By Randall Woodfin
A little more than 10 years ago, I announced my first run for mayor. As that anniversary passed, I’ve been thinking about how much our society has changed since then.
Back then, if I had told the people of Birmingham that one plus one equals two, I believe every person listening would have accepted it as true. Continue reading Birmingham Mayor Woodfin: When I Tell Folks 1+1=2, Some People Won’t Believe It
By Danny Carr
Something remarkable is happening in Jefferson County – and almost no one is talking about it.
Only three years ago, we faced a deadly problem that seemed nearly impossible to solve. Today, the numbers tell a dramatically different story. Continue reading Jefferson County Is Doing What Many Thought Impossible
By Joyce Lanning, Ph.D.
Huntsville is booming. Metropolitan Birmingham is growing at a fraction of Huntsville’s pace.
Electricity prices may not be the reason. But they certainly don’t help.
A Huntsville Utilities residential customer using 1,200 kilowatt-hours pays about $147 a month. An Alabama Power customer using the same amount pays about $207 — 41% more. Huntsville Utilities presented those numbers earlier this year (p 116)
And this isn’t just a homeowner problem. Continue reading Birmingham Residential Electric Bills Are 41% Higher Than Huntsville’s
By Doug Martinson
Editor’s note: Huntsville columnist Doug Martinson and I recently sat down for lunch in Birmingham. Our conversation reminded me how much Birmingham and Huntsville have to learn about each other. Doug later wrote this column about our meeting, the origins of our two columns, and his family’s long tradition of civic involvement:
Continue reading What Happened When Birmingham And Huntsville Sat Down for Lunch
By Judith Chi
In 2024 our family visited Birmingham, never having set foot in Alabama before.
It was love at first sight – lush trees, charming neighborhoods, spectacular food, and a culture of collective care. Truly a dream come true.
It’s now 2026 and nothing could have prepared us for our lived reality. For any professional and family thinking about moving here, I want to share with you the real story of what life is like here, beyond the happily ever after. Continue reading Mountain Brook Woman Writes Beautiful Love Letter to Birmingham
By Prioleau Alexander
Editor’s note: This column appeared recently in the Huntsville Real-Time News coordinated by Doug Martinson. I think it’s important for people in Birmingham to know what ‘s going on with our Alabama neighbor to the North.
Residents of Huntsville, Alabama don’t understand how much they have—and as a result, how much they have to lose.
As a native of Charleston, SC, I grew up in a city far more like Huntsville today than the place I call home. Continue reading Huntsville, for The Love of Everything Holy, Stop Building before It’s Too Late
By Wayne Rogers
Say “Birmingham BBQ” and the names come rolling out like smoke from a pit: Full Moon. Jim ‘n Nick’s. Bob Sykes. Carlile’s. Golden Rule. Dreamland. SAW’s in all its glorious forms — Juke Joint, Soul Kitchen, and beyond.
Birmingham barbecue means hickory-smoked pork, low and slow, where the smoke does the talking and the sauce just listens. Continue reading The Birmingham BBQ Restaurant That Changed America
By Hunter Williams
Shanghai. Montpellier. Budapest. Hiroshima. Birmingham.
Read that list again. That’s not a typo — that’s the 2026 stop list for the FISE World Series, one of the largest action sports festivals on Earth, and this August, our city joins it. Birmingham is the only U.S. stop on the entire tour. Continue reading Birmingham Days Away from One of World’s Biggest Action Sports Festivals
By Randy Hutcheson
Every day, Birmingham residents generate enormous amounts of monetizable digital exhaust — streaming movies, using GPS, storing files in the cloud, scrolling social media, shopping online, and increasingly asking AI to do tasks for us.
That data has real monetary value. Continue reading Birmingham: The New Plantation Owners Don’t Grow Cotton –They Harvest Data
By Eric Thomas
What if you could land at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, step outside, and hop on a tram that carried you straight into the heart of the city — through Uptown, the Civil Rights District, the Parkside, UAB, Five Points, Lakeview, and back again? Continue reading The Magic City Loop: Birmingham’s Ride into the Future