By Guest Columnist KEVIN H. POSEY, who writes about transportation and has served on related boards in the Washington region. He moved to Atlanta in 2017.
Atlanta’s BeltLine is perhaps the city’s best-known landmark. As with New York’s High Line, travel writers point it out as a key stop for those visiting Atlanta. However, that popularity poses a threat to its viability as a usable transportation corridor.
Hurricane damage repair costs have prompted North Carolina highway officials to announce layoffs of more than 500 road maintenance workers, and to predict delays in repairing storm-damaged roads in the future. Politics may have a role in this transportation scuffle, along with other skirmishes in a two-party state on a level that Georgia hasn’t yet experienced.
The federal judge in Brunswick who ruled in favor of Georgia’s lawsuit seeking to overturn an Obama-era water rule has thrown it to the Trump administration to decide which waterways in 11 states are overseen by the federal government and which are controlled by the states.
The federal government has suspended its count of honey bee colonies, but the University of Georgia continues to collect information on honey bees – the state insect – and other pollinators. Citizen scientists can join Friday and Saturday in counting these pollinators.
There’s a template for handling budget shortfalls which Gov. Brian Kemp seems to be following. But there’s no template for the controversy which has erupted over toxic emissions affecting neighborhoods in Cobb, Fulton and Newton counties.
The latest plan to extract profits out of sand near the Okefenokee Swamp fits a pattern that started in the late 1800s and has ties to historic names in Atlanta’s growth – including Inman Park developer Joel Hurt, and an owner of the ‘Atlanta Journal’ who parleyed presidential endorsement editorials into a post as U.S. Secretary of Interior.
Metro Atlanta’s relentless growth results in part from the ability to process sewage. Fulton County is poised to foster growth in Roswell, Alpharetta and other areas north of Sandy Springs with construction set to start this fall on the expansion of the Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility.
Researchers at Georgia State University appear to have made a breakthrough in the potential to harness the body’s innate defenses to fight the mosquito-borne Zika virus – a disease with no known treatment or vaccine.
The proposal to mine sand near the Okefenokee Swamp could involve matters of national security. Products created with components in the sand are used in military aircraft, satellites, missiles and munitions, and naval vessels. The U.S. now imports almost 100 percent of the material and the top two sources are Japan and Russia; the Commerce Department is conducting a security analysis.
Climate-change scientists meeting in Geneva released a report Thursday that locks on to one of metro Atlanta’s popular social action programs as a way to stem global warming – rescuing food that’s destined for the landfill and getting it on someone’s table.
By David Pendered
Think of ARC’s long-range, regional planning blueprint done with 3-D animation. It would feel more alive, more real-time representational of the region it aims to serve. And the conversation has already started about the future the blueprint aims to inform.
By Guest Columnist RYAN GRAVEL, AICP, founder of Sixpitch, Inc.
The latest tale in the slow destruction of Atlanta’s iconic tree canopy might seem like a bizarre aberration. When you see it in context of generational disinvestment in the South River watershed, however, suddenly it’s not so surprising. As it turns out, this tale is not an anomaly, but if you look closely, an elegant and aspirational solution to the larger narrative is hiding in plain sight.
Pine Lake folks talk big about theirs being the smallest city in DeKalb County. On Thursday, this self-described “micropolitan” was recognized as the latest Atlanta Audubon Certified Wildlife Sanctuary. There was no word if the mayor will be singing about the award.
Bobby Kennedy’s grandson might not have much in common with a Texan who taught high school English before she was elected to Congress. But both congressmembers have signed legislation intended to protect sharks – an effort gaining attention during ‘Shark Week.’
A polluted river isn’t like a pothole – it doesn’t shriek for attention every time you drive over it. The polluted South River is quiet like that, though now its advocates are calling on DeKalb County to stop dumping raw sewage into the river.
The discussion begins Saturday about replacing the departing director of the Sierra Club’s Georgia chapter, one of the state’s few environmental organizations that endorses political candidates, seeks to influence legislation and sway public opinion.
By Guest Columnist ANDREA L. BOONE, Atlanta City Councilmember and daughter of the late civil rights leader Rev. Joseph E. Boone
In 2008, the city named the north border of Rodney Cook Sr. Peace Park for my late father, the Rev. Joseph E. Boone. The park located on Atlanta’s west side will consist of 16 acres of green space, with a lake, and, of most significance, a Peace Pantheon with a library, 18 sculptures and tributes to civil and human rights leaders from the area. All said, it will be the largest peace park in America.
A few Canada geese were minding their own business on a sidewalk outside Perimeter Mall Saturday afternoon when the soft “oohhh” murmurs of passersby gave way to a tone more harsh as the pedestrians passed through the birds’ droppings. This is a sign of the summer season in metro Atlanta.
Fulton County’s Board of Commissioners has banned the use of most disposable plastic food packaging in the county’s facilities. The ban is to be phased in and take effect Jan. 1, 2020. It also declares humans could be harmed by particles of plastics.
By Guest Columnist JACKSON FAW, a writer, actor and activist based in Atlanta
On July 1, against promises made to downtown Atlanta hotels and businesses that oppose the plan, the Atlanta City Council rushed a vote to begin eliminating the city’s only downtown streets designed to move large volumes of traffic quickly.
