By Maria Saporta
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed did not mention to members of the Kiwanis Club of Atlanta on Tuesday that he is running for re-election this year.
But he did make sure to honor a decades-long tradition Tuesday of being the first speaker each year to address the Atlanta Kiwanis.
On Jan. 5, 2010, Reed continued the tradition set by his predecessors, speaking to the group only one day after being inaugurated. And he has followed suit this year.
By Chris Schroder
If you watched as Kasim Reed was sworn in as the 59th Mayor of Atlanta in 2010, you saw his parents proudly standing beside him.
Their influence on Kasim’s life has been constant with only one major bump in the road – his decision to attend Howard University in Washington, D.C. Kasim was faced with one of the major pivotal decisions a young student must face – where to attend college. The decision is difficult for many, but for Kasim, the larger hurdle was informing his father, June, short for Junius.
“When I grew up, my dad – for many years, certainly since I was a boy – wanted me to go to the University of Georgia in Athens – the state’s flagship institution,” Kasim said.
By Maria Saporta
I was so sad to hear about Monday’s passing of James E. Young, president and CEO of Citizens Trust Bank.
Young had been a strong behind-the-scenes player in the Atlanta business community — translating his rich experience in the banking and financial world into the city’s civic sector.
It was always a pleasure to see Young in action, and it was even more of a pleasure to hear about how he used his influence behind closed doors.
One of the last times I saw him was after a board meeting of the Commerce Club when Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed was the guest speaker during the closed session.
By Guest Columnist JERE WOOD, mayor of the City of Roswell
Metro Atlanta needs more than a one-cent transportation sales tax to recover from the recession and regain its position in a competitive world. We need to work together as a region, not independently, to meet our transportation, water and other regional challenges.
To act as a unified region, we need leaders with the authority to speak for the region.
Who has the authority to speak for metro Atlanta?
