[Southlander]

Originally Posted by Threestep

No purchases in Jefferson County for us. The Summit will be missed:>)
Quick question - are all the local Sams in Jefferson County?

Langford is Birmingham's mayor...no longer Jefferson's chairman...so wouldn't that make it all right to shop Summit?

[Threestep]

Originally Posted by Southlander

Langford is Birmingham's mayor...no longer Jefferson's chairman...so wouldn't that make it all right to shop Summit?

Not with a 1% tax increase to finance his dome.

[Southlander]

Is that a county tax? What would the total tax be?

[Threestep]

Going by the BHam paper 10% sales tax.

[Threestep]

2 of 3 southbound lanes on I65 at Shelby County line will be closed today and Sunday from 3:00 - 15:00.

[AnyDayNow]

I'm glad to see this "chat" thread. I've been trying to stay quiet about LaLa but am really disturbed by the latest "revelation." An aquarium? The aquarium in Atlanta (the world's largest, or is it the US' largest?) has been open for how long and I haven't visited it.

But a large part of my problem with the aquarium idea is that, the last time I checked, there was a drought here. A severe drought. And hasn't there been some question lately about Georgia wanting to limit our water access? So why would we be talking about building an aquarium?? If everyone is supposed to be limiting their use of water, why increase the city's need for it?

[Keeper]

Where are they building that?

[Southlander]

I believe Atlanta's aquarium is adjacent to the zoo. It's been open at least a couple of years now.

[AnyDayNow]

It's supposed to be part of the "package" deal, but I think it was first announced through the media about the middle of last week or so. That was announced about the same time some marketing person was quoted on the news as saying the anticipated new shopping center in Birmingham would not be enough of a draw by itself, that there needed to be something else to draw people to Birmingham.

Yesterday the news said the sites being bandied about are 3: 1) the (Ensley)fairgrounds site, 2) the Birmingham RaceTrack site, or 3)...I'm drawing a blank.

The LaLa statement that sums for me was his response to someone who said she was so poor that she couldn't afford the 1-cent sales tax increase: If she is that broke, then she is so poor that one more penny ain't gonna make a difference to her. Huh? (I'm going to have to check on that one and memorialize it somewhere, because it signifies the kind of mentality we're dealing with.) That's how concerned he is about the people who will be bearing the burdens for his "vision".

[NicoleC]

Most public aquariums use filtered natural sea water, not drinking water. The cost of synthetic salts is far too expensive. The greater impact is usually on the sewer system, since the salts have to be processed out of their waste water.

The Georgia Aquarium uses a closed re-filtering system, which means they have very little water inputs and outputs, to eliminate most of the water and sewer concerns. Since Birmingham isn't close enough to an ocean to make pumping water from the Gulf feasible, they'd probably use the same techniques.