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Martin Luther King Jr.’s home and its street to receive historic designation from Atlanta

by David Pendered

By David Pendered

The street where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. moved his family in 1965 is slated to become Atlanta’s newest historic district.

The Sunset Avenue Historic District would protect all houses on the street, including the King home, from developments and alterations that are not in keeping with the community’s historic nature. Other dwellings were home to civil rights leaders and some of the city’s earliest European settlers.

“This will bolster tourism traffic and trade in the area, and it will memorialize the giants who put their life on the line, and their families who sacrificed so much,” said Atlanta Councilman Ivory Lee Young Jr.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

SunTrust’s Atlanta ties strengthened with new CEO

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, April 29, 2011

A hometown executive soon will be taking the reins of SunTrust Banks Inc. , the largest financial institution based in Atlanta.

The naming of William H. Rogers Jr. as SunTrust’s next CEO reinforces the bank’s Atlanta roots, and it could enhance the possibility that the institution will remain an independent bank based in the city.

Posted inGuest Column

Georgia needs leaders who will fight for our water resources

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist SALLY S. BETHEA, founding director of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper organization

As president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Ivan Allen Jr. launched a “Forward Atlanta” campaign in 1960 to promote the city’s image and to attract new business and investment.

But, it was three years later in July 1963, after he’d been elected mayor of Atlanta, that Allen took the step that set our city apart from, and ahead of, our sister cities—as a progressive, forward-thinking place good for business and good for all families.

Posted inLatest News

Hospitality leader Earl Patton killed in Wednesday night’s storms

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By Maria Saporta

Atlanta business and civic leader Earl Patton passed away in Wednesday night’s storm.

The sad news was distributed by the Rotary Club of Atlanta’s Linda Thomason Glass who sent the following email on Thursday:

Subject: EARL PATTON HAS GONE HOME TO WAIT ON US

“Earl was at his Lake house last night when the tornado came through, demolished his house, and took his life.”

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Column: Atlanta Community Food Bank gets new solar power system

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Friday, April 22, 2011,

Thanks to a unique public-private partnership, the Atlanta Community Food Bank is turning toward the sun for part of its energy needs.

The food bank and Radiance Solar have just completed a state-of-the-art photovoltaic solar array at the nonprofit’s headquarters in West Midtown thanks to a grant from the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority.

Posted inLatest News

Different versions of reality bubble up at Coca-Cola’s annual meeting

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By Maria Saporta

The Coca-Cola Co.’s annual meeting has turned into a mirage of dual realities.

The 2011 annual meeting at the Cobb Galleria Centre opened with a splash. Coca-Cola 125th Anniversary Young People’s Chorus — all 125 teenagers dressed in red shirts — sang an enthusiastic rendition of “I’d Like to Buy the World A Coke” (also known as the “The Real Thing”).

They went on to sing another five songs from

Posted inLatest News

Access Denied. ATM maker NCR closes door at its annual meeting

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By Maria Saporta

In my 29 years as a business journalist, I’ve never been turned away from a company’s annual meeting.

Until today.

On Wednesday morning, NCR Corp. — one of Atlanta’s newest Fortune 500 companies — held its annual meeting in the auditorium of its Duluth headquarters at 9 a.m. The company moved its headquarters to Duluth from Dayton, Ohio in 2009, and I hoped to see one of our new Fortune 500 companies in action. I was a few minutes late because I had mistakenly gone to NCR’s other corporate campus up the road.

But it wouldn’t have made a difference.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Zoo Atlanta snaps up its largest gift ever

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, April 22, 2011

Zoo Atlanta has just received the largest philanthropic gift in its history — $5 million from the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation, part of the Robert W. Woodruff family of foundations.

The grant will go toward the zoo’s current $25.7 million capital campaign, the attraction’s first fundraising campaign in a dozen years.

The centerpiece of the campaign will be the building of a new amphibian and reptile complex to replace the 1960s-era reptile house that currently is in disrepair.

Posted inLatest News

This is a key week for corporate annual meetings in Atlanta

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By Maria Saporta

It’s annual meeting season in Atlanta.

On Tuesday, April 26, Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks will hold its annual meeting at 9:30 a.m. at the bank’s headquarters.

The bank announced last week that James M. Wells III will be stepping down as chairman and CEO of the bank and will be succeeded by William H. Rogers, who has been serving as president and chief

Posted inMaria's Metro

Piedmont Park opens welcomed new attractions, but it must never forget that it is a “public” park

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Few spaces evoke as much emotion in Atlanta as Piedmont Park.

As the premier green space in the Atlanta region, Piedmont Park belongs to all of us. And as such, we all take ownership – which is a good thing for the city and Piedmont Park.

The last couple of weeks have been important ones for the park. On April 12, it opened the new Promenade along with the new Legacy Fountain – strikingly similar in design as the Olympic Fountain at Centennial

Posted inGuest Column

For Georgia to thrive, it can no longer operate as a divided state

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist AMIR FAROKHI, executive director of Georgia Forward, a non-partisan public policy initiative working to engage leaders to address Georgia’s biggest challenges.

For decades, Georgians have known that ours is a state divided. Whether it is geography, economics, culture, politics or race, Georgia’s divides are frequently lamented.

While Georgia is not alone in this respect among states, other states, from Utah to North Carolina, have learned to silence their doubts and pull together with impressive

Posted inLatest News

Georgia Power to set up Water Research Center at Plant Bowen

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By Maria Saporta

Georgia Power, one of the biggest water users in the state, announced today that it is creating a Water Research Center at its Plant Bowen near Cartersville.

The center will be an innovative research facility to develop and test different water conservation technologies in an effort to improve water efficiency by studying withdrawal, consumption and recycling throughout the power generation process.

Paul Bowers, Georgia Power’s president and CEO, said the center will seek ways to reduce the demand for water through new

Posted inLatest News

Georgia Chamber of Commerce to establish transportation alliance

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By Maria Saporta

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce is taking a higher profile role in the state’s transportation needs.

The Georgia Chamber today announced the creation of a new transportation-focused affiliate — the Georgia Transportation Alliance — to focus on the state’s various mobility needs as it relates to economic development.

“My charge at the chamber is to be more aggressive and more pro-active and for the chamber to show leadership,” said Chris Clark, the relatively new president of the Georgia Chamber. “We want to be much more than an advocacy organization. We want to help drive the dialogue.”

One of the Alliance’s first major priorities will

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Spirits flow again at the Governor’s Mansion

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By Maria Saporta
April 15, 2011

One can toast again at the Governor’s Mansion.

Economic developers were pleased that Gov. Nathan Deal has decided that alcohol can be served at the Governor’s Mansion — reversing a ban that had been put in place by former Gov. Sonny Perdue.

“As Gov. Deal said about Sunday alcohol sales — he doesn’t drink; he simply believes in democracy,” Deal spokesman Brian Robinson wrote in an e-mail. “The same applies in this scenario.”

That attitude was cheered by people who are charged with attracting new investment to Georgia.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Atlanta’s economic future depends on smart investment decisions

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

Atlanta’s economic future is inextricably tied to having a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly core that attracts college-educated professionals.

That was the assessment of a recent gathering of CEOs for Cities that brought together about 65 local leaders to contemplate what it would take to make “Atlanta an engine for the American dream.”

That was the question that Julia Klaiber, director of external affairs for CEOs for Cities, posed to a panel of business and civic leaders.

The assumption of CEOs for Cities is that our urban areas must be the “renewed engines for human activities in a complex world” where “talented people come together in dynamic environments,” Klaiber said.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Column: Task Force expanding global health mission

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, April 15, 2011

In the coming decade, it is possible that several devastating diseases could be close to being eliminated — such as polio, blinding trachoma, river blindness and measles.

A common denominator in those efforts is a relatively unknown Decatur-based nonprofit — the Task Force for Global Health.

The Task Force was founded in 1984 by global health leader William Foege as a way to get different, and sometimes competing, organizations working together on a common goal to immunize children.

Posted inGuest Column

Transit must be key part of needed regional transportation sales tax

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist RAY CHRISTMAN, executive director of the Livable Communities Coalition

The Livable Communities Coalition and 30 partner organizations recently launched an education initiative designed to help our region’s economy and quality of life for generations to come.

On March 29, we launched what we’re calling the Fair Share for Transit Initiative, an initiative designed to make the case for significant new funding – a fair share – for public transportation as part of the 2012

Posted inLatest News

Gov. Nathan Deal changes his mind on immigration reform bill

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By Maria Saporta

It’s the governor’s prerogative to change his mind.

Between 8 a.m. Friday morning and early afternoon, Gov. Nathan Deal went from saying that he was undecided about signing the controversial immigration reform bill to saying he would sign it.

After speaking to the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Pacesetter breakfast at the Cobb Galleria, Deal said he wanted to take a close look at the bill before deciding whether he was going to sign the bill that passed at the very end of the 2011 session.

“It was so jumbled at the end as to what was added and what was taken out,” Deal said. “We are going to look at it very

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Column: Atlanta’s United Way makes grants process competitive

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, April 8, 2011

The United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta Inc. is changing the way it awards grants to its member charities — a move that is being welcomed by many while causing concern for others.

United Way, which gives grants to about 200 social service agencies, has been retooling itself from being an organization that is only a pass-through of money for charities to being one that strategically sets goals for maximum community impact in the areas of education, income, health and homelessness.

“We’re changing from an entitlement environment to a competitive grant environment so that the grants you receive are based on outcomes rather than what you received last year,” said Milton Little, president of Atlanta’s United Way. “That’ll be a pretty significant change.”

Posted inLatest News

Gov. Nathan Deal undecided on whether to sign immigration bill

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By Maria Saporta

Gov. Nathan Deal said Friday morning that he has not yet decided whether he will sign or veto the controversial immigration bill that passed the General Assembly Thursday night just before the end of the 2011 session.

“It was so jumbled at the end as to what was added and what was taken out,” Deal said. “We are going to look at it very carefully.”

The bill would require many Georgia businesses to check for illegal workers among their new hires. It passed the House of Representatives by 112-59; and passed the Georgia Senate by 37-19.

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