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Posted inDavid Pendered

New Airport West CID hangs in balance as influential backers eye decision of Fulton tax commissioner

by David Pendered

The year-long effort to create a special tax district near Atlanta’s airport in order to promote economic development may be near a successful conclusion.

On Wednesday, representatives of the Fulton County tax commissioner and the proposed Airport West CID are slated to meet to see if they can clear up some discrepancies. The tax commissioner’s report, released Monday, showed the CID missed the mark by 4 percent of property owners.

“There are a couple of hundred houses that have been listed as commercial properties,” said Emory Morsberger, who is helping to lead the effort. “Once we figure out how to knock out the residential, we’ll exceed the threshold very nicely.”

Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta welcomes kempt vendors; MARTA to allow food concessions in 2015, starting with four stations

by David Pendered

A trip to downtown Atlanta may soon include the chance to buy snacks and souvenirs and even a meal from vendors along Atlanta’s sidewalks and in MARTA stations.

The Atlanta City Council approved a plan Monday that is to have vendors back on the streets before Christmas. MARTA could have sandwich shops and coffee kiosks in stations within two years, based on results of a study due by February.

One thing everyone in charge agrees is that the vending programs will look nothing like the “Third World flea market on steroids” that set up shop in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympic Games, to cite a description coined by Dick Yarbrough, chief communications officer for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.

Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

Under I-85, DOT linking Atlantans to nature and BeltLine

by Ben Smith

The unfinished trail is bordered in part by cedar trees native to the Himalayas. It runs by a creek where, on a recent morning, fallen leaves floated like boats and a blue heron glided gracefully over the water. Up a steep bank, cars and trucks roar along Interstate 85.

Welcome to the new Creekside Trail, a transformative project by the Georgia Department of Transportation to turn a half-mile of scrubland north of Lindbergh Drive into a hiking path. This is one example that the BeltLine is becoming a catalyst for other trail projects.

The trail, between I-85 and the North Fork of Peachtree Creek, is the first nature trail built by the state transportation agency. It reveals more than just a small oasis right under the tires of thousands of daily commuters in Atlanta. It’s a spawn of the mothership BeltLine, a secondary trail that is supposed to beckon Atlantans out of their cars to walk or bike to work in Buckhead and northeast Atlanta.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Choices around new Falcons stadium — parking lots or people places

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

So what is it going to be Atlanta — are we building a central city for cars or for people?

The looming test for our town is the way we develop around the new Atlanta Falcons stadium. Several proposals have raised their ugly heads to suggest that we are still tied to the almighty car rather than the vision of a thriving walkable city.

But those proposals are out of sync with everything we’ve been led to believe about what can and should happen around the new stadium.

Posted inTom Baxter

The big news this season is in the bones

Avatar photo by Tom Baxter

Often the biggest news stays buried longest. This fall we’ve witnessed another government shutdown, the chaotic roll out of the health care networks and the reemergence of polio, long forgotten, in war-torn Syria. But there’s a good chance that in the future, the announcement of what’s been unearthed in that other Georgia on the other side of the globe will be looked on as this season’s biggest development.

For a long time, the people who study these kinds of things thought of human evolution as a family tree. Over the past few decades, as a wide variety of human-like, or hominin, specimens were discovered, that concept was replaced by the idea of a family bush. Many related species evolved over time, researchers concluded. Each new discovery generated a new species name — homo habilis, homo ergaster, and so forth — making the bush progressively thicker. Only one of these species survived — but which? — and evolved into homo sapiens, which is us.

These assumptions have been challenged in a dramatic way by a study published this month in Science magazine.

Posted inUncategorized

How Georgia gave birth to the CDC and helped fight malaria (Part 2)

by Jamil Zainaldin

It was Coca-Cola that first brought Robert Woodruff and President Eisenhower together in World War II, through the morale-boosting campaign to put a Coke in the hands of all military service personnel.

After the war, “Ike” enjoyed hunting quail at Ichauway Plantation as Woodruff’s guest. Thus, with Congress still intransigent, it was time for a personal intervention.

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

‘All is Lost’ — Robert Redford has lost none of his acting abilities when he alone takes on trials of Indian Ocean

Avatar photo by Eleanor Ringel Cater

As rigorous as it is remarkable, “All Is Lost” could easily be characterized as “Gravity at Sea.” You’ll understand me better after you see it.

The movie stars Robert Redford. Co-stars him, too. And he plays all the supporting roles.

What I’m saying is “All Is Lost” is a one-man tour-de-force, a haunting meditation on old men — unbelievably, the Sundance Kid is now 77 — and the sea.

Director J.C. Chandor’s only other film couldn’t be more different. The verbally and financially acrobatic “Margin Call” is a minor classic of economy and ensemble acting, craftily capturing the survivor mentality that can happen when a Wall Street firm goes into freefall. Everywhere you look, there are A-plus actors: Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci, Zachary Pinto, Simon Baker, Paul Bettany, just for a start.

Conversely, in “All Is Lost,” nobody and no thing keeps Redford company. Not a tiger named Richard Parker, nor a soccer ball named Wilson, or even a wisecracking George Clooney.

Posted inLatest News

Islamic Speakers Bureau still building bridges more than 12 years after 9/11

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

After three years of working on the idea, Soumaya Khalifa launched the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta on Aug. 18, 2001.

Little did she know that 24 days later — on 9/11 — the Islamic Speakers Bureau would become more critical and relevant to healing the divisions and correcting the misconceptions that many Americans had toward Muslims.

Khalifa, who was born in Turkey and grew up on Texas, had been working at Georgia-Pacific when she launched the Islamic Speakers Bureau to help build better understanding between Americans and Muslims.

Then when 9/11 happened, Khalifa thought: “What do we do now?”

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Atlanta a national leader in nonprofit sector

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on November 1, 2013

When it comes to pure horsepower, metro Atlanta’s nonprofit sector rivals any other metro area in the United States.

Of the top 20 nonprofit organizations in the country, five are based in metro Atlanta, according to the 2013 Philanthropy 400 listing just published by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. No other metro area is home to as many of the top 20 nonprofits in the United States.

New York, which is home to 72 organizations on the Philanthropy 400 list, surprisingly does not have one nonprofit in the top 20. Virginia, however, has three in the top 20, including the No. 1 nonprofit in the country — United Way Worldwide.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta vendors could work before Christmas as Mayor Reed, AJC spar over Reed’s handling of issue

by David Pendered

Atlanta’s street vendors could be back in business before the Christmas holiday season if the Atlanta City Council approves Monday the proposal submitted by Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration.

The council is expected to vote for the proposal that was passed Oct. 29 by the council’s Public Safety Committee, though the committee left the door open for any last-minute revisions to be made before the final vote. Vendors generally support the plan.

The politics of the vending issue now unfold in a very public debate between Reed and Kyle Wingfield, a columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This back-and-forth arises even as Reed’s reelection campaign is promoting a brochure featuring positive comments about Reed published in the AJC.

Posted inGuest Column

With several tweaks, Atlanta streetcar can lead region to new transit era

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist DAVID EMORY, a transportation planner who is president of Citizens for Progressive Transit

Citizens for Progressive Transit has been a supporter of the Atlanta Streetcar project since it was just a line on a map, and we are thrilled to see the return of rail transit construction to the city after more than a decade of inactivity.

As construction continues on the Streetcar’s initial segment Downtown, we turn our attention toward key operational and policy decisions that must be made to support the project and maximize its success.

To this end, we offer the following suggestions to enhance the Streetcar’s ridership, further its appeal to those new to public transportation, and realize its transformative potential.

Posted inDavid Pendered

ARC’s State of the Region breakfast returns to message of hope, progress

by David Pendered

The tone of this year’s annual ARC State of the Region breakfast was dramatically different from the 2012 event.

The 2013 State of the Region returned to traditional themes of hope and progress that were notably absent from last year’s event. The 2012 breakfast seemed overshadowed by a subtext of “lift yourself up by your bootstraps” despite a sour economy and voter rejection of a proposed sales tax for transportation.

The event Friday looked ahead to long-term prosperity expected to come out of an emerging development trend that’s been quantified in a recent report by urban land use strategist and developer Chris Leinberger, the keynote speaker. In addition, the ARC formally unveiled a survey showing that two thirds of respondents are happy to call the region their home.

Posted inLatest News

Metro Atlanta Speaks survey shows strong support for public transit

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

Metro Atlanta residents believe the economy (24.4 percent) is the region’s most pressing problem followed by traffic (21.4 percent), according to a new survey released Friday by the Atlanta Regional Commission.

The public opinion survey was conducted by the A.L. Burruss Institute of Public Service and Research at Kennesaw State University. More than 2.100 voting-age residents in the 10-county Atlanta region participated in the statistically-significant “Metro Atlanta Speaks” survey.

One of the most striking results of the survey was the strong support for public transportation.

Posted inLatest News

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson tells Atlanta Interfaith prayer breakfast: ‘Good people doing good things’ in D.C.

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

At the Rotary Club of Atlanta’s annual Interfaith Business Prayer breakfast, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) described another side of Washington, D.C. not readily apparent from today’s news reports.

Just 24 hours earlier, Isakson said he and fellow senators of both parties had been holding hands during a morning prayer. It is a weekly ritual that occurs every Wednesday morning — the Senate prayer breakfast — when a group of senators — sometimes it’s 15 and other times it’s 35 of them — get together to sing hymns and pray.

“You would never know that from watching C-SPAN,” Isakson said, alluding to the partisanship plaguing Washington, D.C. in recent years.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Post Properties sells Renaissance in downtown Atlanta as corporate revenues dip lower than expected

by David Pendered

Atlanta-based Post Properties has sold its Renaissance community in downtown Atlanta for a price that exceeded the company’s expectations.

The sales price was a bright spot in a quarterly report released Wednesday that showed the company’s revenue forecast has slowed more than expected. The decline prompted the company to reduce rents in order to maintain occupancy rates going into winter, though evidently not in the Atlanta market because leasing here remains strong.

Post announced it had closed the sale of Renaissance for a gross price of $47.5 million. Renaissance is the second Atlanta property Post has sold in the past two years. In early 2012, Post sold its 35 percent ownership in the Post Biltmore for a gross price of $51 million.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: Nature Conservancy – Georgia campaign raises $26 million

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on October 25, 2013

The Nature Conservancy in Georgia not only met its $25 million fundraising goal — it surpassed it by almost $1 million — raising $25.9 million.

In 2010, the Nature Conservancy announced its $25 million capital campaign, which helped protect more than 44,000 acres of land in Georgia and help support important science and restoration across the state and beyond.

Posted inLatest News

Falcons stadium architect Bill Johnson can’t wait for the retractable roof to open for the first time

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

After the new $1.2 billion Atlanta Falcons stadium design was unanimously approved by the Georgia World Congress Center Authority board Tuesday afternoon, the lead architect — Bill Johnson — expressed excitement rather than concern.

Asked whether he was worried about whether the first-of-its-kind design for a retractable roof stadium would work, Johnson laughed.

Quite the opposite, he said.

“I’m looking forward to when that roof opens up for the first time,” Johnson said of the eight panels that will travel along octagonal tracks to create an opening to the skies. “The heavens will open up.”

Posted inLatest News

Plum Creek Timber buying 501,000 acres in Southeast; 36,000 in Georgia

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

Plum Creek Timber Co. is adding to its land holdings in the Southeast including 36,000 acres in Georgia.

On Monday Oct. 28, Plum Creek announced that it had signed a $1.1 billion purchase and sale agreement to acquire about 501,000 acres of industrial timberlands, associated wind and mineral assets, and an interest in about 109,000 acres of high-value rural and development-quality lands from MeadWestvaco Corp.

The transaction is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2013 and it is still subject to customary closing conditions.

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