By Maria Saporta
The designers of the proposed Atlanta Falcons stadium released several new images on Feb. 14 to show how the facility will look from multiple vantage points.
The basic design elements are similar to the images that have already been released, but there are several new details that give a better understanding of how the stadium will be positioned in relation to the areas around it.
By Maria Saporta
Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Pierre Howard will be stepping down as president of the Georgia Conservancy at the end of June, the organization announced Monday.
Howard has led the Georgia Conservancy since 2009. He will remain as a senior advisor and as a member of the Advisory board with a focus on helping to develop the Georgia Conservancy’s 2015-2019 Strategic Plan, continuing to expand its Land Conservation Initiative and easing the transition to a new president, according to the press release.
The organization board of trustees is planning to engage a search firm to help identify candidates for a successor, and the goal is to have a new president in place by July 1, the start of the Conservancy’s new fiscal year.
A seven-week delay in Atlanta’s schedule sell bonds to help pay for construction of the Falcons stadium was the immediate result of a court hearing Monday morning.
Bond validation petitions typically are open-and-shut matters. Lawyers for the government usually get a speedy ruling from a judge that allows the sale of bonds to proceed posthaste.
In the case of Atlanta’s bonds for the stadium, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Granville set the next date for a bond validation hearing for April 10. In the meantime, opponents of the bond issuance can begin gathering at least some of the evidence they intend to use to try to prevent the city from issuing $278.3 million in bonds to help finance the stadium.
Just like your initial investing strategy, your game plan for fine-tuning your portfolio periodically should reflect your investing personality.
Dozens of customers were waiting outside when Tony Powers unlocked the door of his Intown Ace hardware store in Decatur the morning before the ice storm.
Before the day ended, he had run up 22,000 steps, the equivalent of 12 miles on his fitness app, after assisting customers swarming for snow removal chemicals and sleds and fixing the broken knob on one guy’s propane grill tank – mine. He sold four pallets of ice melt and 200 sleds in the first two hours and seven generators and all the kerosene, firewood and lanterns before anyone felt the first drop of ice or snow.
By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 14, 2014
Two years after Southwest Airlines began flying into Atlanta, perhaps no entity has been more pleased with the results than Delta Air Lines Inc.
Southwest entered the Atlanta market by acquiring discount carrier AirTran Airways — an airline that had made Atlanta its key hub and had been going head-to-head with Delta in many markets.
Sure, it’s sunny and nice now. But not so long ago, Atlanta had a little problem with, um, a little snow.
However, I’m not in the finger-pointing business — unless it’s at something on a movie screen.
Herewith a few movies in which snow just won’t let go — either as frigid backdrop or active predator.
Anyone remember that South American rugby team that crashed in the Andes in 1972? Well, Frank Marshall, who helped Spielberg and Lucas birth Indiana Jones, does. Or did. In 1993 he made a movie called “Alive,” based on that story.
By Guest Columnist TEDRA CHEATHAM, executive director of the Clean Air Campaign
The two storms that hit metro Atlanta over the last three weeks effectively shut down the city’s transportation for four or five days. While politicians and officials are collaborating to determine how to better handle these situations in the future, metro Atlanta’s businesses are looking at their own performances after the storm to make similar assessments.
One of the conclusions coming out of this evaluation will be obvious. A business continuity plan is now an essential part of every organization’s workplace strategy, and emergency preparedness should be part of every family’s kitchen table discussion.
When these storms first hit, especially the Jan. 28 storm, most metro Atlantans had to put aside their work and focus on making sure they and their loved ones were safe. However, the outside world did not stop moving when Atlanta ground to a halt, and some organizations were more prepared than others to continue working.
Civic leaders in south DeKalb County are trying – again – to improve the area, and this time their goals include the extension of MARTA bus and rail service along the I-20 corridor east to Mall at Stonecrest.
One caveat that may distinguish this organizational effort from its two predecessor’s is this plain call to extend MARTA service. The I-20/east route is among those MARTA GM Keith Parker says are contenders – once construction money is available.
Advocates say the CID would enable commercial property owners to raise money that could help provide the local match needed to draw down state and federal dollars. The CID funds also could target public safety, appearance, and roadway/sidewalk improvements.
By Maria Saporta
The memorial service celebrating the life of J. Mack Robinson on Friday captured the essence of the man — someone who succeeded in several lines of business but never let that success change his humble, self-effacing nature.
Robinson, 90, passed away on Feb. 7.
Ambassador Edward Elson, his friend for nearly 50 years, described Robinson as a “quintessential American hero” who could have emerged from a “Jimmy Stewart movie from the 1930s.”
Elson used several adjectives to describe his friend — handsome, wise, intuitive, soft-spoken, innocent, fair, yet highly sophisticated and cosmopolitan.
“He was at home anywhere,” said Elson, adding that he would mingle among presidents and princes as well as corporate moguls. “Yet Mack never seemed to understand how he got there. He never could fully appreciate his own genius. He was always so surprised by his own success.”
Georgia has climbed to 16th place in the nation in 2013 for the number of workers in the solar industry, according to a new report by The Solar Foundation.
Georgia has added some 1,800 solar jobs since 2012, bringing the total number of jobs in Georgia’s solar industry to about 2,600, the report found.
“This report shows that the solar industry is putting people to work to meet a growing percentage of our energy needs with a pollution-free energy source that has no fuel costs,” Jennette Gayer, with Environment Georgia, said in a statement announcing the report.
A court challenge has been filed against Atlanta’s plan to sell $278.3 million in bonds to help fund construction of the Falcons’ $1.2 billion stadium.
The motion to intervene portrays a breakdown in legislative and administrative processes all the way from the state Capitol to the Georgia World Congress Center Authority and to Atlanta City Hall.
The motion raises legal issues involving the constitutionality of the hotel motel tax; the demolition of two churches; failure to address state-mandated environmental concerns; and failure to ask the Atlanta Regional Commission to review the project as a development of regional impact.
By Maria Saporta
The Georgia World Congress Center Authority was selected Wednesday to manage the Savannah International Trade & Convention Center.
The Georgia International Maritime and Trade Center Authority approved the selection of GWCCA at a meeting in Savannah on Wednesday. The GWCCA will be responsible for managing and operating the Savannah convention center. It also will work collaboratively with the “Visit Savannah” team in marketing the convention center as a premier business destination, according to Jennifer LeMaster, GWCCA’s director of communications, who issued a press release.
The two authorities will now begin negotiating the details of a multi-year agreement, according to the release.
The federal minimum wage debate is taking place in editorial boards, gold-domed capitols and boardrooms across America. Raise it to lift people out of poverty, some say. Others argue an increase will cripple job growth.
The waters of truth are murky in this hyper-partisan climate, making it difficult to determine the credibility of economic forecasts footed by various chambers of commerce and policy.
My heart sank when Bernice King issued a statement last week that her two brothers wanted to sell their father’s Nobel Peace Prize medal and his traveling Bible. They had gone so far as to file a lawsuit to get possession of those priceless treasures.
One could almost hear a collective groan from Atlanta and beyond. Here we go again. Here are the King children squabbling among themselves, taking each other to court, showing the world that they are unable to resolve their differences.
Recent turmoil demonstrates just how tightly linked global markets are now. Shift in Fed policy coupled with internal problems in a number of emerging-market countries have given financial markets around the world the jitters.
John Barge had a doctor’s appointment in Rome on the morning of Snow Jam 14, so he was late getting off on his morning commute to Atlanta. His car was already slipping on the ice by the time he got to Cartersville, so he decided to call the state superintendent’s office in Atlanta and tell them to close up shop.
The state superintendent doesn’t make the call on whether to close schools, but Barge at least had his office staff on the way home before the worst of the traffic havoc began.
So give Barge credit for good timing. He’ll need an awful lot of it if he has any hope of overtaking Gov. Nathan Deal in the short sprint to the May 20 Republican gubernatorial primary.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed may be bucking the adage that history judges leaders for their performance in battles not of their choosing.
One battle Reed did choose, and on which he will be judged, is to help the Falcons build a new stadium. The mayor has not been able to end the battle, though it was to have been over when the Atlanta City Council approved in December a community benefits deal that released $200 million in construction financing.
More than two months after that council vote, the stadium financing is still not a done deal: The city’s funding could be tied up in court for a year; a $200 million loan from the NFL is contingent on the city’s funding; and the state’s request to Atlanta to abandon land for the stadium is lingering in the Atlanta City Council.
Much to experts’ surprise, Atlanta residential real estate is seeing double-digit gains putting the January Cal-Culator at a record-high.
The Fox Theatre sometimes releases rush tickets for popular shows. Twenty prime seats for “Book of Mormon” would go for only $25 each to ten lucky winners whose names get drawn from a box two hours before showtime.
The key word here was lucky. I don’t win anything. The ticket lottery could be a test of how truly elusive luck is for me.
I gave myself three chances to test my crappy track record against the destiny of “The Book of Mormon.” This is what happened.
“In setting these dark elements to sunny melodies, ‘The Book of Mormon’ achieves something like a miracle,” the New York Times said in a glowing 2011 review when the play opened on Broadway. The creators had found a sweet spot between ridicule and reverence of religion, and “Mormon” went on to win nine Tonys—including best musical.
I wanted to see what everyone was talking about, and I wanted to be able to tell people that I had seen it too.
