Breaking Ground

Do African Americans have a solid stake in Atlanta’s commercial real estate future?

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by Keith Laing, Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine

May 2008

It’s hard not to notice that metro Atlanta is officially undergoing a commercial development facelift. The signature lofty living quarters of Peachtree Street corridor are now being crowded out by barricades veiling the latest in mixed-use, all-inclusive development. The signs plastered along the makeshift covered walkways boast of unconventional ways that bring living, working and playing within walking distance of each other. On the outskirts of the city, greenery that once hugged the interstates has been replaced with sprawling shopping centers, making the need for once compulsory trips into the city for shopping and leisure, few and far between. And even as the residential real estate market is experiencing the equivalent of an economic lag, its high-end counterpart — commercial real estate — is showing less signs of slowing.

To be sure, expansive lots are still being cleared, leveled and surveyed, and billion dollar deals are being brokered for ownership of a piece of the Atlanta skyline – one that, unbeknownst to many, has been carefully molded and crafted by African Americans. In fact, African Americans have managed to play an integral role in some of Atlanta’s most recognizable landmarks, including the Georgia Dome, Centennial Olympic Park, Turner Stadium, Philips Arena, the Coca-Cola headquarters, the Lakewood Amphitheater and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The Atlanta that tourists see — and remember when they leave — was largely envisioned and executed by African-American pioneers who have reached the top levels of commercial real estate as investors, who provide initial capital for development deals; developers, who plan construction; and brokers, who facilitate agreements between the two.

However, despite the numerous points of entry into the trillion-dollar commercial real estate industry, it has been dubbed one of the least diverse in the country. According to a recent study released by the Certified Commercial Investment Member Institute, less than one percent of all practicing commercial real estate brokers are minorities. In Atlanta, though a few standout companies have accomplished a significant track record, the list of top black developers, investors and brokers is meager, at best. There is money and land is plentiful, but the playing field still needs leveling.

“Atlanta is a very interesting market,” says Cynthia Alexander, president of Comstar Real Estate Services, a minority-owned commercial real estate firm that provides services in leasing, developing and consulting. “There is a lot of opportunity here, but it’s a misconception to say that if you come up with an idea and arrive in Atlanta, you are going to be immediately successful.”

The reason centers on the barriers to entry and promotion that are unique to commercial real estate, adds Alexander, herself a 20-year local veteran of the business.”Real estate is a very closed industry, it’s not just [about] skill. You have to have the relationships and financial wherewithal to make it. All those variables can make it difficult, even in Atlanta.”

The handicaps are even more pronounced when it involves minorities. “Many individuals, especially people who are not [minorities], are second and third generations [in the field], so they have generations of contacts and wealth that they come into [the industry] with,” explains Alexander. “In that sense, it’s difficult [for minorities] to compete. You have to come in with a strong network.”

Carl Powell, president and COO of Integral Urban Investments, the investment management division of the Integral Group LLC, agrees that the lack of diversity in all aspects of commercial real estate, simply put, is due to the relationship factor. Yet, Powell understands that the nature of the industry calls for individuals with an extensive track record (even if by proxy), and developing that record requires financial resources.

Operating at the helm of the asset management component of commercial real estate for his firm, he entered the industry through a chasm of the perfect formula – the fusion of development expertise and access to capital. Integral’s investment management division handles the money of large institutions and pension funds for venture into commercial real projects.

“If commercial real estate [in general] doesn’t have much diversity, the money management side of it has even less,” he says. “And the reason for that limitation is that there is a very severe screening you must pass to be a money manager for the pension funds. You have to think in terms of these financial institutions trusting [the asset managing] entity with pension funds for the retirees that need to have money for the next 20 years to retire on.”

Estimates show that pension funds world-wide hold more than $20 trillion in assets, the largest for any category of investor ahead of mutual funds, insurance companies, currency reserves, sovereign-wealth funds, hedge funds or private equity.

In most cases, new managers need the approval of the consultants that work for the pension plans, Powell explains. “Consultants are paid to make the best recommendation for those institutions and government bodies as tow ho will most likely perform well and build on their capital. If you lose the money, the pension funds would be asking the consultants why they recommended a new manager to them. If you do well, no one’s going to pat you on the back because you were supposed to do well.”

Those difficulties are among the reasons so few blacks have risen to the highest levels of commercial development. “You just don’t have a lot of minorities with significant commercial development experience,” Powell contends. “There aren’t many people who can go and make the argument ‘give me money because I’ve been doing this for a long period of time.”

However, there is potential for a shift in perception as executives on both sides of the industry better understand the process and the benefits of inclusion. In Alexander’s view, diversity is becoming more of a priority in the world of corporate real estate. Blacks in the business already have been able to identify areas that would be conducive to black patronage, such as the Camp Creek area in South Fulton County. If it were not for corporate commercial real estate diversity, the need for Camp Creek Parkway and the ripe real estate in the southwest quadrant of the perimeter would have possibly never been explored. “In the last five to seven years, there has been more of an emergence of minorities entering the profession. We are seeing better numbers starting in entry-level positions and moving up to mid-management, but we are not seeing minorities at the senior levels in large numbers,” says Alexander.

In the meantime, to make their way closer to the top, many minorities are now constructing their own inroads to the upper echelons of the profession.
Corporate developer-turned-entrepreneur Michael Tabb chose to make his own way. In 2001, Tabb left a position at global business giant Coca-Cola, where he served as director of real estate asset services. Now, seven years later, he is managing principal of his own firm, Red Rock Global, which focuses on investors in underserved urban markets. He was previously responsible for all of Coca-Cola’s worldwide real estate activities, but still felt the need to go outside the corporate environment to achieve success.
“It was just time,” recalls Tabb. “I was a corporate guy doing real estate. I was learning, but I wasn’t high on the [Coca-Cola] totem pole.”

Since branching out of his own, Tabb’s company has generated $200 million in new, fee- based development opportunities, and $5 million in potential transaction fees on various projects including some with Atlanta Public Schools. The company facilitated the sale of the former school system headquarters, as well as the sale of several school buildings including Ben Hill Elementary, Whittaker Elementary, and lease of several others. His company was also commissioned to create a redevelopment plan for the urban core of Cincinnati, OH, an area called Over the Rhine. From Tabb’s perspective, being in Atlanta facilitated that success.

Because potential investing partners may initially lack faith in the abilities of minority commercial real estate executives, Tabb and other seasoned executives suggest that budding professionals gain expertise in a comparable industry.

“If you want to get on the track that is going to put you on the senior level, you have to develop expertise at the senior level,” he says. “Go work as a senior program manager at Goldman Sachs for six years and then transition into commercial development. If you go and credential yourself in an industry that’s related to real estate, you give yourself a leg up.”

“Unequivocally, more [blacks are] starting firms rather than staying in the corporate setting,” observes Alexander. “Whether or not that’s a function of a glass ceiling or an entrepreneurial spirit, we are growing [in the field].”

A Piece of the City

With that growth comes growing pains. The lack of minorities in the field is particularly troubling because there is so much money to be made, according to Tennyson Williams, founder and president of Southpointe Partners, one of the handful of African-American-owned commercial real estate brokering firms in Atlanta.

Functioning as the liason between the developer and investors, Williams’ company negotiated multi-million deals that lead to the development of the Stonewall Manor Community, a 200 acre high end residential neighborhood in South Fulton County, as well as the pending Old National Towne Center, which is a 300,000 square foot retail property located at the intersection of Old National Highway and Flat Shoals Road that will be anchored by Wal-Mart. Southpointe Partners also negotiated the terms for the development of Wyncreek Estates, a $3.65 million transaction located at the intersection of Enon Road and Camp Creek Parkway. The company is also currently shopping a portfolio of proposed in-town shopping centers that will be anchored by Publix grocery stores, Williams said. When completed, the developments are projected to be worth $100 million.

A project that size would net Southpointe approximately $5 million, Williams figures. But attaining the resources is not easy, he cautions, explaining that a skill at negotiating is imperative to gaining a foothold on the competition.
“Capital drives the deal,” asserts Williams. “Without capital, the deal doesn’t go anywhere. It all starts there. You have to marry capital with vision and analysis. In this business, you have to be knowledgeable about so many things.”

A survey of the marketplace will show a lack of black dollars at the table for such undertakings. Despite the news that black buying power will reach $1.1 trillion mark by 2012, few African Americans who actually have their sights on wealth development consider commercial real estate an option.
Knowing, according to real estate insiders, is half the battle.

While Integral’s largest investors include the California Public Employee Retirement System, Bank of America and Wachovia, the company is further shoring itself amongst its competitors by investing its own money in Integral’s projects, and also marketing its ability to provide fund options for would-be investors as well.

“Think of Integral as being in a partnership,” Powell suggests. “We’re the individual owners of a large stake of all projects that we do. Instead of taking all of my wealth and putting it into the stock market – we re-up and put money into our projects. So, we’re always working to make sure there’s a good delivery of product and a good return.”

Powell believes in the options that his firm offers so much that he has, literally, taken his work home. “A very small portion of my wealth planning actually comes from my salary. The majority of my wealth planning comes from investing in the real estate projects that Integral does,” he admits.

Individuals who have money accessible should consider real estate equity funds and take advantage of strategists like him who can invest in the best projects on their behalf – making them limited partners. Most real estate equity funds have a minimum commitment amount that is required from the limited partners, which varies depending on the size of the fund. The object is to find the equity that fits your desired investment and then be willing to invest that money over a seven-year period before a profit is earned.

“That’s the thing about investing in the fund business, you invest up front to build a project, but it typically takes a five- to seven-year period to actually sell the project and get your money back,” Powell explains. “At the end of the day the fund is liquidated and all the limited partners get 80 percent of the profit, [while] the fund manager keeps 20 percent for handling the fund and finding the deals. [Limited partners] typically shoot for a 20 to 30 percent return.”

Savvy investors then take the return and re-invest either a portion or the entire sum. “It is the best-kept secret in real estate investing at this point,” Powell adds.

Notably situated as one of Atlanta’s best-known developers, Herman Jerome Russell, president of H.J. Russell & Co., used the investing strategy to build one of the most prestigious and well-established black-owned real estate companies in the country.

“Joint ventures typically benefit both parties,” contends Russell. “No one is going to [enter into a] joint venture with African Americans just to do it. There’s normally a need.”

He would know. Since starting his company more than 55 years ago, Russell’s real estate maneuverings are credited with re-shaping the Atlanta skyline by snagging high-profile construction contracts such as the Georgia Dome in 1992, Centennial Olympic Stadium/Turner Field in 1994, and Philips Arena in 1999.

“We provide services such as construction and development,” he says. “We make fees off those [aspects]. In some cases, we may [also] be the owner, and if we sell [the property] or there’s cash flow coming off [a project], we benefit also.”

The diversified roles that the company assumes are enables H.J. Russell &Co. to generate $400 million dollars annually. He adds that those dollars often come in handy, too.

“You have to be able to access capital,” he says. “We’ve been blessed. We’ve been around many years. We’ve developed and owned a lot of property that we’ve been able to tap into for both debt [equity] and capital.”

H.J. Russell & Co.’s next big move is a 16-acre mixed-use development near the Atlanta University Center. Valued at more than $80 million, the development will feature condos, town homes and retail outlets. The company is also looking at a potential development in Newark, NJ, reveals Russell.

According to Russell, the hardest deal for a high level developer to close is the first one. After that, the work speaks for itself. “Once you get one or two projects on your plate, the next ones become much easier.”

Another major presence in metro Atlanta’s steady reshaping, developer Egbert Perry, who is chairman and CEO of The Integral Group, agrees. With Perry’s direction, Integral Group has played a role in a laundry list of million-dollar deals, including $320 million in new residential, office and retail development in an eight-block area bordered by Edgewood Avenue, Courtland Street, Andrew Young International Boulevard and the Downtown Connector. The incremental undertaking is slated to begin in June, and includes a $20 million, 75,000-square-foot office building at the corner of Auburn and Piedmont avenues; and a $40 million mid-rise office building next to the Integral Group’s corporate office on Piedmont Avenue.
It may take millions to rebuild downtown Atlanta, but Perry says it does not take that much to claim ownership.

“As long as you have access to small pool of capital, you’ll have the ability to buy something and hold onto it [until] it can produce a decent return,” he says. “You can get in pretty well with a couple hundred thousand dollars and good credit.”

Perry, a frequent named dropped in the commercial real estate circles, says that at the high end and entry levels, urban areas are the best places to develop right now.

“We are seeing more and more demand for product coming back into the city with access to amenities,” he says. “People are trying to spend less time trapped on the interstate and more time enjoying life.”

A byproduct of that trend, he adds, is a focus on mixed-use developments, like Atlantic Station in midtown.

“The idea is being able to live, work, play and worship in one area,” he says. “It’s something that logical and long overdue.”

Perry does, however, stress that would-be investors know what they don’t know and lean on those who do.

“Brokers can show you 20 projects to look at if you have some money,” he says. “That gets you in the game and gets you some understanding. Pretty soon you’re in the business.”

Success By Association

While closing deals earns you a seat at the larger table, the question for real estate professionals who want to be the next H.J. Russell or Egbert Perry is what to do once you sit down.

Expertise is what makes the relationships that are so vital to success in commercial development worth having, says Trenna Ross, vice president of brokerage for Ackerman & Co., one of the Southeast’s leading real estate firms that is headquartered in Atlanta. Ross specializes in landlord and tenant representation in retail and office properties.

“On the commercial side, real estate is very close knit,” says Ross. “Because we have such small numbers, you can meet someone here in Atlanta and work on a deal, and six months later meet someone in [Washington,] D.C. or Chicago who knows the same person. People talk to each other. If you’re successful and they have a particular need or opening, people will seek you out. You have to establish a reputation and a track record.”

With that type of networking in mind, Ross partnered with broker Lynn Smith of Cushman and Wakefield to create the Global Diversity Summit. Now going into its third year, the summit provides participants – investors, brokers, consultants, developers and community stakeholders – the opportunity to exchange ideas about business practices and contact information that could prove useful in later deals.

More importantly, it provides minorities in commercial development an avenue for networking and it gives companies looking for diversity a place to find it in large numbers.

“It provides a win-win to the industry,” Ross says of the GDS. “[We can] exchange ideas, talk about things going on in Atlanta and nationally and provide education and information to each other. It brings together mid- and high-level executives, and it gives leaders in majority organizations an opportunity to see that more talent is available to them.”

For her part, Smith explains that going to other trade meetings inspired her to start the GDS.

“I’m a member of many organizations in this industry,” says Smith, who counts the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors, the Urban Land Institute, the Commercial Real Estate Women and Atlanta Commercial Real Estate Network among her memberships. “When I began working [at Cushman & Wakefield], I started looking around and I was the only black female. So when I would go to the meetings, I saw a need for something new in this industry.”

“I’m not shy about asking what I want to know,” Smith continues. “One of the questions I asked [at the meetings] was ‘are there any other minorities?’ The purpose of the Global Diversity Summit is to bring to light people who are doing this successfully and say this is who’s out there.”

“You want to master relationships with people,” she says. “There are so many ways you can do it. It’s up to you how successful you are. If you do a good job, people compliment you and tell their friends. You can go along way if you play the game right.”

Professional associations are particularly important in an industry as small as commercial development, adds James Pitts, a senior vice president with Grubb & Ellis. Pitts is the current president of AcreNet, which co-sponsors the GDS.

“We are comprised of African-American real estate professionals from all of the major service firms, developers and corporate users,” he says of the organization. “We have programs designed to introduce people to the industry, network with our peers and advance our careers.”

The small number of minorities in the field makes organizations like AcreNet even more crucial, as the environment the deals are being made is undergoing a renovation.

In navigating the industry, African Americans at all levels of commercial real estate must be mindful that they will be hard-pressed to find partnerships based solely on, what has been termed, the “affirmative action aspect” of commercial development.

“I think you’ve got to become an expert,” Tabb suggests. “One of the biggest mistakes we make is not understanding that people seek expertise. You have to be patient and develop an expertise that other people recognize.

It may be easy for outsiders to look at the small number of minorities excelling in the field as a black and white issue, but insiders say the only color that matters to them is green. 

Up For Grabs: What Atlanta’s Changing Demographics Mean for the City’s Next Mayor

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by Keith Laing, Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine

April 2008

In Atlanta and throughout the country, much has been made of this presidential campaign season, which has seen the first truly viable woman, African-American and, until recently, Mormon candidates competing for the highest office in the land. Come January 2009, the person occupying the oval office could be quite unlike more than 200 years of predecessors.

And around the time of the next presidential inauguration in Washington, the race to succeed outgoing Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin will just be heating up. Franklin, the latest in an unbroken nearly four-decade lineage of black mayors, will be barred from seeking office again by term limits, and the contest to replace her will be wide open. But with the metro area suffocating from traffic congestion and suburbanites relocating within city limits in order to reduce their commutes, Atlanta’s voting population looks and feels a lot different than it did when Franklin was elected in 2001 – not to mention when Maynard Jackson became the city’s first black mayor in 1974.

According to census estimates, the city of Atlanta has gained more than 50,000 residents since the year 2000. That year, 33 percent of the city’s population described themselves as “white.’ Now, 37 percent do. Atlanta’s white population has increased by almost 30,000 people since 1980, the year Jackson’s glass ceiling shattering first administration ended and he was succeeded by protégé Andrew Young.

The shift in Atlanta’s demographics has been noticeable enough for observers to wonder if the most reliable Democratic area in Georgia, and one of the centers of the black political universe, could sooner – rather than later – be led by a white mayor for the first time in a generation. Popular radio and television personality Clark Howard has already hinted at having an interest in the city’s top slot, though he has not said for sure whether that interest will translate into a 2009 campaign.

According to Emory University political science professor Andra Gillespie, the time could be right for a successful, white mayoral candidate.

“It very well could [happen]…if not this election, than by the time the next mayor is elected if the trend continues. The changing demographics might make it attractive for members of other groups to aspire to be mayor in ways it wouldn’t have 20 years ago,” she says.

Electing a white mayor in a city where whites are still outnumbered almost two-to-one may seem unlikely, but it could be made easier by the likely large number of black candidates and the fact that the race is non-partisan, Gillespie portends. Black voters have been overwhelming Democratic since the Civil Rights Era.

“If the question is whether multiple black candidates might make it possible for a white winner, we’ve see examples in Congress where it happens and where it doesn’t,” explains Gillespie. “It is strategically logical that it is possible to split the African-American vote, but there are exceptions to the rule.”

In those cases, says Gillespie, one black candidate consolidates the African-American vote as a base and then broadens his or her appeal. “A black candidate [should] get as many black voters as possible while reaching out to white voters,” she continues. “If they can build that kind of coalition, they can be competitive, perhaps even victorious.”

Of course, that is exactly how Franklin, as well as Jackson, Young and Bill Campbell, charted their courses to City Hall. Still, Gillespie cautions against making predictions for an election that is a year and a half away.

“People are pre-occupied with the presidential election. This time next year will be a different story, but right now, it’s anybody’s election.”

Gillespie says the candidates eyeing the race at this early stage are good fits for the job and it is natural for a race to replace an outgoing incumbent to attract thoroughbred candidates.

“The quality pool for an open seat is always high – that’s the time for anyone with an interest to run. It’s much harder to beat an incumbent than to run for an open seat.”

Among the crop hoping to be Atlanta’s next black mayor, only Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders has formally announced her intent to seek the office. Borders was elected to office in a 2004 special election to replace former council President Cathy Woolard, who vacated the seat to run for Congress. She then won a term of her own in 2005.

In those campaigns, she promised to deliver “clean water, clean neighborhoods and clean government” on behalf of the Atlanta City Council. Now, she wants to make those changes to City Hall. Last year, Borders notified the city clerk that she would begin taking financial contributions for a mayoral run.

Borders decided to get an early start on the 2009 race because she is ready to get to work for Atlanta. “I’m getting into something I have wanted to do my entire life,” she says. “I wanted to demonstrate that this is something I’m not just interested in, but something I’m committed to.”

Borders adds that being one of the earliest announced candidates in the race gives her a greater opportunity to listen to voters, even those who may be more focused on the ongoing national election.

“At the very minimum, people want you to listen to them, not talk to them,” asserts the council president. “Whether it is public safety because your car got broken into or trash pick-up, [voters] want you to hear them. The way I get people to focus [on the race] is by listening twice as much as I talk and getting people engaged on personal issues before soliciting their support on broader issues.”

In addition to her head start, Borders believes her executive experience will separate her from the rest of the forming field. As council president, Borders is essentially Atlanta’s deputy mayor. She presides over city council meetings, appoints committee chairs and members for the council and works with the city’s executive branch of government, headed by the mayor.

Borders views Atlanta’s shifting demographics as an affirmation of the city’s quality of life instead of as a potential electoral roadblock. “Atlanta is enjoying folks coming from all over the [metro area] and all over the world,” she says. “It’s clear from my 2004 race that voters choose competence over color and rhetoric over race. The issues people care about are the same regardless of who they are.”

Atlanta’s new voters, she believes – black and white alike – should be welcomed because they will help fund the city’s initiatives by paying municipal taxes.

Borders may have gotten a jumpstart on the 2009 mayoral race, but she is by no means the only person laying the groundwork for a mayoral campaign. State Senator Kasim Reed, Atlanta City Councilman Caesar Mitchell, Fulton County Councilman Robb Pitts and community activist Rod Mack are all eyeing the city’s top job.

Reed, a Democrat who represents unincorporated South Fulton County and Douglas County, is often mentioned as a natural successor to Mayor Franklin. One of the youngest members of the Georgia General Assembly, Reed worked his way through the state House and now the Senate. He also managed Franklin’s successful 2001 and 2005 campaigns.

Reed has formed a mayoral exploratory committee and is conducting a listening tour through the city’s council districts to speak with voters. He says he is not worried about others formalizing their bids before he does.

“We are right where we need to be in terms of building an organization and getting support,” he maintains. “One thing you should never do is let others determine your campaign strategy for you. You run your own campaign. I am not worried about what any of the other candidates – announced or unannounced – are doing. This race is going to ultimately be decided on what I do, not what others do.”

The demographics shifts in the city do not hinder him either. In fact, talk of a sea change in Atlanta politics based solely on race is, argues Reed, misguided. “The future of mayoral politics in Atlanta, and soon in the state, is going to be candidate- and merit-driven,” he contends. “A white person or a black person could win the mayor’s race if they are qualified. We are past the time when a candidate can win solely because they are black, and we are also past the time when a candidate can win solely because they are white.”

Candidate-centric elections could even transcend political parties, predicts Reed, who adds, “it’s not going to be about the Democrat or the Republican, but about the person.”

For the statesman, such a playing field is right up his alley. “I’m comfortable in that space. I feel that races determined on merit are healthy for the city. Our diversity is something we should embrace.”

Atlanta councilman Mitchell agrees with Reed that the racial demographic shift has been overly scrutinized. He also argues that other demographic shifts may be more important in the coming election.

“Beyond race, we’ve seen shifts in age, wealthy, sexual orientation and political affiliation,” Mitchell says. “Any candidate looking to get in this race has to be mindful of those [factors].”

Particularly important is Atlanta’s partisan composition. He says one of Georgia’s few remaining Democratic bastions may be becoming more moderate, which would likely affect the tone of the campaign.

“I wouldn’t say Atlanta is more Republican, but it may be less Democratic,” he says. “There are a whole lot of independents, which becomes a factor in a non-partisan race because party identification becomes less of a factor.

Mitchell, himself a Democrat, holds one of the city council’s citywide at-large seats and also served as intern council president before Borders was elected.

Like Reed, Mitchell too says he is not worried about losing ground to early -announced candidates. “In mayoral politics, there are basic things that cannot happen until a certain time because the electorate is not going to focus on the race until a certain time,” he explains. “Most voters will make their decision in late 2009 and most voters will be touched in early 2009. Right now it’s about resources.”

The next mayor will be charged with continuing the successes of the Franklin administration and the current city council in tackling the city’s big problems: infrastructure, transportation and crime.

“We’ve been able to turn around the city and now the opportunity is there for the next mayor to really take off. There are things we can do to take this toward being a world-class city,” Mitchell contends

He predicts that the next mayor is going to have to focus to the little things in city government too.

“We’re going to have to pay very close attention to the delivery of services to citizens…that is the fundamental purpose of city government and the fundamental expectation of the people.”

Voters will not be the only ones with high expectations for candidates like Borders, Mitchell and Reed. Fulton County Comissioner Pitts, himself a 2001 mayoral candidate, says he is keeping an eye on the pool, as well, assuring that he will take the quality of rest of the field in account when he decides whether or not he should make another run for City Hall.

“If I feel there is someone who shares my vision and has the leadership qualities and skills that I do, that could have some bearing [on a decision about entering the race],” he reveals. “Either way, I’ll be making a thoughtful decision, because [running] is a huge sacrifice.”

Pitts, a Democrat who holds one of the Fulton County Commission’s countywide at-large seats, garnered 33 percent of the vote in his 2001 race against Franklin and several other candidates, but he was unable to force a one-on-one run-off election. He was elected to the commission a year after losing that mayoral race and re-elected in 2006. He is also a former Atlanta City Council president, having been elected to that post in 1997.

While Pitts is looking at the race, he is nowhere close to deciding one way or another. He adds, however, that he is being encouraged to take another shot at the mayoralty by friends and supporters.

“I haven’t made a final decision, but I’m asked about it daily increasingly from all quadrants,” he says. “In the end (though), it will be my decision.”

Pitts professes to be unfazed by the changing Atlanta electorate, and instead, contends new voters to the city will be much like those who already cast ballots in Atlanta, whether they look like them or not.

“I think those who have chosen to live in Atlanta are interested in the city, the needs of the city and what I would bring to the city rather than in anything else,” he says. “The overwhelming majority of people are going to be interested in the best person for the position.”

Should they decide to mount a municipal run, State Senator Reed, Atlanta councilman Mitchell and Fulton commissioner Pitts will join Atlanta council president Borders in enjoying considerable public visibility inherent to the elected positions they already hold.

Entrepreneur Rod Mack, however, will not. Mack, a self-described political activist, has owned and operated Rod Air Courier, a shipping logistics company, for 20 years. He has sought office before, running for a seat on the Fayette County Commission in 2005, but has never been elected. Having already declared his intention to seek the office, Mack will have to compete for voters’ attention with names they have seen for several years now. But the upstart does not believe that the visibility gap will make him an underdog.

In fact, Mack feels his business background may give him an advantage over the government veterans

“At this point, with [metropolitan Atlanta] with this big deficit, there has to be changes. The city has to be ran like a business. I’ve managed people [and] have been responsible for quite of bit of funds with my company.”

Like his potential opponents, Mack says he is not worried about the affect new voters in the city could have on the 2009 race. He believes migration to the city is not more common for any particular race. Instead, he argues, it is common sense for every race.

“The transition from suburbanite to the city is one that both minorities and non-minorities share,” he says. “They both gave up the huge operating expenses [such as] expensive immaculate lawns, commuter fuel costs to and from the city approaching $4 per gallon, Georgia 400 toll costs, outrageous property taxes, no four star hotels, no upscale dining, no world class entertainment and no sports or media conglomerates.”

In Mack’s view, people who are drawn to those urban qualities will share the concerns of long-time urban voters.
“Minorities and non-minorities will appreciate a Mayor who will share their vision for a greener, cleaner, safer city, affordable housing and non-polluting jobs,” he says.

Of course, time will tell how true that is. But luckily for Borders, Reed, Mitchell, Pitts, Mack and any other would-be Atlanta mayors, they have until November 2009 to make that case.

Booming Initiative

 

Baby Boomers Reshape Corporate America for a Second Time

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by Keith Laing, Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine

December 2007/January 2008

Next year, Vickie Gordon will leave the job she has had for two decades. At age 60, she believes that now is the time for her to move on. Gordon, who serves as Intercontinental Hotels and Resort’s senior vice president for corporate affairs and works out of the corporation’s Atlanta office, plans to step down in June 2008. But she is not heading for a life of shuffle-boarding yet. Instead of taking a post-retirement cruise, Gordon will go into business for herself and open a public affairs firm.

“This seems like a good time in my life to do something a little different and follow my passion and do the things that most interest me on a full-time basis,” she says. “I’ve been fortunate enough to work for a really great company for a long time. I feel so great about the direction the company is heading in that I feel like now is a good time.”

Gordon’s company will work with corporations on their social responsibility issues, which is a part of her job with Intercontinental. She wants to help them make doing well in the community as much a part of their strategic plan as doing well in the marketplace.

“I’ve been working in that area for a long time,” she says. “I’ve done some good things to achieve that within our region.”

Gordon is sure that her work experience will give her a leg up as she ventures out independently.

“The very fact that I’ve been doing this for several years for a very large multi-national corporation gives me good insight into the ways I can do this,” she says. “[My experience] is going to be very valuable to me in my next venture.”

Gordon is not alone in semi-retiring. She says she knows plenty of fellow baby boomers – the term used to describe the products of the World War II population spike – doing the same thing. Baby boomers are typically considered those born from 1946 to 1964.
“Most of us are retiring from corporate life earlier than the typical age to draw Social Security,” she says. “We’re doing that because we feel like we’re ready to take on new challenges. I think of myself as middle aged. I certainly don’t think of myself as a senior citizen. A lot of us feel that way. We’re at the top of game and we want to go out and blaze new trails.”

Ken Mitchell, director of the American Association of Retired Persons’ Georgia office, says stories like Gordon’s are becoming the rule instead of being the exception. So much so, he says, that his office has begun offering semi-retirees assistance.

“A lot of older workers in their forties and fifties want to re-career, so we highlight fields where they can go and continue to have health care and benefits; fields that are going to continue to grow,” Mitchell says.

According to Mitchell, the cause of baby boomers’ semi-retirement is a simple matter of supply and demand. Employers are finding that they can ill afford to lose so much of the workforce and older employees are loath to leave. For instance, in the next five years, over 50 percent of the city of Atlanta’s employees will be over 50 years old.

“When boomers came along, laws were passed to prevent workers from working part time while drawing retirement, but then they realized there would be a shortage,” says Mitchell. “Baby boomers have re-written everything. They built schools for [boomers] when they were first born, expanded colleges and changed the workforce…And now [they're changing] retirement. [Boomers] are changing aging because you are going to have a lot of healthy people who want to work. [Boomers] are going to be the transitional workforce young people have traditionally been.” 

That’s because in the next 20 years, the proportion of state’s population that is age 65 and older will grow significantly while the percentage under 24 years old will shrink, according to a recent study conducted by the Georgia AARP. This will happen as the state’s economy continues to expand, leaving a demand for workers. Employers will have no choice but to turn to older workers to meet the demand.

Mitchell cites Home Depot and Georgia Power as examples of this. Home Depot worked with the AARP to hire people who worked in trades and were thus familiar with its products and Georgia Power pairs retirees with new line men for training. “People say older workers are more dependable, more conscientious and don’t take as many sick days,” says Mitchell. 

Another factor driving retirees back to work is financial. Many have not planned for retirement as well as they should have.

“We’re finding that 50 percent of families of any age have any money saved for retirement,” Mitchell says. “The average amount is $35,000, so when it comes to retirement, those people are going to have to work to make ends meet. They may have a small pension, but that’s not going to be enough.”

Apparently, there are both individual and societal reasons for that.

“People are making more income, so they have more discretionary income to save, but people in the middle and lower class, because of increased costs for health care and flat wages, don’t have as much to save,” says Mitchell.

He hopes the pending retirement boom serves as a lesson to baby boomers’ children.

“We have to help future generations get started saving early, even if it’s just a small amount, because if we don’t, they’re going to be worse off than boomers are,” he says.

One reason why post-boomers should begin to worry about their retirements now is the impact that the next wave of retirees will have on the national security blanket – Social Security.  Popular doomsday scenarios have the system spiralling toward bankruptcy as people retire earlier and live -and thus draw benefits – longer. According to Leon Rhodes, deputy regional commissioner for the Social Security Administration’s Atlanta region, the earliest born baby boomers will be eligible for early retirement benefits next January. And that is only the beginning. Over the next 20 years, 80 million of their cohorts will become eligible too.

The system has worked in the past because there always been more workers paying into it than retirees receiving benefits. But the gap is shrinking. Rhodes says in 1960, there were five workers for every eligible retiree; now there are three. By 2032, when the boomers have finished retiring, the ratio will be two to one.

“With that number of individuals coming, it’s going to have an impact on the trust fund,” Rhodes says. “The American public has to decide what kind of Social Security system they want to have. If we’re going to continue payments at current levels, we’re going to have to make adjustments. There are proposals out there that are designed to address these issues and we’re very confident that Congress and the President will work together to decide what to do.”

However, if that does not happen, Rhodes says that by the year 2017, the Social Security Administration will be paying out more in benefits than it takes in taxes and will have to begin using the trust fund it was built on to continue funding at current levels. Rhodes says that stopgap will last only until 2041, at which point the Administration would have to pay benefits solely from its revenue collection, which only generates enough to cover 75 percent of the current funding.

“People are living longer, healthier lives,” he says. “People having that kind of longevity really makes a difference.”

Boomers who retire could make a difference for everyone else as well. Georgia Department of Labor workforce analyst John Lawrence says the state could face labor shortages and increased demand for public services if more baby boomers opt to stop working.

“There are many ways in which the aging of the population will affect all industries in Georgia,” he says. “Some, like education and utilities, will be affected because many of the industry’s current workers will retire, leaving these industries with labor shortages and experience gaps. Some industries, like health care, will be hit with a double whammy, so to speak, as its workforce will be left with gaps from retirements and an ever increasing demand for medical services that will be required as the population ages. The government, due to favorable retirement plans, will also experience problems as workers leave while at the same time competition for workers throughout all industries increases.”

And replacing workers who clock out on their careers could take awhile, especially those in white-collar jobs, Lawrence adds.

“The biggest problem exists in industries where entry to employment is more complicated due to higher educational and skill requirements and/or certification and licensing,” he says. “Preparation of a competent workforce in these skilled fields takes time.”

Even the state’s consumers could feel the pinch.

“Salaries tend to increase during labor shortages and that could well be passed along to the final consumer,” he says.

The effects of the baby boomer retirement party for will obviously be felt for generations.

Insuring a Healthy Workforce

http://www.atlantatribune.com/id192.html

by Keith Laing, Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine

October 2007

More often than not, the debate about the rising cost of health care focuses on families. The picture is of Mom and Dad, struggling to balance the family budget while health care costs tip the scales.

It is a picture that is as true as it is overly simplistic. Everyday in Everywhere, USA, kitchen table conversations about the skyrocketing costs of health care are indeed taking place; however, most Americans get their insurance from their employer. That means businesses of 400 are feeling the crunch just as much as families of four.

For instance, the City of Atlanta provides insurance to roughly 8,000 employees, as well as another 4,500 retirees and relatives, according to Human Resources Commissioner Benita Ransom. Employees pay a premium of course, but the City covers 77 percent of the insurance costs.

And City employees are the lucky ones, Ransom says. City insurance plans include health and dental coverage, as well as optional vision and life protections.

“Medical costs are skyrocketing. There are over one million Georgians who don’t have insurance because a lot of companies don’t provide it because it’s too expensive.”

Those that do feel it in the wallet, Ransom adds. She says big employers like the City of Atlanta sometimes have self-funded health plans, making them responsible for claims filed by employees. That gives them a vested interest in keeping their employees as healthy as can be.

“Having a healthy workforce lowers costs,” she says. “When you don’t have a healthy workforce, it shows up in absenteeism and a lower quality of service.”

That’s why the City does everything it can to keep their employees out of the doctor’s office and at their work stations. Focusing on preventive care, the City collaborates with its insurance providers to sponsor workshops, give free screenings and distribute literature. Employees are given paid leave annually for physicals and to donate blood. The City also examines claims data to see which ailments need more attention.

“We try to highlight diseases that are prevalent among our employees,” says Ransom. “The major way we do that is looking at claims costs. We know where we are spending our money because we look at what claims have been filed over the five or ten years to see if we see any reduction across age, gender, employee, family, active or retiree. We pretty much know, not by name, but by [demographics] who’s going to the doctor for what, because one thing that’s very important is disease management.”

Often, employees who are not feeling symptoms go back to ‘business as usual’ after their first doctor visit, which can lead to further problems down the road, Ransom says. To combat that, the City’s insurance companies follow up with employees after doctor visits with calls and reading materials. The city also operates a gym that is open 24 hours a day, and free to all employees.

Other large Atlanta employers offer similar programs for their employees. For instance, Georgia State University offers access to a discounted Weight Watchers program and a ‘stop smoking’ program. The university also provides reduced-priced yoga and meditation classes, as well as regular lifestyle roundtable discussions.

When employers decide to trim the fat of their health care budget, they usually turn to people like Staycee Benjamin-Stone, a worksite wellness consultant for Kaiser-Permanente, one of the City’s insurance providers. Kaiser provides wellness programs for over 75 local companies.

It is Benjamin-Stone’s job to create specific wellness plans for clients, based on their needs. Bottom-line sensitive employers often prompt her first visit.

“Generally, when I go out to speak with a new group, they have had the discussion on saving money already,” she says. “The attitude is that with health costs going the way they are, we’re not going to be able to afford to support employees who choose negative behaviors.”

The workshops are all encompassing, targeting both those who are completely healthy and those who have conditions that are treatable. “Worksite wellness focuses on keeping healthy people healthy as long as possible and helping anyone with any kind of chronic disease to educate themselves and manage their condition effectively. If you get people earlier, they stay healthy longer,” Benjamin-Stone says.

In addition to focusing on specific conditions, Kaiser Permanente’s worksite wellness programs provide insights into common workplace challenges like managing stress and eating healthy at work, Benjamin-Stone says.

There is also a heavy focus on regular physicals and examinations.

“We want people to have annual physicals because certain conditions don’t have bells and whistles,” she says.

Still, the benefits of the programs are not always immediately visible, but they are there. “We know when people are able to be supported to change unhealthy behaviors, we see a demonstrable difference. Sometimes it takes a long time for people to change though. It all depends on where they are on the health continuum,” Benjamin-Stone says.

With that insight, Benjamin-Stone is prompted to promote the benefits of worksite wellness.

“When you demonstrate to employees that you care about them, that [their] health is important to us, not just to our bottom line, you increase morale,” she says. “When people are supported, you reduce absenteeism and presenteeism. You want healthy employees because they have more energy and think more clearly.”

Providing support is especially important in the modern workforce, where the workdays and time off are blurred by teleconferencing and take home projects.

“The American lifestyle is one in which we overwork ourselves,” she contends. “We’re doing more with less time and that has an impact on our health. People used to work 9 to 5 and have an hour lunch, but now you have to work 9-6 to have an hour off. Then, in a place like Atlanta, traffic is so bad that our commute times are longer, so our days are longer with less time to ourselves.

“Our requirements are high,” Benjamin-Stone continues. “We demand a lot from people, so we need to support that with self-care. People are going to be productive if they take care of themselves.”

Kaiser-Permanente is not alone in that belief. Other insurance providers, like Aflac, also offer wellness maintenance programs. Several Aflac insurance policies include free preventative medical testing and screenings such as annual physicals, mammograms, pap smears, eye examinations, ultrasounds and blood screenings.

Another less conventional way that some are opting to stay healthy and gainfully employed is by utilizing health savings accounts. Under traditional health savings accounts, the employer is the primary insurance client, arranging coverage for its workforce. However, with health savings accounts, individuals conduct that business themselves for themselves and their families.

HSA holders make deposits into specifically marked bank accounts that can only be withdrawn for medical purposes. However, unlike traditional insurance plans, where claim agents decide what is and what is not an appropriate medical expense, HSA patients answer only to themselves.

Proponents argue that giving individuals a financial stake in their health care encourages them to make rationalization choices in their behavior and treatment seeking, much in the way individuals comparison shop for houses and cars. In those markets, sometimes people forgo the things they love for the things they can afford.

However, HSA opponents say medical decisions are anything but rational, and also too complicated for untrained eyes to be making what could become life and death decisions. They fear the notion of people forgoing treatments they need to keep their cash in the bank.

Steve Gerst, CEO of Plan Service Providers, a leading HSA facilitator, acknowledges that traditionalists do exist, but says health savings accounts are the wave of the health care future. He also argues that critics’ perception of the program as benefiting only the highest end of the tax bracket are unfounded.

“It’s a new way to practice medicine, but it’s better for the doctors and better for the patients,” he says. “Some people think HSAs are a healthy and wealthy type of program, but most of our buyers are people who can’t go to the emergency room. What happens if you have hourly workers who can’t afford to take time off from work? Our doctor’s make house calls.”

Gerst says that among health savings account holders in Georgia, emergency room visits have decreased as much as 80 percent.

“The way its designed is that everybody has a financial incentive to work together to keep people healthy,” he explains. “The incentive is not only for the health and wellness of the population, but because the money is going into the banks. Banks want to keep people healthy because as long as the money in the bank, they can lend it out for mortgages.”

Health savings accounts tend to change the nature of the doctor patient relationship.

“They immediately go to the doctor and say ‘I need you as a consultant. Tell me what I’m doing wrong. How do I stop smoking?  How do I lose weight?,’ Gerst says. “They are going to the doctor for wellness instead of sickness.”

That’s why HSA providers measure success in terms of dollars saved instead of dollars spent. Even when HSA customers do seek treatment, they are encouraged to seek doctor visits or utilize clinics, according to Gerst.

“When you have medics and clinics, you don’t need to go to the ER at seven times the cost and people get what they need cheaper and quicker, which is always at a premium,” he says.

Whether using traditional insurance, health savings accounts or preventive measures, it’s clear that staying healthy is now a part of everyone’s job description. For both employees and employers, the bottom line depends on it. 

Is Affirmative Action Becoming Extinct?

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by Keith Laing, Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine

September 2007

At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, the U.S. federal government first enacted affirmative action programs to level the playing field for blacks in the classroom and in the boardroom. Several decades later, as the first generation of black millionaires nears retirement and the first generation of black and majority white university alumni send their kids to school, the case could certainly be made that the field is now level.

And several times, that case has in fact been made. Courts across the country have ruled several times on race-based school admissions, culminating most notably in two 2003 Supreme Court decisions that barred its use in undergraduate and law schools, and then again in a June 2007 decision striking down school choice public school plans. The Court left minimal wiggle room for using race combined with other factors.. For affirmative action, the decisions were not the decisive blows they could have been, but they were certainly no Brown vs the Board of Education.

However, the jury is still out on whether or not those decisions will close the case on affirmative action in corporate America. Some, like Robert Ethridge, former president for Americans for Affirmative Action , think corporate affirmative action will not be affected.

“The Supreme Court has been making decisions that are really the same,” says Ethridge, who also serves as Emory University’s vice-president of equal opportunity programs. “I don’t think the situation has gotten any worse legally. They said you can’t use race as the primary factor, but on the other hand, you can use race. There’s enough double talk there for each side to claim they won.”

Still, Ethridge admits the potential for a ripple effect is real.

“I think [the education decisions] could have an impact,” he says. “I like to say they are separate programs, but it’s important to develop programs that are legally defensible.”

Deborah Burris, current vice-president of the American Association for Affirmative Action and the Director of Equal Opportunity for the University of Missouri-St. Louis, agrees that corporate affirmative action can withstand the legal onslaught.

“The decisions made involving schools stated that they wouldn’t affect other affirmative action programs from what I remember,” Burris says. “The courts separated the two in the language [of their decisions].”

Furthermore, Burris adds, hiring minorities makes business sense for most companies.

“In a global marketplace, you can’t afford not to have men and women of diverse backgrounds bringing diverse talents,” she says. “That enhances the service you are providing and allows you to reach more clients.”

That’s why corporations have not shied away from their affirmative actions programs, even as schools are being forced to reduce or remove theirs, Burris says. Some even went as far as opposing the rulings on school admissions, she adds.

“There were a number of corporations when the deal happened with the University of Michigan [in 2003] that came out in support of affirmative action because they understood if schools don’t have programs in place to encourage the development of all segments of the population, it will affect their workforce,” Burris says. “When recruiters go to college campuses, they are looking for people to hire. [Affirmative action] affects their bottom line and obviously, businesses are sensitive to that.”

Even in education hiring, despite being in the field that is home to most of the highest profile decisions regarding affirmative action, such sensitivity exists. Gwinnett County Schools spokeswoman Sloan Roach says that court cases about students notwithstanding, the county aggressively recruits minorities to teach.

“From an employee standpoint, we try to hire a diverse workforce that mirrors our community,” she says. “It just makes sense. [With a diverse workforce] students can have someone in the classroom they can look up to.”

Roach admits the county is not where it needs to be yet. Last school year, 61 percent of the system’s 151,185 students were minorities, but only 20 percent of its 19,388 of its full-time employees listed a race other than white.

“We face challenges in that the demand for new employees is not met by the supply in colleges and universities that have teaching schools, especially [students] of color.

The county’s rapidly changing population has not helped either, Roach adds.

“Gwinnett has grown so diverse that we can’t keep up,” she says.

Still, Roach says, that does not keep Gwinnett schools from trying.

“We recruit at HBCUs, all the major career and jobfairs,” she says. “We place advertisements in [ethnic] publications . We are an equal opportunity employer, so we pursue applicants all over and we pursue minorities just as aggressively as non-minorities.”

Political Minefield

Commitments from individual employers like Gwinnett County schools notwithstanding, the courts seem to be speaking and lawmakers seem to be listening. Burris admits that affirmative action has become a political minefield, used alternatively to lob bombs at opponents and avoided by electorate-fearing incumbents.

“Affirmative action has become so politically charged unfortunately that some of the politicians in our world use it as a political football for their own gain, coming out in favor or against it if they think they can get more votes.”

State Rep. Bob Holmes, who chairs the Atlanta-Fulton County delegation of the Georgia General Assembly, agrees that the climate for affirmative action is not what it was in the Civil Rights heyday. Holmes says that affirmative action has probably peaked.

“It’s probably reached the high water mark support wise,” says Holmes, a political scientist by trade. “The reaction has been more strident and the conservative notion is that we’ve been doing this for several decades and it’s never going to end. That growing sentiment in the white community is causing the backlash.”

And those flames have been fanned by the recent court decisions, Holmes says.

“The Courts have driven the current climate,” he says. “They have been hostile to affirmative action in education and minority business entrepreneurial programs.”

For the most part, the decisions that have been made make it impossible to craft a program that would get the approval of the Court. Programs have been changed because even though institutions want to do the right, the Court is making that impossible. So they begin to pull back because they are running into a brick wall.”

That’s why Holmes’ prognostication for affirmative action is bleak.

“It’s kind of like its dead, but it hasn’t been buried,” he says. As evidence, he points to the ongoing president campaign. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are talking about affirmative action, he says.

“It has no visibility,” Holmes says. “It’s not high on the public agenda, so the future is dim.”

The Next Step

In a climate where the mere mention of utilizing race in hiring practice can land a company on the steps of the Supreme Court, many have chosen instead to focus on diversity programs, Burris says. Diversity programs are designed to make sure employees are tolerant of each other, no matter their race or ethnicity.

“There’s definitely a focus on diversity because it’s much more politically correct,” Burris says. “It’s more palatable to say ‘diversity’ because it is not as emotionally charged. You see people opening diversity offices. That’s the thing to do now if you want to be seen in a positive light.”

Emory University equal opportunity officer Ethridge agrees that diversity is the new “it” phrase in human resources.

“Diversity has become the buzz word,” he says. “Affirmative action carries baggage because all the programs around the country have not been handled correctly. But that doesn’t mean you get rid of every program.”

Ethridge says diversity programs have become so popular that they could present a risk to affirmative action.

“With the push toward diversity, you could see affirmative action losing some stature and ending up way down the administrative line,” he says. “My concern about diversity [as a replacement for affirmative action] is that it does not have a legal basis. Everyone does not have a commitment to helping others instead of doing what’s expedient. It’s documented that we gravitate to people that look like us. As long as that is happening, we have to have affirmative action.”

Still, Ethridge admits that diversity programs play a big role in improving the corporate world for minorities.

“One of the things you must do before you get out and recruit [minorities] is assess the climate you are bringing folks into,” he says. “Diversity is very helpful there.”

Burris agrees that although diversity programs may have more luster than battle scarred affirmative action programs, they do strive for complimentary goals.

“You can’t have one without the other,” she says. “You need to have things going to ensure the environment is welcoming to minorities. You need to make sure that once an individual becomes a part of your organization that they can succeed and thereby the organization can succeed.”

“To me, diversity programs represent the proactive piece of affirmative action because they are based on the philosophy of an organization,” she continues. “Diversity is a choice.”

Diversity programs have some advantages that affirmative action does not, Burris adds.

“Diversity programs go beyond affirmative action,” she says. “They are able to encompass differences in economic background, geographic regions and religions. Affirmative action speaks to certain protected groups.”

A Long Way to Go

Just as big a challenge to affirmative action as the trend toward diversity is the graying of the generation that vividly remembers de jure racism in the work place, Rep. Holmes says.

“Many of the younger generation came in after [the Civil Rights Movement], so they don’t recognize the disparity,” he says. “Affirmative action may simply disappear if we don’t continue to highlight the need for it.”

Holmes argues that the need is as strong as ever. “We need to look below the surface,” he says. “Black people are still unemployed twice as much as whites and black income is still 60 percent of whites. We have a situation where the top blacks are not in operations. They are director of consumer affairs [or something along those lines], but we have very few blacks who are controllers. We have more blacks coming in [to the workforce], but at the lower levels. It could be airlines, banks or whatever, but there’s still a glass ceiling.”

“Yes, we’ve made progress,” he continues, “but we still have a long ways to go. That’s the status of affirmative action in Atlanta and in the nation really.”

Americans for Affirmative Actions vice-president Burris adds that going forward, affirmative action needs to be concerned with more than just numbers.

“We see more women and minorities being hired and advancing to management, but we have to start looking deeper,” she says. “There are still areas and opportunities minorities don’t have access to. We have laws like [the] Equal Pay [Act], but if you look at benefits packages at some of these Fortune 500 companies, are women and minorities getting the same perks if you would [like] access to the company car, stock options and invites to the country? You have to look at things that may not be as tangible or black and white, but speak to an individual’s opportunity for advancement and growth.”

“Those things are not always known,” Burris continues. “Say for instance you have a first time college graduate going into a field that they may not have many family or friends in. They may not know [about the perks of working for their company] because many times, friends and relatives make you aware.”

That’s why Burris says it is time to change the perception of affirmative action.

“There’s a lack of understanding,” she says. “Most people see affirmative action as black and white. There needs to be more education as to society at large about what affirmative action really is. It’s not quotas. It’s not that if an organization promotes certain people that others are not going to get promoted. Many people believe that if a minority is considered for a job than a non-minority is not going to be. Affirmative action goes beyond race to ensure that the process is open and fair to everyone.”

Despite the challenges, legal and otherwise, affirmative action is still worthwhile and probably always will be, Burris adds.

“When it’s all said and done, organizations that are federal contractors will still have to abide by the law,” she says. “In 10 years, we might not be using the words affirmative action, but those functions will never go away, because we will continue to see increases in groups that have been underrepresented in the past.”

Introducing the Soul of Black Art

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by Keith Laing, Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine

July 2007

Like most things in life, when it comes to art, beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder. Luckily for African-American art fans in Atlanta though, many of the beholders look just like them.

Several Black-owned art galleries dot the metro area, each with a unique philosophy, purpose and collection. Together, they strive to expose a community not often associated with high-class art to its wiles and wonders.

Among the educators is Shrine of the Black Madonna in the West End, a two-part gallery showcasing African paintings and artifacts. Owner Ewa Omo Oba says her gallery stresses the value of original works.

“We want to be a teaching museum,” she says. “So many of our people don’t understand value or appreciate original art, so we wanted to showcase that. I’ve seen people pay ridiculous amounts of money for reprints when they can grow an artist’s career (by buying an original.”

Being located in the shadow of the Atlanta University Center since 1976 has enabled Omo Oba to see the fruits of that labor.

“We’re a stones throw from the Atlanta University Center,” she says. “A lot of former AUC students who came in when they were in undergrad come back and bring their families.”

She adds that her gallery benefits permanent West End residents too.

“West End is an amazing community,” Omo Oba says. “People don’t know the gem that West End is. There are beautiful Victorian homes here. Our neighbors are sophisticated professional people. People forget that for generations, West End has housed some of the most prominent black leaders.”

That’s why Shrine of the Black Madonna is proud to be apart of West End’s fabric, Omo Oba says.

“We have a deep sense of community,” she says. “We started as community cultural bookstore. We’ve grown with our community, watching it go from difficult times to the current resurgence and we trust that we’ll continue to be a part of the West End.”

At any given time, between 60 and 80 pieces of art are on display at Shrine of the Black Madonna, Omo Oba says. The gallery sells original pieces ranging from $400 to $2,500, depending on the size and reputation of the artist. Its artifacts sell as low as $300 and as high as $7,000.

To the layman, those prices may seem high, but for original artwork, Omo Oba says it’s a steal.

“People come here from L.A., D.C. and New York because they can’t get these prices anywhere else in the country,” she says.

Another gallery that sees itself primarily as a teacher is Art Modern Creative, a new facility in the Cobb Galleria. Although it does not feature exclusively black art, Art Modern Creative spends just as much time educating its customers, says creative director Valerie Allen, who owns the gallery with her husband Michael.

“Our greater goal is that we want African-Americans to better understand and appreciate art,” she says. “The only way they are going to do that is to understand the art process, so even if we don’t make a sale, we spend time talking. Even if [customers] don’t buy anything, we want to walk away with some knowledge. Not everybody that comes to the Galleria has $3,000 to spend on a piece of art.”

Allen says that blacks are behind the art curve because earlier generations of whites understood that like education, creativity is vital to success of a community.

“The first thing people do [when they want to hold people down] is take away their ability to create,” she says.

Another problem is that this is the fulfillment of the promise of integration is only in its first generation.

“There are not enough blacks who have that much disposal income, so all the people at the [highest] levels of art buying are white,” she says.

Allen also echoes Omo Oba’s concern that those that do have the disposal income are not investing it wisely.

“We’re caught up in buying prints because we don’t understand the value of having an original,” she says.

Also, she adds that black people who do have disposal income often buy European art because that is what their white counterparts do.

“It’s almost a whitewashing,” she says.

That’s why Art Modern Creative strives to feature art from all over the world, Allen says.

“We are an international gallery,” she says. “We’re black-owned, but everybody shops with us. My husband and I spent the last five years in Asia, so we decided to showcase art from all over the world.”

Allen says she chose to open her gallery in Atlanta because her and her husband were drawn to the city’s emerging art community. Each year, the city hosts several art festivals, including this month’s National Black Arts Festival and September’s Atlanta Arts Festival.

“We came back to the United States because we have a granddaughter we want to watch grow up, but the energy of Atlanta is wonderful,” she says. “To have gone all over the world and come back and share our knowledge with the people of Atlanta feels great.”

An artist herself, Allen produced about half of Art Modern Creative’s gallery and handpicked the other works. The 25,000 square foot gallery features about 100 pieces, with prices ranging from $1,500 to $3,000. The gallery prides itself for having a keen eye for talent, relying more on artist merit than name value.

“Some of [our artists] used to be homeless,” she says. “Some may not be known outside of the village they live in in China, but they’re brilliant.”

Bryma Braham, co-owner of Avisca Fine Arts in Marietta, says her gallery also provides exposure to lesser-known artists.

“We specialize in African-American art and contemporary art from the Caribbean, focusing on emerging artists,” she says.

Avisca has a group of about 15 artists it regularly features, Braham says, though it is always looking for new talent. About 50 pieces of art grace it walls at any given time, she says.

“We also have a large number of works on inventory,” she says. “There’s a lot a visitor can see [other than] what’s hanging on the walls. We have an extensive library of art books. We’re trying to make the gallery a resource, more than just a gallery, but a place where people can come and learn.”

Braham adds that Avisca also tries to give its customers quality assurance.

“As art professionals, we can size up a work pretty quickly to see if it has any artist quality,” she says. “We try to select works that have strong artist value so that we can confidently tell our customers it’s worth the money they are paying. We can’t predict accurately whether someone is going to become famous, but we like to say that either way you’re buying a good piece of art.”

Braham says that a large portion of her consumers, who are mostly young professions with disposal income and older collectors, are looking to get in on the next Picasso’s ground floor.

“People buy what they like, but they also like to know that what they are buying is going to appreciate,” she says. “They do it for personal pleasure, but they also usually want to buy something from an artist whose career is going somewhere.”

Luckily for those shoppers, several of Avisca’s up and comers have already begun their ascension.

“A couple are well on their way,” she says. “We can safely say that based on the trajectory of their career. A good marker [of an artist’s prominence] is not just market acceptance, but when they start to get the attention of the art press, critics and museums.”

Avisca helps them along the way by holding artist talks and participating in art fairs, Braham says.

“They’re great ways to increase the visibility of the artists,” she says.

It also increases the visibility of the gallery, which will celebrate one year in business next month, Braham adds.

“We’re planning a whole series of events to increase our relevance to the community,” she says. “Right now, we’re still in the building process. We’re still trying to get established in the Atlanta art community.”

Another black-owned gallery – Wertz Contemporary – is already entrenched in the Atlanta art community. Located in the Castleberry Arts District near the West End for two years after eight years in Buckhead, the gallery’s reputation precedes it and helps it attract the best and brightest artists to Atlanta, owner Jason Wertz says.

“I’ve done this almost 10 years, so we’ve grown in terms of reputation,” he says. “We’re the best black-owned gallery in town as far as internationally recognized artists. We only showcase artists with merit and resumes. A number have been showcased in New York shows.”

Wertz says his gallery’s reputation is so strong that artists contact him about being displayed. The gallery’s reputation also draws customers, he says.
“Our clientele is mostly people who are familiar with the gallery and looking to buy art,” he says.

However, even with a loyal fan base, business is not always booming at Wertz Contemporary, Wertz says.

“Art is such a fickle industry,” he says. “It’s really feast or famine.”

Still, annually, the gallery sells between $200,000 and $250,000 worth of art, he says. Pieces on display in the 25,000 square foot facility range from $2,000 to $15,000.

“It’s a broad display of work,” Wertz says.

Wertz Contemporary’s appeal is helped tremendously by its new location, he says. Its first year in Castleberry produced its best sales year ever, Wertz says.

“I like the synergy here,” he says. “There’s a lot of old building with character juxtaposed with contemporary art. People have definitely responded to our location and being able to see art here. It’s sort of like a baby SoHo [New York]. That’s how it’s often described.”

Going forward, however, Wertz says he would like to see more black customers browsing his gallery. He estimates that only 20 percent of his customers are black.

“Sadly, it’s smaller than we anticipated given the stature of the artists in the gallery,” he says. “But we’re always expanding and growing and we hope our demographics continue to improve.”

Luckily though, with so many black-owned art galleries beginning to call Atlanta home, black art lovers can follow their hearts to whichever shop suits them best.

Cruel Gentrification or Urban Revitalization?

Are pricey developments the remedy for urban decay?

www.atlantatribune.com

by Keith Laing, Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine

May 2007

In the 34 years Bryon Amos has lived in the Vine City community just west of downtown Atlanta, he has seen its good, bad and ugly days.

“I’ve seen us go from kids on the corner [playing] and picket fences [in front of houses] to the dark days of drugs and crime,” says Amos, a lifelong resident who now serves as president of the Vine City Civic Association. “The neighborhood has changed drastically, but I’m happy to say we’re on the upswing again.”

Like many once-thriving predominantly black inner city communities that saw its residents flee to the suburbs a generation ago, Vine City is fast become prime real estate again. These days, in Atlanta and nationwide, living just minutes from downtown is enough to make areas once known primarily for their decay dream destinations for suburbanites who are tired of spending most of their day behind the wheel of their car.

And with rush hour congestion strengthening its grip on Atlanta, along with continued resistance to non-automotive transportation solutions from Georgia’s powers that be, there may be no end in sight to the urban migration. That’s because weary road warriors are helped in their quest to live closer to work and play by developers who buy cheaply valued properties and renovate them or replace them with shiny new houses and sparkling new shopping centers, a phenomenon that has become so widespread that mere mention of it elicits strong reactions from everyone involved.

Some lambaste gentrification’s effect on long-time residents, who often are priced out of the communities they’ve known and loved by rapidly increasing property values. They argue that those getting the boot are elderly, working class and more frequently than not, black. Others counter with the fact that for the first time in what seems like forever, development is coming to these neighborhoods and it is long overdue. They say that residents who weathered their communities’ storms are now seeing the other side of the rainbow in the form of investment and development.

However, like beauty, truth is indeed in the eye of the beholder, which is why many others, like Amos, fall somewhere in the middle.

“Its part of the natural evolution of neighborhoods,” he says. “As people move out for certain reasons, people move in for other reasons. [Gentrification] is a valid concern, but we can control gentrification. A lot of people say you can’t, but gentrification is sometimes good because it eliminates overwhelming spots of poverty and creates a better balance throughout the city.”

Amos adds that contrary to popular belief, it is not the outside redevelopment that is creating the problems most often associated with gentrification.

“Due to crime and disinvestment, it is easy to buy properties flip them as they say, but its not always that process that causes the property values to increase,” he says. “Once any neighborhood begins to clean itself and organize, that can cause property values to raise as well.”

It was residents’ determination to save the community they love that started Vine City’s turnaround, Amos says.

“The pendulum really sprung the other way when we as citizens began to organize,” he says. “We’re creating a neighborhood again, a live, work and play scenario where you don’t have to leave the confines of your neighborhood to get the services you need.”

Vine City is just one of the many Atlanta communities experiencing what some might call a restoration and what others might deem a whitewash. Karl Barnes, a certification specialist with the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council (GMSDC), says the same thing is happening in West End, home to the bastions of black education in the Atlanta University Center.

Barnes, former president of the West End Neighborhood Association who has called the neighborhood home for more than 30 years, says he is glad to see developers take an interest in the area, but hopes they keep in mind why he has stayed so long.

“Preservation is a good tool in African-American revitalization,” he says. “The problem is the market. People come in and buy the historic properties and pull out all of its character to make it look like a suburban home with a great view. It’s appealing to people who don’t know what they are buying.”

If the face of the displaced is the greatest generation, Barnes says, the face of his new neighbors is unmistakably Generation X. Twenty-something’s fresh out of college are primarily the buyers in the gentrified marketplace, he says. They are drawn to its proximity to urbane downtown Atlanta and to condos with coffee shops in their lobbies and specialty stores nearby.

“The context [of gentrification] is that they are selling to young suburban buyers,” he says. “They come because it’s nice or it’s close to downtown,” he says. “There’s a generation of young folks who’ll go out and spend $200,000 on their first house and think nothing of it. When I was coming up, you brought a start house and worked your way up.”

Typically the first people displaced by gentrification are renters whose landlords greet them with hefty rent hikes at the end of their leases. But Barnes says that even those who own their homes feel the pain.

“When property values go up, the county tries to make you pay more taxes,” he rues. “The only people looking for property values to go up are the people looking to sell. Nobody wants to pay more taxes. When the county assesses you more, you’re not getting more services.”

Barnes adds that he has seen gentrification in his neighborhood before.

“I’ve seen three or four waves of redevelopment,” he says. “Some of it has been good, some of it has been bad. The bubble in the housing market you’re getting ready to see burst happened in the 70s, the 80s and the 90s.”

Barnes adds that, like Vine City, West End has struggled with people attempting to “flip” its properties.

“We’re seeing the manifestation of sub prime lenders that are raising the values [of property] and not doing their job with the upkeep,” he says. “It’s cheap money. People buy [property] without income verification and hope they can sell it before the first payment is due.”

Problems arise when these buyers get stuck holding the bag on houses they cannot move, Barnes says. Property owners who never had any intention to investing in the community become responsible for its upkeep.

“Sometimes they get stuck with it longer than they anticipated,” he says.

However, he says, the community has been able to utilize zoning measures to combat the practice.

“We removed R5, which are duplexes, and are now solely R4, which are single family houses,” Barnes says. “Speculators build [duplexes] because Housing Choices pays the best rent in town.”

Still, Barnes says, gentrification could help the West Ends and Vine Cities of the world keep up with midtown and downtown Decatur, areas known for stylish housing and pedestrian friendly shopping.

“Midtown has college campuses and so do we, but look at what’s around the Georgia Tech and what’s around the AUC,” he says. “There are uses of places around the AUC, either by public policy or lack thereof, that were not placed around Georgia Tech.

“We’ve got the same number of students as midtown, but go to Morehouse or Spelman and ask where they spend their money,” he continues. “West End is not on their radar. We have to enhance the quality of our housing because at the end of the day, you’ve got a plethora of [housing] supply on the market. As long as you’ve got good credit, you can get a good deal in midtown. If we don’t look like midtown, we’re not going to appeal to young professionals and we’re always going to be a community of last resort.”

However, for Brent Brewer, an engineer who works for the city of Atlanta and was looking to move out of the house he was renting in Decatur and buy one to call his own, West End was far from a last resort.

“The primary reason why we choose to relocate is that we were expecting a baby and needed more space,” he says. “We also wanted to move closer to my wife’s [job] at Spelman College.”

Brewer, 32, was familiar with West End and thus unfazed by warnings from friends and colleagues about the crime in the area, he adds. Brewer relished the idea of living in a once-thriving black community.

“My image of West End was that it was an environment of young black consciousness, a place where you were likely to see young black men and women wearing African garb and wearing their hair in dreadlocks,” he says. “I regularly traveled there to shop, buying shea butter, incense and black soap from the numerous African import shops and purchasing books at the Shrine of the Black Madonna. I got my hair twisted at a braiding shop on Ralph David Abernathy and frequently ate at the Soul Vegetarian restaurant. I attended the annual Malcom X celebration in the West End Park. When I went into the West End, I felt a great sense of community and acceptance.”

Brewer says that he hopes more young residents follow his lead.

“The neighborhood isn’t at all that youthful,” he says. “Many of the Historic West End residents have lived there for over ten years. I’d like to see people moving in the neighborhood. We have quite a number of vacant houses which are in need of owner occupants.”

That’s because gentrifiers in the West End has saturated the housing market, Brewer says.

“In the West End, investors have bought several houses that have been renovated rather than a full on restored and put them on the market for $300,000, which is almost double the typical fair market value of a home, but no body’s living in those houses,” he says. “The houses that are occupied are sold in the $160,000-$215,000 range, which isn’t going to price out many people. In the past three months, I know six people who bought homes in the neighborhood for less than $200,000.”

Shannon Carey of the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP), which promotes mixed income communities and pushes for more affordable housing, wants to see more stories like Brewer’s. Carey says many of Atlanta’s in-town neighborhoods could use a little sprucing up.

“The benefits we see to this kind of redevelopment begins with making the neighborhoods more viable, more attractive and providing a wealth building strategy for the residents,” she says. “These communities are frequently well planned and well cared for. Often you will see more amenities. You will also see more attention being paid to safety and transportation options.”

Still, Carey says, her organization understands why gentrification is a touchy subject in black communities and why developers and newcomers are sometimes personas non grata to long-time residents.

“We see gentrification as a cruel double edged sword,” she says. “There is a pattern currently of people being displaced from communities as they gentrify. Price points are going up rapidly. It is definitely necessary for the improvement of a community, but it puts such a strain on the “least of us” in any community. In inner city Atlanta, that tends to be lower income African Americans.

“Typically when a neighborhood gentrifies, the look and feel of the neighborhood completely change unless you have people on the ground fighting to not allow it to happen,” she continues. “An area of urban decay that gentrifies will bring in more middle class or affluent people while displacing the lower income residents.”

That’s why any urban redevelopment plan should include affordable housing, Carey says.

“We advocate a mixed income housing strategy that provides varying housing options at many different price points,” she says. “We have seen this work all over the country as a solution to “pricing out” our lower income residents. It takes work and creativity, but if you can build a community that has apartments for rent at decent price points, mid and upper range condos, a mix of single family housing ranging anywhere from $120,000 on up – you can really build a solid community.”

“The key is making sure that the housing that is more affordable doesn’t look ‘cheap’ and isn’t immediately identifiable as the affordable housing in the neighborhood,” Carey continues. “We believe there is a way to do more inexpensive housing that also looks
good.”

If not, long time residents like Amos and Barnes may soon feel like visitors in the neighborhoods they have always called home.

Legislative Round-Up

www.atlantatribune.com

by Keith Laing, Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine

April 2007

With the Georgia General Assembly approaching the end of its 40 constitutionally-required legislative days, the issue that has drawn the most consensus is the amount of work that has been accomplished: Not much.

The 2007 session has been one of the quietest in recent memory. Although some controversy surrounded the Assembly’s funding of its statewide PeachCare insurance program and a proposal to allow counties to decide whether or not they wanted to allow Sunday liquor sales, nothing this year has reached the level of the debate surrounding the proposed voter ID law last year. That issue alone drew national attention and, today, has ended up in front of the Georgia Supreme Court.

That said, several black representatives – rookies and veterans alike – introduced legislation this year.

Weathering Change

In the nearly 25 years Georganna Sinkfield has served in Georgia’s House of Representatives, the only constant has been the changes.

Among them, Sinkfield says, is that representatives now keep important paperwork in their offices instead of in the trunks of their cars. They also answer phone calls on cell phones instead of in designated phone booths in the halls of the Capitol now, she adds.

And the changes have not just been physical, says Sinkfield, who first took office in 1983.

“The legislature (itself) has changed,” she says. “The composition is like night and day. When I came in, there were very few women and maybe 15 blacks. It was almost all white males. Now we’ve got as many as 50 blacks and probably as many women.”

Sinkfield, a Democrat representing parts of the city of Atlanta and Fulton County, adds that the state has changed, too.

“When I first went to the General Assembly, the state budget was $4 billion and Georgia had 6 million people,” she says. “Now, the budget is $17 billon and there are 11 million here. We went from 10 congressional districts to 14.”

Sinkfield has also watched control of the governor’s office and both houses of the General Assembly move from Democratic to Republican hands. After spending the majority of her career in the majority, she says the short end of the legislative stick is a different experience.

“I’m right back where was when I was a freshman,” she jokes. “I had a nice big office and I got moved to a tiny one (when the Republicans took over).”

More seriously, Sinkfield adds that her surroundings were not the only thing to change when power moved to the other side of the aisle in 2004.

“When the Republicans took control, the influence we could have on budgeting and legislation was much different,” she says. “It doesn’t mean that what you wanted when you were in power you got, but certainly the possibility increased tenfold.”

Still, Sinkfield says her tenure in the General Assembly has taught her a trick or two that have helped her advance her constituents’ interest.

“A lot of people think you have to get a bill passed, but it is just as hard to get a bill defeated,” she says.

Sinkfield adds that learning to live to fight another day is equally important, especially as a member of the minority party.

“When I came in, I thought the world was lost if I lost a bill that I thought was important,” she says. “You have to learn to be patient and don’t wear yourself out getting mad at somebody who didn’t support you on this particular bill. They may be your biggest ally later.”

But the biggest thing Sinkfield’s 12 terms in office has taught her is to be herself, she says.

“As a black woman, coming from the district I come from, I (have a lot to offer),” she says. “You have to bring what you represent to the table. You can’t be like everyone else, or else why come?”

Bringing her perspective as a black woman to the legislative process endeared her to African-American across the state, Sinkfield says.

“Reappointment resulted in (the legislature) trying to draw districts so that rural blacks could have representation up here, but when I came in, black folks all over the state looked at (black legislators from Atlanta) to represent them,” she says. “They mostly had white legislators that I guess they didn’t trust, so they were always calling us.”

Fellow veteran Representative Bob Holmes, who first elected in 1974, agrees, adding that it is a burden black legislators have always welcomed and should continue to embrace. Holmes, a Democrat who chairs the Atlanta-Fulton County delegation of the General Assembly, drafted the bylaws for the Georgia Legislature Black Caucus shortly after being elected.

“We have a special responsibility to black people, poor people and other minorities,” he says. “We’re supposed to be the conscience of the Georgia legislature. If we were not going to focus on those (people’s) issues, we didn’t need to be there. Those (people) that have long been neglected are our major responsibility. Our constituency is not just our district. It’s a larger constituency of ‘our people’ rather than just saying ‘I’m looking out for the 60,000 people in my district’.”

Holmes says that is what separates black legislators from others who walk the halls of the Capitol building.

“I don’t think most white legislators think that way,” he says. “Black legislators have to generalize and think more statewide.”

Still, Holmes contends that black legislators have to be careful not to focus entirely on minority issues.

“I don’t think we ought to be pigeon-holed because the other stuff is critical, but if other folks aren’t going to bring up (our) issues, we have to,” he says.

Holmes says the growing number of black legislators has another crucial role: Bringing unique perspectives with them under the Gold Dome.

“Georgia is a big, fast, growing state, but up until about four years ago, most of its leaders lived in the same communities they were born in,” says Holmes, a West Virginia native who attended graduate school in New York City before moving to Atlanta. “It was amazing to me. It was kind of like they had never been anywhere except Georgia. It was only recently that you had people who moved here and had leadership positions. (The old leaders) were the Good Ol’ Boy network and they ran things from their perspective.”

Holmes is careful to point out that such a mindset was not partisan. In fact, he says, the Republican takeover of both house of the General Assembly and the Governor’s office did little to change it.

“The more things change, the more they say the same, regardless of party,” he says.

Examples of this, Holmes says, can be found in MARTA and Grady Hospital, both of which are viewed as regional facilities, yet funded entirely by taxpayers in Fulton and DeKalb counties.

“Go to the (MARTA) stations and look at the tags,” he says. “You see Forsyth, Cobb and Gwinnett (license plates). DeKalb and Fulton are paying millions of dollars to subsidize the suburbs.”

Not everything remains the same under Republican leadership as it was under years of Democratic rule though, Holmes says. Like Sinkfield, he laments the loss of influence that accompanied the power switch.

“Many of the senior Democrats, like myself, were kicked off of committees they had served on,” Holmes says. “They replaced us with freshman and sophomores because we knew a lot more. In Congress, if you lose your committee chairmanship, you become the ranking member of the committee, but (Georgia Republicans) decided to kick us off because of our institutional memory. I was chairman of Education (when Democrats controlled the General Assembly), but when the Republicans took over, I wasn’t even on Education!”

“My ability to accomplish things has been diminished,” he continues. “I really can’t do much because of the dynamics (of being in the minority).”

Holmes adds that even when he is able to reach consensus with legislators on the other side of the political spectrum, he sometimes gets the short end of the stick.

“One of my big frustrations is not getting credit for things I do,” he says.

But Holmes, a political science professor by trade, understands that is the nature of the business he has chosen. “That’s politics,” he says.

Even still, Holmes says his tenure in the General Assembly has been worth it.

“I stayed (in the legislature) because I felt like I could do some good in the position that I was in,” he says.

Sinkfield agrees, although she says she never imagined serving a quarter-century when she first sought office.

“I thought that if I lasted 10 years, I would have been here too long,” she says. “I never dreamed I’d last this long. It’s unbelievable. I don’t know where the time went. Time went by and I got immersed in issues.”

That’s why Sinkfield says she feels good when she looks back on her 25 years of service.

“If I have to look at (my career) all over, I’d say I did more good than not good,” she says. “At the end of the day, if I can say that, then maybe it was worth staying.”

A Mission to Serve

Halfway through his first legislative session, Georgia Representative Mike Glanton is still adjusting to the General Assembly’s hectic schedule.

“I read somewhere this was a part-time position,” he says. “That couldn’t be further from the truth. My experience so far on a daily basis has been non-stop and very demanding. If you are serious about serving and serious about being available to your constituency, it requires and demands long hours and many sacrifices. I have learned very quickly that every issue is important to someone.”

Because of that, Glanton, an Ellenwood Democrat who also represents Jonesboro, Morrow and Lake City, says he’s also learned to be a better listener in his short stint in elected office.

“Constituent input is important to me,” he says. “Whether (it is) my personal viewpoint or not, I owe every constituent my undivided attention and the respect of listening to their concerns. I owe them a prompt and honest response.”

Sometimes that’s easier said than done, though, he admits.

“Maintaining a balance for my time between ministry, family, friends, constituents, and advocates for various causes, session, committees, subcommittees, law and policy research, organizational events, invites and yes, the media is no small feat,” he says.

Being a freshman legislator, Glanton says he also knows he has to bid his time before his voice can be fully heard in the Capitol.

“Coming in, I understood that as a freshman legislator in my first session I would be limited in my roles and ability to introduce and pass meaningful legislation,” he says. “My approach is to do the very best I can with what I have under the circumstances and to hopefully draw the attention of the current leadership to my experiences, abilities, and talents. It is my hope that through my demonstrated humility, devotion, dedication and commitment that I will become a legislator with the reputation of being dependable and a person who gets things done regardless to the level of importance, political party or personal reward.”

Doing so will allow him to not only survive, but to excel in a General Assembly in which he is a member of both the minority party and race, Glanton says.

“Even in a white male dominated, Republican controlled General Assembly and administration, I believe my message of inclusion and diversity and mindset of “mission accomplishment” for all Georgians will transcend partisan politics,” he says. “I believe this approach will afford me in the future if desired, to serve at the highest levels of our state government as an accomplished and proud Black Democrat.”

Glanton is not alone in getting his legislative feet wet this year. The Georgia Legislative Black Caucus gained 11 new members on Election Day 2006. Among them was Robbin Shipp, a Democrat representing parts of DeKalb and Fulton counties. Shipp, an attorney by trade, said moving to the other side of the law was not as easy as it would seem.

“It’s challenging becoming acclimated to a new system and processes,” she says. “The biggest challenge is understanding the process of how to get legislation from being drafted to a committee and then what you have to do to have it heard in committee.”

Even casting votes is not with out peril, she adds.

“We don’t have enough lead time in knowing which bills are going to be introduced on the floor for our vote,” she laments. “We have an idea of what’s coming down the pike, but we don’t know if a bill is going to be up for vote until we get into (session) that day.”

Luckily for herself and other freshman lawmakers, Shipp says, help is readily available.
“The Legislative Black Caucus, the Democratic Caucus, the Women’s Caucus and the Atlanta-Fulton delegation do a great job of highlighting bills so that we can preview them and be knowledgeable prior to voting,” she says “It requires a great deal of communication with your colleagues.”

Shipp adds that she is also learning by watching those who have walked the hallway underneath the Gold Dome backwards and forwards.

“They all are so wise,” she says in reference to veteran Black legislators. “The primary thing they all have to say is ‘be mindful of being true to your beliefs.’”

The veteran Black legislators also remind her of the burden she picked up when she was sworn in, Shipp says, without saying a word.

“I believe in addition to the responsibility you have to the citizens of your district, there is an added responsibility to ensure that you conduct yourself in a way that the ancestors would be proud of. I’m certainly mindful of the fact that when this legislative body was enacted in 1776, my ancestors were enslaved. They could only dream of someday obtaining full citizenship in their forced migratory land. Even as you come forward in history and freedom occurs, my ancestors could only dream of having a direct descendant in elected office. They go without name, but they gave their lives for us to have this opportunity.”

And it is not a gift to be taken lightly, Shipp adds.

“I am the inheritor of their dreams and so I have the responsibility to conduct business in such a way that is always reflective of acting dignified, being truthful and being an advocate, so that those who are in their graves can look down and smile and say ‘good job, my child’.”

To earn those kudos, Shipp says she plans to follow a simple rule she was recently reminded of.
“We went to a women’s conference and they were selling these inspiration signs that said ‘if you have to think about whether something is wrong or not, it probably is’,” she says. “I have three degrees. Education is great, but you also have to stay true to that God given moral compass that all the education in the world can’t give you.”

With that in mind, Shipp says that before she faces voters again in 2008, she will do her best to follow the golden rules.

“I just want to help somebody and do good for the citizens of House district 58 and the state of Georgia,” she says. “If I’m able to do that, the rest of it will take care of itself.”

SEPARATE BUT UNEQUAL?

Are tax dollars for education fairly distributed between North and South Fulton County?

www.atlantatribune.com

by Keith Laing, Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine

March 2007

These days, it is hard to buy much with just a penny. However, the Fulton County school system says pennies are enough for them to buy 14 new schools and drastically improve 11 others.

School officials are promoting their third Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), dubbed “Pennies for Progress,” which it says will raise $1.4 billion by 2012. According to Fulton County School Board officials, the SPLOST money will be split between Fulton and Atlanta Public Schools, but first, the tax must receive a passing grade from Fulton County voters, who will get to weigh in on the proposal in a special election Mar. 20.

That means the schools must convince voters to continue to tax themselves, which Superintendent James Wilson acknowledges is a sometimes-dicey proposition. However, Wilson believes the system will get the benefit of the doubt because of the results of SPLOST I and II, passed in 1997 and 2002 respectively.

“We’re proud to have had previous SPLOST programs for students,” he says. “It allows us to maintain our schools and build new ones.”

Wilson says that in 10 years of collecting pennies on all purchases made within the county, 29 new schools have been built. He added that, in the next five years, 20,000 more students are expected to enter a school system that already has 600 trailers on its school grounds.

“Before we ever presented this program to the community, we had a responsibility to identify whether there was a need or not,” he says. “We’ve been about the business of doing that and have surveyed all our schools to determine what the needs are. This will allow us to properly house and educate our students as long as our facilities’ needs are there and growth continues.”

That notwithstanding, since its inception, the SPLOST program has at times displayed traits familiar to Atlanta politics: Divisions along geographic and racial lines. Since first being enacted, roughly a third of the projects completed have taken place in South Fulton County, home of several predominantly black schools. The majority of the work so far – 30 of the 47 projects – has taken place in North Fulton and Sandy Springs, home to most of the county’s predominantly White schools.

With statistics like that, it is easy to reach the conclusion that there have not been enough pennies for all of Fulton County’s residents, Wilson admits reluctantly. But that does not make it true, he says.

“I’m cognizant of that opinion,” he says. “Anytime you look at a five year program, during that time frame, you can have that perception. It’s a distribution based on need. We identify where the growth is and try to make sure we understand it. If subdivisions (are developed) in one area faster than another, you could easily get into a situation where one school has trailers and another doesn’t.”

“But what’s really important is that we completed the work on time and on budget,” he continues. “We do an inventory of all of our classrooms and make sure we’re replacing and upgrading equipment as a need rather than as a want. That should be more of the focus than whether or not one (school) got more than another.”

South Fulton PTA Council president Michael Pittman, who supports the SPLOST program, agrees with Wilson’s assessment.

“I’m a South Fulton resident,” he says. “I’ve been fighting for school improvements for awhile, but you have to build schools where the kids are. The (SPLOST) legislation doesn’t allow you to be proactive. You have to have at least 90 percent of (a school’s) enrollment before you build.”

That’s why this SPLOST will be different for South Fulton County, Pittman says.

“Now that we’re experience growth in South Fulton, that’s where the schools will be built.”

Current plans released by the county call for eight new South Fulton schools, compared with four new North Fulton buildings and two within the newly incorporated city of Sandy Springs. Additionally, three South Fulton schools will receive major additions, along with eight North Fulton facilities.

That’s the reason Pittman says he supports the Pennies for Progress program. He contends that it is the best mechanism for improving schools, he says.

“The SPLOST funding is for the entire county,” he says. “Right now, it’s the major vehicle that we have to increase funding for new schools and the expansion of existing schools. There’s a plan out there that says that every school is going to get something.”

Still, he cautions, approving the SPLOST will not be a cure-all.

“If growth keeps happening in South Fulton, we’ll be close to capacity by the time the schools are a built and we’ll have trailers,” he says. “People don’t understand how you can open a school and have trailers on day two, but it’s inevitable. They make assumptions that a school can be built in a day, but a middle school takes 12 months and high school takes 18. Imagine how many people can move to Fulton County in that time.”

Pittman adds that for residents concerned about the allocation of SPLOST resources, the time to ask questions is now – before its enacted – not when buildings are being constructed.

“If you want to say that (South Fulton) didn’t get what it deserved last time, part of that is a lack of involvement,” he says. “If you’re not involved, you can’t ask the tough questions and get the tough answers.”

But plenty of Fulton County residents were not involved in the debate proceeding SPLOST I and II. According to April Pye, interim director of the Fulton County Board of Registrations and Elections, only eight percent of the county 436,000 voters participated in the first SPLOST election. Even fewer – five percent – participated in the second, she says. She adds that she does not expect many more to cast ballots this time.

“My guess would be (that turnout will be) somewhere between there,” Pye says. “I’m estimating seven to 10 percent. It’s a question election. There are no candidates out campaigning, so sometimes people aren’t even aware there’s an election. Some people don’t take interest if they don’t see billboards and signs. You general find turnout is highest in presidential and governors races. For whatever reason, turnout is not high during special elections.”

Some might argue that is just what Fulton County is counting out, but that is another charge Superintendent Wilson refutes. He says the school system has no ulterior motive for holding the election in March instead of during the July primaries or the November general elections.

“If I understand it correctly, as soon as the legislation approved school districts moving on local option taxes, which was before I got here, the first available date was March,” he says. “Fulton and several other counties moved forward right away.”

South Fulton PTA president Pittman adds that this year, the vote’s timing could do more harm than good.

“Annexation and incorporation (of areas surrounding Fulton) has created so much distrust that this comes at the worst time when you’re asking people to do something long term,” he says. “The timing is not good with the possibility of the county reconfiguring itself. There’s a fair amount of debt the county has that people are not going to want to be left with, like Grady and MARTA specifically. We’ve been paying for those since their inception and all of Fulton has benefited.”

Another worry, Pittman says, its that voters who do not have children in the school system will not see the SPLOST’s merit. But even they would gain from its approval, he says.

“If you’re an elderly person and your kids are long gone, you should be concerned with quality of life,” he says. “Quality of life is associated with the quality of schools. You can’t (individually) not pay for new schools. You can’t tell the local jurisdiction ‘hey, I don’t have kids, don’t use my tax dollars.’ Everybody benefits.”

Given SPLOST’s past uneven distribution and Atlanta’s spotty track record of geographic and racial equality, time will tell if that’s true.

Mall Wars?

Area retailers jockey for black dollar

http://www.atlantatribune.com/id174.html

by Keith Laing, Atlanta Tribune: The Magazine

December 2006-January 2007

With the holiday shopping season – and the traditional commercial boon that accompanies it – fast approaching, six Atlanta area malls are working hard to distinguish themselves from nearby competitors and gain your hard earned dollar.

In DeKalb County, 35-year-old South DeKalb Mall – recently rechristened the Gallery at South DeKalb – sits a mere 10 miles from the sparkling new Mall at Stonecrest, which just celebrated its fifth anniversary. Even closer together are the venerable Greenbriar Mall and the three-year old Camp Creek Marketplace, separated by about a mile in South Fulton County. And in the heart of the city, tourists and commuters can choose between historic Underground Atlanta downtown and midtown’s new live, work and playpen Atlantic Station, which lie about four miles apart.

Being located in a black hub like Atlanta, each outlet’s bottom line depends heavily on African-American support. But how far can the black dollar stretch?

Tene Harris sees no limit. Harris, general manager of the Gallery at South DeKalb, says the arrival of the Mall at Stonecrest has had no ill effect on her mall’s performance.

“While competition is healthy, we don’t feel like we need to compete with any new outlet for the African American dollar,” she says. “There is certainly enough to go around. We see the arrival of new outlets as a testament of the progression of our community in that two major retail outlets can sustain so close in proximity. The Gallery at South DeKalb and any other competitor that enters the market will only present options for customers. DeKalb is a phenomenal county to be in business and we are happy to be a viable option to the African American community as well as the other ethnicities who grace us with their support.”

Harris adds that although they are sometimes serving the same community, there is enough room for the South DeKalb malls to be different.

“We have found that there are no two centers with identical retail mixes or shopping experiences,” she says. “The Gallery at South DeKalb is a combination of national chains with an infusion of local and regional retailers that brings community to our shopping experience. So whether its music playing at our exterior entrances or the variety of events we hold with our community partners – we don’t find ourselves competing with new outlets. We stay customer focused in our approach in providing value to this community.”

Donald Bieler, director of marketing at Stonecrest, agrees that his mall and the Gallery at South DeKalb are able to co-exist by being different. Whereas South DeKalb clientele are almost all black, Stonecrest takes advantage of its location along the DeKalb-Rockdale border and draws a more diverse crowd, he says.

“All guests are important to the success of Stonecrest,” he says. “We serve a very diverse market of over 970,000 people.”

Still, he says, 57 percent of Stonecrest shoppers are black. By comparison, Harris estimates as many as 97 percent of South DeKalb’s consumers are African-American. Each views the constituency as vital, and as such, each aggressively attempts to attract it.

At least 10 of Stonecrest’s 135 tenants are black-owned business, as are several of the 130 occupants of South DeKalb, which says it does not track lease agreements by ethnicity.

“(We market to black consumers) through exclusive events and entertainment promoted through targeted direct mail, print advertising, and radio and TV campaigns,” Bieler says.

He also touts the impact the mall has had had on the predominantly black surrounding community as a driving force in its appeal to black consumers. Stonecrest is just down the street from the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, one of the southeast’s largest black churches.

“The 1,100 acres of Stonecrest was worth $4,000,000 prior to our 2001 opening,” he says. “Today, the value exceeds $450,000,000 as reported by the Office of DeKalb Economic Development.”

Harris says the Gallery at South DeKalb is an anchor of the black community, too.

“Obviously all of our customers are important to us but our African-American customers are essential to our overall success,” Harris says. “Centrally located in the south east corridor of DeKalb County, where a large number of African Americans reside, we are positioned to support a strong African American base. We’ve been a popular destination in DeKalb for over 35 years – our success is attributed to the loyal support of black consumers.”

To keep it that way, Harris says, the Gallery at South DeKalb tries to keep itself in touch with the black community.

“We pay attention to the changing trends in regards to fashion, merchandise and services and make every effort to accommodate our customer’s variety of tastes and to meet their needs,” she says. “In addition, we host a plethora of events and support community partnerships that enhance the shopping experience of our customers.“

DeKalb Chamber of Commerce president Leonardo McClarty agrees that by so heavily emphasizing black consumers, the Gallery at South DeKalb has positioned itself to have success in spite of the growing popularity of the Mall at Stonecrest. McClarty says that both malls can continue to be viable for the foreseeable future.

“The two really haven’t affected each other,” he said. “I remember talking to previous mall management at South DeKalb, and they initially felt like once Stonecrest opened, they were going to get a much bigger hit than they ended up getting. I think they had slump the first month that Stonecrest opened, but after that, it was back to business as usual. That shows that there are enough people in the area that they can support two malls.”

McClarty adds that he did not think that tying itself so closely to urban appeal popular among young African-Americans would impact the Gallery at South DeKalb’s standing among other segments of the black community – or the community at large.

“I don’t think urban is bad,” he said. “It is what it is. It’s a matter of who you are catering to.”

He cautions, however, that to continue to have success, the Gallery at South DeKalb would have to continue to be flexible.

“The only thing that will be interesting will be if trends change from the standpoint of urban wear,” he said. “If all of a sudden its not hot, if the mall can’t change with whatever is the new, latest fashion to capitalize, that would be way it could be hurt (by the urban focus).”

McClarty also agrees that Stonecrest’s location is a strategic plus for attracting customers.

“When you look at Stonecrest, because they pull (shoppers) from DeKalb as well as Rockdale and Morgan County going toward Augusta, they have a slightly varied customer base,” he said.

The Stores Next Door

On the other end of town, Atlanta’s oldest mall has a new neighbor. Forty-year-old Greenbriar Mall has been joined in south Fulton County by the Camp Creek Marketplace, an outdoor strip mall that opened for business in 2003. Less than two miles separate the two shopping centers.

Despite Greenbriar’s long-standing presence, Elaine McLaney, vice-president of property management for the Retail Planning Corporation, which manages Camp Creek Marketplace, says it was a needed addition to the community.

“There’s a need for each of our particular tenants,” she says. “We saw a need and answered the call, so our stores are doing well. The community is supporting the Camp Creek Marketplace because it’s convenient for them. It saves them from having to go to malls or to downtown Atlanta. There’s everything you could think here: Food, hair salons, financial institutions and books. It’s just a one-stop shopping spree.”

Among those stores are Target, Lowe’s, Ross and BJ’s Wholesalers. Greenbriar counters with Macy’s, Burlington Coat Factory and AMC Magic Johnson Theatres. Both rely heavily on black consumers for success; McLaney says that a majority of Camp Creek’s customer base is black, as is Greenbriar’s, which is as high as 95 percent, according to its director of marketing Gwendolyn Motley.

Additionally, Motley says that 30 percent of Greenbriar’s 100 stores are black-owned, while McLaney says that 95 percent of Camp Creek’s 60 stores are minority-owned or operated.

With those facts in mind, both malls have gone to great lengths to make themselves a part of the community they serve.

“We jumped to the community and schools to participate in whatever promotions that they need or provide whatever help they need,” McLaney says. “We sponsor trips for students going to Selma, Ala and also promote local high school bands. We reach out to feed the hungry; we’ve always been sponsor for them and we help sponsor the city of East Point with Toys for Tots every year.”

“Greenbriar is a black mall,” adds Michael Weinberger, the mall’s general manager. “That is our market. It’s to our benefit to provide goods and services that are going to make them happy. We’re out there looking for kinds of tenants that are going to make African-American customers happy on a daily basis.”

Rick Carson, a development partner with Hendon Properties, which recently purchased Greenbriar Mall in a joint venture with the Toronto-based Dundee Realty Corporation, adds that the community – and the mall – also benefit from Camp Creek’s success.

“The Camp Creek Marketplace represents a first foray in the southwest Atlanta market by a number of retailers,” Carson says. “Many of them are putting their toe in water to see if it work out for them. It took awhile for that development to take hold, but many of those retailers are doing well, which them to say ‘if I can do well, may I should look at some other areas in the African-American community.’ As Camp Creek does well, it’s a further selling point of why Greenbriar makes sense.”

Carson adds that southwest Atlanta is ripe for the enough growth to would sustain both Greenbriar and Camp Creek for years to come.

“Our interest in Greenbriar from start is that we see this trade area experiencing a very nice influx of new residential development,” he says. “It only makes sense that those people have better places to shop. There’s a long way to go, but we’re excited about the possibilities.”

South Fulton Chamber of Commerce president Leslie Hamrick agrees that housing development patterns in southwest Atlanta are encouraging for both Greenbriar Mall and the Camp Creek Marketplace.

“In South Fulton, there’s been void of retail establishments, but with the surge of new housing and new wealth in south Fulton, there are new rules that are going to apply,” she says. “Greenbriar has been in south Fulton for awhile and Camp Creek is relatively new, but was done in accordance with new housing starts and that has helped. I think retail follows housing and when it’s done in a planned manner, it both creates a healthy retail hub as well as services needs of homes and business surrounding it.”

Hamrick says she sees that beginning to happen in southwest Atlanta.

“I think they are spaced far enough apart that they all should be able to not just survive, but be able to thrive,” she says. “By the time a lot of the (new stores) are up and running, there will be additional population to help support them.”

Downtown Change of Heart

Meanwhile, in the heart of Atlanta, two unconventional shopping outlets are vying for a place in the hearts of the city’s visitors and residents.

A historic landmark with roots in the antebellum south, Underground Atlanta first opened as entertainment and retail center in the 1960s and began existing its current form in 1989. Today, it sits less than five miles south of Atlantic Station, Atlanta’s newest destination, which recently celebrated its first anniversary.

But Underground Atlanta general manager William Ciccaglione says that Atlantic Station’s success is good for everyone in the city – his establishment included.

“The development of Atlantic Station is great addition to the city of Atlanta,” he said. “With all the residential units it brings to downtown, it means additional shoppers. Everybody feeds from each other. It’s an additional thing to go experience for people to have good time while they are in Atlanta. The more the merrier.”

He adds that the differences between Underground Atlanta and Atlantic Station are pronounced enough for them to simultaneously thrive.

“We’re really two different animals,” he says. “The audience we’re trying to reach are tourist and downtown workers, so the merchandise we have here is different for most part from what they have at Atlantic Station. They have a greater number of national retailers and they have actual department stores. We don’t have that here at Underground Atlanta. It wasn’t built to have that kind of retail. Underground Atlanta was built around an entertainment concept, so our shopping and dining will be somewhat different than Atlantic Station’s. Atlantic Station certainly has those elements, but it’s really a live, work and play deal.”

Atlantic Station’s director of marketing Brian Leary takes it a step further, saying that the two facilities play off each other.

“What we’re doing at Atlantic Station and what the folks are doing at Underground Atlanta are complimentary,” he says. “We’re all working to make Atlanta a better city. (It) is one of the great cities in the United States, so there’s enough for everyone. Underground Atlanta’s focus is on entertainment and late night activities, and that’s not what we want to be about. We’re not a 24-hour city; at most we’re an 18-hour city. We want people to go to bed at some point.”

Leary adds that Atlantic Station’s decision to build so close to Underground Atlanta was not a declaration of war.

“We’re no closer to Underground than we are to the heart of Buckhead,” he says. “We’re in midtown, the heart of everything.”

Location also affects the shopping centers’ clientele. Perhaps even more so than their counterparts to the east and south, Underground Atlanta and Atlantic Station aim to attract a wide variety of customers.

“We reach out to everybody,” Ciccaglione says. “The city of Atlanta is an international tourist destination, so we have a mix of all kinds of people that are here at Underground Atlanta. We’ve got Asian, Indian, African American, Caucasian and Latino customers. We market the property as being part of a great international city. All of customers are very, very important to us.”

The same is true of Atlantic Station, Leary says.

“The folks showing up here look like the folks all over Atlanta,” he says. “They’re black, they’re white, they’re Indian, they’re gay, and they’re straight. We’re really excited about that.”

So much so, he adds, that Atlantic Station does not seek demographic information on its 150,000 weekly visitors.

“We’re not interested in (keeping track of who’s coming),” Leary says. “We just think that if you create a place that’s open, folks will take ownership of it. Knock on wood, it’s working.”

Atlantic Station’s general manager Roma Williams agrees, saying that her facility’s crowds grow more diverse by the day.

“We have events that we do every year that crosses all categories,” she says. “Atlantic Station is a dynamic place to meet and greet Atlanta. Because of the way we’re designed, we create opportunities for people to come and gather, shop and dine, browse and bring their family members when they come into town for holidays.”

Leary says that ten percent of Atlantic Station’s 50 occupants are minority-owned businesses. By comparison, 15 percent of Underground Atlanta’s 120 tenants are black-owned companies, Ciccaglione says. He adds that at least half of Underground’s visitors are black.

Ciccaglione says that Underground’s black-owned companies play a large role in luring those African-American consumers to the mall.

“Our individual tenants have their own strategies to target African-Americans consumers,” he says.

He adds that Underground itself does try to attract black shoppers.

“We will go after and target family reunions, conferences and conventions,” he says. “We also (target black consumers) through events and entertainment on our property. We hold a Heritage Arts Festival and Vendor Market every year and when T.D. Jakes comes into town, we usually partner with him.”

Leary says Atlantic Station values its black customers, too.

“They’re hugely important,” he says. “Atlanta’s overall success owes a great deal to its thriving, dynamic black community and as Atlanta goes, Atlantic Station goes. We consider ourselves very fortunate to be apart of downtown that the black community has accepted as a place to shop, eat and have fun. Early on (in Atlantic Station’s development), the mayor communicated to us the value of creating an inclusive community. She said if you do it and do it right, it will be successful. We have followed her lead and placed great value in inclusion.”