Today’s guest columnist is Eric Thomas.
I’ve heard it for years…
“If only Birmingham had a river.”
“Birmingham can never be a major tourist attraction without water.”
I’ve been thinking about this idea for years and then I started researching it.
I read guest columnist Eva Dillard’s column entitled “Birmingham could have had a river walk” and was blown away that something similar had been proposed before.
I think that rehabbing Village Creek, making it cleaner and more accessible to today’s citizens in the metro area would be great for our region but obviously the plans would need to be altered due to the way Birmingham and its suburbs have grown over time.
Still, the thought of a body of water invigorating the area is not a bad idea. In fact, studies have shown that it is a great idea as pointed out in Mrs. Dillard’s article. The San Antonio Riverwalk is indeed a great attraction for Texans and their many tourists.
Birmingham is unique as its city center does not have a river in the traditional sense but a river in the sense of several railroad tracks running East/West through town bisecting the Northside from the Southside. This has created a vast area that is sometimes hard to look at because of its lack of visual appeal.
The perfect place to start a man-made canal is right near the end of the Hugh Kaul trail that runs along 1St Ave S. The canal would begin at the end of the paved trail going East at 38th Street S. It would run into the center of the street all the way to 41st St in Avondale. The canal would then turn right and head down the center of the street to Avondale Park.
This journey would be slightly less than a mile. 2nd Ave. S. would have to be closed off to through traffic and anything bigger than a golf cart all the way to 41st St. Viaducts would have to be built over two streets on 41st St, for 5th Ave. S (near the park) and 3rd Ave. S (Highway 78).
The canal would have a built-in reservoir being the lake at Avondale Park and could be reconnected to King Spring which ran this exact route from Avondale Park north towards the Railroad before being sealed off and paved over in the 1930’s.
The spring was uncovered as part of renovations to Avondale Park in 2011. Visitors can now see water flow from the hillside a short distance to the park’s lake. This project could catapult the area onto another level on par with the Bricktown Canal in Oklahoma City.
Avondale is already seen as a cool, hip, eclectic mix of businesses, restaurants, breweries and lively entertainment district. Designing this project smartly and bringing in the right mix of businesses would make it one of the most happening spots in the South. Memphis has Beale Street, New Orleans has Bourbon Street. Atlanta has… Well Atlanta has everything, plus a million variations of Peachtree St.
Birmingham would once again have a Spring Street. We could have the Spring Street Festival on the first day of Spring. Or the Spring Street Crawfish Broil. A rejuvenated City Stages. The possibilities would be endless for creating regional events.
How much would something like this cost? How would we pay for it? What would the timeline be to get it done? Who would run and maintain it?
Using the previous example of Oklahoma City’s Bricktown Canal, which would almost be the exact template if the Spring Street Canal were to become a reality, the price would be around $37.5 million. Equivalent to the cost of $23 million spent on making the Bricktown Canal come to life in 1999.
We could pay for it by having some sort of private/public partnership which includes city, state, and federal funding. Huntsville’s new Pinhook Creek skybridge project has received $47.3 million dollars in federal funding. The total cost of that project is going to be $65 million and a definite game-changer for Huntsville and its citizens.
It could be built in less than two years, once all the funding has been secured, property and right of way acquired, engineering and plans drawn up. It would be maintained by the Birmingham Parks and Recreation Board, another tremendous asset to our growing lists of great parks and venues in the area.
Let’s do something big and out of the box for ourselves, this city, and this region.
The Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce site shows the impact the canal has had on Oklahoma City:
- “The total market value of properties nearly doubled between 2009 and 2017 – a gain of $1.88 billion which exceeds the $1.8 million expended by the City on all MAPS programs to date
- Population in downtown grew by 20.8 percent, adding 2,200 new residents
- The rate of population growth is twice the average for the county, and three-times the average for the state
- More than 9,000 jobs were added, and growth far surpassed levels in the county, metro and state
- Visitation/participation in the downtown area has increased from nearly 6.5 million in 2003 to more than 11 million annually in 2017″
We’ve had some awesome wins over the last 15 years:
Railroad Park, The Rotary Trail, Regions Field, Uptown, etc. Let’s not stop the renaissance.
Let’s keep it going, pushing growth and vibrancy for our region for many years to come.
Eric Thomas is a native of Birmingham and a product of the Birmingham public school system. He is married with 2 kids and lives in Adamsville. He works in telecommunications and is a certified run coach who enjoys traveling to races in his spare time.
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.
Well, nobody, not even the area residents, is about to walk along Village Creek when even going to the mailbox can sometimes be risky. The area is rife with crime (statistically), and the cover of trees only manifests the potential for violent crimes that go unseen. There is an underground river in Birmingham, but it parallels I-65, not the best location for digging up the ground. Rerouting Village Creek is not only very expensive but also potentially hazardous if flooding were to occur. The reality is that Birmingham is dry, with no rivers or creeks, and it will remain that way. Sometimes, the reality of crime in the area punishes all the innocent and decent people, but failing to clean up the neighborhood and purge those who hold everyone in fear only makes it worse for all citizens of Birmingham. Snitches are not B*tches, they are heroes in cleansing the city of criminal elements and making it more enjoyable for everyone in the Birmingham MSA. Somebody has to start.
I didn’t propose making Village Creek a Riverwalk. I think you may need to go back and re-read the entire article. Thanks
I agree that Village Creek could be Birmingham’s Riverwalk, although I disagree with the segment of the creek that was chosen. If the project currently called “The STAR at Uptown” makes the impact as projected the area between Finley Ave and the aforementioned project would be perfect. The area that I am speaking of spans from HWY 31 to I 65. It is currently an industrialized zone north of Village Creek, but if properly planned this could be a game changer. Entering the CBD from the North is in drastic need of a face lift.
When in Birmingham we love to walk on Jemison trail along the river. I guess that’s not Birmingham but it’s beautiful there.
Birmingham does not have a major river anywhere in its metro area and there is nothing wrong with that. We are not Memphis or New Orleans. Nor should we try to be. I oppose any canal building. Tourists looking for a river walk and historic charm should go somewhere else.
Interesting idea, but it doesn’t take into account that we already have a redevelopment plan in place and about to be bid for an improved pedestrian streetscape along 41st St. in Avondale. This has been a decade in the making and should enhance this area significantly. I would rather see more resources directed towards the well-developed, Red Rock Trail Network to speed its completion, particularly the trails that will connect the civil rights district to Smithfield and Legion Field, and the plan that will finally provide safe pedestrian access from five points up to Vulcan Park, and on to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, as well as connections in the west via the high ore line toward Fairfield and Miles College and, in the east, the long-desired link completing the route from Railroad Park to Avondale to Woodlawn and up to Ruffner Mountain.
I hear you Michael and I promise you I am not trying to “step on any toes.” I love the Red Rock Trail Network.
As an avid outdoors person, I have biked, walked, ran, and just generally enjoyed the wonderful parks and trails we have all over the region.
Maybe, with the right amount of vision and planning, this could ultimately end up complementing the RRTS or something similarly like it.
It’s an Idea that I thought would help to continue moving Birmingham forward. In addition to helping with some of the drainage issues I see as run through Birmingham.
There’s actually another area not too far from Sloss Furnaces that has major drainage issues when it rains heavily. Water just pools and sits under a viaduct for weeks at a time.
I see that Huntsville is doing something about flooding problems in neglected areas of the city.
They are about to build a linear park (link is in the article above) in what I believe is going to be a game changer for their city in terms of outdoor recreational space.
A large chunk of that funding is coming from the federal government. I am not sure why Birmingham can’t do something like that. Why not us?
I just hope that time has not passed this region by in our belief that we can recapture some of the Magic that gave us the nickname the Magic City.
We do that by thinking out of the box; being bold, smart, and daring.
Maybe we have accepted that we have ceded our title as Alabama’s “jewel” to our neighbors to the North, Huntsville.
Maybe Huntsville will be the next Austin, Texas or the next Raleigh, North Carolina. Which would be great for our great state of Alabama, really it would be.
Maybe the once great magic City, that New Orleans, Nashville and Charlotte once looked to is now destined to look to Chattanooga, Little Rock, and Savannah for inspiration.
No disrespect to those latter cities, but let’s hope not.
I think Birmingham should exploit its natural geography and accentuate what these other cities lack. New Orleans, Memphis, Raleigh, etc. are not situated at the foothills of the Appalachians, and neither is Atlanta. There should be more emphasis on the “Pittsburgh of the South” moniker; where the two cities share many similarities barring the obvious (Pittsburgh has three rivers), both had bustling steel and mining industries which helped build America. Building a canal on the “hope” that people will come a la “Field of Dreams” may be a stretch, in my view. There have been many schemes to turn Birmingham around in recent decades: domed stadiums, entertainment districts, theme parks, aquariums, monuments, etc., but a “riverwalk” routed near a hipster district is too ambitious and expensive and will not provide investors with the confidence of a healthy ROI. Again, it is much easier, cheaper, and safer to exploit Birmingham’s strengths and capitalize on what some other cities lack. There is a LOT of undeveloped land and greenspace in Birmingham – lots of natural, unmolested landscape with thousands of acres of old growth, deciduous forests. I think there is some appeal in people wanting to vacation somewhere that is still large enough for conveniences but still offers amenities such as camping and rustic cabins. Trying to invent tourist attractions that are not intended to be there simply looks inauthentic and gimmicky and people see right through it.
Personally, I love this idea. Forget the tourists- I would more than appreciate a river walk as a local! Thanks for thinking big!
APA, thank you! And you’re welcome. It’s all about improving our citizens quality of life as well as bringing in more tourist dollars. I think this project would do both, equally well.
I think a lot of Birminghamians have been told “NO” for so long and have seen other cities pass us by that they look at anything that involves moving the city forward as a “pipe dream.”
Meanwhile we fall farther behind. People are flocking to cities like Huntsville and Mobile, and they are getting things done. They are daring to dream big, while we attack each other, with no solid plans for our future.
We have enough cabins around here. Oak Mountain is a beautiful place. Mount Cheaha too. There are plenty of camping areas, but we will never be Gatlinburg as it seems one commenter is suggesting. So that’s my shot, please Birminghamians, let’s think outside of the box and get things done!
Speaking as a longtime Birmingham resident who now lives in Nashville, where billions of dollars of new development will soon be spent on the East Bank of the Cumberland River, I salute your idea but have another suggestion. And here I’m speaking as someone who also lived for two years in Huntsville, where the Tennessee River is miles away to the south. One of the Rocket City’s great attraction is Monte Sano State Park overlooking the city. Where one can camp or stay in a cabin with the lights of downtown shining below, and restaurants and bars are just as short distance down Governor’s Drive from your rustic lodging. Is it too late for Birmingham to aggressively transform the section of Red Mountain overlooking downtown, a la Monte Sano? I’m not talking about the sections around Ruffner to the east and Red Mtn Park to the west. I’m talking about the private residential and commercial parcels that command the best views, but which could be the location of cabins and campsites overlooking the city? Or did that ship sail a hundred years ago and with it a lost opportunity for Birmingham? Where’s a billionaire with the money to buy The Club and all the other mountaintop property when you need one? Might be cheaper than buying enough land on Southside for a long canal.