Birmingham, Alabama. Opinions? (Cahaba Heights, York: medical, college, diversity)

[bluebeard]

Oh, and Cahaba Heights cosmopolitan? *snicker* All I can say is "Wow."

This was corrected from the earlier:
Oh, and Cahaba Heights metropolitan? *snicker* All I can say is "Wow."

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by bluebeard

While it is an overgeneralization, it's totally not nonsense. Time and time again people talk to me assuming that I Christian, or that not only enjoy football, but know and care about the area's college football teams. I am in academics, so I'm hardly exposed to a population thats more pro-Christianity or pro-football than the rest of Birmingham and Alabama. Are there others out there? Of course. Do you hang out with people that don't talk about football incessantly? I'm sure you do. But I estimate them at less than 20% of the population.

I'm not in academics, but our friends and acquaintances hardly spend every waking moment thinking about football. That being said, come football season, they certainly enjoy it, but that's really not a bad thing.

On the religious front, I can say with absolute certainty that I don't have people continuously babbling at me about their faith. Probably because I cuss a lot and can generally be found holding a martini glass in one hand. Nevertheless, it does not seem to be a constant subject of discussion--or even an occasional one. Then again, I'm not particularly threatened by the subject, either.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by bluebeard

Oh, and Cahaba Heights metropolitan? *snicker* All I can say is "Wow."

Ah. We have a snob on our hands, I see. Who exactly are you making fun of there?

[bluebeard]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

Ah. We have a snob on our hands, I see. Who exactly are you making fun of there?

I'm making fun of anyone who thinks that Cahaba heights is cosmopolitan. If that makes me a snob, than so be it.
hehe: look at a definition of cosmopolitan:
"a person who is free from local, provincial, or national bias or attachment; citizen of the world; cosmopolite."
Too me, cosmopolitan means wordly. Cahaba heights is about as undiverse and unworldly as a place can get.

That's another to count on around here. Easily hurt pride and anti-intellectualism. I knew it was only a matter of time before I got attacked for being a "snob" or "elitist". As for me, I wear the brand with pride. I am an intellectual snob. No, I don't think it's a good think for my kid to think that being a football player or cheerleader is the highest role one can achieve in high school. The biggest dupe many people in this country have bought into is that being educated puts you out of touch with the population. Somehow even a fair number of educated people believe this. And then they wonder why our school systems suck. How many countries think its a good thing to elect a frat-boy to the White house?
I'm not saying anything's wrong with football or church. I have friends back home that are into both. But there are a huge number of people that are obssessed with both, and a fair proportion of people I meet ASSUME I am too. I don't like people being presumptuous

[bluebeard]

Oh, one more positive. For some reason, I've always loved the Southern accent. Northeastern accents are fun and all, but I wouldn't say they sound good. The Southern accent, whether country or not, definitely has some charm for me.

Oooh, the houses too. Birmingham has some beautiful houses in the older neighborhoods. Unfortunately, if you have a kid, you probably wouldn't live in those neighborhoods, since they are in the B'ham city limits. But you can actually buy a beautiful old house for a reasonable price.
I hate those new developments.

[bluebeard]

Originally Posted by Southlander

So true! And it's not nearly as bad in B'ham as in Decatur, Albertville etc. where the chicken processing plants are located.

Birmingham was awful when I was growing up...the steel mills producing thick yellow smog and smell.
But it's grown into a pretty nice town. Good shopping, a growing arts scene. It has some WONDERFUL historic buildings downtown that are wasting away. Yes, some have been salvaged but things seem to be at a standstill now.
But I would not mind at ALL living there, if we didn't have deep roots in Decatur.

And this is the new racism of the South. Oh no, we're turning into Mexico! Gimme a break.
Their driver's licenses are very telling. Under the label of "Race" (why does there even need to be a race category on it?) There are 4 categories:
W= White
B= Black
O=Oriental (I'm not joking)
X= Illegal Immigrant (I am joking.)
X=Other (I'm not joking.)

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by bluebeard

I'm making fun of anyone who thinks that Cahaba heights is cosmopolitan. If that makes me a snob, than so be it.
hehe: look at a definition of cosmopolitan:
"a person who is free from local, provincial, or national bias or attachment; citizen of the world; cosmopolite."
Too me, cosmopolitan means wordly. Cahaba heights is about as undiverse and unworldly as a place can get.

That's another to count on around here. Easily hurt pride and anti-intellectualism. I knew it was only a matter of time before I got attacked for being a "snob" or "elitist". As for me, I wear the brand with pride. I am an intellectual snob. No, I don't think it's a good think for my kid to think that being a football player or cheerleader is the highest role one can achieve in high school. The biggest dupe many people in this country have bought into is that being educated puts you out of touch with the population. Somehow even a fair number of educated people believe this. And then they wonder why our school systems suck. How many countries think its a good thing to elect a frat-boy to the White house?
I'm not saying anything's wrong with football or church. I have friends back home that are into both. But there are a huge number of people that are obssessed with both, and a fair proportion of people I meet ASSUME I am too. I don't like people being presumptuous

But you're totally cool with being presumptuous about others, right? Personally, I'm trying to figure out how Cahaba Heights came up in the thread to begin with.

Look, I have my masters degree, been printed in some fairly respected literary journals, read a well-received paper at a Chaucer conference, and am now a twice-published novelist (Strictly mid-list stuff, but hey), yet there are times when I'm simply not in the mood for Heidegger, Nietzsche, or Schopenhauer.

Given that you're apparently wet behind the ears, I'm going to offer you some advice. The world of academia is just as insular and just as closed-minded as a gaggle of Primitive Baptists on Snake-Handlin' Night on Sand Mountain. Apparently, basking in the reflected glory of your professors, you're suffering from a greater degree of chauvinism than the people you snicker at (By the way, did you really write the word 'Snicker'? Tell me you didn't). And just because you tune into The World every day at 3 p.m. on NPR does not make you an intellectual paragon. It makes you a person with a mild degree of curiosity about what goes on in Burkina Faso.

In fact, this may surprise you, but a great number of the people you disdain often are far more interesting and intellectually alive than the ink-stained wretches and scientists in the ivory tower where you toil. Just in the past year, I've made friends with the owner of a cement plant who raced in the Whitbread. I've met a woman whose paintings are sold in galleries (And recently featured in Art In America) in New York, but prefers living here. I know one prominent business owner who just returned from two months in The Sudan working in refugee camps with Doctors Without Frontiers. A tax attorney I know plays a right creditable blues guitar and does the occasional session work in Nasvhille. A video guy who shoots for the Colbert Report. And the list goes on and on. But in your haste to pigeonhole others as your cultural inferiors, you would look at the surface only and miss all that. And that's kind of a shame.

[bluebeard]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

But you're totally cool with being presumptuous about others, right? Personally, I'm trying to figure out how Cahaba Heights came up in the thread to begin with.

Look, I have my masters degree, been printed in some fairly respected literary journals, read a well-received paper at a Chaucer conference, and am now a twice-published novelist (Strictly mid-list stuff, but hey), yet there are times when I'm simply not in the mood for Heidegger, Nietzsche, or Schopenhauer.

Given that you're apparently wet behind the ears, I'm going to offer you some advice. The world of academia is just as insular and just as closed-minded as a gaggle of Primitive Baptists on Snake-Handlin' Night on Sand Mountain. Apparently, basking in the reflected glory of your professors, you're suffering from a greater degree of chauvinism than the people you snicker at (By the way, did you really write the word 'Snicker'? Tell me you didn't). And just because you tune into The World every day at 3 p.m. on NPR does not make you an intellectual paragon. It makes you a person with a mild degree of curiosity about what goes on in Burkina Faso.

In fact, this may surprise you, but a great number of the people you disdain often are far more interesting than the ink-stained wretches and scientists in the ivory tower where you toil. Just in the past year, I've made friends with the owner of a cement plant who raced in the Whitbread. I've met a woman whose paintings are sold in galleries (And recently featured in Art In America) in New York, but prefers living here. I know one prominent business owner who just returned from two months in The Sudan working in refugee camps with Doctors Without Frontiers. A tax attorney I know plays a right creditable blues guitar and does the occasional session work in Nasvhille. And the list goes on and on. But in your haste to pigeonhole others as your cultural inferiors, you would look at the surface only and miss all that. And that's kind of a shame.

Cahaba heights came from an earlier quote from another poster.

Congratulations on your achievements, and I agree that academia is insular. I never knew that people actually cared about being called Dr. or PhD or whatever until I came to academia. Few of my friends back home have graduate degrees and my best friend never finished college. However, I still maintain that Birmingham is not cosmopolitan. I am friends with people who have their children in the school system and they are definitely seen as outsiders because they are of a different culture. That's nice that some people have been to Sudan and all, but I am not being presumptuous when I'm saying that Birmingham, in general, is not cosmpolitan. While you may not be from here originally, you have also made a number of assumptions about me and my life experience(Which I suppose in a way supports your point: Presumptuous people are from all over).
It IS overly persumptuous to assume I'm Chrisitian. It IS overly presumptuous to tell me I "speak good English" because of the way I look, even though I was born and raised in the US.
Do we all assume? Yes. However, I'd say they do so against me more here than in other places. As I mentioned in the original post, maybe they do that other places as well, but that it bothers me more so here since I'm so much culturally different than others here. But it still bothers me.

[bluebeard]

Examples of "worldiness"
In a city with rampant, unplanned housing, mall, and strip mall developments (Hoover), opposition to a Muslim temple because of "traffic concerns".
In another nearby city, a Cinco de Mayo festival not allowed. How much you wanna bet that would have happenned were it for St. Patricks Day?

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by bluebeard

Cahaba heights came from an earlier quote from another poster.

Congratulations on your achievements, and I agree that academia is insular. I never knew that people actually cared about being called Dr. or PhD or whatever until I came to academia. Few of my friends back home have graduate degrees and my best friend never finished college. However, I still maintain that Birmingham is not cosmopolitan. I am friends with people who have their children in the school system and they are definitely seen as outsiders because they are of a different culture. That's nice that some people have been to Sudan and all, but I am not being presumptuous when I'm saying that Birmingham, in general, is not cosmpolitan. While you may not be from here originally, you have also made a number of assumptions about me and my life experience(Which I suppose in a way supports your point: Presumptuous people are from all over).
It IS overly persumptuous to assume I'm Chrisitian. It IS overly presumptuous to tell me I "speak good English" because of the way I look, even though I was born and raised in the US.
Do we all assume? Yes. However, I'd say they do so against me more here than in other places. As I mentioned in the original post, maybe they do that other places as well, but that it bothers me more so here since I'm so much culturally different than others here. But it still bothers me.

Okay, one woman meekly suggests Cahaba Heights is cosmopolitan and you feel compelled to shred her. I don't agree with her assertion but I also don't hold her in contempt either.