has eyes on the new iPhone 5 has grand expectations that it will improve their lives, or at least be a lot of fun.

The only problem is that, eventually, there won’t be enough capacity to transmit all that data through the air waves. Everyone already knows what happens when the mobile spectrum is overloaded – slow Internet service and bumped calls.

The issue is critical to a surprisingly diverse group of people. These groups include those who use mobile devices, and those who write the apps – applications – that make money for inventors or are given away to serve a some purpose.

Posted inLatest News

Neighborhood Summit gives 400 folks tools to improve their communities

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By Maria Saporta

Community empowerment was the theme at the fourth annual Neighborhood Summit held Saturday at the Loudermilk Center.

More than 400 people from 23 metro counties came to learn about how they could effect change within their communities by accessing new web-based tools that now are bringing sophisticated information to help them better understand their neighborhoods.

“This is my favorite day of the year,” proclaimed Alicia Philipp, president of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, which put together the event. “This is what community is all about.”

Posted inLatest News

MARTA’s CEO, COO are the two finalists for top transit job in Boston

by David Pendered

By David Pendered

MARTA’s CEO and another MARTA executive are the two finalists for the top transit job in Boston, according to media reports in Boston.

MARTA’s CEO Beverly Scott and COO Dwight Ferrell are the two finalists to head the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, according to the Massachusetts State House News Service – which quoted the secretary/CEO of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

MBTA is the nation’s fifth largest transit system. MARTA is the ninth largest, according to published reports. Both systems are struggling to maintain their facilities and services at a time of dwindling financial resources.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Fresh from remarks at RNC, state AG Sam Olens to speak in Atlanta on impact of federal health care law

by David Pendered

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens is slated to address business leaders in Atlanta next week on the future of health care and how it affects the business community.

Olens has been on a hot streak of late, having addressed the Republican National Convention on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the health care law. Olens’ fiery remarks were deemed “mostly true” by ajc.com, which conducted a fact-check shortly after Olens’ presentation with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Olens, who is the state’s highest elected official to back Mitt Romney’s bid for president, will share a podium Sept. 25 with other national figures in a panel titled: “The Future of Health Care and Impact on Your Business.” The Georgia Chamber of Commerce is hosting the forum.

Posted inLatest News

Retired BellSouth executive Frank Skinner honored at Turknett Leadership Awards luncheon

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By Maria Saporta

At its 9th annual luncheon, for the first time ever, the Turknett Leadership Character Awards gave a “Lifetime Achievement Award” — an honor awarded to the deserving Frank Skinner, a long-time leader and a retired CEO of BellSouth Telecommunications.

The awards were held today at the Georgia Aquarium at an event put on by the Turknett Leadership Group, a talent management firm based in Atlanta. The company has been presenting leadership awards since 2003.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta Hawks Foundation grant to provide ray of hope for young players in a tough intown neighborhood

by David Pendered

In some Atlanta neighborhoods, a $50,000 grant to fix some basketball courts isn’t that big a deal.

This isn’t one of those neighborhoods.

The corridor along a road called Boulevard, which passes Atlanta Medical Center just east of Downtown, is a rare place in Atlanta. It is a community of severe poverty surrounded by neighborhoods of comfortable homes. Boulevard is a place where the grant from the Atlanta Hawks Foundation that’s to be announced Wednesday is expected to make a big difference in the lives of its young men and women.

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