By Guest Columnist STACEY J. KEY, president and CEO of the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council
Getting a small business off the ground can prove to be a daunting task. In fact, the vast majority of new businesses fail within the first few years.
The Georgia Mentor Protégé Connection (MPC) is an innovative business development initiative
By Maria Saporta
Friday, April 6, 2012
The Atlanta Business League called an “urgent meeting” of its members on April 3 at the headquarters of Atlanta Life Financial Group to talk about the redistricting plans of the Atlanta Public Schools.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, April 6, 2012
Despite the recent controversy over national Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s relationship with Planned Parenthood, the Atlanta affiliate was able to grant $2.2 million to 22 community health organizations on April 2 — the exact same amount it gave away last year.
“The Three Stooges” is like being nyuck-ed to death.
It was shot in Atlanta by the Farrelly Brothers (who are still looking to replicate early boxoffice smashes like “”There’s Something About Mary”). The picture would’ve been one of those one-line, do-I-really-have-to-tell-you reviews.
The proposed deepening of the Savannah Harbor received a major boost today in the form of documents released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The studies released today show the cost would be about $652 million to deepen the Savannah River shipping channel by five feet, to 47 feet. The economic impact of the expected increase in trade would amount to $174 million a year, nationwide.
In a related development, the South Carolina Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a dispute over a state water quality permit that would allow the dredging of the shipping channel, according to a report by the Associated Press. The court’s decision to take the case will fast track a final ruling in a matter that would have been appealed up from lower courts.
This week, view a video featuring two key members of the Sprout Space team. Joe and Erika discuss their favorite parts of the project.
Last year, more than 4,800 pre-owned medical devices such as wheelchairs and hospital beds were provided at little to no cost to the disabled by a non-profit organization that works from a warehouse near Stone Mountain.
Like many non-profits, FODAC does its work out of the public limelight. But to those in the reuse industry, including Bill Bolling, the founder and CEO of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, FODAC is well known and serves a need that is likely to grow as government service is reduced.
“As we look at less government and less government support, we in turn have got to say, ‘What does the private sector response look like?’,” Bolling said. “FODAC is an example of the creativity, and ingenuity, and commitment where we can really make a difference through the private sector.”
MARTA’s board of directors took the first formal step Monday toward applying for federal funding for two new rail lines and enhanced bus service along I-20 from downtown Atlanta into central DeKalb County.
The board designated the three routes as “locally preferred alternatives.” The designation allows MARTA to submit funding requests to the Federal Transit Administration.
The realpolitiks of MARTA’s action are unclear. For starters, Congress hasn’t been able to agree on transportation funding since 2009, when it last passed a transportation bill. In addition, DeKalb County Commissioner Lee May said the action doesn’t satisfy concerns of constituents who want rail service extended into south DeKalb – and have vowed to vote “No” on the transportation sales tax referendum on July 31 because it provides only enhanced bus service in their region.
By Maria Saporta
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is disappointed that MARTA did not get the legislative assistance it needs during the 2012 General Assembly.
But he is not giving up by any means that the situation can be resolved in 2013.
MARTA had sought to permanently remove a state restriction that requires that half of its sales tax revenues go to operations and half goes to capital investments. The state had waived the 50/50 rule for three years, but that time frame runs out on June 30, 2013.
While most of us have never had the unpleasant experience of sitting in a police interrogation room, fans of crime TV shows like me will recognize this scenario. “I’ve already told you what I witnessed on the night of October 22, 2011 seven times,” says the frustrated and exhausted witness. “Well, it’s time to tell […]
Bob Voyles has spent much of his career developing signature buildings that grace Atlanta’s prime intersections and highways, so “it was like a fire bell going off in my head” when his daughter Virginia revealed she wasn’t moving back to her hometown because of Atlanta’s growing congestion.
“This was a huge surprise to me, because I love Atlanta and worked here nearly 40 years and my family is from here and always expected my children to want to embrace the city that I loved,” Bob recalled in our accompanying video.
On April 18, a group of about 100 influential metro Atlanta leaders will embark on the annual LINK trip — this year to the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. metro area.
This will be the 16th annual LINK trip — an annual opportunity to take a look at ourselves while studying another community that’s facing many of the same issues as metro Atlanta. (LINK stands for Leadership, Involvement, Networking and Knowledge).
Officially, what has come to be called the Great Recession ended nearly three years ago, although Friday’s paltry jobs report was yet another demonstration of how hard it’s been for the nation to put it in the past tense. Still, there has been time now since the economy hit a bottom and began this all-too-modest recovery to begin thinking about what the Great Recession really was, and what lessons from it we’ll pass on to future generations.
When parents tell their children and grandchildren about it decades from now, they will first have to struggle with the Orwellian nature of the name. English provides a perfectly good word for a really big recession – depression – but for telling reasons, we’ve shirked from this usage.
This is the last week for “Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism” at Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum. Through May 6, “The Sacred Round: Mandalas by the Patients of Carl Jung” is on exhibit at the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art.
These kaleidoscopic circles offer a way to greater mindfulness that is so easy to lose – and thus so much more valuable — in today’s swirl of information, networks and distractions. In the age of technology, a mandala is a simple tool for staying focused.
One big question that arose last autumn was who would be the face of the campaign for the 1 percent sales tax for transportation that will be on the July 31 ballot in the 10-county metro Atlanta region.
The answer, so far, is: No one.
Two TV ads have been released and neither shows a living creature. Both are comprised solely of computer-generated graphics.
There’s no snippet of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on the stump, as he was for the recent successful campaign to extend a sales tax for the city’s sewer upgrades. No comments from Norcross Mayor Bucky Johnson, whose skill in presiding over the Atlanta Regional Roundtable resulted in its unanimous vote to create the $6.14 billion list of projects to be paid for with the sales tax.
There’s not even an avatar of anyone involved with the campaign.
By Guest Columnist DENISE STARLING, executive director of Livable Buckhead Inc.
Imagine you’re getting ready to enjoy dinner at a top-notch restaurant for a special occasion. You’ve been looking forward to eating there for years, envisioning the delicious dishes that await you. When the evening finally arrives, you take your seat at the table, look over the menu and tell the waiter, “Just let the chef decide what we’ll have tonight.”
By Maria Saporta
It’s a first for the Alliance Francaise d’Atlanta.
For the first time since the school was founded by my mother, Nora Saporta, in 1963, the Alliance now has a suburban location.
A week ago, the Alliance held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its new satellite location at 735 Jones Dr. in downtown Roswell — a charming, stand-alone location where classes will begin on April 16. People will be able to take Beginner or Intermediate French classes as well as classes in Grammar or Conversation.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, April 6, 2012
Key donors are increasing their investment in the PATH Foundation, a metro Atlanta developer of multiuse trails for more than 20 years.
Just when you thought Hollywood couldn’t do any worse (“The Vow,” anyone?), the place regurgitates something like “Mirror, Mirror.”
Smug, bitchy and just plain bad, the movie isn’t so much a re-working of the Snow White fairy tale as it is an unwitting peek into the maw of the beast that purports to entertain us.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, March 27, 2012
The Atlanta Ballet has pulled off a feat that is almost unheard of in the nonprofit community.
The 83-year-old cultural organization is planning to announce March 30 that its capital campaign has raised $20.7 million — far exceeding its initial $14.8 million — in the midst of a recession.
