Big Media’s searching eye is, in fact, quite lazy. It drifts familiarly over Washington and New York, with an occasional glance toward bad weather or civil unrest in the hinterlands. Only rarely is its gaze trained on one place for as long as it has been, over the past several months, on Georgia.
Tag: featured
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Community Improvement Districts could tap Internet of Things to expand services
After fostering more than $6 billion in development in metro Atlanta, the question of “what’s next” for the region’s community improvement districts is one subject of a new evaluation of CIDs that was released as their funding faces an uncertain future.
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Partnerships are Atlanta’s greatest tool for change
By Guest Columnist SAGDRINA JALAL, senior director of Community Innovation at the Center for Civic Innovation, with JENNIFER HIRSCH and DORI PAP, of the Georgia Institute of Technology
Black women are pioneers of social innovation, and their long history of working to create community – even when exhausted, even while being ignored, even as credit goes to others – should be recognized. For the Center for Civic Innovation (CCI) and for Georgia Tech’s Center for Sustain-Learn-Serve (SLS) and Institute for Leadership and Social Impact (ILSI), a shared belief in the importance of supporting innovation led by Black women provides a rare example of how large institutions can propel the work of community leaders forward by playing supportive, rather than leading, roles.
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The next election won’t be like the one the voting bill is based on
By Tom Baxter If they had been thinking more about the next election than the last one, the voting bill passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp might have been a lot different. The last election was a contest of giants, with Georgia playing a prominent (though not decisive, as some now […]
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Extracting natural resources from natural wonders: Okefenokee Swamp, Pamlico River
AURORA, N.C. – The world’s largest phosphate mine and chemical plant operates in the nation’s largest lagoonal estuary. This area in eastern North Carolina bears watching as Georgia officials review a proposal to mine sand from the edge of the nation’s largest blackwater swamp – Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp.
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The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra plays on
By Guest Columnist NOEL MORRIS, a writer and producer who specializes in classical and orchestral music
Since the start of the pandemic, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has turned up in the most unexpected places, including in the middle of a meadow in Serenbe.
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Call it alternative energy or Patriot Power, solar energy is widening its reach
f the subject of solar power makes you think of Birkenstocks and tofu, an advertisement currently going the rounds of conservative email lists will be a surprise. The Patriot Power Generator, sold by a small company in Tennessee, is a solar-powered generator with a continuous output of 1,800 watts, enough to keep the refrigerator running and the lights on for several hours.
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After George Floyd’s death, nation moves swiftly to condemn ATL mass shooting
The mass shooting in Atlanta last week may present a way for the nation to move forward with the mourning and racial awareness generated by the death last year of George Floyd while in police custody.
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The hidden costs of affordable housing
By Guest Columnist WILLIAM D. BRYAN, program manager with the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance
It’s no secret that Atlanta has an affordable housing problem. The city’s recent rapid growth has depleted affordable housing stock while an inflated real estate market has displaced many long-time residents. The city has approved a $100 million bond initiative to retain and develop dwellings affordable to those earning the salary of teacher or firefighter. But housing affordability depends on more than the price of shelter; it also depends on making energy affordable.
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Fiscal bonanza hasn’t got Republicans singing ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’
How do you look a $4.7 billion gift horse in the mouth? Last week, as the buzz from crossover day at the legislature dissipated into a deep torpor, Georgia Republicans were contemplating that question, and they weren’t singing “Happy Days Are Here Again.”
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COVID-19 funding rules more precise on UFO sightings than for arts venues
The COVID-19 funding relief package now being distributed is more exact in its rules about a required report on UFOs than it is on application guidelines for operators of arts and entertainment venues.
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North Fulton County cities must fund bus rapid transit
By Guest Columnist KEVIN ABEL, State Transportation Board member for the 6th congressional district
As Fulton County cities prepare their transportation project lists for the November Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax renewal referendum, the six cities of north Fulton County – Alpharetta, Milton, Roswell, Mountain Park, Johns Creek and Sandy Springs – face an important question: Will they allocate a meaningful percentage of their TSPLOST dollars to a Transit Improvements project so that bus rapid transit on the future Ga. 400 Express Lanes can be funded?
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A war we would have lost: looking back on a year in lockdown
Throughout this month there will be countless small anniversaries, as we think back on the day it became clear COVID-19 wasn’t just a big news story but something that would profoundly affect our lives.
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How to induce the private sector to fill Atlanta’s housing gap by rezoning
By Guest Columnists BRUCE GUNTER and JOEL DIXON, experienced developers of mixed income housing in metro Atlanta
If you agree on the need for more housing options for those of lesser means; want to do more than plant a yard sign to address systemic racism; and decry the yawning wealth gap between black and white households in Atlanta, then here is an action that will change the trajectory regarding housing supply and racial justice, while building net worth. It is single-family zoning reform, a zoning type covering 63% of the land area of the City of Atlanta.
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Three counties that are a problem Republicans can’t solve with legislation
Last week, as Georgia legislators were talking about limiting drop boxes and weekend voting, NBC News released an analysis which speaks powerfully to what was going on under the Golden Dome.
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Whirlwind of pandemic, immigration issues face future leader of Hispanic Chamber
The first orders of business facing the incoming leader of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce may involve helping to manage inflection points as the economy recovers from the pandemic, and as two federal immigration lawsuits are resolved in Texas.
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Tuition equity for immigrants a positive step for Georgia, economy
By Guest Columnist ISRAEL ARCE, surgical tech and Grammy-winning musician
It is a new year full of promise, particularly following the tumultuous election season. There is certainly no time to waste when it comes to promoting sensible solutions that will diversify our workforce while making our state more competitive and successful. Luckily, this seems to be exactly what Georgia state Rep. Kasey Carpenter (R-Dalton) is working to achieve.
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With Trump looming overhead, Loeffler and Perdue ponder their future in politics
With a couple of successful business careers and only one winning election between the two of them, and considering their stinging losses in last month’s U.S. Senate elections, one might think David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler would have had enough of politics. But in the past few days both have flirted with the idea of getting back in the game.
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Teleworking in rural Georgia to become a more viable option
As the pandemic portends lasting changes in telework patterns, the possibilities of working remotely in rural Georgia may be enhanced as a result of actions already taken this year at the state Capitol.
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Reparations: Starting point should be promise of ’40 acres of tillable ground’
By Guest Columnist JOE BEASLEY, a human rights activist in Atlanta and founder of the Joe Beasley Foundation
American history is fraught with fables and outright lies. No one envisioned the day when Africans would become part of the mainstream of the nation, the day when our truth would have to be examined and included.
