Atlanta has won the first round of the legal fight over its authority to issue more than $278 million in bonds for the future Falcons stadium.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville ruled last week in the city’s favor. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s office issued a statement saying the mayor was “pleased” with the outcome.
However, the city cannot issue any bonds during the 30-day period during which the opponents can appeal the court ruling. Opponents said Sunday they are weighing ...more
Georgia’s deficit of jobs was 372,300 in March 2014 and Georgia companies employ fewer workers than before the recession began, according to a report released Thursday by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
To fill the gap by March 2017, the GBPI report states: “Georgia’s economy would need to add an average of about 13,000 jobs per month. Georgia averaged only 5,670 jobs per month over the past year.”
The GBPI findings on employment trends are in line with those contained in ...more
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has added his voice to the international chorus condemning an Islamist terrorist group for kidnapping school girls in Nigeria.
“My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of the more than 200 Nigerian girls kidnapped three weeks ago from the Government Girls Secondary School,” Reed said in a statement released Wednesday.
Reed is slated to visit Nigeria in October as part of a trade mission that includes South Africa. Reed also is scheduled to join ...more
GRTA is marking a few milestones this summer with customer appreciation events at each of its park-and-ride locations. The first events were held Tuesday in Gwinnett County.
The Xpress bus service has now been operating for 10 years. The service has provided more than 17 million passenger trips during that period and now provides about 2 million trips a year, according to GRTA.
The commemorations occur even as mobility remains a major public issue in metro Atlanta. The latest example unfolded Tuesday ...more
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s goal of winning voter support for a planned $250 bond referendum to fix roads, bridges and sidewalks is evident throughout the budget he proposed to the Atlanta City Council.
The proposed budget contains any number of programs and efforts that appear intended to create an environment where the message in a bond referendum campaign could be: “You can trust Atlanta to manage your tax dollars wisely and deliver projects and services as promised.”
A snapshot of the debt ...more
The final segment of the Noonday Creek Trail project in Cobb County is on schedule to open as early as June, when the trail will link Kennesaw Mountain and Town Center.
The Noonday Creek Trail is a seven-mile paved pathway that has been in planning and construction for about a decade. Once it’s finished, the trail will connect a major retail and collegiate destination with one of the country’s major battlefield parks.
The area also has historic significance related to the Atlanta ...more
The next time wintry weather threatens Georgia’s roads, the state intends to have better equipment and strategies to handle the inevitable traffic problems.
Admittedly, this report on the state’s weather preparedness seems a little off tempo, given the spring storms this week and sunny forecast for the weekend. But the report is making the rounds, most recently in a presentation to the board of the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Better knowledge and communication comprise the backbone of the response described by Meg Pirkle, ...more
The Atlanta City Council on Thursday made its strongest statement yet that the time has come to declare some urban renewal projects complete so that property taxes collected from them can pay for city services.
The position sets up a potential political confrontation between the council and Invest Atlanta, the city’s development arm that collects management fees by administering Atlanta’s 10 TADs. Property taxes collected in a TAD, or tax allocation district, can be spent only to provide new public amenities ...more
Efforts to prepare for the region’s graying population are beginning to gain traction.
In Cobb County on Monday, a sold-out crowd is booked for the daylong “Aging by Design” summit. The event culminates the county’s two-month program on aging.
In Gwinnet County, a new commercial kitchen opened officially April 22 at the Gwinnett Senior Services Center, in Lawrenceville. The facility triples the number of meals that can be prepared and delivered to seniors, to 2,000 meals a day.
Across the region, the Atlanta ...more
Two local chapters of a sorority started at Howard University have convened a Human Trafficking Forum Saturday to discuss ways to fight the illegal sex trade in Atlanta.
The trade is immense. A landmark government-funded study released in March showed Atlanta has the nation’s largest sex economy – $290 million in 2007 and growing, unlike in most other U.S. cities.
Children continue to be trafficked, the report determined, despite the surge by law enforcement to crack down on pimps who prey on ...more
