Tag Archives: Alys Stephens Center

David Sher posts, What's great about Birmingham

Birmingham: much richer than you think

July 15, 2014 David Sher 8 Comments

Have you ever heard someone say, “Birmingham’s limited because we don’t have the wealth of other cities?”

That’s just not true.

Many of us think of Birmingham as this impoverished town with low wages and a poor standard of living. But the facts and actions of our citizens tell another story.

I first got a hint of Birmingham’s wealth when the Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA) hired Market Street Services to prepare its strategic plan. One of the statistics presented was income per capita—a number I expected to be low–but I was wrong. Continue reading Birmingham: much richer than you think →

Guest blogger, What's great about Birmingham

Single father sees Birmingham through rose colored glasses

February 11, 2014 David Sher 1 Comment

ComebackTown is published by David Sher to begin a discussion on a better Birmingham.

Today’s guest blogger is Sharrif Simmons. If you’d like to be a guest blogger, please click here.

I’m not originally from Birmingham. I was born on Long Island, New York, raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, studied at Ealing College in West London, had a brief stay in Atlanta, even lived in Tampa Bay for a while, but when I moved to Birmingham in 2004, I decided to stay. Making Birmingham my new home was motivated by several factors, the most important of which, being a single father to a preternaturally gifted child, was to pursue a course of action that would nurture his talents and provide him, at the very least, a competitive education in a developing community. I use the word developing here, because when I arrived 10 years ago, Birmingham was not the city it is today. Continue reading Single father sees Birmingham through rose colored glasses →