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Posted inLatest News

AGL Resources names Bryan Batson as president of Atlanta Gas Light

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By Maria Saporta

Atlanta Gas Light has new president — Bryan Batson — who has been serving as AGL Resource’s senior vice president of commercial operations.

Batson is succeeding Steve Lindsey, who is leaving the company to join the St. Louis-based Laclede Group. Interestingly enough, Lindsey became president of Atlanta Gas Light last December after his predecessor, Suzanne Sitherwood, left to become Laclede’s president. She was named Laclede’s CEO earlier this year.

In addition to serving as president of Atlanta Gas Light, Batson also will serve as president of Chattanooga Gas and Florida City Gas as well as vice president of Southern Operations for AGL Resources.

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

“The Master” — a film of misplaced faith with miscast Joaquin Phoenix

Avatar photo by Eleanor Ringel Cater

In the title role of “The Master,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, Philip Seymour Hoffman is part Elmer Gantry, part Elmer Fudd.

Bruited just about everywhere as a look at the ugly underbelly of Scientology (as opposed to the overbelly…? Or maybe belly just comes to mind because Hoffman shows off a primo paunch), “The Master” culminates in an utterly confounding manner.

But the more I think about it, the more I believe “The Master” is as simple as faith. Misplaced faith, in this case, but still rock-solid simple.

Posted inLatest News

Neighborhood leaders from 23 counties will meet at Saturday summit

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By Maria Saporta

The fourth annual Neighborhood Summit will have representatives from all 23 counties when about 400 metro residents will convene Saturday morning, Sept. 22 at the Loudermilk Center in downtown Atlanta.

The summit, which is being put on by the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, is themed: “Information: the Power to Transform Communities.” Participants will attend workshops on how to harness the power of information, including data, stories, maps and knowledge to better understand and transform their communities.

Posted inMichelle Hiskey

Of dogs, loyalty and Chipper Jones

by Michelle Hiskey

Diezel is 9, which in dog years is 63, but the Boston terrier didn’t look or act his age Sunday night at Turner Field.

He was rocking a red and blue fur mohawk during the divine canine evening known as Bark in the Park, when dogs take over the nosebleed seats.

At this point in this season, this night was really loyalty – pure and bittersweet. This month will mark the farewell of third baseman Chipper Jones, after a Braves career that began with the 1990 amateur draft.

Chipper is that blue-moon pro athlete who performs so well for so long in the same place. Our dogs don’t stay with us very long, either.

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

Innovative School Designs Support 21st Century Learning

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In this second of a series on K-12 design, Barbara Crum, Principal and Market Sector Leader for K-12 at Perkins+Will, discusses the concept of project-based learning and how it was incorporated into the design of Coahulla Creek High School in Dalton, Georgia. Most of us went to high schools with the same design: long corridors […]

Posted inSaba Long

Atlanta citizens are key to making and keeping our communities safe

by Saba Long

Just as they turned the corner of Peachtree and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, a group of downtown neighbors noticed someone rummaging through one of a pair of planters flanking the entrance to their loft building. After chasing the young man away, one of the residents discovered the booty — a bag of oxycontin pills – that was in the adjacent, undisturbed planter.

Coincidentally, as they chatted about the discovery, a police cruiser stopped at the red light outside the building. The gentleman who found the bag approached the officer and motioned for his attention. The brief exchange ended as the seemingly unconcerned officer shrugged and drove off as the light turned green, leaving at least $300 worth of narcotics on the street.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Walmart in Buckhead: Atlanta City Council votes to continue negotiations with developer

by David Pendered

The Atlanta City Council voted Monday to defer its decision on a proposed Walmart in Buckhead that is to anchor a big retail/residential development.

The council sent the matter back to committee to continue negotiations with the developer. The vote is a defeat for the city’s planning department, which recommended approval, and a victory for Buckhead residents who oppose the project as it’s currently designed.

The council’s vote means the end isn’t in sight for a debate that, at some level, pits the city’s master development plan against job creation – in this case, 600 permanent jobs and 300 temporary construction jobs, according to the developer.

Posted inPublic Relations, Thought Leader, Uncategorized

Inside Atlanta PR – Profiling the Profiler

by SaportaReport

Profiling the profiler: Inside Atlanta PR columnist Chris Schroder is quizzed by last week’s interview subject, Betsey Weltner Betsey: Chris, thank you for letting me turn the tables on you. Like all of the public relations practitioners featured in your column in the SaportaReport, you have an interesting career story as well as many interests […]

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Mike Luckovich learned lessons about the power of the cartoonist’s pen at an early age

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By Chris Schroder

Ruffling feathers with a cartoon isn’t unfamiliar territory for Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial cartoonist, Mike Luckovich, but his approach to his cartoons was permanently defined by a high school Moment. Luckovich was a sophomore in high school at Sheldon High School in Eugene, Oregon and had just begun drawing cartoons for the school newspaper.

He joked, “In high school, believe it or not, I was not a very big guy” and described how the rest of his peers towered over him – even the Sheldon High School cheerleaders. “So I did this cartoon – I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said.

The cartoon depicted a freak museum with a billboard marquis that read: “Freak Museum: featuring Snerdily the boy with three nostrils, Melvin the deformed hippo and main attraction: The Sheldon Cheerleaders.”

Posted inMaria's Metro

GeorgiaForward making strides to unify the state with a common vision

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

Consider all the many ways Georgia can be carved up.

We have 159 counties and as many as 500 cities and towns.

We have got metro Atlanta, 13 other significant metro areas and the rural parts of the state.

We have the two Georgias — metro Atlanta and the rest of the state.

We have 12 metro planning districts (think TSPLOST).

But it takes a special skill to figure how we can be one Georgia.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Imbroglio in Buckhead: Fate of proposed Walmart, 600 jobs, about 250 apartments on the block Monday

by David Pendered

The Atlanta City Council is slated to vote Monday on a double-edged development proposal that would be a no-brainer in just about any other neighborhood in the city.

On one hand, many Buckhead residents wish that just about anything but a Walmart were in the works for a site along Piedmont Road. On the other hand, Atlanta desperately needs the expected taxes from the improved property and retail sales, not to mention 300 temporary construction jobs and 600 permanent jobs when the retail center opens.

Atlanta Councilwoman Joyce Sheperd summed up her impasse this way: “I’m caught on both sides of this. We can sit here and say, ‘Boo for Walmart!’, [but] 600 permanent jobs. Six hundred permanent jobs. And on a MARTA train where people can ride MARTA and get to the jobs. … This whole Walmart thing is a dilemma across the country.”

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed plans post-TSPLOST path forward

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

The regional transportation sales tax would have won had the vote been held on Nov. 6, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said a wide-ranging interview about the failed referendum and where the region and city should go from here.

Other points Reed made in the Sept. 10 interview included:

The campaign should have targeted early and absentee voters instead of focusing on the July 31 primary election.

Posted inGuest Column

United Way invites all of us in the region to make Atlanta GREATER

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist MILTON J. LITTLE JR., president of United Way of Greater Atlanta

Metro Atlanta is a place filled with hopes and aspirations, dreams and good intentions. In each of us lies a depth of compassion that shines through even in the most difficult times. In each of us is a desire to share bread when the loaf is nearly gone — spare a nickel when a dime is all we have left.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

Posted inTom Baxter

A lot more talk about ethics, but real ethics enforcement? Not so much

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Ethics, a subject long unattended in Georgia, is suddenly all the buzz.

The idea of a total gift ban on lobbyists, once dismissed by the legislative brass as unnecessary, is now on the front burner, with an endorsement by House Speaker David Ralston and a bill expected to pop early in the upcoming session.

Senate Rules Chairman Don Balfour, who appeared last month to be getting off with a $5,000 handslap for filing inaccurate travel expense reports, is now said to be the subject of a GBI criminal investigation.
Lots of talk about it, everywhere you turn. But without someone to lead the charge, all the buzz comes to little.

Posted inLatest News

MARTA search for new general manager down to two finalists

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By Maria Saporta

Update: MARTA’s board of directors announced its two finalists this afternoon. The press release is at the bottom of this story.

Any day now, MARTA is expected to publicly announce its two finalists for general manager. Beverly Scott, who has been general manager for the past five years, is leaving at the end of the year.

The two finalists are thought to be: Keith Parker, president and CEO of VIA Metropolitan Transit in San Antonio; and Stephen Bland, CEO of the Port Authority of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh.

Posted inDavid Pendered

ARC plans to refine its purpose, set goals for 2013 before year end

by David Pendered

This story has been updated with additional information about ARC’s staff lobbyists.

Whither now, Atlanta Regional Commission?

That is the conversation that began Thursday, when ARC’s board met to start figuring out what’s next for the 10-county coordinating agency, whose heritage dates to 1947.

Two things appear to be certain: There’s not a consensus for jumping back into the fray over transportation; and there is a consensus for doing something to preserve ARC’s relevance by improving relations with Gov. Nathan Deal and the state Legislature.

In addition, no objections were raised during a general discussion of ARC increasing its role in areas cited by ARC Chairman Tad Leithead: Aging, arts, education, criminal justice, economic development.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: Atlanta’s United Way aims for a greater good with new name

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By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, September 7, 2012

For metro Atlanta’s United Way, it’s a new day with a new name, a new theme and an ambitious new campaign goal.

The umbrella social and human services charitable organization is changing its name from the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta to the United Way of Greater Atlanta.

Posted inLatest News

GeorgiaForward: how Columbus region passed transportation tax

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By Maria Saporta

Athens — The third annual GeorgiaForward forum provided a spotlight on what victory looks like.

Three of the 12 regions in Georgia voted to pass a regional transportation sales tax during the primary vote on July 31.

One of those regions was the River Valley District — also known as the Greater Columbus region. In fact, voters in the Columbus region passed the tax with the highest margin of the three — 54.3 percent in favor versus 45.7 percent against.

Posted inDavid Pendered

GRTA questions new development regs; Projects in Buckhead, Sandy Springs come under new rules

by David Pendered

A new era of “streamlined” development regulation has taken effect in metro Atlanta and throughout Georgia, meaning that big proposed projects are able to move more quickly through government review and into construction.

The new rules roll out as official proposals for three big, residential/commercial projects have been submitted since July. Each of them – two in Buckhead and one in Sandy Springs (inside I-285) – is politically sensitive because each is a high impact project that has the potential to create jobs and tax revenues.

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