New York Times Article comparing Birmingham and Nashville (Hoover, Homewood: contractors, living in)

[Phil75230]

Birmingham's and (Jefferson Co's) best bets center around public renewal, asking for state and federal grants to help fund it, especially the initial stages. I'm only focusing on things government CAN do, fully aware that the intangibles beyond government control are every bit as important as the tangible, government-influenced things.

(1) Increase quantity and quality of education funding. Devote more funds to education funding in terms of both teachers salaries AND more rigorous curriculum.
(2) Higher-density middle class housing/mixed use areas, most likely downtown and toward the south side. Higher density mixed use encourages walking and less automobile use (less traffic and gridlock, less pollution, less CO2 emissions).
(3) Higher funding for cross-city/county public transportation...one light-rail along the most densely traveled corridor, more buses and more frequent and direct services for working class and working poor, so they can get to their jobs quicker and cheaper.
(4) Offer a tax holiday (well, holi-year) for new businesses (less than 1 year old) with less than 20 employees. Say, zero property taxes paid for the first 365 days of operation, 1/3 the standard amt of property taxes in the second year of operation, 2/3 the standard prop tax amt in the third year, and only at the end of the third year/start of fourth year would businesses of under 20 employees pay the full standard amount of property taxes.

As I said, there are certain intangibles that are at least as important as what government can do (namely the "vibes" of the city, how "fun" the city is, diversity of amenities available on an every-day person-to-person level that government's don't establish, how well people get along (not just on race matters). You can't achieve this via legislation or ordinances. That part is up to the people themselves, in all their hundreds of thousands of individual decisions.

[wardamnbham]

Cherokee48 is spot on here. A casual reading of history highlights willful actions taken against Birmingham. The most generous interpretation would be careless neglect. This attitude is as old as Birmingham itself and can be seen in major battles such as the location and scope of the UA Medical School (now UAB), recent interstate routes (the state initially supported a Memphis-Atlanta highway through HSV), gas tax distribution, voting representation, etc. Hopefully, this animus toward Birmingham will continue to thaw but the region's best bet at this point is regionalism. In other words, coming together and speaking with one voice, especially with regard to Montgomery.

[harry chickpea]

Moderator note:

I am not going to try to take sides in what has become a polarized personal fight. Instead, I am editing or deleting the engines of the fight, which are the various attacks, off topic posts and trolling; letting the dispute fall of its own weight as only data with proper cites and flat non-charged statements get allowed.

Post ONLY on the Birmingham subject matter. Orlando, New Orleans, and Nashville are not the subject of the forum. If you cite one of those cities in comparison, it needs to be a specific comparison with a cite to back it up. Posts that reference the words "pumpers", "bashers", or complain about negativism or positivism of posters will be deleted, regardless of other content.

[Rivka972]

I wonder to what extent the lack of a decent public transportation system has been preventing Birmingham from getting ahead as well as it could or should have?

[bfmx1]

Originally Posted by Rivka972

I wonder to what extent the lack of a decent public transportation system has been preventing Birmingham from getting ahead as well as it could or should have?

I think it could be argued that really good public transportation could have helped but I don't think Nashville's public transportation was any better and is still not stellar so there are alot of other factors involved and now we're to a point where we'll never be in the same league as Nashville and we need to just compete in our own league and do the best we can because there's a strong group of people who want that.

[cherokee48]

Originally Posted by Rivka972

I wonder to what extent the lack of a decent public transportation system has been preventing Birmingham from getting ahead as well as it could or should have?

Birmingham was certainly hurt over the past 2 decades by not having a very good transit system and I don't doubt that it was/is a turn off to potential residents and businesses that are or were interested in settling here and decide otherwise. The extent of the damage done by not having a very good system up to this point I would say is say is significant and potentially severe long term which is why this new era of transportation in Birmingham can be such a game changer for the city. Imagining what could have been and could still be(most importantly) if Birmingham had a system with this level of speed and efficiency 10-20 years ago and the opportunities that the city/metro might not have missed out on.

[MinivanDriver]

Originally Posted by Rafi_Salois

The problems with Birmingham should be glaringly obvious when compared to the trajectory of Nashville. They are certainly obvious to people and professional business people living outside the state and/or the region. The article seems to detail and describe obvious historical and economic and demographic differences. Some readers may not like the truth about the two different cities, but it is what it is, like it or not. Of course some people just can't deal with disagreement and different points of view I guess.

What the heck are you talking about? I think this thread is a positive discussion, warts and all.

[Chris_NorthHSV]

Birmingham is on it's way. All it takes is 1 generation to pull together and make your city one that attracts. Nashville has it's advantages. I used to work up there. They're 2 different cities with their own things going on. Birmingham has what it needs to make it though. Being farther south gives it an advantage weather wise over Nashville from the start, specifically in the winter time. Just keep pushing forward. This new generation taking the forefront will help.....

Alabama as a whole will benefit from the good things going on in the state. Companies from all over the world are setting up operations and have been for a few decades now.

[ColdAilment]

Originally Posted by Julio July

Very interesting article and very open and honest dialogue about Birmingham going on in this thread from the locals. I wish Memphis locals would be as open, honest, receptive, and self-reflective as the Birmingham locals seem to be in this thread, and then Memphis---a city with a lot of similar problems to Birmingham---might not be as far behind Nashville as it is today.

Given that Memphis used to be top dog in Tennessee I figured it might Garner a mention in the article, it seems to have similar issues to Birmingham, just a different economy.

[ColdAilment]

Originally Posted by Phil75230

Birmingham's and (Jefferson Co's) best bets center around public renewal, asking for state and federal grants to help fund it, especially the initial stages. I'm only focusing on things government CAN do, fully aware that the intangibles beyond government control are every bit as important as the tangible, government-influenced things.

(1) Increase quantity and quality of education funding. Devote more funds to education funding in terms of both teachers salaries AND more rigorous curriculum.
(2) Higher-density middle class housing/mixed use areas, most likely downtown and toward the south side. Higher density mixed use encourages walking and less automobile use (less traffic and gridlock, less pollution, less CO2 emissions).
(3) Higher funding for cross-city/county public transportation...one light-rail along the most densely traveled corridor, more buses and more frequent and direct services for working class and working poor, so they can get to their jobs quicker and cheaper.
(4) Offer a tax holiday (well, holi-year) for new businesses (less than 1 year old) with less than 20 employees. Say, zero property taxes paid for the first 365 days of operation, 1/3 the standard amt of property taxes in the second year of operation, 2/3 the standard prop tax amt in the third year, and only at the end of the third year/start of fourth year would businesses of under 20 employees pay the full standard amount of property taxes.

As I said, there are certain intangibles that are at least as important as what government can do (namely the "vibes" of the city, how "fun" the city is, diversity of amenities available on an every-day person-to-person level that government's don't establish, how well people get along (not just on race matters). You can't achieve this via legislation or ordinances. That part is up to the people themselves, in all their hundreds of thousands of individual decisions.

Do you really think any of those stand a chance at being passed in Birmingham? Birmingham is kind of small for a light rail, not saying I don't like the idea, but Nashville is almost twice the size and couldn't get it passed, but they need something, and are in a more serious predicament than Birmingham is.

I like the idea of higher density middle class housing, but Alabamians in general are not very fond of urban living, are they? Let alone C02 emissions that they produce. I know a certain part of the population is environmentally concsious and do believe we need more of them, but they have to be a pretty small percent of the population in Birmingham.