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By Maria Saporta

Closer cooperation between the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce is in the works.

At today’s Metro Atlanta Chamber board meeting, Georgia Chamber’s new president and CEO — Chris Clark — was in attendance.

“Chris is joining our board,” said an enthusiastic Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber.

“I’m excited about it,” Clark said. “There’s strength in numbers, and we want to work closely with all the local chambers in the state of Georgia.”

By Maria Saporta

Georgia is at a crossroads.

That’s how A.D. Frazier, chairman of the Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness for Georgians, began a short recap of his group’s work at Monday’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Atlanta.

Georgia has suffered through the recession proportionally more than other states. That has led to declining state revenues during much of the administration of Gov. Sonny Perdue.

He described it as “the seven lean years after the seven fat years.”

Frazier commended the governor and the

By Maria Saporta

If it were up to former President Jimmy Carter, he would let all the Bush tax cuts expire — including for those making less than $250,000.

President Barack Obama has been pushing to extend the Bush tax cuts for middle-class Americans, but have them expire for wealthier individuals making $250,000 or more.

“I would do away with the tax reductions that were put in place by President Bush, both for rich people and those making less than $250,000,” Carter said during a talk Monday to the Rotary Club of

By Maria Saporta

A design has been selected for the new playground in Woodruff Park.

The winner of the international design competition was Jeff Santos of Coquitiam, British Columbia in Canada, which is near Vancouver.

His design is a wooden playscape that spells out ATL in a stylistic letters.

The winning design was selected from more than 40 designs that had been submitted from around the world.

The idea for a playground in Woodruff Park was brought to Central Atlanta Progress (CAP) by the Atlanta Taskforce

By Maria Saporta

The message was clear Thursday night.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made it clear that if Atlanta ever wants to host another Super Bowl, it needs to build a new football stadium.

Goodell shared those sentiments during a pre-game reception on the roof-top of the Metro Atlanta Chamber — in front of both Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank and Gov.-elect Nathan Deal.

Asked about Atlanta’s chances of getting a future Super Bowl, Goodell quickly brought up the possibility of a new stadium for the Atlanta Falcons.

By Maria Saporta

Pedestrians and transit are interdependent modes of transportation.

That point hit home Wednesday evening during PEDS 11th annual Golden Shoe Awards.

PEDS, the group that advocates for pedestrians in metro Atlanta, highlighted the relationship between pedestrians and transit in several of its awards presented in the Dahlberg Alumni Hall at Georgia State University.

The Atlanta Regional Commission won two Golden Shoe awards for “pedestrian-friendly research.” One survey, conducted by Claudette Dillard, showed how most transit riders begin and end their trips on foot.

By Maria Saporta

Two pundits on opposite sides of the political spectrum found themselves agreeing more than disagreeing at Monday’s luncheon meeting of the Rotary Club of Atlanta.

The “Post Election Panel” was composed of Cynthia Tucker, the liberal Washington, D.C.-based political columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; and the conservative Ralph Reed, who is president of the Century Strategies, a political consulting firm, and served as the first executive director of the Christian Coalition.

Tucker started by saying that the “overwhelming issue was the economy”

By Maria Saporta

It was the HUD version of: “You need to get your act together.”

A year ago, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood came to Georgia and warned that the state would not get its share of federal grants until it got its act together.

And when LaHood came to Atlanta last month to award the $47.6 million streetcar grant, he told city leaders that they had gotten their act together, and he hoped the state would follow suit.

The latest message from Washington, D.C. came from Ron Sims, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of

By Maria Saporta

What a clean sweep.

In one day, Georgians have elected an all white, all male, all Republican slate to fill all the top jobs at the state.

Let this sink in.

We have gone from having a diversity among statewide leaders serving as constitutional officers in terms of women, Democrats and African-Americans to a total “good-ole-boy” administration.

This happened while Georgia is becoming a more diverse state in terms of African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians with more than half of its population being women. The election outcome can lead us to question the whole notion of