By Guest Columnist ROXANA CHICAS, post-doctoral fellow at Emory University and former TPS holder from El Salvador
COVID-19 continues to ravage our nation, yet Congress has reached a stalemate in negotiations for the next COVID-19 relief package and attacks on immigrant communities ensue. A timely compromise that meets the needs of American families and businesses is critical, as well as safeguards for the immigrant community, including myself.
Turning State Farm Arena into Georgia’s biggest polling place may be a marketing stroke of brilliance. The COVID-driven stampede to online everything also puts the marketing sector at a pivot point in today’s culture.
By Guest Columnist MATT TERRELL, communications director for Dad’s Garage Theatre
The LEAD Atlanta class of 2021 has been postponed. Because of safety and health concerns surrounding COVID-19, the cohort of 50 rising young leaders will take a break this coming year.
Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic pointed to a few Atlanta neighborhoods to explain why the Federal Reserve intends to revise the law that governs banking in many minority and lower-income communities.
By Guest Columnist MARY KATHRYN NAGLE, a lawyer, playwright and enrolled citizen of Cherokee Nation
When I think of Georgia, I think of home. Although I have never lived there, when I return, it feels like we never left.
With a round of military base closures possibly on the horizon, Georgia is taking steps to defend its installations. Gov. Brian Kemp has named a former secretary of the Navy to lead the effort.
By Guest Columnists JEFF SMYTHE and RAPHAEL HOLLOWAY, CEOs, respectively, of HOPE Atlanta and Gateway Center
For too long, we’ve turned a blind eye to Atlanta’s homelessness and housing issues. Could the pandemic and racial justice movement finally be catalysts for real change?
As Atlanta struggles with the idea of equitable development in blighted areas, such as along the southern crescent of the Atlanta BeltLine, efforts in Washington, Detroit and Boston present real-time examples.
By Guest Columnist SUNDIATA RUSH, a volunteer with the Atlanta BeltLine
Grandeur. Cambridge defines it as: the quality of being very large and special and beautiful. And a Google search of the term yields over 88 million hits. But you don’t have to look far and wide for it in Atlanta. Just visit the sprawling new greenspace on the Westside and ascend the winding slope just off the central meadow. The magnificence will smack you in the face.
By Guest Columnist STEPHANIE STUCKEY, CEO of Stuckey’s Corp.
Rocky is one of my favorite movies. In the popular cinematic journey that so engaged millions of fans – and improbably won a Best Picture Oscar – our hard-luck hero overcomes the odds to make an unexpected turnaround. But it wasn’t easy for Rocky.
Recent headlines about Deluxe Corp. have focused on the 700 high tech, $90,000-plus salary jobs it is to bring to Sandy Springs. Barry McCarthy chose his words in a recent conversation to shine a light on corporate values that include community outreach – without mentioning his own lengthy record of service.
By Guest Columnist DANA JOHNSON, CEO of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce
In early March, Mitzi Schepps’ mobile veterinarian business, Wellness Waggin’, was thriving. Born out of a desire to help pets stay healthy and help alleviate pain through alternative treatments, Wellness Waggin’ provided acupuncture, laser therapy and other procedures to pets across Cobb County and metro Atlanta through-in home visits. Schepps’ business model relied heavily on the ability to travel and provide personalized care where pets are most comfortable – their homes.
By Guest Columnist AISHA YAQOOB MAHMOOD, director of the Asian American Advocacy Fund
Growing up in Gwinnett County, some of my fondest memories include weekend trips to Jimmy Carter Boulevard to get our ethnic groceries, stock up on some great Indian food, and hang out with our friends at Global Mall. Businesses along the Jimmy Carter corridor have helped bring pieces of home for many Asian communities for over 25 years. To this day, my friends and family from neighboring counties plan trips to Gwinnett, as it is revered a nexus for so many immigrant communities.
Residents of a quiet neighborhood in Southwest Atlanta have to decide if they support or oppose a proposed multi-story housing development for senior citizens, one with a density that could bring the type of life-altering effects familiar in faster-growing parts of the city.
By Guest Columnist MARK PENDERGRAST, an Atlanta native and author
When I was a child growing up in Atlanta, one of my favorite family outings was the hike up Stone Mountain, a monadnock which rises dramatically to the east of the city. A huge granite “pluton” formed over 300 million years ago, it offers an easy, gradual hike up the southern slope, though we had to take care not to fall over the steep northern edge when we reached the top (there was no guard rail then, as I recall).
Atlanta continues to tinker with its ordinances to protect trees and the vaunted tree canopy. The city this month has partially protected the Tree Trust Fund and started discussing the formation of a forestry division to manage wooded land.
By Guest Columnist RUTHIE YOW, Service Learning and Partnerships specialist at Georgia Tech’s Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain
This summer, 44 Georgia Tech undergraduate and graduate students fanned out across the city and state as part of their engagement with the Summer Internship Program at Georgia Tech’s Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS). This year’s program had a twist: It incorporated the nationwide protests for social justice and the public health catastrophe of COVID-19.
The pedigree of the federal judge who cited ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ when she rejected President Trump’s effort to reduce protections of migratory birds includes a UGA law degree, prosecution of mobsters in New York, and leadership at the FBI after 9/11.
By Guest Columnists TYLER S. THIGPEN and CALEB COLLIER, academic leaders at The Forest School and Institute for Self-directed Learning
A parent at our school has three kids at home. Last school year, two of them were learners at our school, The Forest School, a self-directed learning environment in Pinewood Forest, in Fayetteville. The third attended a nearby traditional middle school.
As men struggle to manage their emotions in this era of COVID-19 upheaval and social justice demonstrations, an organization whose first chairman was John Lewis is offering new programs to help.
