I hear it everywhere, “Metro Birmingham’s doing fine; it’s the City of Birmingham that has problems. Life is great in the suburbs; if the City implodes, that’s not my problem.”
If we’re all doing so great, how do you explain that the Milken Institute just named metro Birmingham one of the worst performing large cities in America?
Metro Birmingham is ranked 197th out of the 200 based on job growth, wage growth and high-tech gross domestic product growth, among other factors.
Let me emphasize…they are talking about metro Birmingham–not the City of Birmingham.
It’s a free for all in Metro Birmingham–37 municipalities in Jefferson County; people fleeing to outlying counties; and the State Legislature holding us in a choke hold. Everyone’s out for themselves and no one is looking out for our broader community.
We’re competing (or not competing) with Southern cities with unified agendas and they’re killing us. Compare for yourself…
- 2 Austin
- 3 Raleigh
- 9 Charleston
- 21 Durham
- 24 Lafayette, La
- 25 Knoxville
- 27 Nashville
- 35 Charlotte
- 37 Columbus, Ga.
- 61 Huntsville
- 64 Shreveport
- 78 Baton Rouge
- 80 Chattanooga
- 197 Birmingham
Meanwhile our children and grandchildren continue to move away as big public firms abandon us costing us money and jobs.
Life in Mt. Brook and Trussville may be great, but until we understand that we’re all in this together, we will remain stagnant and our future and the future of our children will slip away.
Let’s begin a discussion on how we might improve our government structure.
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David Sher is a partner in Buzz12 Marketing and co-CEO of AmSher Receivables Management. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (ONB), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).
*
I mean are we the same person?
I preach about this
all the time. Maybe it’s because I am not originally from here that I see it,
but guess what? Without Birmingham, there is no Mt. Brooke, Hoover, Trussville,
there is nothing. While the Metro may be growing, mind you at a pathetic 1.2% (
a far cry from the other major metros in the south), Birmingham is shrinking
and without the jobs in Birmingham there is no income to sustain the “Fine
Life” in the suburbs.
I love Birmingham, and it kills me how so many people can be
so blind. I just hope we can get some
people in office before it is too late.
I feel like we are taking some steps in the right direction with the properties
popping up around Railroad Park and the revival of the area around Lyric
Theatre. I just hope that little bit of
growth will jump start the growth Birmingham needs to once again become
competitive.
Blake, all we need is a few more people like you and we will be on our way.
*While fleeing Birmingham going north as fast as possible after living there my entire life, my heart began to slow and peace began to set in when I crossed the AL/TN line. As I moved north up around Franklin, TN the clouds were gone and blue sky abounded. We had escaped from the darkness…never to return. That’s what Birmigham and it’s ‘burbs had become; darkness. No real way to put your finger on it because it’s just a feeling…a premonition of the death of a city and it’s hopelessly imprisoned and abandoned citizens. I wish you luck people of Birmingham. My advice is to pack up the wife and kids and head north…soon.
Steve, don’t give up on us yet. A younger, more enlightened generation is on the way. One day you will look longingly towards Birmingham.
*I hope more people feel like Blake and less like Steve Guthrie.
We all need to work together to help Birmingham become competitive with our neighboring cities.
*Scott, if enough people are convinced that government structure is the problem and make a concerted effort to do some repair work, we will begin our comeback.
Time to move to Detroit and turn off the lights in B’Ham? “Birmingham-Hoover MSA plummeted 15 spots to 197 from the 2011 Milken
Survey. To put this in perspective, the Birmingham-Hoover MSA is now
underperforming the Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn MSA which is ranked 190”.
*”If we’re all doing so great, how do you explain that the Milken Institute just named metro Birmingham one of the worst performing large cities in America?”
Simple.
Demographics. See also Detroit, Mongomery etc.
It’s high time some of us admitted that our family, friends & leaders in those old black & white film reels protesting forced integration, busing & the hell it would bring (successfully) were right.
Stop ignoring the 800lb gorilla in the room.