Home » You searched for georgia power » Page 121

Search results

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

An alternative plan for Fort McPherson in court fighting for its life

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on August 29, 2014

Three weeks ago, it looked as though famed film producer Tyler Perry had struck a deal to turn Fort McPherson into a new movie studio. In the eyes of many Atlantans it may have seemed like a done deal.

But at the federal courthouse in Atlanta, a legal challenge to that deal continues to be fought. Ubiquitous Entertainment Studios, which offered to buy 80 acres at Fort Mac last December for its own proposed movie studio project, says in a lawsuit that it’s getting shut out by the Tyler Perry deal. Mayor Kasim Reed has called its claims “garbage” and “outrageous.”

Posted inGuest Column

When dealing with addiction disorders on college campuses, we all benefit

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist TERESA WREN JOHNSTON, director of the Center for Young Adult Addiction and Recovery at Kennesaw State University and founding president of the Association of Recovery in Higher Education

In a world where mental health and substance use disorders get top billing only when a tragedy occurs to a celebrity, a famous athlete or a music superstar, it is easy to overlook the millions of people suffering unnoticed.

When the headlines read heroin overdose, death by suicide or famous entertainer enters treatment, we stand up and take notice; in fact, we can’t get enough.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Column: Sarah Kirsch to lead Urban Land Institute’s Atlanta district

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on August 15, 2014

The Atlanta district of the Urban Land Institute has picked a new executive director – Sarah Kirsch– who has been serving in an interim capacity since June.

As an Atlanta native, Kirsch is looking forward to the opportunity to help empower the local development community into creating a more sustainable and resilient region.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Kickoff nears for Atlanta’s College Football Hall of Fame downtown

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Amy Wenk and Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on August 15, 2014

Atlanta’s futility at winning championships recently earned it the title of the nation’s most miserable sports town.

But, with the College Football Hall of Fame set to open Aug. 23, Atlanta is vying for a much more prestigious title — College Football Capital.

“I think it solidifies it,” said Barrett Sallee, Bleacher Report’s lead SEC football writer. “If there’s a better option [than Atlanta], I’d love to know where it is.”

Posted inATL Business Chronicle

Column: Helene Gayle, Muhtar Kent to enter GSU’s Business Hall of Fame

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on August 8, 2014

Two high-profile Atlanta leaders will be inducted into the Business Hall of Fame of Georgia State University’s J. Mack Robinson College of Business on Sept. 18.

Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE, the international poverty-fighting organization, and Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Co., will bring the number inductees to 81.

Posted inTom Baxter

Two twists in the struggle over energy production

Avatar photo by Tom Baxter

Last week there were a couple of stories from around the region that veered far enough from the conventional story line to bear watching as possible signs of things to come.

For six years, the Mississippi chapter of the Sierra Club has waged a legal battle against Mississippi Power’s plans for a massive coal-gasification plant in Kemper County, which runs along the Alabama state line north of Meridian. As discussed before, it has been a fight which drew the environmentalists into alliance with conservative libertarians who view the plant as a boondoggle.

The Sierra Club announced last week that it had reached a settlement with Mississippi Power and would be dropping its suit in exchange for a number of concessions on the part of the utility.

Posted inUncategorized

Godfrey Barnsley’s dream: A southern Eden in the wilderness, its collapse, and a modern-day rebirth (Part 3)

by Jamil Zainaldin

Earlier I wrote about the migration of Godfrey and Julia Barnsley from Savannah to the mountains, where Godfrey Barnsley built their dream estate, “the Woodlands” — not as a plantation, but in the style of an Italianate manor sustained by the countryside. Yet the existence of Barnsley’s dream house was dependent on his work as an international cotton agent that tied his fate and that of his family to the cotton industry.

Thus, the war of secession that engulfed Georgia came in time to the Woodlands. In May 1864 Union and Confederate troops skirmished on the grounds of the Barnsley estate as General James B. McPherson passed through Woodlands on his way to Atlanta (where he would die two months later). Seeing the manor, its gardens, fields, and vineyards, he was overwhelmed: “This is a little piece of heaven itself.”

Posted inGuest Column

Local leaders, weather experts seek to prepare Atlanta for climate change

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist GARRY HARRIS, president and CEO of HTS Enterprise Energy Solutions as well as president and CEO of Center for Sustainable Communities and the executive director of Emerald Cities Metro Atlanta.

Although we are now feeling the heat and humidity of summer, only a few months ago, Atlanta was brought to a virtual standstill by a rare snowstorm.

The storm was a glimpse of the challenges the region could see as a result of climate change causing extreme weather.

Posted inDavid Pendered

State senator seeks Army secretary’s help to keep a studio out of Fort McPherson, as Tyler Perry proposes

by David Pendered

State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) has asked the secretary of the Army to block the conversion of Fort McPherson into a movie studio, as proposed by filmmaker Tyler Perry.

Fort quickly pivoted to the political side of the debate over the fort’s reuse, after beginning his letter to the secretary with a recount of the public process that ended with the approval of a plan to build a mixed-use community on the grounds of the old fort.

To consider a studio now, without any public review, is, “the old ‘bait and switch’ that has been used for centuries to exclude people of color and the powerless from important economic decisions,” Fort wrote in his letter to Army Secretary John McHugh.

Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

HVAC family finds knack for giving back

by Ben Smith

In the tiny Iowa farming community where Matthew Holtkamp grew up, folks tended to their own crops. When illness or catastrophe struck any of the 100 residents of St. Paul everyone rallied to help. Today he and his wife Suzanne, who is from Ohio, are trying to pitch in on a much larger scale in Gwinnett County (population nearly 850,000).

The Holtkamps own a Suwanee-based heating and air-conditioning company, so they know how important basic systems are to family comfort and stability. In their county, many families lacked basic needs—even food. So the Holtkamps decided during the depths of the Great Recession to create a charity through their company.

Posted inGuest Column

Environmental justice offers a new way to engage Atlanta’s architects

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist GARFIELD L. PEART, an architect and sustainable business consultant, serves on AIA Atlanta’s board of directors

Architects have the power to take Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) “outside the building envelop” to transform communities by leading diverse design teams and community stakeholders to combat some of our most pressing social and public health issues in the metro area.

Environmental justice presents a unique opportunity for community leaders and public officials to engage Atlanta architects to address these challenges.

Now with all the pressing economic issues facing communities in metro Atlanta, you may wonder why we should focus on environmental justice and how architects can possibly make an impact in an area traditionally addressed by city planners, community development corporations and policy makers.

Posted inLatest News

Atlanta now a nicer shade of pale, says Gary Brooker of Procol Harum

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

It’s always helpful to see Atlanta from the eyes of outsiders.

Gary Brooker, the anchor musician, pianist and songwriter behind the symphonic British rock group Procol Harum, provided his perspective on Sunday night during a concert at Atlanta Symphony Hall.

Atlanta has developed into a beautiful city, a 21st Century city, Brooker told the not-sold-out, yet enthusiastic audience in the concert hall. Brooker went on to say that he remembered coming to Atlanta when it was a dump, and how impressed he was with the way it had evolved.

Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

Political silence not always golden

by Ben Smith

The two-month political campaign cone of silence finally broke Sunday.  Since the May 20th Georgia primary, I have not received a single flier, heard one obnoxious robocall or discovered any earnest campaign volunteers hanging on my doorbell.

But two days before the July 22nd Georgia primary runoff election a friend sent me an e-mail telling me how to vote. “Please know how important it is to vote in the runoff Tuesday,” wrote Margaret Hylton Jones. “I am often asked by many friends who I am supporting for public office because of my lifelong experience in Georgia politics. So I am reaching out to many friends to offer a couple of very important recommendations for critical offices.” So how effective is neighbor-to-neighbor voter outreach?

Posted inMaria's Metro

Remembering the wisdom of Harry West – let’s fix what’s not working

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

During last week’s memorial service in honor of Harry West, my mind kept wandering back to another time when he was executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

It was 1998, and the Atlanta business community – through its Metro Atlanta Transportation Initiative – was recommending a new state agency to help come up with ways to solve the region’s congestion and transportation problems.

West was that lone voice crying in the wilderness. Let’s not create yet another agency. Let’s fix the ones we have.

Posted inGuest Column

Atlanta University Center a pathway to increase diversity at technology firms

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist DARAKA E. SATCHER, partner and chief operating officer of the Pendleton Group consulting firm

Most of us have seen the news by now. A number of major tech firms recently reported dismally low diversity numbers. Only 2 percent of those who work at Google, Yahoo and LinkedIn are African-American.

If one accepts the widely held premise that these companies are representatives of the economy of the future, then this is a harbinger of a much greater problem.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Column: Philanthropy Day awards to honor Tom Chapman, Alvin Sugarman

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta
Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on July 11, 2014

Two longtime Atlanta leaders will be honored for their contributions over the years at the 32nd Annual National Philanthropy Day awards on Oct. 28 at the Georgia Aquarium.

Tom Chapman, retired CEO of Equifax; will be honored as “Philanthropist of the Year.” And Rabbi Alvin Sugarman, rabbi emeritus of the Temple, will be honored as “Volunteer Fundraiser of the Year.”

Posted inMaria's Metro

Commuter rail from Atlanta to Lovejoy is: ‘The Little Engine That Could’

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

A commuter rail line between Atlanta and Lovejoy should adopt the tagline:

“I think we can; I think we can; I think we can.”

And yes, we really can.

Forget all the panic from the Federal Transit Administration’s letter to the Georgia Department of Transportation on July 7 saying it was “deobligating” about $45 million in federal funds that had been earmarked for the commuter rail project by the U.S. Congress for more than a decade.

Posted inUncategorized

Desegregating an entire community: Albany Movement takes flight (Part 4)

by Jamil Zainaldin

Before the advent of federal civil rights legislation (1964-65), the Albany Movement found its sustenance in song. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, workers Cordell Reagon and Charles Sherrod learned “freedom songs” during the student sit-ins in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee in 1960.

Their Mississippi Freedom Rider experience in the summer of 1961 added new material to their repertoire. When they got to Albany, Reagon and Sherrod taught freedom songs to high school and college students in the NAACP Youth Council.

Gift this article