One of the first political speeches I remember watching was President John Kennedy’s inaugural address, in which he inspired a nation with his famous, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your…
It’s as easy to get stuck in the present as it is to stay focused on the past. A sluggish economy and testy political climate make it difficult to see too far ahead. So as we pause to celebrate Georgia…
Georgia’s new Speaker of the House David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) has received high marks for his handling of the House of Representatives following the scandal-fueled resignation of his predecessor Glenn Richardson. Georgia Trend’s Neely Young and Susan Percy interviewed the…
Those of us who, in our youth, occasionally wished there was no such thing as school – that great interrupter of play time, that perennial cause of early-to-bed – may be feeling a bit childish in our response to the…
For someone who once considered canned asparagus the equal of fresh – and certainly a lot more convenient, who couldn’t imagine why anyone would make a cake from scratch when there were mixes available, and who didn’t understand why people…
It’s no secret that times are tough, and the economy has taken a toll on Georgia businesses. Georgia Trend sought out three CFOs – one from a bank, one from a food products company and one from a member-owned power…
Join The Crowd: Honk if you’re not running for governor this year. As of April 30, 14 candidates had qualified, seven as Democrats and seven as Republicans. Ray Boyd, who refused to take a loyalty oath to the state GOP,…
We dodged a potentially lethal bullet when the General Assembly wisely, if belatedly, decided that well, yes, maybe the arts really are important to the state and restored the $800,000 or so it had threatened to delete from the 2010-2011…
Good Stewards: The Water Stewardship Act of 2010, passed by the General Assembly, has won praise from the Georgia Conservancy and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. The measure, says the conservancy’s president Pierre Howard, former lieutenant governor, “is the most…
In one troubling 24-hour period, we learned that printed telephone directories may be on the way out for large-city dwellers in Georgia and that the U.S. Postal Service is likely to cut Saturday delivery. Losing the white pages and the…
The room was full of smart people who are used to confronting problems, coming up with solutions and taking decisive action. The occasion was a Leadership Atlanta forum, and attendees were interested in one particular problem that doesn’t seem to…
Most of Georgia’s business leaders and economic developers were expecting – and certainly hoping for – a speedier recovery from the recession than we’ve actually experienced. Yet unemployment rates remain high and job numbers are low. Nonetheless, as Georgia Trend…
If I were a good, hard-working, committed public servant – say, a state legislator – who paid for my own meals, remained faithful to my spouse and was smart enough to make up my mind on important votes without benefit…
Renee Lewis Glover Atlanta President and CEO Atlanta Housing Authority When Renee Glover came to the Atlanta Housing Authority in 1994, the city had a larger percentage of its citizens living in public housing than any other major American city.…
Probably because I once taught at a parochial school in New Orleans that provided a cash bar for PTA meetings so parents could buy drinks for their children’s teachers – nuns included, I’m having a little trouble with the flap…
The Georgia Historical Society and the Office of the Governor will add the names of baseball legend Hank Aaron and business leader and philanthropist Ted Turner to the roster of Georgia Trustees at the Historical Society’s Birthday Bash and Awards…
As Georgia was grappling with the harsh realities of a finite water supply and a federal judge’s ruling that threatens the metro area’s access to Lake Lanier, Georgia Trend convened a roundtable and called on some of the state’s most…
I’m starting a new club – and you are invited to be a charter member. There are no dues, no meetings, no fund-raisers, no silly hats. This is the Atlanta Fan Club, and the only requirement is that you become…
Despite the heavy autumn rains that ended a two-year drought, Georgia still has water troubles. A federal judge’s ruling that Atlanta has no claim on Lake Lanier water and the three-year timeline imposed for reaching an agreement with Alabama and…
We all have our “worry lists” that encompass items great, small and in-between: things that matter to the universe and things that matter only to us. The big topics on my list include world peace, the economy, global warming, affordable…
The Commerce Club, the premier meeting place for Atlanta’s civic-minded business community since it was founded in 1960, will combine its membership with the One Ninety One Club and move from its Broad Street location to the 49th floor of…
At my first real newspaper job, on a small Louisiana weekly, as the rookie reporter and the only “girl” in the newsroom, I was given a Polaroid camera and assigned the important task of photographing the weird and wonderful things…
Democracy can be loud and messy, as we have been reminded over the course of the healthcare reform debate. The comparison of law-making to sausage-making seems as apt as ever. Tracking the news coverage of the summer’s town hall meetings,…
OK, so a federal judge has said that the Army Corps of Engineers shouldn’t have allowed Atlanta to draw water from Lake Lanier for all these years, and that the metro region should have reined in its rampant growth and…
Northwest Georgia, hit especially hard by the recession, has a strong manufacturing tradition, thanks largely to the carpet industry. It has felt the pain of a diminished housing market as well as the effects of an economy that lacks diversification.…
I would like myself much better if I didn’t know who Jon and Kate are. And that they appear on a reality TV show with their eight children. And that they have, apparently, some significant marital problems for which they…
It’s not that I don’t ponder the big questions: Why am I here? What does it all mean? Did I remember to unplug the iron? I certainly do and will be happy to share any insights that I uncover as…
Sign of the times, perhaps, but everybody seems to be mad about something – the economy, the stock market, the unemployment rate, the auto industry. Or mad at somebody – Bernie Madoff and the greedy AIG bonus-snatchers, most recently. Once…
I hope and trust that we have moved safely beyond the doctrinaire “dress for success” era, and not a nanosecond too soon. Any female who worked in an office in the 1980s carries the memory of way too many boring…
If you’re Georgia Power, when it comes to building the plants that supply the energy needs of your 2 million-plus customers for the next few years, you see three choices: natural gas, coal or nuclear. Gas-fired power plants are clean,…
If you’ve lived in Georgia long enough, you can probably recall the days when Atlanta’s old slogan, “The Next Great International City” seemed more like wishful thinking than a blueprint for the future. It had a nice optimistic ring to…
Communities throughout the state are feeling the pain as jobs continue to disappear with no ready supply of new ones to take their place. In search of advice for Georgia’s counties and cities, Georgia Trend sought out Ken Stewart, commissioner…
Atlanta and the metro region have weathered previous recessions with comparative ease, thanks to a diversified economy, but this one feels different. The current downturn has hit hard, and the city and surrounding counties are feeling the effects. “This time,”…
If you’re looking for bad news, you don’t have to look very hard or very far: a statewide unemployment rate north of 8 percent and a budget deficit that may top $2 billion; plants closing or relocating; retail operations going…
If anybody’s interested, I think I might have a solution for businesses and government entities caught in the economic crunch, trying to do more with less. Not “the” answer, perhaps, but “an” answer. It’s a two-word suggestion: customer service, a…
More than 3.8 million Georgians live in one of the state’s 500-plus cities and are dependent on them and their leaders for everything from police and fire protection to regular garbage pickup. To find our how municipalities are weathering the…
On the day I went to purchase the fabulous new phone that puts the entire technological world at my fingertips – or will, once I master the intricacies of that teeny little keyboard – and allows me to view Tina…
It was a long, punishing campaign that generated far more heat than light. Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss and his Democratic challenger Jim Martin slugged and slogged their way through an extended battle characterized by negative ads, celebrity appearances and money…
You know those jokes people used to makE when a child went off to college or some other significant expense presented itself? The ones about having to work until they’re 80? They’re not so funny anymore. Events in the financial…
Some years ago I was catching up with an old friend who had recently left newspapering. He was the classic ink-in-his-veins news junkie, and it was impossible to imagine him in any other profession. I figured he would be the…
Rough day at the office? Well, that happens. So go home and take a nice relaxing bath, or stop by the gym for a workout or call up a friend and meet for a drink. Those are good, time-honored antidotes…
If you overlook two trips to the emergency room, one hospital admission, a night of tornadoes and a fire at the motel where we were staying, it was an uneventful trip. Just a quiet weekend in a small town in…
For 10 years, Ben DeCosta has been general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest. The city of Atlanta-owned airport is home to Delta Air Lines, on track to become the world’s largest carrier when its merger with…
It’s always a pleasure to sit in a roomful of smart people and listen, especially when those people are focusing on solving a serious problem to which they bring an arsenal of resources, information and determination – and the confidence…
Be respectful of cultural differences, use two hands to accept a business card, and watch out for the local wine – it’s 50 proof. There were other points, large and small, made at a briefing for media and members of…
The expanding economic ties between Georgia and China were celebrated handsomely, even exuberantly, last spring when Delta launched direct service from Atlanta to Shanghai the same week that Georgia opened a trade office in Beijing. The governor, first lady and…
Former Atlantans Nancy Tao and her husband Sean O’Keeffe had spent the previous few weeks settling into their new home in Beijing, where Sean has a manufacturing business and Nancy has a communications company. But they took the day off…
Despite some tough times, brought on by the subprime mortgage crisis, residential real estate is strong in Columbus, on the coast and in Atlanta’s high-end market – and looking better in north Georgia. Georgia Trend invited six industry representatives to…
When my daughter was 4, I traded a freelance career – flexible schedule, no dress code, easy commute to the back bedroom where I worked – for a “real” job that required dressing like a grownup and driving across town…
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