Commentary

Back in November, voters overwhelmingly approved a sales tax increase to fund transit expansion in the City of Atlanta. MARTA just released its ideal expansion plans, which include bus rapid transit crisscrossing the city, late night and weekend bus service, and 21 miles of light rail. But there is a fatal flaw: the light rail infrastructure goes through one of the most congested part of town, the downtown path of the Atlanta Streetcar.

There’s little doubt that the Atlanta Streetcar, which finally started service a few weeks ago, will be a good thing for the city’s tourism business. But what about everyday use? Is the streetcar a practical option for people who live and work within walking distance of its 12 stops? People like me?

"There’s something deranged about watching the University of Georgia playing the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in football." An Atlantan UMass alum heads to Athens to watch the Minutemen get completely destroyed by the Bulldogs.

Kindergarten cut-off dates vary throughout the country. Georgia has long been part of a large pack of states with a September 1 cutoff, although a new bill may change that. Lawmakers have proposed moving the date up one month to August 1 for the 2016-2017 school year, and then to July 1 beginning in 2017-2018. In other parts of the country, the cut-off date is as early as June 1.

There are two certainties in a bar that allows smoking: 1) The drinks are cheap, and 2) The bar has history. Those are two precious commodities these days, especially in a city that, like many cities, is morphing into one giant luxury apartment building with a generic name.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Buckhead was ground zero for gossip, celebrity sightings, and the city’s social scene. And when you were responsible for banging out 30 inches of Atlanta’s bold-faced names for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s popular "Peach Buzz" column, you scoured for scoop 24/7.

For no reason other than Terry Kay is a writer of novels, I sometimes imagine there is a small corner of heaven reserved for my dearest friend of 60 years. To banish him to everlasting hell would represent a clear case of literary redundancy. How else would I describe his state of mind in 1989 when he typed the words, “He understood what they were thinking and saying: Old man that he is, what’s to become of him?”

Rage is uncontrolled lashing out at a perceived injustice. The mob in Atlanta acted out of grievances fueled by false claims from politicians and media. So did the mob in Washington D.C.

Sara Totonchi and Marissa McCall Dodson of the nonprofit law firm Southern Center for Human Rights on how the next governor of Georgia must continue Governor Nathan Deal's mission of criminal justice reform.

Once upon a time, my job description was “attack the train, terrorize the passengers, chase the pretty showgirls, fight the armed conductors, get killed.” As an Indian in a Wild West show with the Stone Mountain Scenic Railroad, I carried out these duties faithfully, with occasional embellishment, for two consecutive summers in the late 1970s.