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

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

Recent news that Mercedes may be moving its U.S. headquarters to Atlanta or North Carolina should unnerve us.  Why- Because it is just the most recent reminder of conversations we are not having, and opportunities we continue to miss.

Foreign Auto HQs.  In 2006, Nashville lured Nissan’s U.S. headquarters from California.  And they accomplished this without an international airport or even one daily flight to Japan.  What they did have was a business community with an audacious, “can do” spirit and a Nissan plant down the road.  Japanese-owned Bridgestone Tire moved there in 1991.  So, why aren’t we talking about courting the headquarters of Mercedes, or Honda or Hyundai?  Georgia may be willing to offer up to $50 million for Mercedes.  We probably don’t have $50 million to offer, and we don’t have any flights to Germany.  But Atlanta doesn’t have a Mercedes plant 30 miles from downtown.  What do we have to lose?* Continue reading Our region’s future and the conversations we do not have →