If there’s a bill before this year’s General Assembly which has the shape of things to come, it’s the measure which prohibits local governments from restricting utility hookups to buildings “based upon the type or source of energy or fuel to be delivered,” which means natural gas.
Tag: featured
Posted inColumns
Endless litigation over Chattahoochee River, no matter who wins water war
The Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments next week in the relentless case of Florida seeking more water from Georgia for Apalachicola Bay. No matter who wins, it won’t be the end of litigation over the major river system in metro Atlanta – the Chattahoochee River.
Posted inColumns
Fulton development authority partners with foundation to improve infrastructure of two HBCUs
By Guest Columnist Dr. SAMUEL D. JOLLEY, Jr., secretary of the board of directors for the Development Authority of Fulton County
The call was a clear one: We were asked to help upgrade essential infrastructure at a major university center while preserving debt capacity.
Posted inColumns
While voting bills abound, daylight savings bills stir passions
Two issues being considered under the Golden Dome this year illustrate the tremendous power state legislatures have, and the boundless capacity of legislators to fritter that power away.
Posted inColumns
EPA’s mandated review of Georgia rivers usage resumes after two-year lag
The clock is ticking on the state’s review of requests by river advocates to upgrade the designated use of Georgia’s rivers – including the Chattahoochee and South rivers. The effort appears to rely heavily on volunteers with riverkeeper and paddling organizations.
Posted inColumns
To knock out COVID-19, we may have to vaccinate the undeserving
Should the most deserving always be the first to get their shots? It’s an uncomfortable question, but one that does arise as the nation tackles the largest logistical problem it has ever faced.
Posted inColumns
From a Black academic’s rebuke of Stacey Abrams to reparations: Black History Month 2021
This is a different kind of Black History Month. It began early, with a Black academic’s rebuke of Stacy Abrams on an Atlanta-based podcast. It includes studies of reparations by Spelman College and Emory University, plus the release of C.T. Vivian’s memoir.
Posted inColumns
Backyard hurricane: Leaf blowers exact huge toll to create a world with fewer leaves
By Guest Columnist PETER BAHOUTH, climate activist and visual artist
My very first job was raking leaves in the fall. … Now, the simple and efficient rake has been replaced by the daily intrusion of loud and polluting gas-powered leaf blowers designed to blast away any leaf that dares land on a lawn.
Posted inTom Baxter
Absentee voting laws are really about one party’s identity
What is truly dangerous for Republicans about all this tinkering with election laws is that it prolongs the idea that eliminating drop boxes or requiring more identification for absentee voting would really change very much, no matter what the merits of any particular measure may be.
Posted inColumns
Election-year urban renewal plans could imprint Mayor Bottoms’ legacy on race, class
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ administration has proposed three election-year urban renewal initiatives that, if enacted, could imprint the mayor’s legacy on the city’s divisions around race and class for years to come.
Posted inColumns
Protecting trees: Replace cut/scrape housing with village conservation communities
By Guest Columnist GREG RAMSEY, founder of Village Habitat Design
Our last forests in and around Atlanta (The City of Trees) are under assault. Sites are needlessly being cut and scraped to further a suburban, conventional style development pattern that has consumed most of the woodlands and farms in and around Atlanta. We are left with a limited number of “forest enclaves” on the remaining private tracts of land, and they are awaiting a similar fate.
Posted inColumns
In this inaugural week, we have not yet come down where we ought to be
is week in a normal year, legislators across the country would be getting committee assignments and their first look at the calendars for this year’s sessions. This year the calendars have a lot of wait-and-see in them. National Guard units have been called out to protect the capitols in at least 21 states. Police are on alert from Montgomery to Montpelier.
Posted inColumns
Joe Biden, Scranton, Lackawanna River, and me
JERMYN, PA. – My parents are buried on the banks of a river that passes near Joe Biden’s childhood home in Scranton.
Posted inColumns
Park Pride’s MLK Day equity update
By Guest Columnist MICHAEL HALICKI, executive director of Park Pride
Monday, Jan. 18, is the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, an occasion that calls on us all to honor the legacy of Dr. King and to consider whether our individual actions follow in his example.
Posted inColumns
Sheep in wolves’ clothing head up the docket in riot’s aftermath, as the real wolves lurk
By Tom Baxter Who were those rioters who so unceremoniously ripped Georgia’s stunning election off the top of front pages last week? Watching them on television from the safety of the White House, President Donald Trump is said to have complained that the Capitol invaders looked “low-class,” although he was thrilled by what they were […]
Posted inColumns
Truck traffic in metro Atlanta: No end in sight as freight moves in Georgia
By David Pendered
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of periodic reports on freight logistics in metro Atlanta and Georgia.
Posted inColumns
Denouncing QAnon claims about human trafficking: A plea to sign petition of IHTI
By Guest Columnist DEBORAH RICHARDSON, executive director of the International Human Trafficking Institute.
Georgia is a case study of Margaret Meade’s words: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Posted inColumns
Georgia couldn’t give Trump what he wants, even if it did what he asks
Suppose that after an hour’s badgering, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had given in and promised to “find” those 11,760 votes President Donald Trump was asking for. What then? If there even was a “what then.”
Posted inColumns
Mortgage debt rising among older homeowners; metro Atlanta faces decisions
Mortgage debt continues to rise among the nation’s homeowners age 65-plus. More than a quarter of the 80-plus crowd now has mortgage debt, according to findings by the Federal Reserve and Harvard University.
Posted inColumns
From marginalized to mainstream
By Guest Columnist JOE HUDSON, trailblazing Black business advocate, mentor and coach
Today is the day that the Black business community needs to begin to step into city/community leadership roles. And, now is the time to put together funds from the Black community and its Black businesses to help build Atlanta’s Black community infrastructure and to protect our interest going forward. We have money and business leadership talent. We have many rich Black people in Atlanta who, as former Mayor Maynard Jackson used to say, “Get what they can get, and sit on the can.”
