Cityscape

The last word on Atlanta news and politics with Steve Fennessy.

Atlanta and reverse white flight

I have fellow reporter Thomas Wheatley, of Creative Loafing, to thank for pointing out this fascinating article in Governing magazine, about how, thanks to a number of factors, the white share of Atlanta's population is growing at a pace faster than any other big city in the U.S.

It's interesting to imagine what further effect the skyrocketing price of gas will have on metro Atlanta as a whole. The region grew in part due to development laws that fostered sprawl, while public transportation options were given short shrift. Combine gas prices with the foreclosure crisis, and the exurbs -- and the slice of the American dream they represented -- are becoming less tenable. The city of Atlanta, itself wracked with a budget shortfall, may ultimately benefit as we grow accustomed to $4 and $5 per gallon gasoline.

Posted by Steve Fennessy at 7/3/2008 10:21 AM Comments (0)

...and speaking of the AJC....

One of my favorite expressions in journalism is "burying the lead," in which the main point of a story isn't near the top where it belongs, but hidden somewhere far down in the story. This came to mind today, when I read this front page story in the AJC about how high gas prices have stirred a debate along Florida's Gulf Coast. Currently, there is a federal ban on offshore drilling, but there have been calls to lift that ban in order to lessen our reliance on foreign oil and, maybe, bring down gas prices. The prospect of drilling for oil in Gulf waters worries some along the coast, who earn their livelihoods from the thousands of tourists who flock to the beaches there. One offshore rig mishap and those white beaches could turn black with oil.

Okay, so that's the setup. The story is your standard "on-the-one-hand-but-on-the-other-hand" variety, until you get to the very last paragraph, which reads, "Whatever happens on the federal level, Floridians opposed to drilling can still rely on a state law that restricts any drilling within 125 miles of its beaches. That ban is on the books until 2022."

Say again? Please tell me why I just spent the last ten minutes reading this story, if the prospect of offshore drilling in Florida is one that's not even a possibility for another fourteen years.

At the same time, because I'm a glass half-full kind of guy, I did stumble across (on the fourth page of the metro section), a fascinating article about the financial travails of David Scott, a long-ttime Democratic congressman from Atlanta. It's an interesting look at how one of the most prominent politicians in the state, up for re-election this year, ended up with a $153,918 federal tax lien and on one interest group's list of Congress's "25 most corrupt" members. Too bad this story wasn't on the front page.

Posted by Steve Fennessy at 6/25/2008 4:18 PM Comments (2)

Klibanoff leaving the AJC

Romenesko, where journalists leak all their internal memos, has posted a doozie today from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: after six years, Hank Klibanoff, managing editor for news and the guy many reporters flocked to for shelter when Julia Wallace re-organized the paper a year-and-a-half ago, is leaving the paper. Klibanoff, in the memo to AJC staff, thanks Wallace for giving him a "glorious opportunity" but doesn't reveal what he'll do next. Last year, Klibanoff shared, with former colleague Gene Roberts, a Pulitzer Prize for their book "The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation."

Klibanoff's arrival in 2002 was met with great enthusiasm on Marietta Street. (Disclosure: My wife was a business reporter there from 2000 to 2006.) He was among the first hires by Wallace, who had recently become the paper's first female top editor but whose career, forged at USA Today, worried some staffers. Besides a journalism pedigree that included years at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Klibanoff also got along with reporters in a way that Wallace didn't. Last year, though, falling circulation (a problem that has plagued every metro daily newspaper in America) prompted a wholesale restructuring of the newsroom, and included scores of buyouts. Dozens of reporters and editors saw their positions abolished, and had to apply for new ones within the new paradigm, which saw ajc.com as the future of the news operation. Klibanoff was put in charge of the "enterprise" team, comprised of reporters on investigations and longer-term projects whose first priority was the newspaper, as opposed to the website. In the tumultuous months immediately following the restructuring, dozens of staffers retired or resigned, but oddly, none who won a position reporting to Klibanoff left.

Critics of the restructuring felt the traditional role of the newspaper -- muckraking, comforting the afflicted, surprising its readers, etc. -- has fallen by the wayside, as feeding the beast that is the 24-hour online news circle becomes ever more important. And in the past year, those same critics -- some from within the newsroom -- have worried that Klibanoff's influence diminished post-restructuring. (The new organizational chart ratcheted him down a few pegs.) In his memo, he quotes Rabbi Hillel, the Jewish religious leader who 2,000 years ago coined what became the Golden Rule. From Klibanoff's memo: "[T]he Hillel maxim that landed in my mind and would not leave was the third question in the challenging series of three queries Rabbi Hillel asked, questions that exist at the interplay between selfishness and selflessness: 'If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?' "

Klibanoff is leaving others to wrestle with another question, one that's less profound than Rabbi Hillel's but still pretty damn important: What's to become of Atlanta's daily newspaper?

Interestingly, Klibanoff's announcement comes two days after ProPublica, a not-for-profit journalism experiment, published its first major investigation, which you can read here, about how the Bush administration has spent $500 million in taxpayer money on an Arabic TV and radio station that is "as negative as anything aired by Al Jazeera." The old model for doing good journalism may be falling apart, but others are popping up to take their place. Let's hope they stick around.

Last Edited by Steve Fennessy at 6/25/2008 12:16 PM Comments (0)

Water issues prompts flood of comments, from one very avid reader

For a thoughtful response to our June water issue, may I recommend a post I was directed to on alternet.org, a clearinghouse for some of the most notable (and yes, liberal) stories and commentaries cycling through the alternative press. In this case, author Rick Perlstein writes about picking up the water issue while traveling through Hartsfield. He points out, amusingly, the contradiction between the message of the stories (conserve, conserve, conserve) and the ads that made the stories possible (consume, consume, consume). He posits that the issue will be a great "potsherd" for future archeologists, and he even uses the word "adumbrate." He unfortunately mistakes Augusta for the state capital (be sure to read the readers' comments at the end), but that shouldn't take away from several compelling points he has. Thank you for reading, Rick!

Posted by Steve Fennessy at 6/23/2008 3:24 PM Comments (0)

Downtown Atlanta -- A cart, but no horse

A few weekends ago, my wife and I checked into the Ellis for a night, to check out what we heard was a very cool boutique hotel (it was) and to get a break from our dogs. I'm not kidding. At any rate, it was illuminating to be downtown on a Friday night. When you live in Atlanta, you learn pretty quickly that unless you're going to a concert or a game, there's not much reason to come downtown at night. From our sixth-floor corner room, we could look north on Peachtree, where we saw scattered tourists hurrying past ubiquitous panhandlers. By dark the streets were pretty much empty.

I thought about this today when I read that the area around Centennial Park would get yet another museum, this one the 190,000-square-foot National Health Museum. You can read about what precisely a health museum is here, although I'm confused by this sentence in the promotional brochure: The museum, we're told, is "a movement" (an unfortunately chosen word, given the context) and, we're told, "an 'active verb' dedicated to bringing better health to America and the world." In any case, the story in the AJC said the museum will bring the city closer to a "critical mass of attractions to make it a destination that can compete with New York, Las Vegas and Orlando."

What is it with this city's inferiority complex? Look, there's a place for boosterism, but there's also a place for brutal honesty. The fact is, city officials have done a great job at finally injecting some life into the area around Centennial Park. This is due mainly to the largesse of Bernie Marcus, whose aquarium really has made downtown a tourist destination. And the other museums that have come or will come -- The World of Coke, the Center for Civil & Human Rights, the National Health Museum -- are augmenting that. But as my recent stay at the Ellis confirmed, after dark there's just nothing downtown to get into except trouble. If you look at great cities, like Chicago or New York, or even little old Austin, Texas, their downtowns are destinations first and foremost for residents. Why? Because of great shopping, cool restaurants, and a vibrant nightlife with bars and live music venues. Downtown Atlanta lacks a sufficient number of any of these attractions. That's the critical mass you need. Encourage that and you'll bring in Atlantans, and you can be sure the tourists will follow and not dash back to their hotels as soon as night falls. Otherwise Peachtree Street on Friday nights will be nothing more than what it is now -- a lonely parade of bums and closely-guarded fanny packs.

Last Edited by Steve Fennessy at 6/20/2008 11:47 AM Comments (6)

Senator Nunn? Barack Obama is on the line...

As it appears increasingly unlikely that Barack Obama will ask Hillary Clinton to be his running mate, some pundits and political bookmakers are looking to a perennial favorite for the Democrats: Sam Nunn, the former Georgia senator from the old days in politics, when moderates served on both sides of the aisle and, occasionally, worked together. Nunn, who co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative with Ted Turner, was in town just the other day with former defense secretary William Cohen, as part of their national dialogue on service. (See my blog entry here.)

In the most recent edition of The New Republic, Michael Crowley notes that Nunn, as a moderate Democrat with an impeccable record and vast depth of knowledge on issues such as defense (he once chaired the Senate's Armed Service committee), has been a perennial favorite as a running mate for candidates from Michael Dukakis to John Kerry. Although he quotes party insiders as saying the chances of Nunn as Obama's running mate are, ha ha, "Nunn," Crowley makes an impassioned case that the time is now. For the Obama campaign, the advantages are many: Nunn's stellar reputation, his Southern roots, and decades of experience, which would counter the argument that Obama is in over his head. Crowley even believes an Obama-Nunn ticket, combined with Bob Barr's nascent Libertarian bid, could swing Georgia to Democrats. OK, so that may be a bit fanciful, but the idea is a compelling one. Hell, Jimmy Carter himself has said Nunn would be a great choice.

A good benchmark of a politician's integrity is how passionate and dedicated they are once they're out of office and not forced to ride the current of public opinion. In this regard, Nunn's work has been unparalleled, not only through sounding the drumbeat about the dangers of loose nukes, but calling for a national debate on service. Who knows? Sam Nunn's most memorable service to America may still lie ahead.

Last Edited by Steve Fennessy at 6/6/2008 3:40 PM Comments (1)

Amplifying the call to service

I don't know if it was timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of his death, but Robert Kennedy's spirit and words were invoked often at this week's National Conference on Volunteering & Service, which ended today. I dropped by the Marriott Marquis to catch a discussion on citizen service, which was led by William Cohen, secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, and Sam Nunn, former U.S. senator from Georgia.

This was the third such dialogue on Cohen and Nunn's nationwide tour, which has already been to New York City and Washington, D.C., and is headed for Houston, Chicago and Los Angeles. The question on the table is a simple one: How do we best serve America? Ever since John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, politicians have championed the work of America's volunteers, but those calls have not been backed by any centralized government effort. There is no Cabinet post for service. Should there be? Should a year or so of service be compulsory for young people? Should federal loans and grants for college be contingent upon service? Should the federal government, as Alan Khazei, co-founder of City Year suggested at the panel, start a "service bond" program, putting $5,000 into an account of every newborn American, redeemable at 19 or 20 (and worth $19,000, thanks to interest) only after that person has given a year of service to her country? Better yet, why not allow that child's parents to put in an extra $1,000 every year, so by the time their child is 20, the account would have ballooned to almost $60,000? These are just some of the ideas floated in just ninety minutes of conversation led by Cohen and Nunn. In many respects, the setting for the dialogue had a preaching-to-the-choir element to it, but the energy was palpable. The trick, as the speakers acknowledged, was getting buy-in from political leaders.

Westley Moore spoke of his native Baltimore, where high school drop-out rates in some schools are at 70 percent. That, Moore said, is a major homeland security issue. At 29, Moore was the youngest panel member, but his resume made me feel like the shlub I am: Rhodes scholar, Army captain and veteran of Afghanistan, White House fellow, investment banker. Another panelist was Michelle Nunn, Sam Nunn's daughter and the CEO of the Points of Light Institute, which is a recent merger between the HandsOn Network, which she founded, and the Points of Light Foundation. The merger has created the largest volunteer organization in the country, a clearinghouse for tens of thousands of community-led projects. It's pretty astounding, by any measure.

Cohen closed by quoting Robert Kennedy's speech in Cape Town, South Africa, from 1966. Forty-two years later, the words retain both their power and their relevance: "Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Posted by Steve Fennessy at 6/3/2008 12:08 PM Comments (0)

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