By Maria Saporta
In his second term as Georgia’s senior senator, Republican Saxby Chambliss has emerged into a rare breed in Washington, D.C. He’s become bi-partisan.
This evolved Saxby Chambliss demonstrated his ability to work across the aisle when he insisted that U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) appear with him on Monday at the Rotary Club of Atlanta.
Chambliss and Warner have teamed up to
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
With the death this past weekend of director Sidney Lumet, NYC has lost one its most ardent advocates. Oh, there are others. Woody Allen springs to mind, of course. Martin Scorsese perhaps. But Lumet ranks right up there, with the Big Apple admirers, directing movies like Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Network.
By Maria Saporta
April in Atlanta. Dogwoods. Azaleas. Warm days. Cool nights.
It’s no wonder why we celebrate our place on earth during the month of April.
So the speech that the Right Honourable John Gummer, Lord Deben of the British House of Lords gave at Southface’s Visionary Dinner at the 200 Peachtree building on March 31 keeps playing in my
By Maria Saporta
Friday, April 8, 2011
The leading flag bearer for “new nuclear” in the United States — Atlanta-based Southern Co. — is as committed as ever to a nuclear renaissance.
That is despite the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 10 — an event that is leading many utility companies and foreign governments to put their nuclear plans on hold.
But not Southern Co., which is moving forward with its plans to build two new nuclear units (Units 3 and 4) at Plant Vogtle near Augusta — the first new nuclear projects in the United States in three
For Atlanta, it is opportunity squared.
The federal government, into two separate planning grants, is strategically targeting the neighborhoods around the Atlanta University Center for a multi-dimensional renaissance.
As this week’s guest columnist, Clara Axam, explains, Atlanta first received a $500,000 “Promise Neighborhood” planning grant from the U.S. Department of Education last fall to improve the educational opportunities in the poor communities around the Atlanta University Center.
By Guest Columnist CLARA H. AXAM, president and CEO of Clarification & Mediation, Inc. a management consulting firm offering strategic assistance to support to change initiatives
In September of 2010, the Department of Education (DOE) awarded Morehouse School of Medicine on behalf of the Atlanta University Center Consortium colleges, and the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, a Promise Neighborhood Planning Grant in the amount of $500,000.
Since then, a community of stakeholders have had nose to the grindstone, researching best practices for eradicating poverty and exploring application to the target area surrounding the Atlanta University Center campuses, known as the Atlanta Promise
By Maria Saporta
A Georgia passenger rail advocacy organization is moving its headquarters from Atlanta to Macon.
Georgians for Passenger Rail, founded in 2009, has been promoting the development of rail travel throughout the state.
But the organization has been focusing most of its efforts on creating passenger rail
By Maria Saporta
Friday, April 1, 2011
For 26 years, the No. 1 advocate for Atlanta’s trees has been Marcia Bansley.
As a tree’s age can be measured in rings, Bansley’s tenure as the founding executive director of Trees Atlanta can be measured in trees. Under her leadership, Trees Atlanta has planted or distributed 81,000 trees.
Now Bansley has decided to retire, effective in mid-May, when she intends to begin studying architecture. She will join Trees Atlanta’s board.
Filling in as interim director will be Connie Veates, a past president of Trees Atlanta’s board.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, April 1, 2011
Atlanta business leader Dick Anderson is headed to Washington to become chief operating officer of the Federal Reserve System, effective April 18.
Anderson, a former executive of BellSouth Corp. and AT&T Inc., also will serve as director of the Federal Reserve System’s management division. In all, about 1,000 people will be under his supervision.
“To me, it’s the marriage of business and public service,” Anderson said. “It is a really high impact policy-making organization during the biggest economic challenge that we have faced in recent times. What makes it so appealing is that it is so central to the economy.”
It is a pleasure to watch Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s courtship with leaders from around the state.
As a former state senator and representative, this is familiar territory for Reed. But since he’s become mayor, he has perfected the message — as goes Atlanta, so goes Georgia; and as goes Georgia, so goes Atlanta.
The latest venue for Reed’s deepening relationship with state leaders was at the quarterly board meeting of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, held on March 31 on the Georgia Tech campus.
By Guest Columnist RUTH WOODLING, founder of WoodlingLaw LLC and a member of the Political Action Committee of the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys
I first became aware of Atlanta’s unfortunate distinction as the country’s hub for the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in 2006 as a result of Mayor Shirley Franklin’s “Dear John” initiative. It involved a media blitz that included public service announcements featuring Mayor Franklin and a documentary entitled “Hidden in Plain
By Maria Saporta
A long-time parks and green space advocate — Margaret Gray Connelly — is bringing new life to Park Pride, the leading Atlanta-based nonprofit focused on our region’s public
By Eleanor Ringel Cater
To me, it’s never too late to speak of Elizabeth Taylor, who died last week, age 79, of congestive heart failure.
She was the most beautiful girl in the world, and she had the husbands — and the jewels to prove it.
But as she grew older and the film roles fewer and the health problems accelerated and the husbands (7; one, Richard Burton, she married twice) became less important, Taylor proved her beauty was much more than skin deep. She became a passionate and tremendously effective crusader in the fight against AIDS, a battle she joined as
By Maria Saporta
A Fair Share for Transit Rally attracted more than a hundred leaders and citizens from a couple dozen organizations and governments on Tuesday evening at the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot.
The bottom line — the 2012 referendum for a new regional transportation sales tax should have a fair share for transit and not be dominated by funding for roads.
But what is a fair share?
That was the question I asked numerous people attending the reception.
The first person I asked was Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
“I’m not going to say,” said Reed, who is a member of the Atlanta Regional Roundtable,
By Maria Saporta
Friday, March 25, 2011
A partnership between a builder, a developer, a public relations executive and a homeless shelter is growing great rewards — literally.
Downtown Atlanta unveiled its first community garden March 23 in a what will be a unique way to provide healthy food, job training and therapy to more than 500 homeless and recovering men currently served at the Atlanta Mission.
The Atlanta Urban Garden is located on a 2.36-acre property, managed by The Integral Group LLC, has sat vacant waiting to be sold and redeveloped. The land sits across Centennial Olympic Park Drive from the
By Maria Saporta and Urvaksh Karkaria
Friday, March 25, 2011
AT&T Inc.’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile will put Atlanta in the catbird seat in wireless communications.
AT&T Mobility, the wireless arm of Dallas-based AT&T and the fastest-growing part of the company, is headquartered in Atlanta.
“I think this deal and this merger can be nothing but good news for Atlanta,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, in an exclusive interview March 23. “Atlanta will be home to a unit of AT&T that is the growth engine, that will continue to grow for the foreseeable future, and that’s a good thing.”
De la Vega also said that plans call for AT&T Mobility’s headquarters to remain in Atlanta
By Guest Columnist JENNETTE GAYER, policy coordinator for Environment Georgia, a citizen-based environmental advocacy organization
The disaster that continues to unfold in Japan has caused people to think a little deeper about the health and safety of their families, and what protections we have in place to keep us safe from dangerous pollution.
In Georgia, air quality is still a huge problem.
The Atlanta Regional Commission will “not miss a beat” while it is in search of a new director, according to its chairman, Tad Leithead.
In a wide-ranging conversation Sunday afternoon, Leithead shared his views of where the regional planning agency is today and where it’s headed in the future.
And Leithead also made it clear that he would not be a candidate to become the ARC’s next director, a move that several people in the community have suggested.
“When you write up a job description, I won’t be qualified,” Leithead said. “I’m not a planner, and I’ve never managed planners. Chairing the organization and being the
By Maria Saporta
Georgia can become a “poster child” for balancing environmental and economic interests, according to Allen Barnes, director of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Environmental Protection Division.
Barnes was the keynote speaker at Friday morning’s Environmental Awards presented by the Atlanta Business Chronicle at the Georgia Aquarium.
“Environmental sustainability and economic sustainability can and must co-exist,” Barnes told the breakfast gathering. “Georgia can be the poster child of that principle.”
Barnes added that Georgia has a great concentration of Fortune 500 companies that
By Maria Saporta
Gov. Nathan Deal hinted that progress is being made in the private water negotiations with Alabama and Florida, during a “Meet and Greet” event Wednesday evening at the Georgian Club in Cobb County.
“I’m working diligently,” Deal told the gathering elected and civic leaders invited by the Council for Quality Growth. “This is the kind of thing you can’t even tell your wife about, and I can’t tell you either. I think you are going to be pleased by what we are going to produce.”
Deal said he was encouraged by the latest court hearing on the appeal of Judge Paul Magnuson’s ruling that would drastically reduce the amount of water metro Atlanta can withdraw from Lake Lanier in July 2012 if an agreement is not reached. But Deal said Georgia can’t rely on the possibility of a
