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Posted inMichelle Hiskey, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

Cicadas to pervade eastern U.S., but not Atlanta

by Michelle Hiskey

All that buzz about locusts descending soon is just that.

The Brood II cicada infestation is starting to emerge as billions of the creatures make their every-17-year appearance. What USA Today and others call “Swarmageddon” is reminiscent of the Biblical plague of locusts.

They aren’t coming here, the experts say, because Atlanta has cut down too many trees and laid down too many parking lots. Our city’s growth has further separated us from what some entomologists call an “amazing natural phenomenon.”

“We’re having a lot of cicada envy right now. A lot of people want to see them again, but here in Georgia, I’m afraid it’s not to going to happen,” said Nancy Hinkle, a professor of entomology at the University of Georgia. “At least not in the vast majority of the state.”

Posted inTom Baxter

Big news: Newspapers, long mourned, aren’t really dead

Avatar photo by Tom Baxter

There has recently been a man-bites-dog story about a newspaper, although it has received scant attention in the newspapers, which cover nothing so poorly as they cover themselves.

Last year the New Orleans Times-Picayune announced that it was cutting back to three print editions a week and would focus henceforth on “new and innovative ways” to cover the news online. That was a dog-bites-man story. The idea of cutting back circulation days has been kicked around in newspaper circles for several years, and Detroit and a few smaller papers have already done it. It’s in line with a larger narrative about the demise of newspapers at the hands of the internet.

Last month, however, the Times-Pic announced a change in strategy. This summer it will begin publication of a tabloid edition, to be called TPStreet, which it will sell for 75 cents a copy on the three weekdays — Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays — when it isn’t printing the old paper.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Fran Tarkenton ran onto the field in his first college game, launched a long drive and a legendary career

Avatar photo by adminmegan

The Georgia Bulldogs were losing 7-0 in the fourth quarter in their season opener in Austin, Texas, when they fielded a punt on the five yard line. The University of Texas, then the #11 team in the country, seemingly had the game well in hand on that humid Saturday night, September 20, 1958. Eighteen-year-old Sophomore Fran Tarkenton was not only a third-string quarterback on the Bulldogs, his coach was planning to frustrate the ambitious athlete further by postponing his football career another year by designating him a “red-shirt” player.

As the offensive players ran onto the field, Fran looked over and saw his team’s star quarterback sitting on the bench. In a move that today would no doubt be played over and over on ESPN Sports Center highlights, Fran strapped on his helmet and ran onto the field and knelt down in the huddle and called the next play.

Posted inSaba Long

Atlanta’s Project Grad helps a first generation of college students

by Saba Long

“At first I didn’t think about college. I just wanted to get out of high school…but after I graduated I realized that wasn’t enough,” stated Kristy Williams.

Williams, a 2006 graduate of Booker T. Washington High School and the first of her family to earn a high school diploma remarked during a Project GRAD Atlanta panel discussion at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema following a recent screening of First Generation — a feature-length documentary following four California high school students hoping to break the shackles of poverty by pursuing a college degree.

Shot over three years, the documentary captures the struggles of these four students — Dontay, the inner city athlete; Soma, a fatherless Samoan; Jess, a straight A student afraid to leave her small town behind and; Cecilia, the fiercely independent track star and daughter of migrant workers.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Dedicated dollars needed to improve parks, green space in metro Atlanta

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

It’s the same old story.

When government budgets get tighter, one of the first items to get cut is in the parks and recreation department. While parks and recreation centers are vitally important to a city’s quality of life, when it comes to choosing between police officers and park maintenance, public safety usually wins out.

Two metro Atlanta governments provide alternative approaches that show different approaches on how to fund park acquisition and maintenance — the City of Atlanta and Gwinnett County.

Margaret Connelly, executive director of the advocacy organization Park Pride, sent out an “Alert” on May 10 saying that the proposed City of Atlanta budget by Mayor Kasim Reed would shift about $3 million from trust funds to help cover an operating budget gap for fiscal year 2014.

Posted inDavid Pendered

PATH Foundation named in Ga. 400 trail, latest of its $55 million projects

by David Pendered

After building more than 180 miles of trails in Georgia, the PATH Foundation is now memorialized in the name of a future trail in Atlanta – PATH400 is the name of the trail that’s to run alongside and beneath Ga. 400.

When the trail’s complete, it will join a trail network valued at $55.5 million that PATH has completed and transferred to local governments, according to PATH’s most recent Form 990, the IRS tax return filed by non-profit organizations.

Despite the size of this contribution to public greenways, or perhaps because of it, the PATH Foundation has become such a fixture in metro Atlanta since it was formed in 1991 that it’s possible to forget that it is still a relatively small organization in the big world of non-profits.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Two churches are key to final Atlanta Falcons stadium site decision

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, May 10, 2013

Now that the new Atlanta Falcons stadium has been given a green light from the various governmental entities and now that an architect has been selected, the next step is finalizing the site.

Active discussions are underway to get that issue settled as soon as possible, so work can start on the $1 billion retractable-roof stadium.

According to official agreements, there’s an Aug. 1 deadline to determine if the preferred stadium location known as the “South site,” which is the land that sits between Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and the Georgia Dome, is feasible for the project.

Posted inGuest Column

Despite rain, Atlanta region needs to keep conserving and harvesting water

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist TERRY LAWLER, executive director of the Regional Business Coalition of Metropolitan Atlanta

Last month metro Atlanta’s primary source of water reached a milestone: Lake Lanier is back to full pool and rising.

Not only is Lake Lanier full, Lake Allatoona is also full, and every lake on the Chattahoochee, Etowah, Coosa, Ocmulgee, Flint and Oconee rivers are either full or within a foot of being full.

But before we start to celebrate, let’s not forget that our presently abundant water resources can change quickly.

Things were a lot different last year. Last year at this time Lake Lanier was five feet lower and dropping.

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

‘Mud’ — a new McConaughey movie that gets everything so right

Avatar photo by Eleanor Ringel Cater

You could say Hushpuppy meets Huck Finn in ‘Mud,” a remarkably fine film written and directed by Jeff Nichols.

Set a little ways up-water from “Beasts of the Southern Wild” in a soggy Arkansas tributary, “Mud” mixes the hard-scrabble reality of the Piggly Wiggly South with what’s left (barely) of the semi-mythic legacy of, say, Mark Twain.

The title character is a charming drifter played with exquisite rattlesnake charm by Matthew McConaughey. Mud isn’t a bad guy, but he’s capable of bad things — especially when he’s caught up in his blinkered romantic pursuit of a redneck temptress named Juniper (Reese Witherspoon, perfect as a sleazy angel in cut-offs).

Mud will — and has — do anything for her. Including murder.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Cheshire Bridge Road to remain an “adult” district, if Atlanta City Council upholds ruling by its zoning board

by David Pendered

A proposal to shut down the adult shops and clubs by 2018 along Cheshire Bridge Road in Atlanta was rejected Thursday by Atlanta’s Zoning Review Board.

The vote is not binding and doesn’t end the debate. The battle continues to the Atlanta City Council, where the area’s representative, Alex Wan, had introduced the measure with strong support from an array of neighborhood groups.

The opposition that gathered at the ZRB meeting included a mix of gays, strippers and Atlanta’s real estate interests – including Scott Selig, whose family has developed in Atlanta since 1918. Their protests centered on issues including free expression and property rights.

Posted inLatest News

Julie Ralston to head up ARC’s new Center for Strategic Relations

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

Julie Ralston, a mainstay at the Atlanta Regional Commission for 28 years, is taking on an enhanced role as director of the organization’s new Center for Strategic Relations.

The new center will focus on building stronger networks for regional action and progress through community engagement, communications and marketing, governmental affairs and strategic initiatives.

Ralston is well positioned to be the founding director of the new center because she has served as ARC’s communications director for 28 years. She also has coordinated the ARC’s annual State of Region breakfast, organized a quarterly public affairs television show and developed the Model Atlanta Regional Commission youth leadership program, which has graduated some 750 10th and 11th graders during the last 15 years.

Posted inDavid Pendered

New tollway director promises open communications from powerful agency in transportation network

by David Pendered

GRTA’s board offered a warm welcome Wednesday to Chris Tomlinson, the newest leader of metro Atlanta’s transportation system.

Tomlinson, executive director of the State Road and Tollway Authority, responded with a message that emphasized themes of communication and transparency.

The message could go a long way for a state entity that wields tremendous power over Georgia’s transportation system, but operates largely out of the public spotlight. SRTA is chaired by the governor and has the power to plan, develop and build roads funded by federal and state sources – in addition to tolls.

Posted inLatest News

Atlanta BeltLine not ready to name new CEO; approves $5 million to study new streetcar projects

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

The board of Atlanta BeltLine Inc. (ABI) met Wednesday morning, going into executive session, to discuss who will be its next CEO among the five already disclosed finalists.

But once they called the public back in the room, it became quickly obvious that little new information would be shared.

The Atlanta BeltLine board, however, did take action on four resolutions that could determine the future streetcar projects for the city.

As for the search, ABI Chairman John Somerhalder, who is CEO of AGL Resources, said the process is continuing.

“We have five good candidates,” Somerhalder said after the meeting. “We agreed on a process to finalize the information we need to make a final decision, and we will have to do that in an open session We don’t have a defined time (to make that decision).”

Posted inDavid Pendered

Sounds of meteor hitting Russia, North Korea’s nuclear test, posted on YouTube by Georgia Tech

by David Pendered

When a meteor slammed into Russia in February, the infrasound signals were captured by a listening station in Lilburn and analyzed by a Georgia Tech researcher.

The signals from the meteor were compared to seismic signals associated with North Korea’s nuclear test in February, and an earthquake in Nevada.

If nothing else, the results speak to the sort of “gee whiz” research underway in metro Atlanta, much of it based out of Georgia Tech. The sounds of the meteor and two other events are now available on YouTube.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: Chick-fil-A Foundation spreading its wings

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, May 3, 2013

A new corporate foundation is solidifying its place on Atlanta’s landscape.

In the past couple of years, the Chick-fil-A Foundation has a hired a new director, adopted a new name, and most recently, appointed an impressive advisory board to help it support youth and education in the community.

Rodney Bullard, who became executive director of the foundation in 2011, said he has been studying other corporate foundations in Atlanta to adopt best practices and be as effective as possible.

Posted inLatest News

Coca-Cola pledges $3.8 million in grants to fight obesity in Georgia

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

The Coca-Cola Co. Wednesday morning pledged $3.8 million in grants to help fight the obesity epidemic in Georgia.

In a press conference at the World of Coca-Cola with Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent said: “We are inspiring our hometown of Atlanta and home state of Georgia to be active.”

The effort is part of Kent’s belief in the “golden triangle” of government, business and civil society working together to work on community issues.

“Golden triangle efforts like these and others in Colorado, Chicago and San Antonio amplify the active role we must all take in helping to tackle the complex issue of obesity,” Kent said. “We can only succeed with the collaboration of local governments, community leaders and other willing partners.”

Posted inLatest News

Karol Mason rejoining Obama team as U.S. Assistant Attorney General

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

Prominent Atlanta attorney Karol Mason keeps moving up in the world.

She has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Justice Programs.

Mason, a lifelong Democrat, joined the Alston & Bird law firm in 1983 becoming its first black woman partner in 1990. She concentrated on public and project finance, and she chaired the firm’s public finance group, and she also served on the firm’s management committee.

This is not the first time Mason has been part of President Barack Obama’s administration. Mason worked on Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign as a member of its national finance committee, raising funds in Georgia.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Economic forecasts in Atlanta Mayor Reed’s budget not for faint of heart

by David Pendered

Those who are desperately straining to see improvements in Atlanta’s local economy may want to skip Mayor Kasim Reed’s budget proposal, or at least limit their view to a few bright spots.

Reed’s budget is based on some grim predictions: Property tax revenues will decline; sales tax revenues will stagnate; lease payments for city-owned properties will decline, according to revenue overviews scattered throughout the budget book.

Bright spots include revenue from business licenses, which is forecast to rise a bit as business income increases. The hotel/motel tax is expected to rise modestly as the business and tourism trade holds on. In addition, Atlanta expects to hire rather than lay off employees, with a third of the new positions to be located in the executive offices that report directly to the mayor.

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