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Friends and family wish Truett Cathy a happy 90th birthday

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By Maria Saporta

The crème de la crème came out in force Thursday evening to wish Truett Cathy a happy birthday.

The Chick-fil-A motifs and mascots filled the Woodruff Arts Center as dignitaries and friends came to wish the King of the Chicken Sandwich their best wishes.

“It is certainly a great tribute to Mr. Cathy,” said Gov. Nathan Deal, while attending one of the receptions in the High Museum. “He is a great institution for our state, and it’s an honor to be here.”

During the reception, Coca-Cola executive Sandy Douglas announced a $90,000 check to Cathy’s foundation. Part of the goal for the event was to raise funds for the Truett Cathy Youth & Community Center in West End, about a mile away from when Cathy grew

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Blank Family Foundation gives $1 million to Civil Rights center

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By Maria Saporta
Monday, March 7, 2011

The National Center for Civil & Human Rights on Monday got a $1 million boost from The Arthur Blank Family Foundation and unveiled revised plans for a more affordable and efficient building.

The center now has raised $73 million to date. It still needs $12 million before breaking ground, which is set for October.

Center leaders have said they would not break ground until they had raised at least 80 percent of the project’s construction costs. Opening is planned for 2013.

Posted inLatest News

AGCO intends to add a woman to its board — meaning that all of Georgia’s Fortune 500 companies will have women on their boards

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By Maria Saporta

It soon will be a complete sweep — all of Georgia’s Fortune 500 companies will have at least one woman on their board of directors.

Martin Richenhagen, CEO of the Duluth-based agricultural company — AGCO, told the Kiwanis Club of Atlanta today that he intends to invite a woman to join his board.

The woman is Mallika Srinivasan, CEO of Chennai, India-based TAFE Ltd.

AGCO has owned a 23 percent stake in TAFE (Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd.) in India for several years. Srinivasan is the eldest daughter of industrialist — A. Sivasailam, who passed away in January.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Questions surround the building of a new open air football stadium

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

It constantly amazes me that in the United States a 20-year-old dome or a 30-year-old stadium can be viewed as old and out of date. Our practice of tearing down relatively modern structures is the ultimate example of our throw-away society.

We tore down the original Omni Coliseum when it was only 20 years old. We tore down the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium — an open-air, multi-use facility — when it was 30 years old.

(Several local leaders — including my father — Ike Saporta, architect Cecil Alexander and consultant David Peterson — led an unsuccessful Save the Stadium movement. If we had kept the old stadium, we would have had a place to house multiple events including major league soccer).

Posted inGuest Column

New transportation dollars should be efficiently invested in existing transit, activity centers, planning

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist BRIAN GIST, a senior attorney and transportation specialist for the Southern Environmental Law Center

Atlanta’s transportation system is already bursting at the seams. And the bad news is that if something doesn’t change soon, those seams are going to break. The numbers speak for themselves:

• Increase in metro Atlanta’s population

Posted inLatest News

State leaders need to make changes if Georgia wants federal dollars to deepen Savannah port

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By Maria Saporta

Sometimes it seems as though Georgia is its own worst enemy.

State and regional leaders have proclaimed that Georgia’s top economic development priority is the deepening of the Port of Savannah. They say it is essential to the state’s future to deepen the port and the 33-miles of the river that connects the port with Atlantic Ocean.

Georgia leaders — including Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed — have been lobbying the federal government and the Obama administration for $105 million to help pay for the deepening of the port.

But last month, Georgia got word that the federal government was only allocating $600,000 in pre-construction and planning

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Column: U.S. education experts meet with biz leaders

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, February 25, 2011

With several metro Atlanta public school systems seeking new superintendents, community leaders sought answers from national education experts during a panel discussion hosted by The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation on Feb. 21.

Several questions were asked. Should a board be elected or appointed? Should a superintendent be an education professional or a nontraditional executive? Should a local school system be under the mayor’s control, should it be under the governor’s control or should it be independent?

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Waste Management expanding in Atlanta

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, February 25, 2011

Waste Management Inc. is increasing its presence in metro Atlanta.

After considering several locations in the Carolinas and Georgia, the Houston-based company (NYSE: WM) selected Cobb County’s One Parkway Center to house its South Atlantic Area’s newly consolidated area office and call center.

The 20,000-square-foot facility is being called the Grand Central Station for Waste Management’s customer service and operations business in the three-state South Atlantic area.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Mayor Reed, Chronicle join to encourage employers to hire

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, February 18, 2011

A public-private partnership wants metro companies to put Atlantans back to work.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced the new metrowide initiative — Hire One Atlanta — aimed at challenging employers to hire at least one new employee this year.

In return, Atlanta Business Chronicle will spotlight all companies that have hired a new employee in a special ad that will run every week in its publication throughout the year.

“Hire One Atlanta is a campaign

Posted inGuest Column

Don’t let the less fortunate carry most of the burden of budget cuts

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist HATTIE B. DORSEY, president of HBDorsey & Associates and former president of Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP).

As we watch the toppling of leaders through civil unrest and violence in the Middle East, our thoughts must turn to what is happening at home.

For the first time since the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam war demonstrations, our country is witnessing

Posted inMaria's Metro

Passing regional transit governance in 2011 a must for transportation sales tax to pass

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It all comes down to this.

A regional transportation sales tax in metro Atlanta will not pass unless MARTA and transit are treated fairly.

And there’s no way MARTA and transit will be treated fairly unless House Bill 277 fixed of its anti-MARTA flaws or unless a regional transit governance bill is passed in this legislative session.

Legislative leaders have said there’s no way they will reopen HB 277 this session.

So that really leaves only one option. Pass a regional transit governance bill during this legislative session.

Let me explain my reasoning.

Posted inLatest News

A festive time had by all at Roosevelt House implosion

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By Maria Saporta

An implosion is festive in a twisted kind of way.

We gather to see a man-made structure that took months to build bite the dust in matter of seconds.

Sunday morning’s implosion of the Roosevelt House did not disappoint.

Hundreds of people gathered around a tent that had been set up in the back of Centennial Place Elementary School and the adjacent YMCA. People from all over the neighborhood also were well positioned to watch the moment of explosive impact.

Standing in the middle of a crowd was Dovie Newell, a former resident of the now-demolished Techwood Homes who had

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

Looking to the Oscars — who should win and who will win

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By Eleanor Ringel Cater

The Oscars are upon us…

Again.

This year, the show, like everything else todayl, is desperate to skew young. Not an easy act for an event that’s been around 80 years.

I remember when the Oscars used to matter. Well, to me, that is. Sometime between the late ‘50s and late ‘60s. Then I went to college, the sixties happened and the only

Posted inLatest News

Ga Research Alliance seeking to educate state leaders on its merits

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By Maria Saporta

Advocates for the Georgia Research Alliance are working behind the scenes to make sure that the state’s new leaders understand the value of this unique public-private partnership.

But they also are beginning to realize that there’s a learning curve needed so that the state’s elected officials can fully recognize and appreciate the significance of their 20-year investment.

As GRA leaders see it, the alliance has brought Georgia’s business, civic, academic and government leaders together to work on a common goal of bringing cutting edge research and economic development to the state.

Two recent events, however, show that GRA

Posted inLatest News

Jeff Dickerson takes leave as Georgia Gang commentator

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By Maria Saporta

Long time Atlanta observer Jeff Dickerson is taking a leave from the popular weekly television show — the Georgia Gang.

Dickerson, who has been on Fox Five’s Georgia Gang for more than two decades, taped his last show 10 days ago. The official word is that he’s taking a leave of absence. But it is an open question about when or if he’ll be back on the show.

Dickerson had been an editorial writer and journalist with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution until 11 years ago when entered the public affairs world and founded his own crisis communications business.

He continued to dabble in journalism, writing columns in the Atlanta Business Chronicle and the Atlanta Tribune as well as providing

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Column: Georgia Tech, SunTrust deal helps historic building

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, February 18, 2011

The fate of the historic Crum & Forster building at 771 Spring St. in Midtown is looking a bit brighter.

The Georgia Tech Foundation, which has been unsuccessful in getting a demolition permit for the 1928 building, has just gained ownership of the SunTrust Banks Inc. branch on the same block.

“Now that we have obtained the SunTrust property, we are in the process of pursuing a mutually agreeable resolution to the future of the Crum & Forster building,” said John Carter, president of the Georgia Tech Foundation.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Georgia’s communities may lose ground in planning for their future

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Since when has planning become a dirty word?

An effort is underway in the Georgia legislature to remove a state requirement on local governments to develop comprehensive plans for their communities.

If passed, this legislation — Senate Bill 86 — could send Georgia back decades to a time when growth could occur in a totally haphazard way with few guideposts on what is the best way to grow a community.

Unfortunately, two organizations that should know better — the Georgia Municipal Association and the Association County Commissioners of Georgia — have endorsed this legislation, presumably pushed by some of their members who would rather not have

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

New Atlanta Falcons stadium advances down the field

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, February 18, 2011

Building a new open-air stadium for the Atlanta Falcons on Georgia World Congress Center land is a feasible solution, according to a consultant’s report to be released Feb. 22.

The study by Kansas City, Mo.-based Populous will focus on the GWCC’s truck marshalling yard along Northside Drive and Simpson Street, just north of the convention center, according to several people familiar with the report.

GWCC officials said they could not discuss details of the report until it is presented to its board at its Feb. 22 meeting. “It is not appropriate for me to comment until the report has been presented to the board,”

Posted inGuest Column

Future of metro Atlanta’s water should be a balance between the economy and the environment

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist JOHN BROCK, chairman of the Metro Atlanta Chamber and CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE)

Delivery of water to taps is an unseen but critical activity. It is not experienced every day like transportation congestion or air quality warnings. We are only sporadically reminded of our water needs when a drought hits, a pipe bursts or a boil-water advisory is issued. All are temporary. All are resolved in a relatively short time frame.

However, when weighing the acute loss of

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Column: Business leaders start effort to sell transportation tax

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By Maria Saporta
Friday, February 11, 2011

The Metro Atlanta business community is organizing a political campaign to sell the regional transportation sales tax to voters for the August 2012 referendum.

An initial pitch was made during the Commerce Club’s monthly board meeting earlier this month in a quest to raise at least several million dollars for the effort.

“I shared with them the importance of this effort,” said Post Properties Inc. CEO Dave Stockert, who is chairing the Metro Atlanta Chamber’s transportation committee

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