Comebacktown published by David Sher & Phyllis Neill to begin a discussion on better government for our region.
Today’s guest blogger is Amanda Weil Sokol. (We love when young professionals are guest bloggers)
“Once Dying, Birmingham Suddenly Hot,” was the title of an Associated Press story that appeared recently in the New York Times and other newspapers nationwide. The well-written piece, by longtime AP writer Jay Reeves, highlighted how far Birmingham has come since the turmoil-ridden days of the Civil Rights era.
(Editors note: This article is not about Mt. Brook–it’s much broader than that. It’s also not about the City of Birmingham–it’s about our metro. Today we examine the topic no one wants to discuss.)
A young, well-respected business man approached me after a civic club meeting. He wanted to talk about our region’s lack of progress.
Soon the conversation turned to our 37 municipalities in Jefferson County.
He said he understood how competing cities hurt our region, but as a Mt. Brook resident he was not about ready to sacrifice his children’s education for better government. Continue reading Did Mt. Brook blow up Birmingham?→
Birmingham’s usually the last to do just about everything. So if you want to see what’s about to happen, all you have to do is look elsewhere.
When I was Chairman of Operation New Birmingham (ONB) in 1995, CBS42 was desperately trying to build viewership for their newscast. They were practicing “guerilla journalism” to try to shock and surprise people to build audience.
Comebacktown published by David Sher & Phyllis Neill to begin a discussion on better government for our region.
Today’s guest blogger is Donna Francavilla.
What will it take for Birmingham to remove the tarnish of a half-century ago?
Whenever images of Birmingham’s tumultuous past are flashed before viewers, the black and white footage and photographs of attacking police dogs, of fire hoses blasting teenage demonstrators, and peaceful protesters being hauled off to jail are shown. You’ve seen those indelible images repeatedly. They continue to stigmatize our community in the eyes of the nation and the world. Continue reading Warning: Blacks—be careful when moving to Birmingham→
Comebacktown published by David Sher & Phyllis Neill to begin a discussion on better government for our region.
Today’s guest blogger is John Northrop.
If Birmingham is a “comeback town,” what do we want to come back to? Surely not the days and ways of Bull Conner. Nor of chain gang labor in coal mines. Nor as a mere colony in a 19th-century steel empire.
A friend recently sent me a link to an incredibly positive article about Birmingham published in the Los Angeles Times. A few minutes later I received another—then another. The e-mails kept coming.
People were obviously excited and wanted to share our good news.
