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Georgia Rep. Stephanie Benfield to become GreenLaw’s executive director

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By Maria Saporta

The environmentally-focused law firm — GreenLaw — has hired a new executive director.

Stephanie Stuckey Benfield, a DeKalb representative of Georgia General Assembly since 1999, will become GreenLaw’s executive on April 9.

The news was announced in an email to GreenLaw’s friends Wednesday by Greg Presmanes, who is chairman of GreenLaw’s board.

“I am so excited that Stephanie will be leading our team forward into its third decade of giving Georgia’s environment its day in court,” Presmanes said.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: CEO Polk puts new mark on Newell Rubbermaid

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, February 17, 2012

Michael Polk has been president and CEO of Newell Rubbermaid Inc. only since July, but already he is putting his mark on the Atlanta-based company.

Newell Rubbermaid invited up to 250 of its top executives from around the world for its annual convention to Atlanta during the week of Feb. 13 to Feb. 16. But instead of going to a golf resort, Polk decided to spend their first “team-building” day volunteering at the Carrie Steele-Pitts Home for abused and abandoned children.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Future of Gwinnett County’s airport an issue for Gwinnett to resolve, GDOT official says

by David Pendered

The proposed privatization of Gwinnett County’s airport is a local matter in which the state won’t intervene, according to the state official who oversees aviation for the state Department of Transportation.

Gwinnett residents and leaders have wrestled for years with the question of what to do with Briscoe Field, located along Ga. 316 about two miles northeast of Lawrenceville. At the heart of the issue is a debate over whether to allow commercial passenger service – and the impact that would have on neighborhoods near the airport.

Speaking Tuesday to the Rotary Club of Gwinnett County, Carol Comer said the state has no role in deciding or recommending the future of the airport. Comer directs GDOT’s Intermodal Division, which oversees systems including aviation, transit, rail, ports and waterways.

Posted inLatest News

Veronica Biggins inducted into Atlanta Business League’s Women Hall of Fame

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By Maria Saporta

One of Atlanta’s grand dames — Veronica Biggins — was inducted Tuesday morning into the Atlanta Business League’s Women of Vision Hall of Fame.

The Women of Vision breakfast honored 100 African-American women from Atlanta, but it Biggins who received the top award for her decades of involvement in local business community.

Biggins described her career as having had three different chapters.

Posted inDavid Pendered

GDOT report: Transportation sales tax won’t begin to fix state’s freight systems

by David Pendered

It turns out that more than $18 billion really doesn’t go as far as it used to.

That’s the amount to be raised within the next decade if voters in July approve the 1 percent sales tax for transportation in each of Georgia’s 12 special tax districts. Even that amount didn’t provide for the majority of road, transit and airport projects initially proposed.

Nor does the sum begin to make a dent in the $18 billion to $20 billion list of upgrades that must be made to the state’s freight handling systems – its highways, railroads, Savannah seaport and airports in Atlanta and Albany, according to a new report from the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 1

Evelyn Wynn-Dixon’s Moment was a vision others had for a life she’s living

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As I watch Dr. Evelyn Wynn-Dixon glide into her stride, telling her life story, I try to brush away a nagging premonition that we might soon see her firing up a Monday night crowd at a national political convention – but then again, other people’s premonitions is how she ended up in the mayor’s chair of Riverdale, Georgia.

Evelyn was driven to find a way out of her situation for both her and her children and serves now as an inspiration to her seven grandchildren and others who meet her.

Posted inTom Baxter

Logic of GOP campaign shorts Georgia voters

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Under the rules which award states for recent Republican performance, Michigan, which holds its Republican presidential primary on Feb. 28, will seat 30 delegates when the GOP holds its national convention in Tampa this August, fewer than Alabama or Mississippi. Arizona, which votes the same day, will seat 29.

The following week, Georgia, with 76 delegates, is the biggest prize on the Super Tuesday, when 10 states with a combined 437 delegates make their choices.

Based solely on the numbers, one might think this would put Georgia in the national political spotlight. Instead, Georgia Republicans who’ve seen their kindred in other states whoop and holler through a score of debates, will have nothing more exciting to watch Monday night than Colbert’s return. The next televised debate will be Wednesday in Arizona, and Michigan appears to be getting the lion’s share of Super PAC ads.

Posted inMichelle Hiskey

Jimmy Carter, Jason Carter inspired by matriarchs and family values

by Michelle Hiskey

The two men, connected by a last name and DNA, separated by two generations and different dreams, together reflected on the forces that have driven their family.

Driven Jimmy Carter past national vilification for his presidential failures, driven him into the humanitarian work that has changed the world, and driven his grandson to appreciate the example set by the older generations – especially the women behind the men.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Atlanta seeks voter support to continue investing in its water and sewer infrastructure

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Residents of the City of Atlanta soon will be asked to pass a penny sales tax to improve the its infrastructure.

Unlike the publicity surrounding the regional transportation sales tax referendum to be held in July, a referendum to continue investing in the city’s water and sewer infrastructure only now is getting limited attention — and the vote is only days away — on March 6.

But don’t interpret the low-key campaign effort as a lack of enthusiasm for MOST — the Municipal Option Sales Tax.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Ga. 400 right-of-way to become linear park through Buckhead, following city approval

by David Pendered

The effort to provide more green space in Buckhead received a lift Monday from the Atlanta City Council.

The idea is to establish a linear park in the right-of-way beneath and alongside the actual freeway corridor of Ga. 400, from North Buckhead to near MARTA’s Lindbergh Station. This planned trail is to be linked at some time in the future with other green space that backers hope to assemble with help from a host of public/private partners in Buckhead.

It’s all part of an effort that kicked off in October 2010 to provide more public space in park-starved Buckhead. The Buckhead area has the fewest acres of parkland of the 12 city council districts, according to a recent study.

Posted inGuest Column

Transportation referendum a defining moment for Atlanta

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist BRUCE GUNTER, president of Progressive Redevelopment Inc.

It is no hyperbole to state that the upcoming transportation referendum in July this year is a momentous opportunity for Atlantans.

It is on par, as many have suggested, with the 1996 Olympics that thrust Atlanta into the ranks of global cities or the expansion of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport that had such a high economic impact and spawned valuable global connections.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Delta’s Richard Anderson reflects on airline’s route ahead

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, February 17, 2012

If Richard Anderson is worried about Southwest Airlines entering the Atlanta market, he doesn’t show it.

Anderson, CEO of Delta Air Lines Inc., sat down for an extensive conversation with Atlanta Business Chronicle two days before Southwest’s inaugural Feb. 12 flight into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Posted inLatest News

Metro Atlanta Chamber focused on passing regional transportation sales tax

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By Maria Saporta

The executive committee meeting of the Metro Atlanta Chamber turned into a pep rally to pass the regional one-cent sales tax Thursday morning.

Several of the business executives who have been raising money for the transportation sales tax campaign attended the meeting and urged executive committee members to put a full-court press to get it passed on July 31.

Tom Bell, a past chairman of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, explained that about 350,000 and 400,000 people are expected to vote on the July 31 primary.

“We need to identify 250,000 people who will come out and vote,” Bell said. “We have the capability of doing that.”

Posted inLatest News

Water conservation taking hold among Georgia voters

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By Maria Saporta

Georgia voters are strong believers in water conservation.

That’s the overwhelming sentiment according to a recent survey by the polling firm — The Schapiro Group — which was released today.

Nearly three our of every four Georgians (73 percent) believe that it is very important for people to take steps to conserve water in their homes while another 25 percent think it is somewhat important to take these actions.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: Sheffield Hale to become CEO of the Atlanta History Center

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, February 10, 2012

The Atlanta History Center has selected history buff Sheffield Hale as its new president and CEO.

Hale is no stranger to the center. He has been volunteering at the Atlanta History Center for more than 25 years. He has served as chairman of the museum’s board. And most recently, he has been co-chairing its $27 million capital campaign.

Posted inLatest News

Georgia’s best growth opportunities can be found overseas and at home

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By Maria Saporta

Georgia has some catching up to do to re-energize its economy.

Several efforts have been underway to do just that — such as Gov. Nathan Deal’s Competitiveness Initiative and the Metro Atlanta Chamber’s New Economy efforts.

Georgia Forward, a coalition of business, civic and government leaders, also has been shining the spotlight on what the state needs to do to adapt to tomorrow’s economy.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Feds may cut transit funds, several other perils face transportation sales tax vote

by David Pendered

Challenges continue to mount for the proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation, which is up for a vote in exactly 24 weeks.

In Congress, a new debate is starting over a transportation funding bill described by its Republican sponsors as the most sweeping reform plan since 1956. It could reduce the amount of federal money available to help pay for projects on metro Atlanta’s $6.14 billion list.

At the state Capitol, pending legislation could delay a sales tax referendum for at least two years. Even then, a sales tax vote could be called only if Georgia voters first agree to amend the state Constitution.

At the grassroots level, the campaign that’s to urge voters in metro Atlanta to approve the sales tax is still taking shape. The original campaign budget of $6 million to $8 million evidently has been revised. A spokeswoman said Monday the team is not ready to reveal its fundraising goal or how much money has been raised.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Ebenezer helps bring back a business ministry and mission to historic Auburn Avenue

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The inscription couldn’t be more appropriate.

On the tomb of Dr. Martin Luther King Sr., the message is: “I LOVE EVERYONE. STILL IN BUSINESS. JUST MOVED UPSTAIRS.

The legacy of “Daddy King” — as he was known to close friends and family — will live on through the M.L. King Sr. Community Resource Complex, which is under construction next to Ebenezer Baptist Church. King Sr. was a pastor at Ebenezer — a role he shared with his son — Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

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