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Posted inLatest News

Atlanta’s Duriya Farooqui responds to story on what city could have done to keep Atlanta Braves at Turner Field

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

By Maria Saporta

Earlier this week, I wrote a story about what it would have taken to keep the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field. The story was based on interviews that I had had with team officials as well as people close to the situation during the negotiations.

Late yesterday, I received an email with a response from Duriya Farooqui, chief operating officer for the City of Atlanta, who was one of the key players in the negotiations with the Braves, taking issue with several of the points I made in the article.

I believe her letter provides great insight and more detail on the issues that were involved in the negotiations with the Braves, so I wanted to share the entire letter with readers.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Braves in Cobb: Traffic, transit access to stadium near Cumberland Mall may be less a nightmare than some predict

by David Pendered

The notion offered by the Atlanta Braves that fans will find it easier to get to a ballgame in Cobb County than in downtown Atlanta ran into a buzz saw of criticism Monday.

“What a traffic nightmare!! I-75 and I-285 are already [troubled],” a writer identified as MayorDowning commented on ajc.com. “Now you’re adding to it.”

In reality, the Cobb site isn’t a hopeless traffic nightmare. The planned ballpark is alongside Gov. Nathan Deal’s major highway initiative. It’s in the middle of a grid of big roads served by three interstate highways. And it’s about a mile from the transfer station of Cobb’s bus system and its linkage to MARTA.

Posted inUncategorized

Ships Passing? Aaron Burr, Jefferson Davis and George Washington in Ga.

by Jamil Zainaldin

Aaron Burr, Jefferson Davis, George Washington. Each man who passed through Georgia was following his own destiny; each was a traitor to those who held power and who had the resources to punish him.

Aaron Burr, prior to his election as vice president of the United States under Thomas Jefferson, had compiled an impressive record. Many considered him a brilliant lawyer as well as an able and strikingly handsome politician. And during the Revolutionary War he had distinguished himself for bravery and leadership.

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 inTom Baxter

Finding a place for the statue of a dangerous man

Avatar photo by Tom Baxter

“Sometimes history is not pretty.  But at the same time, it is the history.  Good or bad,” Rep. Tommy Benton (R-Jefferson) said last week after Gov. Nathan Deal ordered Tom Watson’s statue removed from the west side of the State Capitol.

Benton is right about history, and it’s very fair-minded for a conservative Republican to protest the removal of the statue of a Georgian who advocated the nationalization of the railroads and embraced the Bolsheviks.

When he was pressed on the matter, Deal said the removal of Watson’s statue from the Capitol grounds was a “safety issue,” which would have brought a hearty laugh from Watson if he were still around. The one thing his contemporaries seem to have agreed on was that Tom Watson was a dangerous man.

Posted inGuest Column

Getting to know Ted Turner — a multi-sided ‘eco-capitalist-humanitarian’

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist TODD WILKINSON, author of the new book: “Last Stand: Ted Turner’s Quest to Save a Troubled Planet”

Ted Turner: Liberal or Conservative? Think hard before you reply.

Did you know that back in the late 1980s, Turner began spending summers away from Atlanta, retreating to the hinters of the wild American West, because it enabled him to live closer to the land and escape the annoying moniker “Mouth of the South”?

Or that contrary to popular opinion, Turner’s connection to Jane Fonda wasn’t centered around money, fame and power? In fact, they bonded over a mutual love of nature.

Posted inLatest News

Hopeful environmentalist Porritt sees beauty in sewage and toilets

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By Maria Saporta

It’s not often that one hears from an environmentalist who has a hopeful view of the world.

After all, with climate change, income inequality, overpopulation, limited natural resources and political conflicts, most environmentalists would have you believe we’re headed to that point of no return — an earth that we have damaged so much that it could become uninhabitable to human beings in the foreseeable future.

And yet Sir Jonathon Porritt refuses to take such a gloomy view of the future. Porritt was in Atlanta on Oct. 9 to participate on a program with Laura Turner Seydel of the Turner Foundation, Howard Connell of Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business and John Gardner of Novelis at the Academy Medicine.

Posted inDavid Pendered

As Wall Street buys houses as investments, local leaders plan response to protect affordability

by David Pendered

Now that it’s no secret that Wall Street investors are buying distressed houses in metro Atlanta for the emerging homes-for-lease industry, the question is what that means for the surrounding neighborhoods and the future of homeownership.

John O’Callaghan, who heads ANDP, the region’s major non-profit focused on the foreclosure response, suggests that local leaders try to leverage the private sector’s investments to benefit the rest of the community.

There’s a lot to leverage. Just one firm, the Blackstone Group, has purchased more than 1,400 homes in metro Atlanta as part of more than $4 billion the firm has invested in 24,000 houses nationwide since 2012, according to a story in April in businessweek.com.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Coca-Cola’s EKOCENTERs showcase Atlanta as global development center

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

Maybe it’s time to launch an Atlanta Global Initiative.

For the past several years, Atlanta has emerged as a leading center for global health with the presence of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Carter Center, the Task Force for Global Health, the Rollins School for Public Health at Emory University, the Morehouse School of Medicine, MedShare, MAP International, the CDC Foundation, CARE to name a few.

But Atlanta’s global impact does not stop there. Atlanta is home to numerous philanthropic organizations and corporations that contribute to the well-being of citizens around the world — Habitat for Humanity International, the American Cancer Society, the Coca-Cola Co., Delta Air Lines, United Parcel Service, Home Depot among others.

Posted inGuest Column

Atlanta ‘can do’ better to reduce poverty with more jobs opportunities

by Teresa Johnston

By Guest Columnist MIKE DOBBINS, professor of planning at Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture and a former commissioner of planning and community development for the City of Atlanta

Recent national studies have reminded us of Atlanta’s most pervasive, persistent and shameful problem — poverty.

The Gini Index exposes Atlanta’s income gap between rich and poor as among the most inequitable in the country.

The recent Harvard/Berkeley study  finds that Atlanta is dead last among American cities in offering our poorest citizens the chance to rise up economically.

Posted inMaria's Metro

As more walkable places emerge, Atlanta is ‘becoming a really cool city’

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

The Atlanta region has had an unusual relationship with Chris Leinberger, a real estate developer who is an astute observer of cities and metropolitan areas.

It was Leinberger who back in the 1990s that Atlanta was the fastest growing human settlement in the history of the world in terms of the amount of acres being consumed by its growing population.

“You have been the poster child of sprawl,” Leinberger was fond of telling Atlantans over the past few years. “You used to be Hot’lanta. Hot’lanta is no longer hot.”

Posted inSaba Long

Elections in Clarkston — our Ellis Island — reflects our growing diversity

by Saba Long

A decades-long haven for international refugees, the City of Clarkston is easily the most diverse square mile of DeKalb County and the State of Georgia.

With a population of nearly 8,000, the Ellis Island of the South is in the midst of an interesting mayoral and City Council elections with the incumbent mayor, Emanuel Ransom, an African-American, facing two challengers – Ibrahim Awow Sufi, a Somali-American; and Ted Terry, a resident of Clarkston for the past two years.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Giving away tax incentives for film, television is gift that keeps on giving

Avatar photo by Maria Saporta

What a difference an incentive makes.

That was the bottom line of Monday’s Rotary Club of Atlanta’s program on the “Business of Entertainment in Georgia “ — with a special focus on the state’s burgeoning film, video and television industry.

Consider this. During the 2007 fiscal year, the economic impact of the film, television and interactive entertainment industries was $242 million. In fiscal year 2013, that economic impact has grown more than ten-fold to $3.5 billion.

Posted inColumns, Michelle Hiskey, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

A circular journey into one’s soul through an Atlanta labyrinth

by Ben Smith

Labyrinths look like circular mazes, but represent an ancient pathway into the soul. Seekers like me have boosted the number of labyrinths within 100 miles of Atlanta. In 2000 there were a half dozen; now there are about 100. Describing the simple power of the labyrinth is almost impossible.

In my pile up of job losses, family crises, health scares and a recession without end, walking the labyrinth has become more frequent and vital. People across the world and over the centuries have discovered that walking the circle path can help make sense of all the craziness life deals out.

Posted inLatest News

Mount Vernon votes 116 to 16 to sell making way for new Falcons stadium

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By Maria Saporta and Amy Wenk

One down. One more to go.

After meeting privately for more 90 minutes Thursday night, the congregation of Mount Vernon Baptist Church voted 116 to 16 to accept the $14.5 million offer from the City of Atlanta, the Georgia World Congress Center Authority and the Atlanta Falcons organization.

Mount Vernon’s positive vote is one of two church votes needed to make way  for the new Atlanta Falcons stadium to be located on the site south of the Georgia Dome.

The congregation of the other church — Friendship Baptist Church — is scheduled to vote on its $19.5 million offer on Sunday.

Posted inLatest News

Two black churches expected to vote on stadium deal within next 10 days

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By Maria Saporta

The two black churches standing on the preferred site of the new Atlanta Falcons stadium are expected to vote in the next 10 days on whether to accept offers to sell their properties.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced on Aug. 6 that he had reached a $19.5 million deal with Friendship Baptist Church, but the church’s boards of deacons and trustees have not yet voted to approve the offer partly because of vacations and holidays.

But those boards are expected to vote in the coming week, according to Lloyd Hawk, chairman of the board of trustees. Then the recommendation would go to the full congregation.

“We know that for scheduling reasons we won’t be able to vote on it this Sunday,” Hawk said. “But I’m shooting for us to have a vote the following Sunday (Sept. 22). We certainly want to have the vote before the end of the month.”

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