On Sept. 21, the Atlanta City Council formally backed the addition of light rail along the Beltline with a unanimous vote. Now what? After nearly two hours of public comment at the City Council meeting, 14 councilmembers voted to pass Kelsea Bond’s Beltline rail resolution. It shows support for the 22-mile planned transit loop. It […]
Tag: Courtney English
Posted inMaria's Metro
BoardWalk Consulting: recruiting civic leaders to Atlanta and beyond
In October 2012, Crystal Stephens was looking to lead an Atlanta nonprofit. A friend told her to visit with Sam Pettway, the founding director of BoardWalk Consulting, an Atlanta-based search firm specializing in the nonprofit sector. It didn’t take long for Pettway to ask Stephens if she would consider working for BoardWalk. Stephens had spent […]
Posted inMaria's Metro
Atlanta’s tree canopy hits new low
The City of Atlanta set a goal in 2023 to have a tree canopy of 50 percent. At the time, the Atlanta City Council said the city’s tree canopy “is a well-recognized integral part of the City’s identity, as the city is frequently described as the ‘City in the Forest.’” It went on to cite a 2018 […]
Posted inMaria's Metro
Mayor Andre Dickens on ACP Chair Andrew Schlossberg: ‘He’s all in’
The influential Atlanta Committee for Progress (ACP) held its April 10 meeting at Invesco’s headquarters in the Midtown Union development. The location was not a coincidence. It was the first ACP meeting to be chaired by Andrew Schlossberg, CEO of Atlanta-based Invesco, and it was the public-private group’s first quarterly meeting of 2026. ACP consists […]
Posted inMaria's Metro
Mayor Andre Dickens open to revisiting decision on Beltline rail
Now is an opportune moment to take a fresh look at putting rail on the Beltline’s Eastside trail. The case to move forward with rail on the Eastside trail is as strong as ever. It is the one corridor that makes the most sense for transit, given the density of development on the Eastside. It […]
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Raj Chetty to Atlanta: connect people to opportunity to improve economic mobility
The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation invited Harvard University researcher Raj Chetty, a guru of economic mobility, to Atlanta on Jan. 13 to share his insights on why Atlanta ranked dead last among the major cities in the United States. The Blank Foundation convened an influential group of business and civic leaders, government and nonprofit […]
Posted inMaria's Metro
Transit in Atlanta is at a crossroads
As Atlanta Beltline Inc. celebrates its 20-year anniversary, it is still up in the air on how the city will move forward to build out the vision for transit. The most tangible Beltline rail project is putting light rail on the Eastside Trail, extending the downtown streetcar to the Beltline and continuing the rail to […]
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To TAD or not to TAD — that is the question
The Tax Allocation District (TAD) is one of the most popular economic redevelopment tools in the City of Atlanta — one that helped finance the redevelopment of Atlantic Station as well as hundreds of projects throughout the city. In December 2024, the Atlantic Station TAD was shut down because it had lived up to its […]
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Fulton County puts off decision to withdraw from Westside TAD
It was a close call for the City of Atlanta and its Westside developments.A resolution introduced by Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis called for the county to no longer participate in new projects in the city’s Westside Tax Allocation District (TAD). After a long debate, the commission voted unanimously at its July 9 meeting to […]
Posted inMaria's Metro
Atlanta must go forwards — not backwards — when it comes to Beltline rail
When Andre Dickens was elected mayor in November 2021, I was filled with optimism and hope for the future of Atlanta. Here was a leader who ran on running an ethical government, building affordable housing and implementing rail transit on the Beltline. After eight years of the contentious administration of Mayor Kasim Reed and the […]
Posted inMaria's Metro
Mayor Andre Dickens says fixing MARTA will be a ‘big push’ in 2025
The Atlanta business community and Mayor Andre Dickens expressed concern about the state of MARTA, and they vowed that the transit agency would be a top priority in 2025. MARTA was a focus of the Dec. 13 meeting of the highly influential Atlanta Committee for Progress (ACP), an organization that includes top business, civic and […]
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Buckhead Coalition pays tribute to the late Sam Massell at annual meeting
The spirit of Sam Massell was alive and well at Wednesday’s annual meeting of the Buckhead Coalition.
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City Council president candidates pitch ways to help small businesses
By John Ruch Big business may pull the political strings in Atlanta, but small business drives much of the economy and culture. Four of the candidates for City Council president were grilled on ways to help the sector at a Sept. 25 forum, one of a small-business series hosted by the Old Fourth Ward Business […]
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In forum on housing affordability, council president candidates reveal how they think and lead
The leading City Council president candidates gave some revelatory answers at a Sept. 11 forum focused on housing affordability. Revelatory not because they or Atlanta are likely to magically solve the nationally intractable affordability problem, but exactly because they’re not. Granted, the next council prez — whose powers are mostly procedural — might collaborate with […]
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As wave of evictions looms, Atlanta mayor aims to put kibosh on displacement — for now
While a tidal wave of evictions looms large over metro Atlantans in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who recently announced she’s contracted the virus herself, is shooting to curb the number of people who are uprooted from their homes.
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Argument over Atlanta Council seat hinges on write-ins
In an Atlanta City Council race, it looks like votes for the likes of Beyoncé and Mickey Mouse might have made a difference if they’d gone another way.
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At large Atlanta City Council race attracts high-profile support
The race for Atlanta City Council between incumbent Michael Julian Bond and challenger Courtney English has attracted thousands of dollars in donations and now some well-known supporters.
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Atlanta City Council candidate profiles: Post 1 at large
All Atlanta voters have a say on this question in November: whether to transfer an Atlanta school board member over to City Council or opt for the candidate who’s represented all or part of the city on council for more than a decade.
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Atlanta City Council Candidate Q and A: Courtney English
Courtney English was first elected to the board of Atlanta Public Schools in 2009. In 2014, he was elected its chair. Now he’s running for Atlanta City Council’s as a citywide candidate for Post 1.
