By David Sher
You probably won’t appreciate what I’m going to say unless you lived in Birmingham before 2010.
Prior to 2010, Birmingham had literally given up.
Nothing seemed to work and we were wrapped in a never-ending downward spiral.
Then POOF—Railroad Park.
In 2010, after 25 years of agonizing paralysis and false starts, Rail Road Park opened in downtown Birmingham.
Now instead of four squalid, tumble-weedy, empty blocks downtown, we now have Railroad Park, Regions Field, the Rotary Trail, Red Mountain Theatre, and blocks and blocks of apartments, bars, and restaurants.
Railroad Park was a crazy idea and a huge risk.
Many people thought an urban park was foolish and would never happen.
Some folks warned it would be dangerous—“Who in their right mind would bring their kids to an urban park?”
Others thought it was preposterous to build a lake in the middle of downtown.
Then there were the contentious, never-ending negotiations with the railroads.
Nope, this was an unrealistic, unworkable project.
Well, surprise! Surprise!
Railroad Park grabbed us by the neck, woke us up, and thrust us into uncharted waters.
Railroad Park proved that with courageous leadership willing to take a calculated risk, we could take a giant leap forward.
Time for Birmingham next big idea–only bigger
Railroad Park is 15 years old.
It’s time for our next life-changing event.
I strongly feel our next seminal attraction should be a major tourist attraction, but one that can also serve our community.
We’re not likely to attract a theme park the scale of Six Flags or build an aquarium able to compete with the $250 million Georgia Aquarium.
We must find a one-of-a-kind attraction unique to Birmingham that no other city can replicate.
One possibility is Bryson Stephens’ idea to build a lighted pedestrian trail along the Red Mountain Cut.
Another gangbuster attraction could be a gondola ride down the mountain from Vulcan.
How about a unique state-of-the-art Civil Rights attraction that could draw visitors from around the world? Tourists are flocking to Montgomery for their Civil Rights attractions. The combination of the existing Birmingham and Montgomery sites would be a powerful draw.
Birmingham-Hoover is the 47th most populated metropolitan area in the U.S, and yet, we we’re one of only a few major metros that doesn’t have a major sport franchise. Major sports would give us a huge boost and increase our visibility.
Some folks are opposed to spending money on any kind of tourist attraction
When ComebackTown published a follow up column promoting the Red Mountain Cut, I was shocked that some people thought it a waste of money to spend money on a tourist attraction at the expense of what they see as Birmingham’s shortcomings.
Commenters wrote, “Cities should not spend for tourists. Invest in improving life for residents.”
“Another shiny thing that Birmingham can’t afford.”
“We need to make our schools better, cut crime, and expand public transportation.”
But if we wait to invest in those things that make Birmingham attractive and livable until we solve all our problems, we will not want to live here and surely no one will want to visit.
Tourists pay taxes
In the ComebackTown column, What we give up by living in Alabama, ask Nick Saban, I griped that we in Alabama are required to pay state income taxes and sales taxes on groceries while Florida residents are exempt.
Commenters responded that Florida has a huge tourist industry and people from out-of-state pay a lot of taxes, thus cutting taxes for local residents.
“You can only tax your own people to a certain degree, but showing off your best assets to drive revenue from visitors is a great supplement and residents win too, with new recreation, education, entertainment or natural spaces.”
“Civic investment aimed at tourist dollars is a great way to amplify local tax dollars to further benefit local residents.”
To quote Larry Page, former CEO of Google, “Good ideas are always crazy until they’re not.”
What big idea do you have?
David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).
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Invite David to speak for free to your group about how we can have a more prosperous metro Birmingham. dsher@comebacktown.com
We need a big mixed use development downtown. Go all out. We need something that is going to be a shopping destination for the downtown core. When you go to Huntsville(our main competitor now in my eyes) or Louisville(maybe our main competitor?)and see the mixed use developments that are spring up there with a focus on retail and entertainment.
We need our own 4th street live area in the downtown core but with an actual shopping Destination. Something with a mixture of attributes like stovehouse in Huntsville and 4th street live in Louisville with a vertical rooftop park like at Ponce City market. Heck even something like Atlantic station would be absolutely a game changer for a city like Birmingham.
Birmingham is woefully inadequate when it comes to retail. The summit is it and honestly I don’t even know if I consider that to really be Birmingham proper considering how weird the city limits of the city are. Regardless downtown is the fastest growing region in Birmingham and will soon be at 20k population. They deserve to have a retail destination that not only draws in the locals who won’t have to go to Hoover or over the mountain to do any worthwhile shopping,but can even draw in OTM shoppers into the downtown.
Something like that would almost certainly be a driving force for more development on the downtown as well.
Honestly the redevelopment at Southtown SHOULD have been what I’m describing. The prime real estate and location will be absolutely wasted on what they are building there now.
IKEA at Powell Avenue Steam Plant?
IKEA’s number one requirement is to build stores in metro areas with an over 2 million population. I doubt Birmingham’s metro will ever get to even 1.5 million.
Plus downtown Birmingham isn’t a very attractive (or safe) place for IKEA shoppers.
Joseph, please expound for me on how dangerous downtown Birmingham really is? I mean I only grew up in Birmingham. I also dine in, patronize downtown businesses, entertain(Uptown, Alabama Theatre, City Walk, Railroad Park), and support UAB football(season ticket holders) whenever possible. Not to mention for almost the last 15 years, has ran downtown(literally running), through town and all over the various Birmingham neighborhoods at all hours of the mornings, preparing to go do this exact same thing at other city centers all over the country in foot races. Someway or the other, I must have missed all of this violence you speak about and I am terrified that no one has exposed it. So please help us all out by telling me where it is, to make Birmingham a safer place, will you?
Did you miss the recent 5 Points shooting incident?
Elizabeth, there were close to 2 mass shooting a day in America last year. It seems no part of the country is immune. The last mass shooting in the Birmingham area prior to Five Points was in Vestavia. Birmingham has a homicide problem, but appears to be working on it.
Birmingham’s 2024’s homicide rate per 100,000 residents was 80.9. It averaged 13.25 homicides per month, or one every 2.3 days. Three mass shootings with 4 or more victims occurred in 2024. There were 149 homicides in the city of Birmingham. The U.S. Department of Justice crime statistics lists Birmingham as one of the 10 most dangerous cities in the nation.
Crime…violet crime is a problem in Birmingham. It isn’t just poor neighborhoods or public housing projects but even the city’s most prominet entertainment district is not immune.
Elizabeth, No I didn’t miss the shooting. I feel for everyone who was involved in the tragic event. Prayers for the victims and their families, truly. Like David Sher said, mass shootings are a problem in America right now. The kind of weapons and the amount of weapons that are on the street in the hands of violent criminals and people who should not be allowed to have them right now is certainly having devastating consequences. That’s another argument for another time but all I can say is we must be vigilant and aware in everything we do. So I will continue to patronize and support cities across America because I don’t live in fear and I don’t give in to stereotypes. Statistics show that overall crime in the city center is lower than in most suburbs and all I’m saying is I can attest to that. I have been back to 5 points several times, since the mass shooting. I have been to the Galleria several times since their tragic incidents over the years. I have been to several places like Vegas, Nashville, and Orlando since they have had mass shootings and tragedies over the years. Because I know that we have to be vigilant, aware, and live our lives and enjoy living it. That’s all I’m saying, treat Birmingham with the respect we give all the other cities, that we still frequent and spend our hard earned money in, because violence is not unique to Birmingham proper.
I like the gondola idea. Used to live on Red Mountain at 18th Avenue South.
The gondola and Red mountain cut just seem like something that should happen anyway and not a major undertaking. No big deal kind of thing that should have happened decades ago.
Birmingham deserves something absolutely amazing as a showcase
I do love the gondola idea, paired with the redo planned along 20th Street to make it a truly wonderful, walkable promenade from Vulcan Park down to Five Points with that killer view.
Please remember that we had a visionary,
Giles Perkins whose “courageous leadership” championed Railroad Park and shepherded it into fruition. Giles is no longer with us but his memory should be an inspiration to remind us what one man can do to change Birmingham.
Let’s not use headlines like this, David. It’s so MAGA sounding, and that’s a turn off from the get-go.
I emailed David with this suggested Next Big Idea. He graciously accepts comments from this Nashville resident.
For the “Next Big Thing” I’d like to reiterate what I said in my comment on Tom Luckie’s guest column: Do everything possible to bring back Birmingham-Southern or at least its campus. Preferably as a liberal arts college or remote campus of a larger university.
Barring that, turn it into an educational attraction (call it a tourist attraction if you wish). The model might be the venerable Chautauqua Institution for lifelong learning in Upstate New York, founded in 1874. I’m unaware of anything similar in the South, though colleges and universities sometimes fill that role for their communities. http://www.chq.org/
I think a great idea will need to bring something totally new to the table and mesh with something Birmingham already does well.
Up untill the early 1990’s Charleston SC was not known for great food and fine dining. Johnson & Wales came in 1984 and opened a culinary school. By the 90’s those students had expereince and began opening their own restuarants with new flavors and emphasis on fresh local ingredients. For the last 20 or so years Birmingham has grown into a bit of a foodie haven with a similar story of having a culinary school come to town and then new ideas began to flourish.
Birmingham could benefit from a designated entertainment district. I know that the city sprawl dosent much allow for signle contigous districts but one could be carved from existing areas. Think of something similar to San Antonio’s River Walk with al fresco dining, bars, hotels, and entertainment at every gondola stop or bridge crossing. The entertainment district would NOT have to be a single contigous area either. What if we had 3, 4, or 5 different entertainment districts that were connected by a sky gondola, terrestial cable car, or water gondals. Imagine entertainment districts carved out of the BJCC/Aphitheater, 4th Ave N., 2nd Ave N., Rotary trail, and 5 Points. This could be the ultimate Progressive Dinner/Bar Hopping locale.
My other idea is something that has recently been done. We have a tremendous amount of natural resources in our area. Red Mountain Park, Ruffner Mountain Park, and Oak Mnt. State Park are great parks for hiking and have a large footprint in the metro area. Birmingham and the area should promote these parks more by hosting large scale events and competitions. Whether it is the World Games or Fire fighter Games these parks can be utilized for their outdoor natural habitats.
Lots of young people want to live in places where they can find good paying jobs, great education, are safe, and they can they access to free/affordable events and outdoor activities.
I am shocked at lack of recycling. I tried individually! Others tell me they tried in their municipalities, but they have given up because recycling isn’t happening when trash and garbage are picked up. I believed my municipality recycled until the waste management truck driver told me all loads go to the landfill!! Think about it, recycling here is not done as it is in Japan. Only 1 & 2 plastics are recycled all over the country. Government mandated printing 1-5 on the bottom but no one does anything about it…
What if Jefferson Co. joined together to find new ways of waste management? Sure initial cost would be huge to recycle in a magnanimous, enormous way to find recycling solutions! Does Singapore burn waste because it has better air scrubbers than any where on earth? Who does? How? Might we be emulated if we found solutions for recycling? Schools teach recycling, but who really does it? Organizations and governments don’t. It’s one area we could unify speech and action in the USA.
I want our area to be noteworthy in service integrity. Could we lead in truthfulness to benefit all citizens giving promise for the future generations?