Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Ann Curry’s Moment was served with a surprising offer at lunch two decades ago

President and Owner of Coxe Curry & Associates Ann Curry had her Moment during a business lunch more than 20 years ago – presenting her with an opportunity that surprisingly summoned core values instilled in her decades earlier by her grandmother.

Ann’s Moment was during the summer of 1991 while she was chair of the board for Atlanta-Fulton Public Library Foundation. The library had formed a foundation to raise private money for the library system and had been working with a fundraising consulting firm, Coxe & Associates.

Posted inTom Baxter

In Tennessee boundary dispute, a river of lawyers’ fees

Here’s one way to estimate the chances of getting Tennessee to change its mind and give up a thin strip of its existing territory so Georgia can gain access to the water in the Tennessee River.

Right now, the Tennessee legislature is considering a bill that would end party primaries for U.S. Senate nominees, and give the Republican and Democratic legislative delegations the power to choose their respective nominees.

The idea of giving up some of their existing territory for our convenience has so far met with overwhelming resistance in Tennessee. But you figure, if they’re fools enough to go for the idea of giving up the voters’ right to select their U.S. Senate nominees, we just might be able to talk them out of that land without a fight.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Bill Clarkson’s Moment, battling a patient in a mental ward, propelled his career leading Atlanta’s Westminster

Bill Clarkson, who recently announced plans to retire after 23 years as President of The Westminster Schools, remembers the Moment that prompted and propelled his career as a chaplain, educator and administrator. It wasn’t in the hallway of a school or a church – it was in the hallway of a psychiatric ward.

Bill was an 18-year-old freshman at Duke University and, as a financial aid student, needed a part-time job to help pay for his ungraduate degree. He found the job at the University psychiatric hospital – a line of work that seemed to align nicely with his interest in pursuing a psychology major. He worked four-hour shifts as a psychiatric attendant three days a week.

“You got to wear a white coat and look pretty official, but basically you were there to aid the doctors and assistants,” Bill recalled in our accompanying Moments HD video.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Legislature OKs $8.1 million for Xpress buses, stalls MARTA reorganization plan until next year

Two transit measures that are important to metro Atlanta commuters were resolved when the state Legislature ended its 2013 session late Thursday.

The Xpress bus service received $8.1 million in funding, which will enable the commuter bus program operated by GRTA to continue its service through the fiscal year that begins July 1. An additional $567,000 will keep buses running through June 30.

A proposal to reorganize MARTA and privatize some of its operations stalled in the Senate and is eligible for reconsideration in the Legislature’s 2014 session.

Posted inLatest News

Mandy Mahoney named president of Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance

By Maria Saporta

Environmental veteran Mandy Mahoney has been named president of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance.

Mahoney joined SEEA two years ago as the organization’s vice president of policy and operations. She was elected to her new role by a unanimous vote of the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance board in early March.

Before joining the Alliance, Mahoney served as the City of Atlanta’s director of sustainability for both Mayor Kasim Reed and Mayor Shirley Franklin.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Alicia Philipp’s Moment demonstrated how a mentor helps many others stand up – literally

By Chris Schroder

Alicia Philipp, president of The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, had her Moment 16 years ago when she spontaneously asked a question to a crowd of people and was surprised when nearly all of them stood up. That Moment taught her a lot about the value of mentorship and the special nature of her own mentor, Dan Sweat.

“I asked everybody in the audience who had been mentored by Dan to stand – not really knowing what the response would be,” she said.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Global Cities Initiative: ‘City-states’ key to future economic growth

By Maria Saporta

Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, March 22, 2013

The economic and political power of cities and metropolitan areas continues to grow as more and more people gravitate to urban areas — both in the United States and around the world.

Harnessing and leveraging cities’ economic potential holds the key to our ability to compete and thrive. And the world’s top cities, such as Atlanta, must find what makes them unique and distinct as they build their own regional economies.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Dennis Creech’s Moment sparked a career that helped Atlanta’s brand as a green building leader

Dennis Creech, who today is the executive director and co-founder of Southface Energy Institute, was in graduate school training to be a systems ecologist when he had his Moment. Throughout his education in the 1970s, his focus had been aimed at improving environmental conditions, but it wasn’t until that day at Emory University that a, well, light bulb went off that pointed him in a unexpected direction.

As he was studying smog, acid rain, and even the water crisis of Atlanta, it dawned on Dennis that there was a common denominator to many of the threats to the environment’s health and sustainability – the consumption of energy.

Posted inLatest News

Atlanta City Council passes stadium deal; two approvals down, one to go

By Maria Saporta and Dave Williams

Despite pleas from constituents to slow down the train, the Atlanta City Council voted Monday evening 11 to 4 to approve a funding plan for a new $1 billion football stadium in downtown Atlanta.

The City Council vote, which did not go through the normal multi-week committee process, was pushed through on a super fast track on Monday after a six-hour meeting of the whole council.

That approval followed Friday’s unanimous vote by the Georgia World Congress Center Authority that endorsed the new retractable roof stadium for the Atlanta Falcons. Only one more governmental body is needed to approve the deal — the board of Invest Atlanta.

Posted inGuest Column

Economic and social returns of higher education justify new approaches

By Guest Columnist MIKE GERBER, founder and president of Cross Channel Initiatives

If this were the game show Jeopardy, the answer would be: “two and a half times.”

The question: “How much more in state taxpayer money does Georgia spend annually to keep someone incarcerated than it does to send a student to a public four-year university?”

That’s right. In fiscal year 2011, the average taxpayer-funded cost per inmate in a state prison was $16,250. That compared to $6,300 in state funding per full-time equivalent student at a University System of Georgia institution.

Posted inSaba Long

Coming of age in a time of war

Ten years is a lifetime when you are coming of age. For me, it has been a decade spanning adolescent angst to the nervous excitement of newfound freedom with life on a college campus to presently building a career and attempting to create a life of fulfillment.

Next week — March 19 to be exact — marks 10 years since the start of the Iraq War.

The day the United States was attacked and the Twin Towers came down, I watched my classmates cover their mouths in shock as we watched the news channel continuously loop the planes crashing, forever scarring the New York City skyline.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Meredith Leapley’s Moment was when her father closed his firm, sparking her to just start her own

By Chris Schroder

Meredith Leapley’s Moment happened when the phone rang in 1999. Having moved to Atlanta from Maryland just a year earlier to run a branch of her father’s construction company, her heart sank when he called with some disappointing and life-changing news.

“My father called me and told me he was going to close our business and I was going to have to come back home to Maryland,” she said.

Still in her mid-20s, Meredith felt as though she was just establishing herself in Atlanta. In that year, she had grown so fond of her new city that she resolved to make a bet on it, deciding instead to stay and start her own construction business here.

Posted inMichelle Hiskey, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

For African-American women, a hairstyle can be a tricky decision

For African-American women, unemployment is 12.3 percent nationally, 13.1 percent in Georgia. That tough reality helped draw more than 100 black women to an event last week at Georgia State University focused on one decision that each of them faces:

What to do with my hair?

For them, preparing for a job interview or the first day of work isn’t as simple as deciding whether to go with the regimental blue-striped or the red power tie. Around the country, disputes over African American female hairstyles have led to accusations of wrongful firings and discrimination lawsuits.

Atlanta is where people notice, too; for example, TV news viewers spent decades obsessing over local anchor Monica Kaufman Pearson’s changing ‘dos.

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Muhtar Kent: Coca-Cola a bridge between world and Atlanta

By Maria Saporta

Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, March 1, 2013

As the top executive for The Coca-Cola Co., Muhtar Kent may be the most global CEO working for the most global company in the world.

It is a role Kent takes seriously. As Coca-Cola’s CEO for nearly five years (his anniversary will be in July), Kent has continued to expand the company’s business and social impact on the world.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Raymond King’s Moment in the doctor’s office led him to leave bank, lead Zoo Atlanta

By Chris Schroder

Zoo Atlanta President and CEO Raymond King remembers the Moment the doctor looked him in the eye and said, “You’ve got lymphoma.” Today, he looks back on it as a blessing.

“I often joke with people that if you can be guaranteed of surviving it, then I would recommend cancer to you because of what it does to your outlook on life and how it allows you to see how blessed you are,” Raymond said.

Posted inMaria's Metro

Affordable housing developer, PRI, going out of business after 25 years

The demise of Progressive Redevelopment Inc. — once the largest nonprofit owner and developer of affordable housing in the state — is a sad commentary of our times.

Specifically, it points to the nearly insurmountable hurdles that exist to provide supportive housing to those with the greatest needs — especially during trying economic times.

A reflective Bruce Gunter, one of PRI’s co-founders and its CEO, is now working without a paycheck, expecting to phase out what’s left of the organization within the next six months.

Posted inSaba Long

City of Atlanta hosts key tech ‘Startup’ events; launches first ‘Govathon’

The growth and support of Atlanta’s technology community was on display this past week with nearly each day showcasing a segment of the City’s startup firepower.

Dubbing itself “the largest gathering of startups since the Cotton States and International Exposition in 1895,” Startup Rally kicked off Monday, Feb. 18 as an expo and internship fair. It also was the official launch of Startup Georgia.

The event featured a network of speakers, sponsors and technologists including Steve Case of Startup America; Sig Mosley, a well-respected venture capitalist; Scott Henderson, executive director of Hypepotamus; and even Jermaine Dupri of So So Def Recordings.

Posted inMoments, Moments Season 2

Jerry Farber’s Moment was the first time he performed comedy for 300 guests – unexpectedly – at age 13

By Chris Schroder

Most people wouldn’t subject themselves to ridicule on their birthday – but then again, Jerry Farber and other professional comedians aren’t like most people. The veteran Atlanta entertainer and nightclub owner will celebrate his 75th birthday and career as a comedian with a traditional comic roast this Saturday night, March 2 at his Buckhead club.

Had it not been for Jerry’s Moment 62 years ago – when a terrible band and even more terrible comedian were losing the attention of 300 guests at his own bar mitzvah – Jerry may never have become “Atlanta’s Stud Muffin of Mirth” and “The Cowboy of Comedy.”

Posted inATL Business Chronicle, Maria's Metro

Rebuilding life after sexual abuse: Atlanta’s Dave Moody speaks out

By Maria Saporta

Published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on Friday, February 22, 2013

For Atlanta builder Dave Moody, his life’s biggest project has been rebuilding himself after having been sexually abused when he was only 10 years old.

Moody kept that secret buried for 26 years until 1992 when he finally told his wife, Karla.

But Moody wasn’t prepared for what followed — repeated anxiety and panic attacks that left him unable to breathe. After undergoing countless medical tests, through therapy he finally realized that his attacks were connected to the abuse that he had tried so hard to ignore for most of his adult life.

Posted inTom Baxter

Chattanooga: Eating our lunch in liveability

When Atlantans look around for other cities to compare theirs with, they think major league all the way. They measure their growth against Houston and Dallas. They travel to Denver and Seattle to find civic inspiration and worry that Charlotte and Nashville are gaining on them.

But as we contemplate the hotter, wetter future we discussed last week, we might be better off taking a look at Chattanooga.

Yes, Chattanooga. Seldom do we think of our neighbor across the Tennessee line as much of a competitor. When they built an aquarium, we just built a bigger one. But for nearly three decades, since a group of civic leaders got together in 1984 and committed themselves to doing something about Chattanooga’s image as the dirtiest city in America, and in the view of some the dullest, they have been eating our lunch on the playing field of liveability.

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