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Posted inGuest Column

Time to repair our immigration policy and the American dream

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist KEVIN KUNTZ, president of the Southeast Division of McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.

I write today as a conservative and registered Republican, a descendant of German immigrants to America, and a 30-year veteran of the construction industry.  I started on the jobsite and worked my way to a senior management role with one of the country’s oldest and largest general contractors.  These threads all tie together.

When the economy collapsed in 2007 and 2008, the construction industry was hit much harder than most.  For the past several years, our unemployment rate has been double the national average, hovering at times near 25 percent.  The January 2013 employment data showed an increase in construction jobs across the United States, but even now the industry remains two million jobs below its April 2006 peak.

Posted inDavid Pendered

With stadium deal approved, GWCC seeks new lobbyist for state, local affairs – especially Atlanta City Hall

by David Pendered

Now that Atlanta has approved public funding for the Falcons stadium, the Georgia World Congress Center is hiring a new lobbyist at a salary that could exceed $100,000 a year.

The GWCC was sidelined during the final financial negotiations for public funding for the $1 billion stadium. Gov. Nathan Deal decided against asking the Legislature to get involved in the tax issue and asked Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed to broker a deal with the Falcons.

Frank Poe, the GWCC’s executive director, told ESPN.com on the day the preliminary deal was announced, March 7, that he was not aware of the financial agreement until, “the last 24 hours.”

Posted inDavid Pendered

Drought’s grip easing, but 2,000 azaleas died at one home in Rome because of dry conditions

by David Pendered

Drought conditions have eased in Georgia and Lake Lanier is just 0.4 foot short of full pool, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center and a monitor at the lake.

The improvements are likely a function of rainfall amounts that, at least in the Atlanta area, have exceeded the 30-year-average during the first three months of the year. Average rainfall totals are nearly 13.7 inches and this year’s total is nearly 17 inches, excluding April, according to the National Weather Service.

But don’t tell that to a couple in Rome, who blame the lingering drought for the loss of some 2,000 azaleas on their property. The couple once had about 5,000 azaleas, according to a report on the drought center’s website.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Housing shows signs of recovery, but two reports shade it differently

by David Pendered

The combined insight of two new reports sheds an interesting perspective on the housing market in metro Atlanta. The question remains: Who’s buying?

The most recent Beige Book from the Federal Reserve described home sales as “strong” in the Atlanta district, which covers portions of the Deep South.

In a report specific to metro Atlanta, Bloomberg news reported Thursday that the Blackstone Group has purchased 1,400 homes in the Atlanta area. The transaction is described as the largest bulk sale in the homes-to-lease industry – a business built on folks who don’t want to buy a home or can’t.

Posted inEleanor Ringel Cater

‘To the Wonder’ – twirling to nowhere

Avatar photo by Eleanor Ringel Cater

Terrence Malick’s “To the Wonder” is about a girl who lost her twirl.

Malick, of course, is the famously infertile filmmaker who once went two decades between movies. After blazing a name for himself with a pair of brilliant efforts in the 1970s, “Badlands” and “Days of Heaven,” Malick went all J.D. Salinger on us. Reclusive. Elusive. Legendary.

Finally, in 1998, he completed the fairly oblique albeit star-laden “The Thin Red Line,” a World War II tale that misused everybody from Sean Penn to George Clooney.

But it was pure genius compared to Malick’s follow-ups: “The New World,” an epic-sized bit of nonsense about Pocahontas, and the interminable — and interminably ludicrous — “The Tree of Life,” which co-starred Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and some dinosaurs.

Posted inLatest News

MARTA’s new five-year fiscal plan sees less pain and balanced budget

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

When Keith Parker, MARTA ‘s general manager, came on board in December, the prospects for the transit system were dire.

The MARTA board had adopted a five-year budget plan that called for no salary increases for employees — continuing a practice that has been in place for five years. It called for a 25-cent fare increase in fiscal year 2014 (which begins in July) increasing MARTA’s base fare to $2.75 — among the highest transit fare in the country. It projected reserves declining from $109.7 million in fiscal year 2013 to $1.5 million at the end of fiscal year 2018. And it still expected that it would face an unsustainable healthcare business model.

On Thursday morning, however, Parker and his staff presented an alternate five-year plan to the MARTA board’s Business Management Committee — one that has a much brighter outcome for the transit system.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: DPR completes acquisition of Hardin Construction

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, April 19, 2013

California-based DPR Construction firm is the new owner of Hardin Construction, an Atlanta-based builder that was founded in 1946. The previously announced deal closed on April 15.

From now on, the combined company will be named DPR except in the Atlanta market (Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee) where it will be branded as DPR Hardin Construction.

Posted inLatest News

Georgia Tech stays local in naming new dean of College of Architecture

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

After conducting a national search for a new dean, Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture ended up picking the internal choice.

Steven P. French, associate dean for research and professor of city and regional planning, will become dean of Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture on July 1.

He will succeed Dean Alan Balfour, who announced last August that he intended to step down in June and rejoin the architecture faculty.

Posted inLatest News

Warren Buffett: ‘I wouldn’t think of selling a share’ of Coca-Cola stock

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

The 2013 Coca-Cola Co. annual meeting began more like a fireside chat between CEO Muhtar Kent and the legendary Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the largest shareholder of the soft drink company.

For most shareholders attending the annual meeting at the Cobb Galleria Centre, Buffett’s presence was a pleasant surprise. Buffett had served on Coca-Cola’s board for 17 years; and his son, Howard Buffett, has been a director since 2010.

As Buffett walked on stage, the crowd of 850 shareholders and guests gave him a warm welcome.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Georgian Terrace sets stage to sell its development rights

by David Pendered

The owners of the Georgian Terrace are taking steps to sell the development rights associated with the building to another property in Midtown.

Atlanta’s Urban Design Commission is slated to consider the proposal this afternoon and provide comments. The Atlanta City Council is expected to consider, in late May or early June, the special use permit that’s related to the transfer.

No buyer is waiting to purchase the proposed transfer of development rights from the Georgian Terrace, Sharon Gay, a lawyer handling the transaction, said Wednesday. The action simply positions the building to have an additional value that can be realized at some point in the future.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

MARTA hires KPMG to review IT department operations

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, April 19, 2013

MARTA has retained auditing firm KPMG LLP to conduct an internal investigation of possible misappropriation of assets in the operations headed by Ben Graham, the transit agency’s chief information officer.

KPMG is being retained by MARTA to conduct “forensic technology services” that likely include “the identification, collection, filtering, processing and/or hosting of electronically stored information,” according to an engagement letter from KPMG to Keith Parker, MARTA’s relatively new general manager.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Disturbing story sparked minister Fred Northup’s Moment to start group promoting sportsmanship

Avatar photo by adminmegan

After serving 25 years as a minister in the Episcopal Church, Fred Northup opened up his newspaper’s sports section to find something more troubling than usual in December 1997. As he read a story on NBA basketball player Latrell Sprewell angrily walking up to his Golden State Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo and choking him during a practice, he sensed the future of sports was in deep trouble. He wondered if he could help.

Living in Seattle at the time, Fred and his wife were preparing to move to Atlanta and he was looking forward to a lunch meeting with a friend to discuss his options in Atlanta. But their lunch conversation focused on the Sprewell incident. Fred tried to change the subject.

“He said, ‘Well, Fred, you can do a lot of things, but if you could get these athletes to grow up and behave then the world would love it.’ ”

Posted inDavid Pendered

GRTA’s reports offer insights into metro Atlanta’s carbon footprint

by David Pendered

A new report from GRTA shows fuel consumption by its bus fleet has dropped by just over 18 percent since July, largely because the system is following basic conservation tips.

This reduction is noteworthy as the Atlanta region enters ozone season. Less fuel consumed translates to less of the tailpipe exhaust that is a major contributor to dirty air.

The fuel report is just one of GRTA’s performance metrics that offers some interesting insights into the region’s carbon footprint, as it relates to commuting and the 12-county Xpress bus service.

Posted inSaba Long

In our quest for justice, let’s not ignore the U.S. Constitution

by Saba Long

After the bomb blasts, the graphic photos of dismembered runners being carried to medics leaving behind a red-stained Boylston Street, and the subsequent manhunt for the two brothers who brazenly committed a grim act of terror, only one thought remains in the minds of the American public.

Bring Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to justice.

It has only taken a few days for our political leaders to find a way to divide a virtually unanimous public. We want justice while it seems they want talking points. The primary question at hand is should the United States treat Dzhokhar as an unlawful enemy combatant under the Military Commissions Act of 2006 or receive the legal rights granted a naturalized American citizen.

Posted inLatest News

Celebrating ‘Earth Day’ with good news blowin’ in the wind

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

The environment certainly seemed to be front and center on everyone’s mind on April 22 — the 43rd anniversary of Earth Day.

Georgia Power announced that it had reached a deal to import wind energy from Oklahoma to Georgia by 2016. The move was applauded by several environmental organizations across the states — groups that don’t often find themselves on the same side as Georgia Power.

“We applaud Georgia Power for taking a strong step forward on 21st century clean energy solutions,” said Colleen Kiernan, director of the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Posted inMichelle Hiskey, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

Astronaut’s visit, kids’ space dreams boost Fernbank and NASA

by Michelle Hiskey

Midway through last week’s brutality and mayhem, 200 people got a radically different global perspective when astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson showed up at the Fernbank Science Center in northeast Atlanta. NASA has a mission to reach far into the universe; Fernbank’s is to spark the imaginations of children and instill a passion for science. Both are trying to preserve their missions for future generations amid an ever-present threat of budget cuts, and an Evening with an Astronaut night was their combined effort.

Dyson described peering out of the cupola of the International Space Station to the blue-marble Earth and her eyes filling with tears. But tears don’t fall in space. Hers stuck to her eyeballs. Through that film, her view of our planet and its people deepened, to greater care and hope.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Making peace with our Olympic legacy

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

As Atlanta’s Olympic flame flickered at the end of the Summer of 1996, I began to see the painted bright blue line that marked the route of the Olympic marathon fade with the passage of time.

It would have been so simple for Atlanta to have repainted that line — keeping that small part of our Olympic legacy ingrained on our city’s streets, in our minds and in our hearts.

Seventeen years later and Atlanta is still wrestling with its Olympic identity and legacy.

Several events this past week caused those mixed emotions to bubble back up to our city’s surface.

On a high note, the creation of Centennial Olympic Park transformed a section of downtown that had been littered with vacant buildings and surface parking lots into one of the liveliest destinations in the city surrounded by top attractions and new developments.

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