Peggy Whitlow Ratcliffe is the founder and executive director of Live Thrive, an Atlanta nonprofit launched in 2010 to promote healthy, sustainable environmental practices. It operates the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials, known as CHaRM. Following are edited excerpts from an interview. What inspired you to start Live Thrive and open CHaRM? After my parents passed away, I was…
Former U.S. Speaker of the House Tip O’Neal famously said “all politics is local” – and while that may not be true today, it still holds for development. Literally, of course, at ground level, all development is local – though sometimes it’s so big it affects an entire region. The almost-too-many-to-count projects planned or underway in Downtown Atlanta certainly exemplify…
Looking to the Future: Russell McMurry, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Transportation. Photo credit: Daemon Baizan For public transit planners tasked with keeping Georgia moving, complex challenges have piled up, as it were, like the three Atlanta-area bottlenecks that rank among the nation’s Top 10. Like the jumble at Macon where the road from the Port of Savannah –…
Creating a Sense of Place: Dorian DeBarr, president of the Decide DeKalb Development Authority. Photo credit: Eric Sun Atlanta has long called itself the “world’s next great city,” and its large number of diverse multinational residents have helped propel it to international stature. DeKalb is one of the counties in Metro Atlanta with a sizable foreign-born population. Of DeKalb’s 765,000…
Working Alongside Communities: Stacy Jones, vice president for public service and outreach at the University of Georgia. Photo credit: Ben Rollins Georgia boasts a whopping 159 counties, more than any other state except Texas, which is almost five times larger. Each county has been shaped, in some way, by the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development at the University of…
Dalton is a city where tradition, diversity and innovation live side by side. Known as the Flooring Capital of the World and affectionately celebrated by locals as SoccerTown USA, the city – which is 53% Hispanic – is home to billion-dollar data centers, award-winning healthcare and a growing college that is helping shape the next generation of Georgia’s workforce. Sense…
More Candidates: The roster of candidates seeking to become Georgia’s next governor is growing longer, promising to shake up the heated race even more. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced his candidacy one day after former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan. And in late September, State Rep. Ruwa Romman launched her campaign. Raffensperger has served as Georgia’s secretary of state…
I was glad to see Cartersville Mayor Matt Santini’s quote in our October Georgia Municipal Association Roundtable about the impact of the arts – that it’s not talked about often enough. As Smokey Robinson would say, I second that emotion. I am not the only one who, young and on the move, fell in love with Georgia and stayed for,…
Referendum on the Ballot: Voters can decide whether to approve zoning changes that could affect housing affordability in a Gullah Geechee community on Sapelo Island. Photo credit: Benjamin Payne/GPB News One of the South’s last Gullah-Geechee communities, founded by emancipated enslaved people, is celebrating a court victory. The state Supreme Court unanimously sided with Black landowners of the Hog Hummock,…
Oct. 31, 2025 Columbus Ledger-Enquirer These GA companies are among the best employers in the world, Forbes says Sundi Rose reports that Georgia is quickly emerging as one of the leading premier business hubs in the country and with this pro-business climate, it is not surprising that 7 Georgia-based corporations made Forbes’ Best Employers list. Despite the recent halt on…
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