On November 14, Jeffrey Bayer, President and CEO of Bayer Properties, and I were scheduled to deliver a speech about regional governance at a symposium of Birmingham area commercial real estate professionals (CCIM).
The Harbert Center was dark when we arrived. The lights and electricity were off and the escalator to the upper floors was motionless. There had been an traffic accident killing the power to the Harbert Center and nearby buildings. Continue reading Bayer and Sher don’t have a prayer→
I’ve lived most of my life in the over the mountain communities of Mt. Brook and Vestavia Hills. I’ve worked most of my life in the City of Birmingham—primarily downtown.
I’ve never felt unsafe in the suburbs or in Birmingham.
Thanks to the resurgence of downtown, I now often find myself downtown in the evenings. I’m usually more concerned about finding a parking place at night than I am about being a crime victim.
A good friend came rushing up to me as I entered the Harbert Center for a meeting. He said, “I just found out something I bet you don’t know— “The University of Alabama doesn’t exist.”
Now I’ve heard some farfetched things in my life, but few topped this one.
But before all you anti University of Alabama folks from UAB and UAH get too excited, he explained that you don’t exist either.
I recently read a piece in the Nashville Business Journal that made me ill.
The nausea was amplified by the memories of a humiliating Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA) trip I took with about one hundred corporate, community, and political leaders to Nashville ten years ago.
None of us were prepared for the way we were mistreated. One Nashville speaker called us racists; another attacked our healthcare industry; and third referred to Birmingham as ‘Bombingham.’ (Nashville spits on Birmingham)
I think most people will agree that UAB and UAH are not fairly represented on the University of Alabama Board of Trustees.
Twelve of 15 trustees graduated from the University of Alabama, two graduated from UAB and none from UAH–one is a graduate of both UA and UAB, where he attended medical school.
Can we implement an equitable solution? Maybe not–there’s a potential roadblock.
When our Chamber of Commerce (BBA) visited Charlotte in 2004, we were greeted by the President of the University of North Carolina Charlotte.
