I was eating lunch at Rotary and I couldn’t believe the table conversation.
A Rotarian who is also a business owner said, “I am so disappointed in Birmingham. I hope when my children graduate college they’ll move to another city where they have greater opportunities.”
Another responded, “I feel the same way. In fact, if I could move my business, I would move tomorrow.” Continue reading We’re losing our children
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
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?
I had the opportunity to talk with a new corporate CEO who moved to Birmingham from Nashville a few years back.
I asked, “So what do you think of Birmingham?” Then I looked down at my shoes waiting to hear how much Nashville had outpaced Birmingham.
Continue reading Does Birmingham have poor corporate leadership?
The Birmingham News convened a panel of community leaders in April of 2011 to discuss the future of Birmingham. Included were corporate CEO’s, non-profit professionals, and top political leaders.
Each panelist made his/her remarks and then questions or comments were solicited from the audience. Continue reading Four unsettling comments
It seems like a distant memory, but in the 70’s and 80’s, Birmingham leaders were plotting to recruit an NFL football franchise to Birmingham. I don’t know how close we came, but we obviously felt there was a possibility.
Of course, we weren’t successful while other Southern Cities like Jacksonville, New Orleans, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Nashville recruited teams. Continue reading Birmingham rated one of the poorest sports cities in U.S.
Up until a few years ago, our Chamber of Commerce (currently BBA), organized a trip of community leaders and politicians to visit other cities. They were called the “BIG Trips,” and the purpose was to learn what works in other communities.
The Chamber over a seven year period visited St. Louis (2002), Baltimore (2003), Charlotte (2004), Nashville (2005), Pittsburgh (2006), Denver (2007, and Austin (2008).
We found these trips to be fascinating. We heard about successes and we heard about failures, but it opened our eyes to the possibilities. Continue reading Nashville spits on Birmingham
Leadership Birmingham is a diverse group of Birmingham citizens who are selected each year to study Birmingham’s problems and opportunities and then go out and make a difference.
I was in the class of 1992 and when I graduated I asked the business leader who was delivering the commencement speech, “Why doesn’t Birmingham consider combining its city and county government?” Continue reading There’s no way in hell we’ll ever work together