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Do you know what’s really wrong with Birmingham?
We concentrate on our shortcomings and don’t celebrate our victories.
A funny thing happened while we were wallowing in self-pity. Continue reading Birmingham’s back–tell the world
Are you sitting down?
Birmingham’s being flooded with positive recognition.
Amazingly, most of these headline are within the past 30 days.
It’s enough to make the Birmingham haters scream for mercy.
Click on the headlines to see the story: Continue reading Birmingham haters—eat your hearts out
I’m sure you saw the headlines…
Birmingham considering $5.27 million in tax breaks to keep Serra Automotive in town
“Tracey Morant-Adams, the city’s economic development director, said the city faces competition from nearby suburbs, including Trussville, necessitating action from Birmingham. The proposed project agreement also notes that competition Continue reading Let’s flush 5.27 million dollars down the toilet
I received an e-mail from a good friend, Henry Long, with a link to an article about Birmingham that made me sick to my stomach.
It was an American Thinker piece titled “Civil Rights and the Collapse of Birmingham, Ala.” written by John Bennett.
It made me ill not only because the article was being read all over the world, but the author totally mangled the facts. Continue reading Article on Birmingham will make you vomit
I was warned by my friends about the commenters on al.com when I first began publishing ComebackTown.
They suggested I not read the comments and certainly not to take them personally. I was told, “They are a bunch of crazies who have nothing better to do than spout nonsense to make themselves feel important.” Continue reading A proposal for pishier
Birmingham’s always been called the “city of potential promise,” but our metro area continues to struggle.
Our children are leaving. Our largest companies are abandoning us. And we’re experiencing little or no growth.
Birmingham is beautiful; we have smart and generous people; and we’re located in the heart of the South.
How can we fail? Continue reading Judge Scott Vowell tells it like it is
“We’re going to fix it where they can’t get permission to go to the bathroom.”
This is State Representative John Roger’s warning to Jefferson County Commissioners in retaliation for their decision to discontinue in patient services at Cooper Green.
I’ve published 66 blogs this past year to begin a discussion about our dysfunctional government structure, but this trumps them all. Continue reading Is John Rogers a nut?
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? Continue reading Metro Birmingham ranked 197th out of 200
We started publishing the ComebackTown blog nearly a year ago to begin a discussion on improving government for metro Birmingham.
We had become completely frustrated because no community leader was willing to discuss better government. The response was always, “That’s impossible…so let’s concentrate on something that’s doable.” Of course, it’s impossible to achieve anything meaningful because of poor government structure.
I was beginning to think we were all alone when this editorial appeared in the Birmingham Business Journal. Continue reading I did a back flip when the BBJ ran this piece
“Let’s take one incredibly hard issue and prove we can solve it“
Giant headline front page,–The Birmingham News February 28, 2012, “Let’s take one incredibly hard issue and prove we can solve it.”
The article then quotes Johnny Johns, the then Chairman of the Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA)…
“Johnny Johns, the Protective Life Corp. Chairman, president and CEO, gave a call of arms of sorts when he said this to 28 political, business and civic leaders who had gathered at The Birmingham News to discuss how to tackle metro Birmingham’s most pressing problems.”
“…So we all stand off and we talk, talk, talk… Continue reading A challenge for the Birmingham Business Alliance