Fresh Loaf

On Oct. 28, Gov. Sonny Perdue named King & Spalding partner Allen Barnes the new state Environmental Protection Division director. Environmental advocates cried foul over Perdue’s decision, as Barnes’ former employer represents two proposed coal plants, as well as the state of Georgia in the ongoing “water wars” debacle with Alabama and Florida.

“Generally, if you get a partner coming over from a big firm when there is activity going on between the firm’s clients and that agency, there is a lot of potential for conflict.”
— Environmental lawyer Gil Rogers, in an Oct. 27 Fulton Daily Report article

“[Proposed coal plants Longleaf and Washington] are both being handled by a team at King & Spalding, and now a member of that team is going to be making the decisions [as to whether those plants will be built]. How is the public going to have any faith that the decisions made about the two biggest new pollution sources ever to come into Georgia have been made impartially?”
— Environmental lawyer Justine Thompson, in the same Fulton Daily Report story

“A single law firm that represents a large number of polluters is suddenly moving personnel into state government positions that directly affect its clients. It’s hard to put it in a happy light if you care about natural resources and the public interest in them.”
— Sierra Club lobbyist Neill Herring, in an Oct. 27 interview with the Savannah Morning News

“I need to sit down with the counsel and make a very thoughtful and deliberative decision as to what’s proper and what is required in that area. We’ll certainly make that decision.”
— Barnes on if he’d recuse himself from decisions involving King & Spalding, in an Oct. 28 interview with Capitol Impact’s Tom Crawford

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Estimated number of metro Atlanta office jobs lost in the last three years: 50,000

Number of square feet of vacant commercial office space in metro Atlanta: 24 million

Number of years real-estate experts estimate it might take to fill the region’s empty office space: 12

Estimated cost of two full-page Wall Street Journal ads purchased by the Buckhead Coalition to market vacant condos and commercial spaces: $554,000

Number of years since Atlanta’s annual population growth was as small as it was over the past year: 19

Number of single-family building permits issued in 2009 in Atlanta, as of September: 114

Number of single-family building permits issued in Atlanta in October 2006 alone: 178

Number of years real-estate experts estimate it could take to fill vacant condos in such intown areas as Midtown and Atlantic Station: 4

Number of floors proposed for a new Midtown office tower that law firm Alston & Bird may build: 30

Sources: Atlanta Business Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Here’s the second of two Democratic Party of Georgia mailers that allege mayoral candidate Mary Norwood is actually a Republican. Jim Galloway’s got photos of the other. SpaceyG also provided a link to one.

Click to enlarge. More photos, including Norwood’s TV commercial response, are after the jump.

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A new Insider Advantage poll shows Mary Norwood’s still the frontrunner in the Atlanta mayor’s race with 45 percent support. Kasim Reed trails with 25 percent. Lisa Borders, who until two weeks ago was second in the race, is third with 16 percent. Jesse Spikes is in the low single digits. Eleven percent of the poll respondents were undecided. (Here’s a link to a PDF of the poll’s crosstabs.)

So sayeth pollster Matt Towery, CEO of IA:

“Based on this survey, if the election were held today, Norwood would likely be within one or two percent of winning the race without a runoff. Her barrage of ads and the apparent decline in Borders’ support suggests that white voters are moving to Norwood. That said, Reed now appears to be the African-American candidate with substantial support from the black community.

What’s interesting about the mayor’s race right now: It’s about image rather than platforms.

Borders, Reed and even the Georgia Democratic Party have accused Norwood of being a Republican. Norwood, who invited the criticism after she said earlier this week that she couldn’t remember if she ever voted for George W. Bush, responded with a TV ad. In it, she rattles off the names of Democrats and even Ross Perot, which, in my opinion, might’ve done her more harm than good.

The Reed campaign today issued a statement calling the Norwood spot a “slick and calculated denial of her well-documented Republican past” and a “scheme to trick Atlanta’s Democratic majority into making a false choice on the eve of this election.”

Political wonks take note: Campaign disclosure reports, which’ll tell us how much cash each candidate has to spend in the final days before Nov. 3, are due today at 5 p.m.

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Delivered via Sean Combs’ Puff Daddy’s P-Diddy’s Diddy’s Twitter telegraph service:

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MAKE IT RAIN, Y'ALL

Get pumped, crunk and amped all up in this muthafucka, recycling fans!

City Hall yesterday officially launched ReCART, Atlanta’s new “incentive-based” recycling program. If your household is one of the lucky 10,000 randomly selected to receive the 96-gallon recycling bin pictured to the right, you can start earning restaurant discounts and pharmacy deals just for tossing out your beer cans! It’s brilliant, ya drunks!

The program, a partnership between the city’s department of public works, Coca-Cola and Rehrig Pacific, is aimed at improving Atlantans’ recycling habits, helping residents save money, and making the city more sustainable. RecycleBank, the private company that manages the reward program, says similar efforts in 21 states have increased recycling program participation rates.

Depending on how much they recycle, selected households earn points which can be redeemed at local and national businesses. A department spokeswoman says local participating businesses include Radial, Zoo Atlanta, Rita’s Water Ice, Edgewood Avenue Pizza, and Six Feet Under locations.

Sounds great! One quick question: how much will it cost taxpayers?

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Is an endorsement really an endorsement if you give the nod to two candidates from the same party who are running for the same seat?

From GOP gubernatorial candidates Eric Johnson and John Oxendine’s Twitter doohickeys:

Whatever, Johnson posted it first! Eat that, Ox©!

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Paul Donsky of the AJC reports that Wachovia Bank has filed a lawsuit against Wayne Mason, the Gwinnett County developer who in 2008 made a windfall off Beltline property in Northeast Atlanta. The lawsuit stems from a $7.5 million loan that Mason took out in 2004 to buy three units in Buckhead medical office building.

According to the lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, Mason failed to pay $7.07 million remaining on the loan that came due in February. The lawsuit names both Mason and a company he controls, Lone Pine, as defendants.

In a statement issued through a spokeswoman, Mason said he received a copy of the complaint Wednesday afternoon.

“Our lawyers will be reviewing its allegations and we’ll respond accordingly,” he said.

Documents included in the lawsuit say Mason and Lone Pine borrowed the money to buy three units at the Palisades at West Paces, a medical office building near I-75 and Northside Parkway. The lawsuit did not say what Mason did with the property.

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Tiffany Brown faces an uphill battle if she wants to live up to her Twitter handle and become Atlanta’s next mayor.

As a write-in candidate, the Spelman College grad — whose 2005 mayoral campaign was, you guessed it, unsuccessful — won’t have the benefit of having her name on the ballot. That poses a problem for voters who’d like to vote for Brown, but might not remember how to spell her name. “Is it Tiffany with an ‘i?’” “Brown with a ‘q?’” These are very real questions millions of Americans ask themselves each day.

So like other candidates, Brown’s produced a commercial to raise her profile among voters. The spot will be shown on such cable channels as Bravo, the Food Network and ESPN2 until Nov. 3.

The ad contains LIVE SHOCKING FOOTAGE of crimes in progress, including a German DJ from the 1990s snatching someone’s purse as they get into their car. I, for one, am shocked that a cameraman would sit in garages and at local ATMs and wait for crimes to occur. Ms. Brown, you must report these acts to the appropriate authorities at once!

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Greenies rejoice! The City of Atlanta is finally rolling out a long-discussed pilot program that would offer “points” that recyclers could redeem at local and national businesses.

Details are vague at the moment. A press release last week contained some incorrect information, and the specifics are being kept under wraps until the initiative’s official launch on Thursday, Oct. 29.

What we do know: The incentive-based pilot program will be operated by RecycleBank, a private company that, according to its Web site, “partners with cities and haulers to reward households for recycling.” Here’s a graphic-tastic idea of how RecycleBank’s program works. The company says its program has been shown to more than double recycling rates in 21 states and the United Kingdom. Participating national businesses include CVS, IKEA, Whole Foods, The Home Depot and Target.

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Videodrome, the Poncey-Highland movie rental store that’s been a go-to for film buffs since 1997, was robbed Friday night.

Owner Matt Booth tells CL that a male suspect entered the store at approximately 10:45 p.m. and browsed film selections. After purchasing a movie, the suspect allegedly displayed a gun to the clerk and demanded the contents of the register. (Booth declined to say how much cash the suspect took.)

No one was injured during the robbery. An Atlanta Police Department spokesman told CL he was working on providing more details about the case. We’ll update when we hear word.

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Gov. Sonny Perdue has tapped Allen Barnes, a partner at King & Spalding, to head the state Environmental Protection Division. Director Carol Couch resigned last week to take a job at the University of Georgia.

From the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

Before joining Atlanta-based King & Spalding, Barnes served as chief of staff for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region Four, which has jurisdiction over eight Southeastern states, including Georgia. Prior to that, he taught natural resource policy and law as an associate professor at Mississippi State University. [...]

Barnes’ professional career also includes stints as a prosecutor in the Florida State Attorney’s office and as a special assistant U.S attorney handling criminal, tort and environmental litigation.

But Georgia Public Broadcasting’s John Sepulvado says some environmentalists aren’t happy with Perdue’s choice.

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Marc Fitten, the editor of The Chattahoochee Review, had an op-ed column in Saturday’s New York Times about parting ways with his old Honda and purchasing a new car.

The piece is about much more, actually. Namely, the shuttered General Motors plant in Doraville, the 1,200 former workers who lost their jobs, and how the overgrown site’s convinced Fitten that he won’t be purchasing a Chevy anytime soon. Not until the bailed-out company “has responsibly sold every empty plant across this country to the benefit of every American town that had its back for the last hundred years.”

(You’ll recall that DeKalb County’s been exploring how to redevelop the site, possibly through a public-private partnership. There have been talks about it becoming a new stadium for the Atlanta Falcons. Atlanta Unfiltered’s Jim Walls, who’s been all over the story, recently reported that the Doraville City Council doesn’t like the idea.)

Take a look at Fitten’s column.

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In March 2008, Mayor Shirley Franklin commented on a Fresh Loaf post about the sentencing hearing for her daughter, Kai Franklin Graham. We were surprised she’d jumped into the online fray, but we welcomed her input. But then for months she went silent, only holding something called “press conferences.” We didn’t hear much from the online persona known only as “Shirley” after that. And we became sad.

On Sunday, someone named “Shirley” commented on a post by the AJC’s Jim Galloway. In it, the poster says Mary Norwood, who according to polls has a big chance of becoming Atlanta’s next mayor, isn’t qualified for the position.

Galloway checked with City Hall to confirm it was Franklin. It was. From her comment:

I support candidates with vision, integrity and intelligence and I have voted for candidates with these 3 characteristics throughout my life. Mary Norwood has none of these. Therefore, I do not support her candidacy for mayor.

Should she win I will wish her well and continue my activism in politics and civic affairs. Race nor gender are the issues for me. Competency is. Norwood has not demonstrated vision, competence or integrity in her public life as an elected offical. Rather she has spent her time building a political network to run for mayor. It looks like she’ll be successful.

She’s provided no evidence in her service on the Council as to her competence to govern. She has not led on ethics or public policy. In fact she’s known for slips of the tongue about what she’ll do as mayor.

Read the rest of Franklin’s comment over at Galloway’s den of political intrigue.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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First we had John Oxendine’s “innovative” commercial in which a giant bull destroyed homes and slaughtered a mutant rodent at Turner Field and Buford Dam.

Now there’s an ad pillorying the leading GOP gubernatorial candidate. Tagline: “The Ox. At least he went to college.” That’s an obvious (and not entirely accurate) jab at Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, who’s also running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. She recently said she attended night college classes, but didn’t earn a diploma.

Regardless, flash animation lives on in Georgia political campaigns. Huzzah!

(H/T to Andre Walker at Blog for Georgia)

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If you’re still on the fence about who to vote for in Atlanta’s Nov. 3 elections — and there are plenty of you out there, we’re sure — be sure to tune to PBA on Oct. 25 and on Nov. 1.

The Atlanta Press Club’s wrangled candidates for Atlanta mayor and city council, forced them to stand at podiums, and allowed journalists to pummel them with questions.

Prerecorded APC debates for Atlanta City Council’s three At-Large posts will air Sunday morning. Atlanta mayoral candidates will participate in a live one-hour debate at 7 p.m. And a prerecorded debate between Atlanta City Council president candidates will air on Nov. 1.

The full broadcast schedule follows after the jump.

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Rasmussen reports that John Oxendine still leads candidates battling to become the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee. According a telephone survey conducted by the pollster, 27 percent of likely Republican primary voters favor the state insurance commissioner.

The Ox’s© lead, however, has shrunk by four points — and the number of undecided voters has grown. Rasmussen says many likely voters still haven’t formed an opinion about the candidates — which isn’t surprising for a contest that’s still 10 months away.

Here’s how the other pachyderms stack up:

Twelve percent (12%) prefer Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, while nine percent (9%) like Congressman Nathan Deal. Handel and Deal were tied at 13% each in the previous survey.

Rounding out the list is State Senator Eric Johnson, State Representative Austin Scott and conservative businessman Ray McBerry, each with three percent (3%) support among primary voters.

Seven percent (7%) favor some other candidate, and 35% are not sure. The number of undecided voters climbed four points from two months ago, suggesting that the race is far from decided.

That “other candidate” favored by seven percent of poll respondents could easily be a Libertarian. Pray to God it’s not this guy. Rasmussen will release details on the Democratic gubernatorial candidates tomorrow.

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Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has a new historical novel coming out and he’s eager to use it as an excuse to clog Twitter with 140-character missives from dead men.

On Saturday, the pol-turned-think tanker will conjure black magic and resurrect General George Washington, Private Jonathan Van Dorn and Hessian commander Colonel Johann Rallhas — key figures in the historic crossing of the Delaware River and Battle of Trenton. Once they’re dusted off and fed heavy sedatives to cope with what democracy’s become, Gingrich will hand them iPhones and force them to re-enact the events.

“In To Try Men’s Souls, Bill Forstchen and I try to bring Washington and the other historical figures to life, trying to imagine what their conversations were like and what they were feeling while crossing the Delaware in extreme cold and sleet,” said Newt Gingrich. “This “twitternactment” will be a new way for people to experience history “in the moment.”

Gingrich says you can witness these historic figures make typos and needlessly hashtag trending topics by following @genwashington76, @pvtvandornNJ and @colonelrall.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Atlanta mayoral candidate and grassroots activist Kyle Keyser is the latest City Hall hopeful to release a campaign commercial. Only this one won’t be airing during every “Georgia Gang” commercial break, a la the frontrunners’ ads. It’s an online-only spot.

The ad was shot by Atlanta-based filmmaker Raegan Hodge. The tune is by local musicians Judi Chicago. Keyser’s campaign says it’s an in-kind contribution.

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Yay! The new issue of The Beacon, the North Fulton weekly newspaper that made headlines for its Obama-in-the-crosshairs cover, has been delivered to my computer screen!

What’s this? A profile of Georgia Secretary of State and 2010 GOP gubernatorial candidate Karen “Bring It On” Handel? I wonder how it’ll start.

“I’ve had to fight for everything my whole life,” says Georgia Secretary of State and GOP gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel. “So this is no different.”

And so begins perhaps the most glowing profile you will ever read about Karen Handel, from now until the day you die.

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Southeast Atlanta residents won’t want to miss tonight’s mayoral candidate forum.

Candidates Lisa Borders, Mary Norwood, Kasim Reed and Jesse Spikes will field questions from moderators Derrick Boazman and Bishop Matthew Norwood at the Atlanta Youth Academy on Forrest Park Road. (Map here.)

The event, which is sponsored by nine neighborhood and community organizations, is billed as Southeast Atlanta’s first mayoral forum. Discussion will focus solely on the issues that impact the part of the city which includes the Grant Park, Reynoldstown, Benteen Park, Summerhill neighborhoods, among others.

A reception will be held from 6:30-7:00 p.m. The two-hour forum follows. Child care will be available.

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Carol Couch

After nearly six years on the job, Georgia Environmental Protection Division Director Carol Couch will step down from her post on Oct. 26 and move into academia.

In an email to colleagues, Couch thanked the men and women of the agency tasked with monitoring and protecting the state’s water, air and land. She also noted the challenges the state has faced — droughts, floods and budget crunches — in her last few years.

“On behalf of the [Georgia Department of Natural Resources board], I want to thank Dr. Couch for her service,” DNR board Chair Bill Carruth said in a statement released by the EPD. “Her technical expertise, professionalism and dedication to environmental stewardship have been an asset to the Department of Natural Resources.”

In December, Couch will join the University of Georgia’s College of Environment and Design. Gov. Sonny Perdue and the DNR board are expected to appoint her successor next week.

(Courtesy EPD)

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On Oct. 14, Westview and West End residents received good news about the long-overlooked L&N railroad tracks in Southwest Atlanta: the Georgia Department of Transportation finally voted to allow the PATH Foundation to move ahead with a proposed Beltline jogging and biking trail.

For more than a year, Patrick Berry and other neighborhood residents waited for glimmers of progress on the abandoned tracks.

Unfortunately, all they saw were dumped mattresses, shopping carts, and blankets of kudzu piling up.

“When people came to the neighborhood, they’d see garbage and overgrowth,” Berry, vice president of the Westview Community Organization, says. “It gives the impression that nobody cares.”

Beltline officials say they’ve inked a deal with Trees Atlanta to begin a five-year kudzu removal process. Ed McBrayer of the PATH Foundation, which will oversee construction of the the trail, says he plans to meet with GDOT officials this week to discuss the project.

Once completed, the 1.4-mile trail will connect with the West End trail along White Street.

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The AJC’s Alison Young had a great piece this weekend about a now-defunct smelter that for decades burned lead at an industrial site just blocks from Morningside. The site where the smelter was located — right where Piedmont Road crosses under I-85 — is now a concrete plant. But the residual pollution caused by the smelter has largely been forgotten by state and federal regulators.

How much lead dust rained down over the years and how far the winds blew is not currently known. But experts say that, despite the passage of decades, the lead would remain relatively near the surface unless the soil has been removed or buried under clean fill dirt. [...]

Tests conducted privately in 2003 show large swaths of the smelter property contained potentially dangerous levels of lead, above 400 parts per million (ppm), according to site plans and a soil removal permit issued by the city of Atlanta to contractors for the property’s owner at that time, Metalico of Georgia Inc. The testing was within the boundaries of the smelter property at 740 Lambert Drive NE.

After reading the story, a source who keeps a close eye on Georgia’s environment told CL this weekend that he’s curious about the smelter’s proximity to Peachtree Creek. If floods seeped up toxins in nearby soil, they could have spread downstream.

Thanks to Young, the Environmental Protection Agency is  investigating the matter. Kudos to the journalist for taking on this story on her own initiative and effecting some government action. Snippets don’t do it justice, so go check it out in full.

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The organizers behind Pecha Kucha, the storytelling experiment in which speakers have seven minutes and a slide projector to convey the complexities of their lives and passions, have produced an excellent group of participants for the next event on Sunday, Oct. 18. The theme: “Open Letter(s) to the next Atlanta mayor.”

According to Alfredo Aponte, one of the event’s organizers: “We are doing an ‘Atlanta: Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve’ type of night, hearing from some Atlanta citizens who are doing their own parts, in their own ways.”

Among the list of speakers:

• Knife and Fork Editor and Publisher Christiane Lauterbach. The veteran food critic will talk about the growing popularity of food trucks — and how Atlanta’s missing out.

• Planner Paul Moore, one of the brains behind Connect Atlanta, the city’s transportation plan. Moore’s an engaging public speaker with a talent for making people-moving topics exciting.

• Georgia Tech Professor Mike Dobbins. The former Atlanta planning commissioner is one of the sharpest minds in the city when it comes to urban design — and the role citizens play in the process.

• Man-about-town and Beltline volunteer Angel Poventud. He’ll speak about the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit.

And those are just a few of the names. The full list of speakers and topics is after the jump. Facebook page is here. The event begins at 7 p.m. at Octane Coffee Lounge on Howell Mill Road. It’s free, but be a kind soul and buy an espresso or a beer.

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