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Posted inGuest Column

A driving force behind small business success in Atlanta and Southeast

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist CASSIUS BUTTS, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration – Region IV

Georgia is on my mind. My late father, Courtlandt Sr., was a Vietnam veteran and an aerospace engineer; and my mother, Barbara Ann, was the owner and operator of several businesses.

My brother, Courtlandt Jr., and I embarked on various business ventures starting at very young ages. When I think of ongoing entrepreneurial development, I often say: “Your passion is your purpose; and your purpose is your plan.”

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: Funding cuts forces YWCA to close homeless shelter

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on January 17, 2014

The YWCA of Greater Atlanta will close its five-bedroom Cascade House for homeless women and children on Jan. 17 so it can focus its efforts on its other core programs.

The “Women in Transition” homeless program, located at the Cascade House in southwest Atlanta, cost the YWCA nearly $250,000 to operate last year.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Brazil, a dynamic business partner, site of Reed’s next trade mission

by David Pendered

Brazil is one of Georgia’s leading trade partners, and Mayor Kasim Reed intends to strengthen relations during a trade mission he’s to lead there in April. Reed is just wrapping up his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Metro Atlanta’s connection to Brazil is closer than might be expected, if the only consideration were the 4,600 flight miles or so that separate Atlanta from the capitol, Sao Paulo. An air router showed this distance is about 400 miles more than the mileage between Atlanta and London.

In terms of trade through Georgia’s seaports, Brazil is the state’s eighth largest export market and the 15th largest source of imports, according to the U.S. Census. A UGA study showed in 2012 that more than 156,000 jobs in metro Atlanta are tied to Georgia’s ports.

Posted inDavid Pendered

DeKalb County’s interim CEO outlines plan to restore pride, performance

by David Pendered

DeKalb County interim CEO Lee May delivered a State of the County Address Thursday in which he promised a bright future while acknowledging his temporary seat in the county’s top office.

May named problems and proposed solutions. He portrayed his office and the Board of Commissioners as working together, rather than feuding. He said DeKalb’s young people will benefit from a new Office of Youth Services and a functioning school superintendent and board of education.

May took the stage around 8 p.m. and introduced his wife and mother of his two, soon to be three, children, Robin May. Quickly, the faith leader reached into the Old Testament to open his address with the biblical figure Nehamiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem – a task May likened to the rebuilding of DeKalb after CEO Burrell Ellis was indicted last year on felony charges of public corruption.

Posted inDavid Pendered

TSPLOST rejection hasn’t dampened demand for GDOT road repair funds

by David Pendered

Metro Atlanta has not forfeited many state funds to maintain local roads, despite the higher local match that results from voter rejection of the transportation sales tax in 2012, according to an analysis of figures in a new state report.

The figures seem to alleviate concerns that routine road maintenance could suffer because of penalties built into the state law that allowed for the transportation sales tax referendum. GDOT expects to release the new report shortly.

The 10-county region has drawn down $30.3 million from the Georgia Department of Transportation. Eight local governments did not meet the filing deadline and tentatively have left a total of $430,203 in GDOT coffers – money that probably will be distributed elsewhere on a needs basis.

Posted inLatest News

Atlanta Regional Commission wrestles with citizen member vote

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

The Atlanta Regional Commission, even with a new slate of elected officials as board members, reached another stalemate Wednesday in the election of a citizen board member.

Once again, the deadlock revolved around the election of the citizen member representing District 11 — which mainly covers portions of DeKalb and Fulton counties and a sliver of Cobb County.

That district has been represented by Tad Leithead of Cobb County, who has just finished serving two terms as chair of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

Citizen members are approved by the 23 elected officials on the ARC board — and bylaws call for members to receive at least a majority of the votes — putting the threshold at 12.

In December, the elected officials met to vote between Leithead and Minuard “Mickey” McGuire, an urban planner who had been proposed by Lee May, the interim CEO of DeKalb County.

Posted inLatest News

Atlanta’s Center for Civil Rights names key leaders to its team

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

With opening day exactly four months away, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights is announcing several strategic hires as part of its management team.

“It’s an exciting time for us at the Center,” said Doug Shipman, CEO of the attraction that is under construction on Pemberton Place — the same block that houses the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola.

“Our grand opening is fast approaching, and it’s a great feeling to have a high caliber team of individuals leading us to a successful launch,” Shipman added. “I look forward to the contributions of each of our new additions.”

Posted inLatest News

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed names interim team; heads to Davos

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

With the anticipated departure of Atlanta chief operating officer Duriya Farooqui on Jan 31, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has named a new interim team to run the city until a permanent replacement is found.

Reed, who left  Monday evening for Davos, Switzerland to attend the 2014 World Economic Forum with Coca-Cola Co. CEO Muhtar Kent, announced in press release on Tuesday that he is naming Michael Geisler to serve as interim chief operating officer beginning on Jan. 31.

Geisler currently serves as deputy commissioner and CFO for the City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management, a position he assumed in November 2012 after a national search conducted by the COO’s office.

Posted inLatest News

Ebenezer’s Raphael Warnock to Gov. Nathan Deal: Expanding Medicaid would be best way to honor MLK

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

Gov. Nathan Deal had long gone from Ebenezer Baptist Church during Monday’s 46th Martin Luther King Jr.’s Annual Commemorative Service when Senior Pastor Raphael Warnock shared his message.

But had he stayed, perhaps the governor might have gained some insights about what really matters to King’s followers.

Deal was one of the earlier speakers during the three-and-a-half hour service, and it is not surprising that he couldn’t stay for the entire program.

The governor did hear a passionate plea from King’s youngest child — Bernice A. King — who is CEO of the King Center.

Posted inSaba Long

Atlanta tech leaders — Core Reaction teams — need your help

by Saba Long

Four months ago, two Atlanta technology leaders, Scott Henderson and Rhonda Lowry, organized Core Reaction, a regional collaborative focused on helping the greater Atlanta area to thrive, play and grow.

Moving swiftly from ideation to sustainability, 13 teams ultimately transitioned to six final projects that are now in the early stages of public use.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Spring Street Elementary School about to disappear behind the Center for Puppetry Arts museum expansion

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

Ordinarily I would be thrilled to see one of Atlanta’s premier cultural institutions doubling in size and attracting a world-renowned collection as significant as Jim Henson’s puppets.

But my heart literally dropped to my stomach when I saw the design for the proposed expansion of the Center for Puppetry Arts.

Here is an institution devoted to the preservation of puppets from around the world, and yet the Center for Puppetry Arts has totally ignored the significant history and urban context of its own location — the former Spring Street Elementary School.

Posted inDavid Pendered

King’s final frontier: Georgia losing war on poverty, GBPI study calls for new policies to mitigate poverty

by David Pendered

A new report shows poverty is expanding in Georgia, a grim reminder of the final frontier Martin Luther King, Jr. had identified before his death.

The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute found that Georgia residents now comprise the sixth poorest population in the nation. Georgia’s poverty rate is at its highest since 1982. Some 1.8 million Georgians live in poverty – more than 19 percent of the state’s population.

King had announced his Poor People’s Campaign five months before his assassination in April 1968. Five weeks after the shooting, the campaign built an encampment on the National Mall in Washington to house demonstrators for six weeks. Robert Kennedy’s funeral procession passed through Resurrection City in a show of respect, according to Stanford University’s King research institute.

Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

A heroic alliance: caped crusaders and fashion photographer

by Ben Smith

In fiction, superheroes often elude the camera, their legends created by what bystanders thought they saw. Inside an Atlanta photography studio, Batman, Wonder Woman, Nightwing, Superman, the Green Lantern and other beloved superheroes are captured in light and shadow and framed as stylized fashion portraits.

These are real people from Atlanta, not movie stars or models. They make their own elaborate costumes and wear them to entertain hospitalized children. They are now the subjects of a photographer using his eye to elevate their zeal into an art form. The photographs, currently on display at the Showcase School of Photography, are windows into the world of fantasy, and show the power of refining the lens we use to look at the world.

Posted inTom Baxter

State of the State is between a rock and a hard place

Avatar photo by Tom Baxter

There was a time when the governor’s annual State of the State speech drew such a crowd to the Capitol, you could hardly get off the elevator on the third floor. This year the House gallery was filled with invited guests, but the group which gathered under the hall monitors to listen to what Gov. Nathan Deal had to say was significantly smaller than the one which collected to watch Sen. Don Balfour’s post-trial remarks the week before.

The sparse crowd had less to do with the importance of the speech than the digitalization of the lobbying trade. There were perhaps more eyes than ever trained on Deal last week, but many of them were watching him on streaming video.

In his first three State of the State speeches, Deal declared that the state of the state was “strong.” This being an election year, our status was upgraded this time to “excellent.”

Posted inHome Mortgages, Thought Leader, Uncategorized

How to Find the Right Homebuilder

by SaportaReport

You wouldn’t choose a doctor, babysitter or car mechanic without any background research, so why should you skimp on researching your homebuilder? Looking into homebuilders’ pasts can save time and massive repair bills in the future. A list of builders can be found on move.com, the National Association of Home Builders’ home listing website, or […]

Posted inUncategorized

Education for all seasons

by Jamil Zainaldin

We have grown accustomed to seeing front-page news concerning K-12 public education in Georgia and its progress (or lack of progress), but some of us may wonder what is prompting all the attention. Is the public school system “broken?” Are we falling farther behind the rest of the nation, and the world, in our educational “race to the top?”

Education has always been on our national mind. One of the very first legislative acts produced by our young national government was the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The ordinance’s most astonishing provision involved education. Free public schools, which previously existed only in New England, were mandated in every township of the new territory.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Frank Fernandez to lead Westside’s rebirth for Arthur Blank’s foundation

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on January 17, 2014

As important as it has been for Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank to select a leading architect to design an iconic football stadium, it has been just as important to recruit a visionary leader to help rebuild the neighborhoods around it.

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

Critiquing the Oscars — the good picks and those names left off the list

Avatar photo by Eleanor Ringel Cater

I’m not sure I can write about the Oscars yet again. Well, I can’t do it without admitting to my hypocrisy.

I think the Oscars are junk.  I stopped watching them for 10 years, then was forced by my job (film critic at the Atlanta newspaper) to watch them for about 30 years.

They could be interesting. They could be unintentionally hilarious.  And sometimes I really, truly cared a lot about the results. Mostly because a favorite performer or director finally got some recognition they probably deserved long before they actually won.

Of course, there are exceptions. Listing them would bore you to tears. Just for example: I was very happy when the Coen brothers and Frances McDormand got some long overdue kudos when they won for “Fargo.”

Posted inLatest News

King Center’s Salute to Greatness dinner features candor and women

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

The King Center’s annual Salute to Greatness dinner Saturday night broke new ground on two fronts.

Bernice A. King, CEO of the King Center, bravely addressed the hundreds attending the elegant fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta about the legal dispute underway between her and her two brothers — Dexter King and Martin Luther King III.

Second, the overarching theme of the night centered on the rights and empowerment of women. During the civil rights movement, women tended to play a background role giving the spotlight to men.

But on Saturday night, women took center-stage — and several of the men who did speak at the podium obviously had heard the message.

Posted inGuest Column

Martin Luther King Jr. helped inspire Maynard Jackson to run for office

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist VALERIE JACKSON, wife of the late Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, is a principal of Jackmont Hospitality Inc. and former host of NPR’s “Between the Lines”

Maynard Jackson left the hospital where his first child had been born the day before to march in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral cortege. The King and Dobbs families were long time friends. “Daddy King” was an executive member of John Wesley Dobbs’ (Maynard’s grandfather) Civil and Political League. Also, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at Dobbs’s funeral.

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