Today’s guest columnist are Scott Downs & Linda Verin:
Linda Verin, Birmingham resident:
In the late ‘80s, after developing a very successful business in Oklahoma City and surrounding areas for nearly 15 years, we felt forced to move due to the depressed economy in the southwest from the oil bust.
We chose Birmingham.
Look at Oklahoma City now.
Oklahoma City is a big time success; Birmingham, not so much.
Both cities had similar opportunities, but OKC took a chance on a solid plan and Birmingham was offered a flawed proposal.
Since I’ve been away from OKC for so long, I asked my good friend, Scott Downs, who still lives there what happened.
Scott Downs, OKC Resident & booster:
Oklahoma City is one of the 20 fastest-growing cities in the U. S.
It wasn’t always that way.
Thanks to the ’73-74 oil embargo crisis Oklahoma experienced an oil boom like no other. Money flowed, jobs were created, loans that shouldn’t have been approved were. Bankers drank champagne out of cowboy boots in expensive clubs while signing off on unsecured oil well loans.
Unfortunately all good things come to an end.
While high oil prices were good for the local economy, high prices triggered conservation which led to an oil glut. Prices dropped, shady bank loans defaulted, banks failed. When the local economy suffers, everyone suffers. OKC suffered through the ‘80s with nothing to fall back on.
In 1991, OKC bid on a United Airlines Maintenance Facility that would have created 7,500 jobs. It was a disappointing, embarrassing loss. We had nothing to brag about.
We lost out on a microchip manufacturing plant, a Corning plant and others. The United Airlines loss was a huge wake-up call.
In 1985 my office was in OKC’s warehouse district – dusty brick streets, dilapidated abandoned buildings, and an abundance of crime. For lunch it was a 5 mile round trip to a greasy spoon inside a motel for a sandwich and chips.
Today that dusty warehouse area is called Bricktown, a thriving entertainment district with more than five million visitors a year!
Let’s conservatively say each visitor spends $10. That’s fifty million dollars annually in a former run-down area! My parking spot is now a beautifully landscaped canal.
Tourists pay $15 for a 45-minute canal ride while learning the history of OKC. Riverboats are available with tours offering more views. (The OK River had been dry as a bone and mowed 3x a year by the city).
Now the Oklahoma River plus adjacent River Sports facility are full of water. US Olympic athletes are training for rowing, canoeing, kayaking. Two events for the 2028 L. A. Summer Olympics will be held in OKC!
My 1985 office is now a private party area in Coyote Ugly Saloon. There are more than two dozen wonderful places to dine within walking distance.
Across the street is the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The OKC Comets, the AAA Affiliate of the L. A. Dodgers, host 75 home games a year.
Down the street is The Paycom Center where the OKC Thunder play 42 regular season home games.
Across the street is our newest, finest hotel, the Omni, one of dozens constructed to meet demand for visitors. Connected to the Omni is a new Convention Center.
Across the street is our new Scissortail Park.
All public projects paid in full before they’re built which made private investments flourish – more restaurants, theaters, entertainment centers.
How did all this happen in a few decades?
Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS)
A one penny sales tax that funds exciting, tourism-driven projects like Bricktown Water Canal, a baseball park, an NBA arena plus transportation improvements like street cars and river boats.
OKC enhanced its infrastructure to attract tourism and also made significant improvements for residents by developing parks, pools, YMCAs, libraries, bike lanes, hiking trails, and much more.
Since the initial MAPs project won approval in 1993, three more MAPs extensions have been passed.
Taxes didn’t increase. They’ve simply extended the one penny sales tax for more exciting projects. Sure—we pay 1¢ sales tax but so do all the visitors MAPs projects attract!
Hard to believe one penny can do all that?
I was skeptical too.
I was wrong.
People do come to OKC on vacation, more every year! They also come to see baseball, softball and NBA basketball.
Hollywood films movies here.
People move here for the job market and the low cost of living – then stay because we have so much more to offer.
Young people stay after graduation instead of bolting for Dallas or Houston. I’m proud of this city! I remember where we were in 1985; in 2025 the future of OKC has never looked brighter!
Linda Verin:
I follow Oklahoma sports.
I learned college football isn’t a sport, it’s “a bloody religion.” When OKC got the Thunder I was shocked. Someone I knew had “stolen” the team from Seattle. I didn’t think they would really take off. It’s a crazy college football state like Alabama. But the Thunder have an average attendance of 17,450, almost capacity!
Birmingham turned down the MAPS project in 1998.
From Bham Wiki: The name and structure of MAPS was similar to a 1993 proposal approved by 55% of voters in Oklahoma City. MAPS benefitted from being fully paid without borrowing.
Voters in the Birmingham metro defeated the proposal 57% to 43%.
Turnout was the largest since the 1992 presidential election. 96,490 voters, mostly in communities surrounding Birmingham, opposed it; 71,495 voters mostly inside Birmingham supported it.
OKC since MAPS: Now their downtown has completely transformed into a thriving, fun place, they have a major league sports team and because they legalized gambling the state has over 100 casinos. Truly, I never thought any one of these things could happen there.
Of course, Birmingham has made many strides since the defeat of MAPS – new stadium, City Walk, lots of restaurants and condos, Woodlawn – but still not the success MAPS provided OKC.
Maybe it’s time for Birmingham to consider a new MAP’s initiative closer to the OKC model.
Linda Verin was a prior owner of electronics stores Soundtrak and Long’s Electronics. Now owner of ad agency Ads That Work, creator of Call Goldberg jingle, does PR for nonprofits + radio/tv/print/speeches/websites for political campaigns.
Scott Downs was born and raised in Oklahoma and has lived there all but 10 years when he was in Atlanta. He was a JVC representative calling on Linda. He has also worked for the OKC Comets baseball team, OKC Thunder, the census bureau and in movies.
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
Thanks for writing this Linda. It is history–that is 35 years in the rear-view mirror. Yes, MAPS was defeated. However, many of the MAPS initiatives have come to fruition in recent years and have exceeded expectations. Anyone who spends time in the City Center today–whether for work, dining out, recreation, attending sporting events, theater, concerts or otherwise–knows that BHM has so much to offer. I am not a Pollyanna! I believe that an honest taking of inventory today should convince you and other Sooners that the quality of life in Birmingham is something that we can all take pride in. I know I do. And, every day presents a new opportunity to those willing to engage. Just sayin’…
I agree with you. Could Birmingham do more? Of course. But what they’ve done is pretty terrific. The column started out as an answer to a previous one about us not having a major league sports team and with the Oklahoma Thunder in the NBA championship it seemed timely.
I will never forget Alice Durkee and Jimmy Blake claiming they had a “RAPS” proposal claiming to do everything MAPS did without the tax increase. Even in 1998, we all knew they were lying through their teeth.
Of course if that domed stadium had been built, it would be woefully outdated today, similar to the former RCA Dome in Indianapolis or the Edward Jones Dome in St Louis. However, I believe that was Birmingham’s last true shot at luring a major league sports team.
I had the same reaction to the description of Oklahoma as more Shen did. It’s easy to say BIRMINGHAM is far behind. I take nothing away from OKC’s success, but I’m guessing that Oklahoma had some glitches along the way. It seems to me that what BIRMINGHAM lacks is a consistent “pro – BIRMINGHAM” metropolitan voice. Whether it’s the Legislature, the County Commission or forward thinking from surrounding communities, everything is a zero-sum game. There is the view that if BIRMINGHAM get something, the others lose something. When we do come together, good things happen.
Sorry, I meant to say Maury Shein (not more Shen)!
Tryin’ to compare Birmingham to Oklahoma City is like tellin’ a mule it oughta run the Kentucky Derby just ’cause it’s got four legs. It sounds pretty, but it don’t make a lick of sense. Oklahoma City’s got their house in order—they’re one big city pullin’ in the same direction, like a well-yoked team. Birmingham? Lord help us, we’re more divided than a Baptist potluck after a sermon on tithing. You got Hoover doin’ its thing, Trussville doin’ another, and the rest hollerin’ from the sidelines. We can’t even agree on where to put a Chick-fil-A, much less trust each other with a pile of tax money.
Now they’ll tell you, “Oh, all we need’s a penny tax—look what OKC did!” But folks around here remember what happened the last time the city said “trust us.” Half the money vanished and the other half got stuck in a ditch. You can’t build a house on quicksand, and you sure can’t build trust on broken promises. OKC had oil, casinos, and the guts to chase a vision. We got potholes, politics, and folks who don’t trust City Hall any farther than they can throw it.
It ain’t that we don’t want better—we do. But you can’t slap a shiny name like MAPS on a busted wagon and expect revival. Jesus said a house divided can’t stand, and brother, this house ain’t even talkin’ to itself half the time. If Birmingham wants a future like OKC, we gotta clean up our mess first, get honest, and maybe spend more time prayin’ for wisdom than plannin’ ribbon cuttings. Til then, we’re just spittin’ in the wind.
I was in Oklahoma City for the first time last weekend. I didn’t really know what to expect, and I was blown away. The central downtown area is clean, well paved (sidewalks and streets), landscaped, and beautiful. When I heard about the success of MAPS there, I became envious. They have many great civic buildings due to MAPS — with no public debt. This has also resulted in a better quality of life for its citizens, businesses are relocating there, and tourism is flourishing. In addition, they will be hosting two summer Olympic events. All this through a one-cent tax that passed overwhelmingly when voted upon. Birmingham has had some real successes to be sure, some with community involvment and some with a small group who have the vision and courage to act. Yet, we lack the overall vision, commitment and community engagement that has reinvigorated OKC. And despite our successes, much is lacking — a city public school system that is underachieving in many places and an inability to, for instance, repair the 21st Street bridge because we lack the money. It sure seems we spend a lot of time around here saying, “What if . . . . ?” Birmingham is a great place to live and raise a family, yet we can’t seem to find a unified vision that will both enhance our quality of life and create excitement among our citizens. I wonder where we’ll be 15 years from now? We can either plan wisely for the future now or just “hope for the best.”
We’ve driven through OKC on route to Albuquerque and visited the deeply moving National Memorial at the site of the Murrah Federal Courthouse. Yet I know little about the city’s economy and character, much less its MAPS experience. I would suggest that before comparing OKC and Birmingham, I would want to investigate OKC’s history a bit deeper. What was the city’s and state’s experience with the Civil War and Reconstruction? How about slavery and Jim Crow? The Civil Rights Movement? I can guess a little about Indian Removal and the Great Depression in Oklahoma. But to limit my understanding to only the events and economic swings in Oklahoma since the 1970s would seem inadequate—especially in trying to compare it to Birmingham’s and Alabama’s history. Those comparative histories surely have something to say about the relative successes and failures of the two cities, including the relative willingness of their citizens to adopt MAPS.
Jeez! How many times have we heard Birmingham doesn’t live to xyz city especially Atlanta.
I’ve lived in Atlanta and don’t want to be anything like it.
Who in Birmingham knows a thing about OKC?
The Indians left here in 1834 and died by the 1000s on the way to a harsh climate in Ok. and far short of the lush greenery and biodiversity of Al.
Good for them they discovered oil.
Birmingham has to improve itself and until then will be surrounded by cities who want no part of Birmingham.
Bring back a SAFE downtown with nice stores and restaurants like 1970.
It’s not safe to be in Downtown after dark.
This is a fact that cannot be hidden under a bush.
I’ve seen senseless shootings at 5 points South with my own eyes. It’s real!
I was born in Bham and want the best for it.
Crime has got to go!
Bham is getting more like Hotlanta every day
I don’t think Birmingham or OKC have anything to worry about in “becoming” anything like Atlanta. You all can stop worrying about such things with your posts because it will not happen even if you want it to. Atlanta is a world class city, 6th in population in the U.S., recently passing Philadelphia and D.C. The chance for Birmingham to even compete with a city like Atlanta passed in the last century.
So, as you don’t want to be like Atlanta, Atlanta is not even paying attention to Birmingham. It is not the insult you keep thinking it is. Atlanta is competing with places like Dallas and Chicago.
You are absolutely right. The ANSWER to this issue is for the residents of the city of Birmingham to vote on their own one cent MAPS proposal. Depending on the residents of the surrounding suburbs to vote for anything that they think may benefit Bham is a waste of time. It is time for Bham to make moves on its own and stop waiting on and depending on the suburbs to join in. I just wonder if Alabama law allows for the city to vote on its own sales tax initiative.
Jefferson County has 27 police departments plus the sheriff’s department; 53 fire departments; 11 911 emergency call centers; 18 jails.
They say no cities that surround Birmingham want any part of Birmingham.
Hmmm….the legislature sure wanted the Birmingham Water Works.
Says the Water Works is for the whole region.
Hmmm….. if the city needs to get it act together and you want to make the region better….why not follow the legislature’s logic and do things that make ABSOLUTE COMMON sense to some of the best run cities in the country, including our BIG little brother Huntsville to the North of us.
1) Regional police force. There is power in numbers. Two major police forces in Jefferson county would do wonders for moral and police. We already have the Jefferson County Sherriff Department. How About Birmingham Metro PD. Money would be saved and cities wouldn’t poach from each other.
2)Regional everything else: Fire, libraries, park systems, City maintenance, roads, schools, etc… the list goes on and on. So much money could be saved, efficiency would be great, poaching would be almost eliminated.
Birmingham can’t do it by itself. The city has done a lot but could do so much more .
Haters hollering from their little enclaves that Birmingham needs to get it’s act together doesn’t help anything. Real, lasting regional cooperation is the only thing that will help Birmingham. Not what the legislature is doing, not internet trolls and keyboard warriors talking down on a city because you feel safe where you are at. At the end of the day, whether you like it or not; To the rest of the country, we’re not a hundred suburbs, or 50 cities around one big city. We’re the laughingstock, who are 30 years behind in somethings and even farther in others, because we all want to be kings in our little tiny kingdoms. The young people are sick of it and that’s why most move away. Let’s unite. Let’s make real change. Let’s do it now. Huntsville, Mobile, and even Montgomery have and are getting their acts together!
We have lived in the Birmingham area since 1995 and we really like it here. I can see two issues with which OKC may not have had to deal:
1. OKC has a river. I come from Louisville KY and, yes, a river makes difference (for a whole lot of reasons).
2. The lack of trust in our elected officials is huge, and in many cases well deserved.
Now, we do have a lot of community spirit (see the Protective Life stadium and Regions Field for instance). But we also don’t have the infrastructure issues that other cities (e.g. Austin, Seattle) have. There are pluses and minuses. Where do you put your faith? In the companies or government?
I think everybody realizes that sales tax in Birmingham is 10%. That’s the highest in the state.
Alabama state sales tax = 4%
Jefferson Co sales tax = 1%
Birmingham city sales tax = 4%
Mayors Initiative sale tax = 1%
Folks are already paying the extra 1% sales tax which began 1/01/2008 known as the Economic and Community Revitalization Ordinance (aka Mayors Initiative)..
The reason cities/communities suceed or thrive isn’t because they excessively tax their citizens. No, it’s because of good…no great leadership.
Birmingham Water Works isn’t failing becuase it doesn’t charge high enough rates to users, it is failing becuase of lack of leadership. This is why change at the board level was needed.
To be clear infastructure and captial improvements require funding but take a look at the sales tax for Birmingham. The funding via taxation is already available.
Success has zero to do becoming a “region”. Atlanta has a rather small footprint with 100+ suburban communities, yet Atlanta thrives without having a “regional” government.
I’ll say it again for those in the back. There is a reason folks move from Birmingham to over the mnt or shelby county. Those folks aren’t going back anytime soon. They sure as heck didn’t leave because they weren’t being taxed enough…they left because of lack of leadership in vital areas (crime, education, infastructure, water board, etc.).
I don’t think you “BELIEVE” any of that last part you just spouted off. If you do then you are a part of what’s wrong with Birmingham right now, as a whole. Sometimes privilege gets in the way of good common sense, but it’s okay, some of us know Birmingham can’t do it alone.
You say “success has zero to do becoming(sic) a “region”. Obviously your state legislature disagrees with you.
That was their main point in taking over The Birmingham Water Works and expanding the board.
You pointed out how small Atlanta is and subsequently made my point for me: Atlanta does not have half the cities that Birmingham has surrounding it, with populations of 20,000 or less, that are depending on Atlanta for vital services.
As far as a 100+ suburbs are concerned, a suburb is not a city. There are many larger cities surrounding Atlanta and they do in fact make up a part of the region: i.e. Hoover.
But smaller cities (under 20,000) depend on a bigger (central hub)city like Birmingham for amenities that they normally couldn’t afford on their own. This includes but are not limited to things like: zoos, theatres, museums, transit, convention space, big time entertainment, sports teams, etc…
If the smaller cities are enjoying those amenities and are not contributing their fair share it can be a drain on the hub city just to maintain the status quo.
Then not to mention the smaller cities breaking away and forming duplicate school systems, fire departments, police departments, libraries, etc. it decreases the funding for the bigger city, which is still looked at as the engine of the metro it serves.
So now the hub city struggles with crime, education, infrastructure, schools, etc… because it’s funding has been reduced over time but it is still expected to be the biggest and best because that was what it once was for the region.
It’s just not realistic expectations period. Plus it’s not fair. I grew up in Birmingham, I am a product of the Birmingham City School system and yes I live in the Birmingham region. I would love for my region to finally come together like The city of Atlanta you mentioned.
I would love for us to have metro police department like Atlanta or transit system that was reliable and that I could take from Gardendale to Calera or from Springville to Bessemer.
It would be so great to have two major city school systems in Birmingham, lifting up the area as a whole so that we wouldn’t have some of the poorest grades in the nation. When we’re looked at from abroad it’s not oh Birmingham has 10 great school systems and 35 bad ones, it’s the whole is backwards and slow. Same with the crime, and we know that is not all true.
But it could be better if we just believed in cooperating as opposed to your anti-regional view.
So quit looking for Birmingham to solve the problem by itself, cause that is not going to happen and start pushing for some consolidation and regional cooperation. I know that 2 school systems is probably a pipe dream, as well as light rail anytime soon, because after all it is Birmingham. All the little kings can still keep their tiny little kingdoms, but at least let us try some ideas that have been proven to work in places like Nashville and Louisville.
1)Consolidate these little cities that are barely hanging on.
2) Form a metro police department, so the thugs can’t hide out in these little smaller cities and we have to get so many jurisdictions on the same page plus worrying about poaching.
3) Consolidate everything else and quit wasting so much money on duplicate services.
4)Make Jefferson county and a newly expanded Birmingham form a city-county merger. This way we will have a more unified voice.
We can demand more from our state legislature and they won’t treat us like the red-headed stepchild(btw Gingers are Black!) while growing Huntsville, Montgomery and the Mobile area.
We will once again be considered the largest city in Alabama and a newer, larger city-county government could govern the area better and more effectively.
And this is how a successful, regional city cannot only survive properly but even thrive and grow. This was long but I had to say it a little louder and longer for those in the back.
Oklahoma City shares the radical conservative politics of its state. Overly single doggone county in Oklahoma voted for Trump. Therefore Oklahoma City May not be the best example to follow.
Yeah all this talk about regional this and that, I’m sure it would help but so many other successful metros are just as fragmented and they do just fine. I live in DFW now and there’s poaching all the time. But no one really cares because it’s all in the same region. No one cares if a company chooses Plano, Frisco, Irving or Dallas city limits to put their HQ.
For OKC, there’s more to do around there than you would think. We get bored in Birmingham pretty fast. You talk alot about natural beauty and landscape, etc. But what does that really do for you? I agree the hills are pretty, but it’s not like I can do much with it. There’s SO MUCH more to do in the OKC area and if you get bored, you’re a couple hours to Dallas which has way more to offer than Atlanta.
I know I know, you’re close to the beach. Who cares again? How many weekends do I want to drop $2k to sit by a pool. It’s a fun novelty some a weekend or two out of the year. I loved the beach when I was young and single. But now, it’s just a beating to take the kids.
I’d much rather have our plethora of playgrounds, trails, indoor places to take kids, shows, etc. Birmingham has these, but they’re lacking. We normally just take the kids to a parking lot to scoot and they do get tired of the same playground every day. Offerings are just bland.
I know this will be taken the wrong way because I still have family that live in the area, but Birminghamians think way too highly of the city/area. It’s dismal and it’s really no wonder it’s not growing.
Blame what ever factor you want, it’s not a place on anyones top 10 lists to visit or move to. Call me a hater, but the numbers speak for themselves.
Say it louder for David in the back. He’s a nice guy, and he really means well but those rose colored glasses he wears doesn’t do him or this site any favors!
With its victory last night over the Timberwolves, the Thunder are on the verge of the NBA finals. My question for Scott and Linda is the role the team (the only major league team right?) has played in enhancing civic pride, economic development, and tourism. Here in Nashville our three major league teams have had an enormous impact, especially with the three arenas where they play and the surrounding developments. (Those positive effects compensate for the Titans’ and Predators’ current losing streaks.) As for Birmingham, I hope the city won’t expend a lot of energy and resources in pursuing a major league team, though I suppose the NBA could consider a franchise if it expands. Sadly, the loss of the Iron Bowl—through no fault of the city—marks as big a loss for the city as MAPS. Perhaps the Classic will eventually achieve a higher profile and impact as more talented high school athletes choose to attend HBCUs.
Birmingham is also hard to get around… Wait, let me explain. It’s hard to get normal every day things sometimes, maybe with the exception of grocery stores. Other cities’ suburbs often have everything. The other day, I was around Greystone and wanted Jimmy Johns. Out of luck. So, I figured maybe Panda Express.. Nope. Even living in MB, it’s not easy to get to the Collonade for to fast casual places. Cahaba Heights doesn’t have that much unless you want to sit down. After living in a top tier city, you really are slapped in the face with what Birmingham lacks and does not offer for every day livability.
For someone with with kids, the ability to “swing through” and “go grab” is important and I’ve found that much harder to do in Birmingham! Neighborhoods with walking trails, pools, and playgrounds are hard to find except those few select areas maybe. OKC has better middle class suburb offerings next to a big city that people actually aren’t scared to go into. Birmingham’s middle class suburbs are priced like premium suburbs, yet offer little.