Although Georgia is still a red state, the island of blue known as metro Atlanta is getting bluer.
Between the presidential elections of 2012 and 2016, three metro counties switched from voting primarily for Republican Mitt Romney to voting primarily for Democrat Hillary Clinton. Those three counties were Gwinnett, Cobb and Henry.
Regionalism took a big hit in July 2012 when the 10 counties in the Atlanta region defeated the Transportation Investment Act – a proposed one-cent sales tax for 10 years.
Since then, most transportation and economic development initiatives have been led by individual counties or cities while regionalism has taken a back seat.
A shooting death Wednesday following an altercation outside a Downtown Atlanta homeless shelter underscores the dangers facing the region’s homeless youths, whose issues are detailed in a new report from Georgia State University.
This week, guest columnist BETTY HOLLAN, executive director of Georgia Women of Achievement, recognizes the achievements of Sapelo Island midwife Katie Hall Underwood.
If you visited Sapelo Island from 1920 until 1968, you may have seen a strong, lean woman briskly walking from one end of the island to the other, a long seven-mile stretch, her mind set on delivering another baby into this world. Born into a family of freed slaves in 1884, Katie Hall Underwood was the last of a long line of Sapelo midwives. Her skilled hands and soothing demeanor brought generations of proud Gullah-Geechee people into the world.
How does “fastest-aging metro area in America” sound as a slogan?
Atlanta’s Martin Luther King Jr. Drive may be taking on a new moniker as the city’s “Street of Dignity,” if language catches on that appears in the city’s announcement of progress on the plan to retool the roadway into a complete street.
Remember 17 years ago when the Atlanta BeltLine was just a glimmer in Ryan Gravel’s mind?
Now imagine the Chattahoochee River as reinventing the western edge of Atlanta in the same way the BeltLine has transformed our communities.
The two stories are strikingly similar.
By Maria Saporta and Doug Sams
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on March 11, 2016
United Way of Greater Atlanta has selected real estate services firm Colliers International to market its 4-acre downtown campus for a possible sale.
Colliers beat out three other firms, after pitching a proposal to United Way that included the possibility of selling the 18-story tower on the campus and converting it to student housing.
The Atlanta Dogwood Festival is celebrating its 80th birthday this year.
To mark the occasion, the festival has decided to give a gift to Atlanta. It has commissioned a bronze interactive sculpture of a dogwood branch with blooms to adorn the edge of Lake Clara Meer near the Charles Allen Dr. entrance.
Fulton County Commission Chairman John Eaves met with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed last week to work on possible “local legislation” compromise for transportation funding that would address MARTA’s expansion plans.
Atlanta has an additional citywide forum to discuss civic concerns, this one created by Atlanta City Councilmember Michael Julian Bond to focus on policy affairs.
A House Transportation subcommittee on Thursday is slated to reconsider a proposal that archaeologists say would cripple historic research and preservation on roadway projects.
BEAUFORT, N.C. – North Carolina is building four bridges to improve access to the Outer Banks, slivers of sand with economic value as tourist destinations and communities of commercial fishing.
Atlanta prides itself as being the birthplace of the civil rights movement and a place where people of different races can succeed.
But it’s hard to reconcile that truth with the harsh reality that Atlanta in the 21st Century has had the largest, most rapidly growing gap between rich and poor of any major American city.
WILMINGTON, N.C. – North Carolina is expanding its seaports and bridges in a comprehensive effort to promote economic development in shipping and tourism along its remote coastal communities.
By Guest Columnist HATTIE DORSEY, a concerned citizen who is a former president of Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership
A policy for affordable housing has been a long time arriving.
Soon the Atlanta City Council will deliberate a proposed policy on inclusionary housing to be submitted by Councilmember Andre Dickens, chair of the City’s Community Development Committee.
The rosy job growth report released Friday by the U.S. Labor Department is on track with the anecdotal reports of an improving economy issued Thursday by the Federal Reserve. Still, troubles are evident.
By Maria Saporta
As published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on February 26, 2016
Delta Air Lines, already a significant contributor in the community, is announcing a major increase in its giving.
In a telephone interview on Feb. 24, Delta President Ed Bastian said the airline is announcing to employees that it will make an annual commitment to donate 1 percent of its net profits earned in the previous year.
A Fulton County judge on Tuesday upheld GDOTs refusal to allow a pipeline company to condemn land along the Savannah River. The company said it is reviewing its options.
Colleen Kiernan, director of the Sierra Club’s Georgia Chapter, has announced she will be stepping down on April 1.
A newsletter wrote that “we are bidding a fond but reluctant farewell” to Kiernan.
