Fresh Loaf

HAULING ASSET: U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson held a press conference this morning about the federal government’s plan to take all those pain-in-the-ass assets off the hands of struggling financial companies. It’s expected to be the biggest federal meddling in the free market since the 1930s, and markets around the world are digging it.

HADRON COLLIDER: A 30-ton transformer breaks in the world’s largest particle collider, halting the experiment. I can only assume it’s because of black holes.

FLORIDA: Thinks it’s too good for Clayton students.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: NFL commish Roger Goodell issues a warning about helmet-to-helmet collisions following Tampa Bay cornerback Elbert Mack’s skull-rattling hit on Matt Ryan.

DICK CHENEY: Can’t get enough war.

GA. MUSIC HALL OF FAME: Accepting seven new inductees Saturday, including Ludacris and Widespread Panic.

IT’S NOT THE HUMIDITY: UGA prepares to play in the Arizona desert for the first time in its 115-year history.

COKE: Named the No. 1 brand in the world for the eighth year in a row.

LANIER: Five feet away from last December’s all-time low.

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The site for Atlanta’s planned Civil Rights Cola Museum, um, we mean the Center for Civil and Human Rights, was unveiled Monday next door to the World of Coke in a ceremony long on corporate plugs and short on civil rights figures.

Broadcaster and activist Xernona Clayton was in the front row of observers, along with the widow of the late Ralph David Abernathy Jr. and such familiar businessmen as developer Herman Russell and life-insurance magnate Jesse Hill. But no John Lewis. No Joseph Lowery. No member of the King family.

Mayor Shirley Franklin says Lowery asked her to undertake a formal site review after Coke offered in 2006 to donate 1.2 acres alongside its soft-drink shrine. Last year, an advisory panel appointed by the mayor recommended the Coke site be chosen, but there was no public announcement of the final site selection before this week.

Although Auburn Avenue, in the heart of the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic District, was an obvious alternative, no specific land there was ever identified.

“If you look at other possible sites,” Franklin says, “You don’t get the number of visitors as this centrally located place, which is in the middle of the activity center for downtown.”

Franklin estimated that, aided by its proximity to the World of Coke and the Georgia Aquarium, the $125 million center could draw 800,000 visitors in its first year.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Reporters get suspicious when we’re denied access to meetings where extremely powerful and wealthy people get together with elected officials to discuss issues of great public importance.

That’s what will happen this Monday morning when the Atlanta Committee for Progress (PDF) and Mayor Shirley Franklin go behind closed doors to talk about … well, who knows what. The APC is composed of the city’s pre-eminent CEOs – we’re talking the top dogs here, no VPs or community-relations folks allowed.

The group’s chairman is Neville Isdell of Coke – see what we mean? – and other members include Richard Anderson of Delta, Mike Garrett of Georgia Power, developer Herman Russell, Tom Bell of Cousins, James Kennedy of Cox, Phil Kent of Turner, and the list goes on and on.

The APC was created in 2003 as the lynchpin of Franklin’s efforts to win the business community’s support for City Hall initiatives after eight disastrous years in which Bill Campbell had bitten the hands of and otherwise alienated the city’s corporate honchos.

We’re not criticizing the formation of such a group – it’s a great achievement from both a civic and a political viewpoint. But we would like to know what these ridiculously influential people talk about with our mayor.

Are they advising her on what the Beltline should look like? Are they cutting secret land deals? Are they asking her to fix their kids’ parking tickets? There’s no way to know.

John Ahmann, a consultant to the mayor who acts as executive director of the group, says Monday’s agenda has Franklin briefing the Star Chamber about the Beltline, the city budget, this fall’s statewide TAD referendum and the city’s upcoming legislative wish list.

Sounds harmless enough. But remember: These are the guys who talked the mayor into launching Brand Atlanta.

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On Wednesday, we posted a piece revealing that the site for the proposed Center for Civil and Human Rights had apparently been finalized without any public announcement. We found out about it when we heard through the grapevine about a site dedication ceremony scheduled for Monday at the corner of Ivan Allen Boulevard and Centennial Olympic Park Drive, next to the World of Coca-Cola.

Yesterday, we got a call from Doug Shipman, executive director of the Center for Civil and Human Rights Partnership, the city-sponsored group responsible with raising private funding for the museum. Shipman explained that he would like Monday’s ceremony to be a big public kick-off for museum support.

Certainly, we wish the effort well. But when dealing with major civic projects – especially one with the cultural significance of a civil rights center in the hometown of Martin Luther King Jr. – there must be public awareness and buy-in at every step in the process.

Last month, the City Council approved $40 million in funding for the center through the Westside TAD, which narrowed down the options for where the center could be located. But the decision to accept Coca-Cola’s offer of a 2.5-acre lot next to its soft-drink attraction still warranted a public announcement.

Ground-breakings and ribbon-cuttings are supposed to be photo-ops. The big decisions that lead up to the ceremonies are the real news.

The irony in all of this is that it’s almost noon on Friday and we still haven’t seen a press release concerning Monday’s ceremony. Even the Partnership’s website offers no clue that this event will take place. Why is this so hush-hush?

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Atlanta’s much ballyhooed Center for Civil and Human Rights will take an important step toward becoming a reality – a site dedication ceremony – this coming Monday.

Didn’t know a site had been selected? You’re not alone.

Neither City Hall, which helped start the ball rolling for the museum; nor the Atlanta Development Authority, which will issue bonds to help pay for it; nor the Center for Civil and Human Rights Partnership, the city-sponsored group charged with raising private funding, has ever announced that a site had been formally selected.

“I guess you could say that’s what’s happening on Monday,” says A.J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress, who headed up a panel of business leaders that helped determine the cost and mission of the proposed center in late 2006.

To call the site selection a below-the-radar decision is like saying Paris Hilton doesn’t mind having her picture taken. City Councilman Kwanza Hall, who represents the area, says he didn’t know about the dedication event until just this past Monday. Other council folk we asked hadn’t heard a thing.

So when was this decision made – and, more to the point, who made it?

(more…)

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RNC: Fred Thompson, Joseph Lieberman and a not-too-close President Bush regaled John McCain during the first full day of convention festivities in St. Paul Tuesday. Meanwhile, Ron Paul held his own convention outside Minneapolis Tuesday, rallying his troops behind his libertarian conservatism.

SAVANNAH: May need to evacuate for Hannah, which is expected to be a Category 1 hurricane when it makes landfall Friday. Some scrambling for flood insurance find out it’s too late.

ROTARY CUB: The newborn panda at Zoo Atlanta is back out of the incubator and with its mother, Lun Lun.

TYING UP JUICE ENDS: Coca-Cola is hoping to capitalize on its recent Beijing marketing blitz by making a bid for China’s largest juice company, which would be its second-largest acquisition ever.

DECORUM, BUT NO QUORUM: The new, relatively uncontroversial Clayton school board has just three members, two short of a quorum, but has 45 days to appoint additional members.

UGA: Falls to No. 2 in both major polls despite winning Saturday, as USC’s rout of Virginia leapfrogs the Trojans to the top spot.

CHIPPER JONES: Atlanta third baseman’s quest for the NL batting title is the only silver lining left on the Braves’ dismal season.

CHENEY: The vice president will speak Sept. 19 in North Georgia at the opening-day ceremony for the 145th anniversary of the Battle of Chickamauga.

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Amount Coca-Cola Co. paid former CEO Neville Isdell in 2007: $31.9 million

Amount Coca-Cola paid current CEO Muhtar Kent in 2007: $8.7 million

Average salary of an account manager (sales) at Coca-Cola: $38,327

Amount Home Depot paid former CEO Robert Nardelli in 2006: $13.1 million

Value of Nardelli’s Home Depot severance package: $210 million

People Home Depot laid off from its Vinings headquarters in January: 500

Amount Southern Co. paid CEO David Ratcliffe in 2006: $7.8 million

Annual salary for “utility worker” position advertised on Southern Co.’s website: $24,696

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, PayScale, Executive PayWatch Database, CFO magazine, Fortune magazine, Athens Banner-Herald, New York Times

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Kudos to Jeffry Scott at the AJC for catching the dissonance between the record-setting drought and Stone Mountain’s plans to waste 106,138 showers’ worth of water on “Coca-Cola Snow Mountain.”

I received a press release yesterday from the private company that manages Stone Mountain Park trumpeting the planned “winter wonderland.” Apparently oblivious to the drought, the release proclaimed: “Atlantans and other southerners will get the chance to play in two feet of snow the size of three football fields, slide down ten tubing lanes, and make igloos, snow balls and snow angels in a 32,000 square foot snow play area.”

It’ll be interesting to see if Stone Mountain and Coke back off of what seems an obvious violation on the state’s drought restrictions. What was missing from the story was whether DeKalb County or the state would put the big “nyet” on this particular piece of wetness (maybe our own Thomas Wheatley could find out … eh, eh, Thomas?)

The first comment on the AJC story was the most pertinent. It suggested letting Stone Mountain and Coke know what you think of them Bogarting the hose. They’d be fools not to cancel this thing.

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The lead business story in Sunday’s New York Times was Andrew Martin’s two-liter feature on the relative decline of the Coca-Cola Company over the past decade. It’s the sort of in-depth, critical feature that the AJC has the proximity, access and institutional knowledge to pull off, but for some reason doesn’t.

Martin contends that Coca-Cola has fallen behind rival Pepsi because of stodgy, unimaginative leadership.

(more…)

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Passionate: Yes. Change is good. Atlanta is definitely growing, so I’m just excited to be a native. I really want to go for the grand opening because everybody is going to be there. Now that it’s next to the Aquarium, it’s going to be better. When people design things they design four years ahead. It’s probably the bomb! And $15 is not much. You’re going to spend $25 just going to the movies so you might as well do something you can talk about.

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Chip: I’m excited about anything that makes the community richer. I’m particularly impressed with the landscaping between the World of Coke and the Aquarium. It’s a nice new public space. I would like it to be free given we own a few shares of Coke. They ought to send us a couple of tickets just for continuing to have faith in them in spite of the stock. I’m sure it will be smarter than the last one. That was boring.

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Hannah: I’m not personally excited, but I am for my city. We don’t have many attractions except for the Aquarium. But I’m interested to know what’s going to be inside. I want to be riding down on a Coke slide, not a water slide, damn it. In the old museum, there were hundreds of different soda lines that Coke made. You’d get a cup and try every single one of them. But what they need is some alcohol in your cup, then try all the different sodas. Not everybody wants to just drink soda and look at Coke cans and bottles.

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Last week, the World of Coca-Cola unveiled a statue of Atlanta druggist and Coke inventor John Pemberton. The statue will “welcome” visitors to the World of Coke’s new location across from Centennial Olympic Park. The museum opens May 24.

Sculptor Russ Faxon says the statue, which stands about 6 feet 4 inches tall, weighs around 800 pounds. As of now, there’s no plaque attached to bronze behemoth, but Faxon hopes they’ll “wind up doing something.”

Part of Pemberton’s world-famous concoction was made from the coca leaf, the same plant that produces cocaine. When CL asked the company about the use of coca leaves in Coke, here’s the response we received from a spokesman:

Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation on the Internet, and, even in the media regarding the history of Coca-Cola. Rumors about cocaine in Coca-Cola when it was invented in 1886 still circulate today. Neither Coca-Cola nor any other product of The Coca-Cola Company has ever used cocaine as an added ingredient.

We never asked about cocaine. Just coca leaves.

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Next week, Corporate Accountability International, a watchdog group for dangerous corporate practices, will launch a “Hall of Shame” competition. Among the eight companies nominated is Atlanta’s very own Coca-Cola.

Coke has been nominated for accusations that the company has drained local water supplies in India, and its alleged role in the murders of union workers in Colombia. To read more about the complaints, check out this story written by CL’s Scott Henry.

In the nomination, Corporate Accountability International wrote that Coke has, in the United States, “worked to undermine public confidence in local water utilities through the marketing of its bottled water products, even though their water comes from municipal sources that they then mark up hundreds of times the original cost.”

Feel this way about Coke? Then voice your opinion, starting May 16, by voting the company into the “Hall of Shame.” To vote, click on this link, which will go live next week: www.stopcorporateabuse.org/cms/page1490.cfm.

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I’ve always thought Coca-Cola’s greatest marketing ploy was bottling tap water and convincing people to pay a buck a pop for it. But that was before now.

Someone dropped off the “new” Coke cans, which will now feature a biodegradable top with advertising. It kind of looks like the top you pull off of a yogurt container.

So, like a MARTA bus, Coke will now be advertising on its shell.

But, hey, it’s biodegradable! It’s, like, good for us!

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