By Guest Columnist SUSAN VARLAMOFF, director of the Office of Environmental Sciences at the University of Georgia
Social, health, economic and environmental factors now feed a grassroots movement to convert vacant lots across Atlanta into farms and community gardens.
SaportaReport is re-running Season One of Moments for your enjoyment. This column originally published in January 2012.
When a young Sam Massell went in to see his boss, the future mayor of Atlanta thought he was in line for a big raise. Instead he got fired for all the right reasons and it was one of the best things that ever happened to him – and our city.
As Sam recalls, “I went in shock. At 24, those were heavy words.” He tried talking his boss into keeping him, reciting all his excellent work, but it was all for naught. Instead his boss urged him to go into real estate, “the real market in this city.” Please watch our 2-minute video of Sam’s Moment.
What a wonderful way to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday — the Sunday Supper.
The Atlanta-based Points of Light Institute has launched “America’s Sunday Supper” — to be held throughout the nation on the Sunday before the King birthday holiday — as a way to exchange meaningful dialogue among a diverse group of citizens.
A glimmer of hope about the economy may be emanating from the Atlanta Boat Show.
Some 25,000 visitors are expected this weekend at the 50th annual boat show in Atlanta. Some of them will attend with plans to buy vessels and toys that promise relaxation and good times with friends and family, or to check out marinas that advertise a suitable lifestyle.
Even in this trying era after the Great Recession, Georgia still ranks in the top 15 states in terms of boat registrations. Together with its sister state of Florida, which is No. 1 in marine commerce, Georgia stands as a major market for the marine industry, according to the show’s manager, Larry Berryman.
By Maria Saporta
The Clean Air Campaign has established an inaugural list of Platinum Partners.
To qualify as a Platinum Partner, at least 20 percent of all employee or tenant trips to a worksite had to involve alternatives to driving alone.
The effort, which is called “In Good Company,” includes a list of 130 employers and landlords — including some of the largest companies in metro
SaportaReport is re-running Season One of Moments for your enjoyment. This column originally published in January 2012.
When we sat down with former Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin in the conference room of her new office at Purpose Built Communities where she is now the CEO, she was clear she wanted her Moment to be “strategic.” It wasn’t until we were packed up and leaving a little later that we truly understood her meaning – giving us a sense that she’s been strategic since she was a young child in a Philadelphia dance class.
Video Shirley Franklin’s HD Moments Video.
By Maria Saporta
Mark Lytle has been selected to become division director of the Georgia Centers of Innovation — an effort that seeks to accelerate the growth of six of the state’s strategic industries: aerospace, agribusiness, energy, life sciences, logistics and advanced manufacturing.
The Georgia Department of Economic Development, which is overseeing the Centers of Innovation along with the Georgia Research Alliance, selected Lytle, who has been with the department since 2002.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, December 30, 2011
The Atlanta Ballet is enjoying this holiday season, and it’s not just due to its annual crowd pleaser— “The Nutcracker.”
The Goizueta Foundation has awarded the Atlanta Ballet a $2 million grant — the second-largest single gift that the company has received in its 82-year history.
Arthur Jacobus, executive director of the Atlanta Ballet, said receiving the Goizueta gift was “a shining moment” for the organization.
Growing up, our family’s favorite holiday celebration was New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
Because of our Jewish heritage, we didn’t really celebrate Christmas (even though we almost always had a tree in our home, and some years we’d go to the Catholic church on Christmas Eve to hear Christmas carols).
And because we were non-practicing Jews, we really didn’t celebrate
Consumer advocate Clark Howard came home for Thanksgiving from his sophomore year in college and faced a very grim household. From the sad faces he found around his family’s dinner table, he knew something bad had just happened.
When the dishes were cleared from Clark’s holiday table, his father asked him to stay afterwards to talk with him alone. Clark’s first guess when he saw his relatives’ faces and his father’s “awful” face, was that his father was going to announce that he was dying, he told us in our Moments HD Video.
Atlanta native Peter Linz talks about finding his identity by becoming a Muppeteer:
“The character of Walter hits really close to home for me. I’ve always been an enormous Muppet fan who dreamed of one day working with the Muppets, and that’s basically who Walter is. How flipping crazy is that? It’s mind-blowing. I could have been cast as a monster or a chicken or someone’s right hand, but instead, I got cast to play the guy who is the world’s biggest Muppet fan who literally dreams of working with the Muppets. Apart from my wedding day and birth of my children, being cast as Walter, was one of the greatest moments of my life. I was beyond happiness.”
By Maria Saporta
The Civic League for Regional Atlanta will have a new chairman as of Jan. 1 — Robert Inman “Trey” Ragsdale III.
Ragsdale manages government and community relations for Kaiser Permanente. He also has been involved in a variety of government, business and civic groups in metro Atlanta including the Bank of North Georgia, the Children’s Museum of Atlanta, People to People International as well as several chambers of commerce.
The work ethic and energy of the dancers from Moving in the Spirit is remarkable.
Every day they are moving against the tide of childhood obesity, too common in poorer neighborhoods. Their personal work ethic contrasts to the cheating educators in the Atlanta Public Schools, where many of these dancers learn.
Their Holiday Store helps teach them financial literacy and credit lessons that too few of us grasp.
By Maria Saporta
Friday, December 16, 2011
When Delta Air Lines Inc. recently hired Tad Hutcheson to be its new vice president of community affairs, it sent a welcome message to Atlanta and its key markets — the airline is strengthening its civic commitment.
Hutcheson recently resigned as vice president of marketing and sales of AirTran Airways, where he had been for nearly 15 years and become the discount carrier’s key person in Atlanta.
Dear Readers,
What a year it has been for SaportaReport.
Spending this past week in Mexico has given me an opportunity to reflect on all the developments that have taken place this past year. It also has given me a fresh perspective on where we’re headed as we enter a new year.
saportareport.com actually was launched in February, 2009 — about six months after I had accepted a buyout
By Guest Columnist KEVIN GREEN, president of the Midtown Alliance
For our annual meeting that we held on Dec. 14, we decided to take a different tact. Instead of focusing mainly on traditional subjects like capital projects and programs or new development currently breaking ground in Midtown, we focused instead on what we were all working to achieve: a great place where people want to be.
This requires a level of inquiry that goes beyond the physical assets we normally use to describe a place such as location, urban design, transportation, institutions and economic anchors.
By Maria Saporta
One of Atlanta’s most important leaders, who is an unsung hero in his hometown, is finally getting the recognition he deserves.
William H. Foege will receive Georgia Tech’s 2012 Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage award for his leadership in global health.
Among Foege’s numerous contributions include his leadership in the possible eradication of smallpox and other diseases worldwide.
By Maria Saporta
Elected leaders in the Atlanta region are becoming increasingly concerned in the direction of a Regional Transit Governance Task Force established by Gov. Nathan Deal.
“There’s no question that the state is still struggling with wanting to control everything,” said Mike Bodker, mayor of Johns Creek, adding that “you have every right to control what you pay for.”
By Guest Columnist VERNON JONES, former CEO of DeKalb County
As a young state representative in the Georgia General Assembly, I predicted white Democrats would become an endangered species in the South.
In 1991 when re-apportionment occurred in Georgia and other Southern states, there was a major push to have more seats created for African-Americans in local, state and congressional districts.
For decades, Atlantans have felt that they have had a secret formula to resolve differences among disparate folks and to create an economy where people can prosper.
A champion of this mindset is none other than former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young — a Civil Rights leader who went to Congress and later became the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Jimmy Carter. He then came back to Atlanta and served two terms as mayor.
Young was awarded the 2011 Ethics Advocate Award by the Center for Ethics
