Milton Little Jr. was working for a nonprofit education and social policy research organization in New York City in 1989, when his outreach to the disadvantaged suddenly got up close and personal.
“I felt I was doing a good job of giving back because of my profession,” he said in our accompanying video. “She decided she was going to crawl in my lap, she put her arms around me and kissed me on my cheek and told me to ‘keep reading.’”
For as long as I can remember – and I expect much longer than that – contracts for the purchase of residential real estate in Georgia have been written for 30 days as a normal practice. Today, we are seeing many real estate professionals writing extended contracts, for 45 to 60 days, and even longer […]
A few years ago, Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum hosted a fascinating exhibit based on the papyrus legal records of a family which lived in Egypt in the 5th Century BC.
As a testament to the lasting lessons such archaeological treasures can transmit, it came to mind last week when Barack Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to endorse same-sex marriage.
Whether by choice or chance, state and regional transportation officials have announced a slew of new projects in the four months leading up to the July 31 vote on the proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation.
The projects range from the regionally significant to locally symbolic – the Northwest Corridor tollway through Cobb and Cherokee counties, and the replacement of the scenic safety fence along the 17th Street Bridge in Midtown.
Two of the larger projects don’t have enough money for construction – the Northwest Corridor and MARTA’s expansion plan in DeKalb County.
However, taken as a whole, the announced projects illustrate the potential power of the government and private sector to reduce the region’s overall traffic congestion and maintain the roadway system. As individual tasks, each project offers the promise of reminding drivers, i.e., voters, how their commute can be improved by having even one of their problem areas addressed – as is promised by advocates for the transportation sales tax.
By Guest Columnist DANIEL BACKHAUS, chief marketing officee of Atlanta-based PodPonics
When it comes to food in America, we face a Dickensian dichotomy. Parts of our population enjoy abundance and an unprecedented variety of food choices, while others live in so-called food deserts with no easy access to fresh, wholesome food at all.
Atlanta. We used to stand for something.
When other cities in the South were being torn apart by hatred and racism, Atlanta emerged as a city of tolerance, pragmatism and good will.
The willingness of the community’s leaders to gracefully change from a segregated city to an integrated city helped give Atlanta an aura of progress and patience — a reputation that served it well as it grew from a small Southern town to a metropolis.
A primo example of the variety-pack approach to summer block-busters, “The Avengers” lumps together a half-dozen super-heroes, in much the same way cereal companies stack grocery shelves with snack-packs of Sugar Pops, Special K, Cheerios, Coco Puffs, Raisin Bran and Fruit Loops.
By Maria Saporta
An international leader in socially-responsible capitalism — Muhammad Yunus — would love to forge a closer partnership with Atlanta.
Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner who has become a global leader in microcredit lending, was in Atlanta Friday to receive the Phoenix Award from Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed — the highest honor given by the city to individuals for their outstanding contributions.
“This is really a special occasion for me and Atlanta,” Reed said during a briefing in his office. “I’m going to be watching how other cities are following your lead. We are looking for opportunities to provide microcredit (in Atlanta).”
By Maria Saporta
Former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn is disappointed that U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) overwhelmingly lost re-election on Tuesday.
“I feel like I’ve lost my last name,” Nunn said jokingly, referring the important piece of legislation they had co-written in 1992 — the Nunn-Lugar Comprehensive Threat Reduction program.
“He’s a great guy,” Nunn said of Lugar. “He did a wonderful job for his state and for the country. He will be dearly missed. The Senate will be diminished, but the outside world will benefit with him being a part of it.”
Sandy Springs has moved into the public comment phase of a redevelopment study of the Roswell Road corridor that has an interesting objective: Success.
Mayor Eva Galambos rattles off from memory two previous efforts that came to naught, the first of them in 1967. That was 38 years before the community incorporated, and occurred at a time when Sandy Springs wanted to become the retail district that instead went in 1971 to Perimeter Mall. A second study in 2002 fizzled out.
“In neither instance did we know the property owners, and in neither case did we have economic realities as part of the plan,” Galambos said Thursday. “I don’t want anymore plans that are pie-in-the-sky and not realistic.”
By Maria Saporta
The saga to save the Crum & Forster building continues.
The Georgia Tech Foundation made a presentation Wednesday afternoon before the Atlanta Urban Design Commission saying it was not economically feasible to restore the entire building.
Instead, Georgia Tech is proposing keeping only the front third of the historic building so it can build a major development on the balance of the block bordered by Spring Street, Armstead Place, West Peachtree Street and Fourth Street.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, May 4, 2012
Georgia Power Co. President Paul Bowers is emerging as the state’s business champion for educational improvement.
By Maria Saporta
This just in.
The Captain Planet Foundation has named Leesa Carter as its new executive director.
Carter has been executive director of the Georgia Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, will take over the organization “dedicated to high quality programs that empower youth to become global environmental change-makers,” according to a news release.
MARTA’s board of directors hopes that no across-the-board fare hikes or service reductions will be required to balance its budget for its next fiscal year, the executive director of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority told her board Wednesday.
If MARTA’s board can stick to that plan, the only fare hikes that will go into effect this year, on Oct. 7, would be in three areas already slated for increases: Half-fares, up a nickle; One-way mobility pass, up 20 cents; Mobility pass, up $6. Those hikes were approved in 2010 as part of a three-year phased package.
MARTA has scheduled four public hearings on its proposed budget: Two on May 15 (Sandy Springs and Decatur); and two on May 17 (Atlanta City Hall, College Park).
(Michelle is on vacation, so this column is a hold-over from last week)
Rochelle Bozman wasn’t a traditional mom, or traditional single mom. But she knew she didn’t need to be.
Ten years ago, Bozman sought to adopt a kid who was hard to place. She prepared a room for an African-American boy aged 7 to 10. But a social worker called one day asking if she could come to Grady Memorial Hospital right away to pick up a newborn.
Before she lost her struggle with ovarian cancer, Bozman raised her son with a singular toughness, and in the end arranged a new family for him.
In the third of this five-part video series, Paula Vaughan, Co-Director Sustainability for Perkins+Will, showcases some of the sustainable features of the new Perkins+Will office in Atlanta. This office, located at 1315 Peachtree Street, recently received LEED Platinum status with a score of 95. It is the current record holder for a LEED Platinum project […]
Indulge me.
My son, David Luse, graduated from Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville on Saturday — an occasion that gave me an opportunity to reflect on the passage of time — both in our personal life as well as the in the evolution of our state.
For those of you who do not know the beauty and gentility that exists in historic Milledgeville — do yourself a favor. The county seat of Baldwin County was Georgia’s first state capitol, and the town is full of treasures that predate Gen. William Sherman’s march through Georgia.
The Atlanta BeltLine is in the final phase of choosing advisors to create plans to implement the BeltLine vision and to win support from state and federal officials.
The BeltLine is seeking two separate teams. One team is to devise a strategic plan that will guide the project’s development over the coming two decades. The other team will devise and execute a government affairs plan that is to include legislative and policy goals at the state and federal levels.
Teams are to be chosen and at work by early July, though consultants who want to be considered still have time to apply. The hiring of consultants to create a formal plan for funding and development is a milestone in the tenure of Brian Leary, president and CEO of Atlanta BeltLine, Inc.
Hope Arbery was a young successful real estate attorney when she was assigned a case for which law school did not prepare her: how to balance the demands of a growing practice with her developing desire to stay home raising two young boys.
Deliberating the issue while at home on an extended break from the firm, Hope’s Moment occurred when her next door neighbor called.
At about the same time the U.S. Supreme Court was hearing arguments in the Justice Department’s challenge to the Arizona immigration law last month, there were a couple of developments which paint a much different vision of the future than might be guessed by Americans on either side of the immigration issue.
A few days before the much-publicized hearing, Audi announced it has selected Mexico as the site for its new SUV manufacturing plant, spurning several U.S. suitors, including Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. This follows recent decisions by Honda, Mazda and Nissan to build or expand on plants in Mexico, which is projected to increase its auto manufacturing by over 40% by 2015.
This news adds context to the second development, a report by the Pew Hispanic Center that net migration from Mexico to the United States, legal and illegal, has slowed to a halt and may even be moving slightly in the other direction.
