Let’s blame Jim Carns for our occupational tax disaster.
Or how about other local House members who voted to pull the tax bill– Reps. Mary Sue McClurkin, Mary Moore, Arthur Payne, or Elwyn Thomas. Continue reading Let’s blame Jim Carns for our occupational tax disaster
The Roach Motel—“the bugs check in but they don’t check out.”
I know you think this is going to be a negative piece about Birmingham, but hang in there.
One of the biggest obstacles Birmingham companies face is recruiting high level employees from out of state. Continue reading Birmingham–like the Roach Motel
When I first started writing these blogs, I was immediately introduced to the Birmingham haters.
You know the Birmingham haters. They are the stars of talk radio and the first to comment on al.com. They hope Birmingham’s annihilated by the Bubonic Plague, that Vulcan suffers from herpes, and that the Mayor gets dandruff. Continue reading This should make the Birmingham haters salivate
Between 2003-2006 five CFO’s of HealthSouth were convicted of fraud.
Would it be appropriate to assume all CFO’s in the Birmingham area are crooked?
I think we can agree there was something in the corporate culture or structure at HealthSouth that created such blatant fraud. Continue reading Is political corruption rampant here?
I hear it regularly, “The problem with Birmingham is racism.”
One of my first blogs, Let’s move to the suburbs and attack the city, quickly attracted two comments. One was from (I assume) an African American blaming Birmingham’s problems on whites, “The racism is so obvious and so thick you can cut it with a knife.” Continue reading Is racism the problem with Birmingham?
Birmingham has always been known as a “steel” town. Now we should be known as the “steal” town.
While our peer cities are recruiting companies from other regions, we steal businesses from each another. Continue reading Let’s spend $125 million stealing from one another
Will your 911 cell phone call save you in an emergency?
Maybe not if you’re calling from within our region.
I have a friend who witnessed a wreck near Blue Lake Road off of Hwy 280. He immediately dialed 911 but ran into a geographic overlap. Continue reading Your local 911 call could kill you
The year 1999 was painful for me and my family. My wife, Ina-Mae, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Fortunately the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center is located here in Birmingham. And I’m absolutely convinced Ina-Mae would not have survived without UAB.
Patients come from all over the world to visit UAB. When Ina-Mae registered with doctors at Kirklin Clinic, nurses seemed genuinely surprised we lived almost in walking distance. Continue reading Birmingham is in the center of my heart
The year was 2002. Dave Adkisson, the then Birmingham Chamber of Commerce President, and I were in St. Louis jogging early one morning when we struck up a conversation with a local runner.
He asked where we were from and why we were visiting St. Louis. We told him we were with a group of about 100 business leaders and politicians from Birmingham who had come to St. Louis to learn about his city’s successes.
His response was one of disbelief. “Why in the world would anyone think there was anything good to learn about St. Louis?” Continue reading Convoluted government brings us to our knees
When our Chamber of Commerce (BBA) visited Charlotte in 2004, we were greeted by the President of the University of North Carolina Charlotte.
Charlotte’s a city on fire, but the first words out the President’s mouth were, “We don’t have anything like UAB.”
Can you believe a great city like Charlotte is jealous of us? Continue reading How can we have UAB and suck?