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A civic dream: Oglethorpe and the founding of the Georgia colony

by Jamil Zainaldin

Hidden in Georgia clay, floating in Georgia air, are stories that have the power to tell us who we are, where we’ve come, and maybe even where we’re headed. These are what I call “civic stories” — stories about building new kinds of communities.

Such stories can be thought of as dreams, as civic dreams, and even if they lack a happy ending, civic dreams can’t really die. They usually carry some message for us to decipher. When this message is revealed, civic dreams can become guides and even inspirations. They can help us take the measure of the present in our long journey of learning how to live together.

Posted inLatest News

Keith Parker: MARTA’s rail system ideally would be double its size

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

MARTA was one of three transit agencies built at the same time — BART in San Francisco and METRO in Washington, D.C.

Both BART and METRO today have about 100 miles of rail, but MARTA only has 48 miles — giving fuel to the argument that it is a skeletal system.

But if its up to MARTA General Manager Keith Parker the transit agency will re-enter into an expansion mode as soon as fiscally possible.

“MARTA has only reached half of its potential,” Parker told members of the Rotary Club of Atlanta on Monday. “We are a transit system we feel is poised to do much more, to be like Washington and San Francisco, which are 100-mile transit authorities.”

Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta willing to pay 8 percent interest on Falcons stadium bonds

by David Pendered

Atlanta is willing to pay an interest rate of up to 8 percent for the $278.3 million in revenue bonds it intends sell to provide construction financing for the new Falcons stadium.

To put that rate in perspective, Atlanta’s airport is paying rates ranging from 2 percent to 6 percent on its $3.1 billion in outstanding bonds, according to the airport’s 2013 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The airport bonds are paid with proceeds of airport revenues, passenger fees and federal grants.

These terms and others are cited in the bond validation petition that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Granville is scheduled to hear Feb. 17. Opponents who think the stadium deal could do more than the current plan to transform nearby neighborhoods are expected to contest the bond validation.

Posted inGuest Column

New Braves and Falcons stadiums offer redevelopment opportunities

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist JAY SILVERMAN, senior associate at Lord Aeck Sargent and president of the Atlanta Chapter of the American Institute of Architects

As the current president of AIA’s Atlanta, I have heard many concerns from our membership about the demolition of the Georgia Dome, the potential negative impact of the Braves leaving their downtown Atlanta facility and the immense public cost of each of the two new stadiums.

I have come to understand that our baseball and football teams need to build new facilities to insure their financial success for the future.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: ToolBank USA launching mobile disaster unit from Atlanta

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 07, 2014

Atlanta-based ToolBank USA — and its nine ToolBanks across the country — is now ready within 72 hours to help any community in the United States struck by disaster.

The Atlanta nonprofit unveiled its new mobile disaster unit on Feb. 6 that it will be able to deploy to any community that has been ravaged by storms or hurricanes or earthquakes or any catastrophe requiring large-scale volunteer response teams working on the ground.

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

‘The Monuments Men’ – George Clooney tells true WWII story of saving art

Avatar photo by Eleanor Ringel Cater

“The Monument Men” is not “Ocean’s 14.”

For one thing, it doesn’t have Brad Pitt.

For another, it’s set during World War II.

For a third, well, it’s not even as good as “Ocean’s 12” or “13.”

Based on a true story, George Clooney’s latest group effort reunites him with Matt Damon, but adds Bill Murray, John Goodman, Bob Balaban, Jean DuJardin (“The Artist”) and Hugh Bonneville (yes, M’Lord himself from “Downton Abbey”) to the mix.

Posted inLatest News

J. Mack Robinson – quiet business leader, philanthropist – passes away

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By Maria Saporta

An updated update: Due to weather concerns, the memorial service now is scheduled for  Friday, Feb. 14 at 2 p.m. at Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church. The family will be receiving guests immediately following the service in the Robinson Atrium at the High Museum of Art. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to either Emory University’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center or the High Museum of Art.

Legendary Atlanta businessman J. Mack Robinson passed away Saturday night after a long illness.

Robinson, 90, enjoyed one of the most colorful professional lives of any businessman in Atlanta — experiencing the worlds of banking, insurance, fashion design, media, horse racing and numerous other business sectors.

Throughout his life, Robinson was probably best known as a polite, soft-spoken Southern gentleman who rarely had an unkind word for anyone.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation to restore Rhodes Hall

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on January 31, 2014

Rhodes Hall, the home of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, needs some love (and money).

The Georgia Trust is launching the public phase of a $1.7 million campaign to fund the green rehabilitation and restoration of Rhodes Hall. It already has secured more than $1.5 million in grants and pledges.

Rhodes Hall is one of the last remaining grand mansions that used to line Peachtree Street at the turn of the last century.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta BeltLine creates, fills job of economic development director

by David Pendered

The Atlanta BeltLine has created the position of director of economic development and filled it with a former director of the Savannah Economic Development Authority. Terms were not disclosed.

Jerald Mitchell is to devise and implement a strategy for economic development around the BeltLine, according to a statement the BeltLine released Thursday.

Mitchell’s hiring was announced 11 weeks after Mayor Kasim Reed announced he intends to develop the BeltLine as a public private partership. Reed said he is looking for an investor to put in $3 billion to $4 billion, nearly double the 2005 estimate of the BeltLine’s development costs.

Posted inLatest News

Gov. Nathan Deal tells Atlanta business leaders that transportation fixes remain a funding issue

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By Maria Saporta

Gov. Nathan Deal used the forum of speaking to the high-level board of the Commerce Club at its Thursday lunch to talk about a “few things we had in the budget designed to stimulate economic development in our state.”

After the closed lunch meeting, Deal spent a few minutes in an interview to talk about what issues were on the minds of some of the top business leaders in Atlanta.

Deal, who had been invited to speak to the Commerce Club board three times in 2013 but ended up having to cancel each time, also outlined his plans for criminal justice reform and education in the state.

After his prepared remarks, business leaders asked the governor about what the state should do to fix the transportation issues that exist in metro Atlanta.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Falcons stadium: MLK Drive bridge severed, court hearing set for Feb. 17 on $278 million in city funding

by David Pendered

Progress on the new Falcons stadium has hit a new high gear.

A demolition crew worked Wednesday to rip out a portion of the viaduct of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. A Fulton County Superior Court judge on Tuesday set a hearing date of Feb. 17 to validate the $278.3 million the city has agreed to borrow in order provide for the stadium’s construction.

The fate of the stadium plan is far from certain: Area residents have indicated they intend to block the bond sale in court; the Atlanta City Council hasn’t agreed to abandon six parcels of land the Falcons say they need to build the stadium.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Easy money as landlord of cheap homes proving an elusive dream

by David Pendered

The once-hot “REO to rental” business has cooled in metro Atlanta and beyond.

A year ago, average investors were kicking themselves for not getting in on the ground floor of an emerging industry: Buy cheap bank-owned or foreclosed houses and rent them for a tidy profit. News that Blackstone Group alone had bought 1,400 houses in the region in April 2013 showed the market had taken off.

Now, a report in Tuesday’s edition of Financial Times shows that Blackstone and others are having to take discount prices for their REO-backed securities. A congressional investigation into the industry is looming.

Posted inLatest News

King Center CEO Bernice King: My brothers want to sell my father’s Nobel Peace Prize medal and Bible

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

Bernice A. King – the youngest and only living daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. – issued the strongest statement yet against her two brothers — Dexter Scott King and Martin Luther King III — and their desire to sell two of their late father’s prized possessions.

Bernice King, CEO of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent and Social Change, went public Tuesday about how her brothers now want to sell her father’s Nobel Peace Prize medal and his personal Bible.

Once again, the King brothers used a monumental date in order to take an action against their sister. They first filed a suit trying to get her ousted as a CEO of the King Center on Aug. 28, 2013 — the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Posted inLatest News

Turner expanding Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang offerings

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By Maria Saporta

Thanks to their popularity and demand for original and branded entertainment, Turner Broadcasting System’s Animation, Young Adults and Kids Media offerings will be expanding and undergoing strategic changes, the company announced Tuesday morning.

The expansions and strategic changes will impact Adult Swim, the Cartoon Network and the all-cartoon-classics Boomerang.

Stuart Snyder, president and COO of Turner’s AYAKM (Animation, Young Adults and Kids Media), announced the following changes:

Posted inLatest News

Atlanta Falcons defend plans to realign MLK; AU presidents disagree

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

A stand-off is intensifying between the west side communities and the Atlanta Falcons over the future alignment of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive around the new football stadium.

The presidents of the four Atlanta University colleges wrote a letter on Jan. 24 to Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell and Frank Poe, executive director of the Georgia World Congress Center expressing “deep concern” about the latest plans for the street.

Beverly Tatum, president of Spelman College who serves as chair of the Atlanta University Center Consortium, sent the letter on behalf of her colleagues — the presidents of Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine and Clark Atlanta University as well as the thousands of students that attend their institutions.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Business plan for Savannah port could make Louisiana Purchase blush

by David Pendered

In the push to deepen the Port of Savannah, one issue that’s not received much attention is how the facility will handle the hoped-for increase in cargo that’s driving the desire to serve bigger ships.

The Georgia Ports Authority does have a $1.4 billion plan to expand its cargo handling capacity. What’s still to be created is a better network to attract and manage goods heading to and from the port, said GPA Executive Director Curtis Foltz.

Posted inSaba Long

Metro Atlanta and nation need to step up investment in transportation

by Saba Long

Last week, national journalists unapologetically exposed Georgia and metro region’s dirty laundry. A mere few inches of snow crippled the state and the ninth largest metro area in the union. Frustrations and anger were displayed. And the blame-laying commenced.

An hour before the snow began to fall, I walked (a reliable form of transportation in a snow storm) to a Capitol press conference.

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

Phillip Seymour Hoffman – a fabulous actor we may have taken for granted

Avatar photo by Eleanor Ringel Cater

How did this happen?

Oscar-winning actor, Phillip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his apartment Super Bowl Sunday. He was 46. And do I need to tell you he was found with a needle in his arm?

Hoffman was a ferociously fine actor, with the looks of a character player, but the charisma of a leading man. He often bounced back and forth between the two — with an ease we took for granted.

I met Hoffman once. In 2002, I think. Up in his hometown of Rochester, New York (actually, he was born in Fairport, a Rochester suburb). What I remembered most — aside from being more than a bit awestruck — is how much he reminded me of Charlie Brown’s dirt-centric friend, Pigpen.

Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

Savoring Hidinger’s legacy: Serving those who serve Atlanta

by Ben Smith

Ryan Hidinger’s dream of opening his own restaurant did not die with him. That dream, which the late chef had shared with his wife, Jennifer, to make a living running their own establishment, has grown into something much larger: a restaurant that will provide financial support to restaurant industry workers beset by catastrophic illnesses.

The service industry is the backbone of Atlanta, the reason that thousands of people gather here every year for conventions and big events. However, those who choose service careers – like the restaurants Hidinger worked for and devoted himself to –  are especially vulnerable to catastrophic events. About 250,000 of them work in metro Atlanta, and tend to be counted among those most likely to be uninsured, and hit hardest by lost wages when they lose shifts due to illness. Hidinger, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 gallbadder cancer in December 2012, experienced this firsthand.

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