Is Birmingham a "major city"? (Montgomery, Huntsville: rail, relocate to)

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by Todd_96

I don't know Birmingham well. But a few years ago I was on a flight from San Francisco to Atlanta and we had to land at the Birmingham airport due to bad weather. The facilities in the airport couldn't accommodate the unexpected influx of passengers from a 747. Airport restaurants ran out of food or weren't even open in the middle of the day. It gave Birmingham a very regional feel.

Yeah. Old airport sucked monkey balls. The renovated one that partially opened in March is a helluva lot better. The rest of it is supposed to open in about a year.

[mcalumni01]

i'm probably gone catch a lot of heat for this here but as far as everybody opinions about Birmingham school system, smh. the probably isn't the system or the schools...damn near new or in the process of becoming new elementary, middle and high schools....the problem is your child. when you have so many outsiders just constantly kicking and talking down about yours for years but don't know or understand what's really going on...then that's all you know which becomes a "perception". as the saying goes a couple people mess it up for everybody else. a few students refuses to achieve and become great mess it up for those who indeed wants too, which by far probably out numbers those who don't. so now when reports come out about this and that of Birmingham schools, that' what people gone see and read and make their judgment about it. their are thousand of great students and great schools that's getting the bad rap in this metro area, which is sad. people make it seem as though there is no hope for success in Birmingham schools. we as citizens get caught up in dollars and area. everybody are bless to reside where they are and to make the income they make. everybody wants to blame the system or the schools or the teachers, by the way (Alabama's teacher of the year teaches math at........Jackson-Olin)...blame yourself first because you are the one who letting your child go to school and not perform up to the capabilities he or she should be doing. now you thinking it's the school's fault so let relocate to what you think is a better school system. a school is not for playing or a place to get away from home. I remember my mother telling me damn near everyday from K to high school that you go to learn not to play. these day the parents think school is a daycare or something. you are the parents act like it and demand more from you child regardless of what school system they in. it's not their fault your child don't wants to learn. now a few knucklehead done ruin it for everybody and now every school in the city is now label terrible. all this relocating and doing this and that for what your child still can go out into this crazy world and fail. ain't no guarantee your child gone be successful by moving them to another school system....you have the same opportunity as the next school system to get a good education to have the opportunity to do something in life. there are plenty of doctors, lawyers, athletes, congressmen, ceo's, etc. who graduated from public city schools and look what they are now. it's your child not the system or school, and no I don't work for nor did I attend a Birmingham city school

[projectmaximus]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

You know, I kind of was with you until I encountered this term. It's always rankled me as a dishonest one, a grotesque simplification coined to feed the moral vanity of some. Every time I hear someone say it, my instant response is, "So. What inner city public school do your children attend?" I've yet to get a satisfactory answer.

I'll choose to respect your opinion. But my statement had nothing to do with the motivations or intentions of any race moving out of the city, it was just a universally accepted term to describe a particular phenomenon, to which you immediately understood I was referring. Success.

[Hamtonfordbury]

I think it would put things into context to include counties in North-Central Alabama, which include at least half a dozen satellite cities to Birmingham.

Shelby Co. (Alabaster) - 195,085
Tuscaloosa Co. (Tuscaloosa) - 194,656
Jefferson Co. (metro Birmingham) - 658,466
Blount (Oneonta) - 57,322
Cullman Co. (Cullman) - 80,406
St. Clair Co. - 85,593
Etowah Co. (Gadsden) - 104,430
Calhoun Co. (Anniston) - 118,572
Talladega Co. (Talladega, Sylacauga) - 82,291
Walker Co. (Jasper) - 67,023

This would boost the total up to 1,643,844 within 50-60 miles of Birmingham. I didn't include small counties like Bibb. If you add those, it's more like 1.7M in a 60 mile radius. Two-fifths of the state population is wrapped around Birmingham.

This is probably why pro football teams always did well in Birmingham. I think if Nashville can support the Titans, Birmingham can definitely support an NFL-level team. I think an NBA team is a given. MLB is a little harder, due to the number of games and games being played in the Southern summer on weekdays and weeknights.

While it isn't as historically rich as New Orleans, culturally influential as Nashville or Orlando, or massive as Atlanta or Miami, I always thought of it as a major southern city.

[virginian101]

Originally Posted by Hamtonfordbury

I think it would put things into context to include counties in North-Central Alabama, which include at least half a dozen satellite cities to Birmingham.

Shelby Co. (Alabaster) - 195,085
Tuscaloosa Co. (Tuscaloosa) - 194,656
Jefferson Co. (metro Birmingham) - 658,466
Blount (Oneonta) - 57,322
Cullman Co. (Cullman) - 80,406
St. Clair Co. - 85,593
Etowah Co. (Gadsden) - 104,430
Calhoun Co. (Anniston) - 118,572
Talladega Co. (Talladega, Sylacauga) - 82,291
Walker Co. (Jasper) - 67,023

This would boost the total up to 1,643,844 within 50-60 miles of Birmingham. I didn't include small counties like Bibb. If you add those, it's more like 1.7M in a 60 mile radius. Two-fifths of the state population is wrapped around Birmingham.

This is probably why pro football teams always did well in Birmingham. I think if Nashville can support the Titans, Birmingham can definitely support an NFL-level team. I think an NBA team is a given. MLB is a little harder, due to the number of games and games being played in the Southern summer on weekdays and weeknights.

While it isn't as historically rich as New Orleans, culturally influential as Nashville or Orlando, or massive as Atlanta or Miami, I always thought of it as a major southern city.

That's not how MSA's work.

[Tourian]

Most if not all of those counties (Etowah, Tuscaloosa, Calhoun) will probably be added to our CSA by the next census. Talladega was the most recent addition this year.

Originally Posted by projectmaximus

I'll choose to respect your opinion. But my statement had nothing to do with the motivations or intentions of any race moving out of the city, it was just a universally accepted term to describe a particular phenomenon, to which you immediately understood I was referring. Success.

Yeah I see your point but it is a term tossed around by a lot of people who don't understand what it means, what they are implying web they toss that term out. To most it means the rich white people packed up to move away from the scary poor black people that brought crime and despair in to their communities. But the real story is that FOR SOME families it was because they were forced to be bussed to distant schools for integration.
That's a big difference with major connotations.

To ignore this is to condone ignorance and further racism.

[Hamtonfordbury]

Originally Posted by virginian101

That's not how MSA's work.

CSAs and sectional populations do work that way. The official CSA includes Cullman and Talladega, but you could just as easily include Tuscaloosa and Gadsden. Birmingham has a sizeable number of satellite cities accessible by interstates. 60 miles at 70-80 MPH is less than an hour. They are all in the same TV market. Gadsden arose up along side Birmingham in Alabama's industrial boom, and Tuscaloosa grew because of the University of Alabama, which gets many of its students from the Birmingham area. Tuscaloosa is closer to Birmingham than Athens is to Atlanta - about 50 crow-fly miles.

[Mutiny77]

We must also remember that "white flight," as it has been termed, was the result of deliberate policy decisions that encouraged suburbanization via low-interest FHA loans (which were largely denied to Blacks), the development of the interstate highway system, and the deindustrialization of urban cores all across the country coupled with urban renewal and the creation of public housing projects. It was a recipe for disaster for our cities and we're still suffering from those bad decisions made decades ago.

[virginian101]

Originally Posted by Hamtonfordbury

CSAs and sectional populations do work that way. The official CSA includes Cullman and Talladega, but you could just as easily include Tuscaloosa and Gadsden. Birmingham has a sizeable number of satellite cities accessible by interstates. 60 miles at 70-80 MPH is less than an hour. They are all in the same TV market. Gadsden arose up along side Birmingham in Alabama's industrial boom, and Tuscaloosa grew because of the University of Alabama, which gets many of its students from the Birmingham area. Tuscaloosa is closer to Birmingham than Athens is to Atlanta - about 50 crow-fly miles.

Just because they're in a 60 mile radius at 70-80 MPH doesn't mean you can throw them into the Birmingham MSA, which is what you originally did. Just about any MSA could add towns within the same radius to the MSA population... but that's not how it works.

[birminghamster]

Originally Posted by virginian101

Just because they're in a 60 mile radius at 70-80 MPH doesn't mean you can throw them into the Birmingham MSA, which is what you originally did. Just about any MSA could add towns within the same radius to the MSA population... but that's not how it works.

CSA, not MSA. And MSA's don't decide who's in their MSA; the Census Bureau does.