Birmingham and Atlanta were about the same size in 1950.
Have you ever wondered why Atlanta grew and Birmingham stagnated?
In 1959, the Mayor of Atlanta sent us a letter spelling out how Birmingham could be a great city.
We paid no attention.
Continue reading The letter everyone in Homewood & Mountain Brook should read
The City of Birmingham could be the next Homewood.
Homewood is one of the most livable and popular cities in Alabama.
Young folks are flocking into Homewood.
Young folks also are flocking into Birmingham.
But Birmingham has a problem…
Continue reading Birmingham: the next Homewood?
I walked into the restaurant and ran into an old Mountain Brook friend.
He greeted me with, “There’s David Sher, Mr. Birmingham–who’s always pushing for metropolitan government…
…You know when that will happen–when hell freezes over!”
Continue reading The dreaded words Mtn. Brook and Vestavia parents don’t want to hear
ComebackTown is published by David Sher to begin a discussion on a better Birmingham.
Today’s guest blog was written by Peter Wright as response to “Sometimes you have to laugh at Homewood.
If you’d like to be a guest blogger, please click here.
Thanks for all you do for the City of Birmingham, but as a member of Homewood City Council, I have to respond to your most recent article about “laughing” at “dumb” ‘ol Homewood for looking at a bus service of its own. Continue reading Homewood kicked to the curb for trying to do the right thing
When I first saw the headline, my instinct was to laugh.
But after a few seconds I began to weep uncontrollably.
We and our Birmingham suburbs are sometimes so dumb you might think we all graduated from “Dumb School.”
While progressive southern cities make big-picture transformative decisions, we scurry back into our municipal silos and think small.
Here’s the headline… Continue reading Sometimes you have to laugh at Homewood
We have a little game us business people play in Birmingham—and we’re darn good at it.
When it’s time to renew the lease on our building—we go to our home city or surrounding cities and demand money.
And it’s so easy to do. There are 35+ municipalities in Jefferson County and if you are large enough or important enough—some local government will throw money at you. Continue reading How to extort money from City of Homewood
The big controversy currently is whether the City of Birmingham should fund maintenance for Railroad Park.
I love Railroad Park as do many of you. Almost everyone agrees it has been the catalyst for just about everything good that has happened to Birmingham since it opened.
First there was Railroad Park, then Regions Field, the Rotary Trail, and a then an unending list of announced projects. When the modern history of Birmingham is written, it will be clear that Railroad Park changed everything. Continue reading Our good friends in Homewood should fund Railroad Park
I’m sure you saw the headlines…
Birmingham considering $5.27 million in tax breaks to keep Serra Automotive in town
“Tracey Morant-Adams, the city’s economic development director, said the city faces competition from nearby suburbs, including Trussville, necessitating action from Birmingham. The proposed project agreement also notes that competition Continue reading Let’s flush 5.27 million dollars down the toilet
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
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
