A.M. ATL: Home offices

Morning, y’all! It’s leaf peeping season. That sounds a bit risqué, doesn’t it? Well, if the shoe fits … after all, we only see those beautiful fall colors when leaves shed their green-tinted chlorophyll, revealing what they truly look like underneath.

Let’s get to it.

A VERY BUSY POLITICAL WEEKEND

Georgians showed up en masse to various political dos this weekend, getting into the civic spirit two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms.

Takeaways from the Trump visit

• President Donald Trump visited Dalton last Friday to campaign for Georgia GOP election hopefuls Rick Jackson and U.S. Rep. Mike Collins.
• Collins was all effusive praise for Trump, but the interplay between the president and Jackson was more nuanced. (Remember, Jackson has appeared to take some strategic distance from Trump recently, aligning himself more closely with Gov. Brian Kemp.)
• Jackson kept his praise of Trump aligned with his message: “There’s never been a president who has done more for foster children that are abused and neglected than this man right here,” he said.

Trump, meanwhile, seemed to have a mental narrative of his own for Jackson’s future career:

“I think Rick would take Venezuela, right? He’s a very good businessman. I think he’s going to take Venezuela,” Trump said at one point.

🔎 READ MORE: More reflections on Georgia races from Trump’s visit

Dems in Cobb County

Keisha Lance Bottoms and Jon Ossoff held a joint rally in Cobb County on Saturday, boosting Democratic candidates down the ballot and casting their Georgia GOP opponents as political facsimiles of Trump.

“(Trump) has told us that he wants us to imagine that he is on the ballot,” Bottoms said. “Well Georgia, we heard him loud and clear.”

🔎 READ MORE: Ossoff promises ‘rebuke’ of Trump in November

No Kings protests in Atlanta

“No Kings” rallies filled sidewalks and meeting places Saturday in Atlanta, with thousands more across the state and nation.

• The point of the rallies, organizers said, was to urge people to the polls. They recommended voters, especially Black voters, cast their ballots early to avoid any complications or anti-voter aggression on Election Day.
• “Our early vote is an act of resistance,” said Cliff Albright, co-founder and executive director of Black Voters Matter Fund.

🔎 READ MORE: Messages from other ‘No Kings’ speakers

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A FIX FOR ALL THAT OFFICE SPACE

Atlanta has a glut of empty office space, and an increasingly popular solution lies in converting properties into residential space.

So far, Atlanta companies have had mixed results.

• 2 Peachtree St. NW: Invest Atlanta is overseeing an effort to turn the building into 625 housing units.
• 133 Peachtree St.: Georgia Pacific recently abandoned its plans to convert much of its office tower to apartments, shops and entertainment spaces.
• CNN Center: Recently revamped as “The CTR,” the building’s owner is contemplating whether to convert some of its empty offices at 190 Marietta St. NW into apartments and hotels.

It’s not just office spaces:

• A glass building in Chamblee that used to belong to the Georgia Department of Revenue will be imploded in a few days after early considerations to turn it into residences fizzled out.
• The former Presidential Hotel near I-285 in DeKalb County has been long considered an eyesore. Now that eyesore may be turned into cool apartments.

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

🚧 Still have questions about those planned toll roads on I-285 that will take 16 years to finish? We have answers.

🗳️ Down-ballot drama: Several critical County Commission races in Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett are getting heated leading up to Election Day.

🏛️ U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair Paul Atkins visited with top Atlanta execs at the Metro Atlanta Chamber. Atkins wants to “simplify and streamline the regulatory structure,” which could include fewer disclosures from large companies or, under one proposal, make quarterly financial reporting optional.

THE SAVANNAH BANANAS GO GLOBAL

Georgia’s own Savannah Bananas have ushered in a baseball renaissance, sweeping the country with their singing, dancing, home run-hitting shenanigans.

Now, they’ve got their eyes set on world domination.

The six-team Banana Ball Championship League, headed by the Savannah Bananas, will play exhibitions in the Mexican cities of Monterrey and Tijuana and the Canadian cities of Winnipeg and Toronto next year.

More deets from their new season announcements:

• The BBCL drew 3.2 million spectators at Savannah’s Grayson Stadium and dozens of other venues across the U.S. this past season.
• The league will play a total of 195 games in 2027, including 30 in Savannah, and games at 23 of the 30 MLB parks, including two June games at Truist Park.
• The Bananas will play an exhibition during halftime at the College Football Playoff National Championship in January.
• A Disney documentary is in the works, working title: “Banana Ball.”

🍌 READ MORE: A Bananas cruise and much more on the 2027 schedule

NEWS BITES

It was an extremely forgettable football weekend with UGA, Falcons, Tech, GA State losses

Thank you, Georgia Southern, for winning your game last Thursday.

Also a forgettable basketball weekend, as the Dream drop Game 1 of WNBA Finals

Game 2 is tonight in San Francisco.

Lionel Messi was very Messi-like in masterful Miami win over Atlanta United

(Forgettable soccer, too.)

Dispatches from a pickle truck fire that snarled DeKalb traffic last week

I bet that smelled atrocious.

ON THIS DATE

Oct. 16, 1926

Art association banquet to mark museum opening and honor Mrs. J.M. High. About 350 leading Atlanta citizens will attend a banquet to be given Saturday evening at 7:30 o’clock, at the Biltmore hotel, by the Atlanta Art Association. The occasion is of twofold significance, since it marks not only the opening of the third annual exhibition brought to the city by the Grand Central Art Galleries … but is also in honor of Mrs. James Madison High, who presented her former home, at 1932 Peachtree Street, to the association and to Atlanta to be used as a museum.