What do you think Birmingham look like in 10 yrs?? (Mobile: condo, school)

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by Southlander

They're moving it from Decatur. In Alabama.

So? They could have moved it to Houston or Austin. Moving it here is a big, fat signal that they plan on keeping operations in Birmingham, not moving them out west.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by Laocoön

Not true. It's only in the all-white elite communities that you find quiet streets and low crime in this country these days. That's reality. I live in reality, not some futuristic version of Brownboro, U.S.A. where everyone has finally cross-pollinated and learned to understand and tolerate everyone, and become fused into one monolithic ethnicity and culture.

I've sojourned in New York on the Upper East Side and Greenwich, CT, spent some time in Beverly Hills, and lived for a couple of years in Burlingame, California (SF Bay Area). I also spent a year of college in La Jolla, California. These are the Mountain Brooks of their respective cities, and yet there's crime out the wazoo in all of them. Riff-raff roaming the streets, trash strewn everywhere, people speaking in weird tongues to themselves and rarely amongst each other. Rampant rudeness and abject meanness. Even in La Jolla, which was the most peaceful and utopian of them all. Gentile, at times. But in La Jolla we're talking assaults and muggings on a daily basis in and around town centers, surfer homicides with alarming frequency, and the routine dumping of bodies sometimes in tony residential areas. La Jolla, widely considered among the nicest neighborhoods in which to live in Southern California, is probably an entire grade less safer and less pleasant than even Homewood, AL.

You can't have it all, cpg. I'd rather be labeled a bigot and be safe and have pleasant encounters on the street than be popular among the politically correct and looking over my shoulder all the time.

Hah. You can't be serious. Then again, you're the same guy whose knees start knocking if you have to drive down to Forest Park.

[bluebeard]

Originally Posted by Tourian

I missed this the first time though. So you think this is the least modern looking large city in the state?

Why is a city better if it has more modern buildings anyway? What's with this obsession with newer, bigger, faster, more?
Personally, I think Savannah is probably the prettiest city in the country. Places like New York are considered architecturally rich not because they are only modern, but have a rich architectural history.
Meanwhile, with rare exception, Places in the West (including my hometown) and Sunbelt cities such as Atlanta are often just ugly.
Modernism and antique both can have positive qualities.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by bluebeard

Why is a city better if it has more modern buildings anyway? What's with this obsession with newer, bigger, faster, more?
Personally, I think Savannah is probably the prettiest city in the country. Places like New York are considered architecturally rich not because they are only modern, but have a rich architectural history.
Meanwhile, with rare exception, Places in the West (including my hometown) and Sunbelt cities such as Atlanta are often just ugly.
Modernism and antique both can have positive qualities.

A good example of that isn't even in the United States, but Canada. I went to Toronto last week, and saw block after block of glass and steel towers. The most generic large city I think I've ever visited.

[PortCity]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

A good example of that isn't even in the United States, but Canada. I went to Toronto last week, and saw block after block of glass and steel towers. The most generic large city I think I've ever visited.

I think downtown Birmingham has a healthy mix of old and new.

[PortCity]

Originally Posted by bluebeard

Why is a city better if it has more modern buildings anyway? What's with this obsession with newer, bigger, faster, more?
Personally, I think Savannah is probably the prettiest city in the country. Places like New York are considered architecturally rich not because they are only modern, but have a rich architectural history.
Meanwhile, with rare exception, Places in the West (including my hometown) and Sunbelt cities such as Atlanta are often just ugly.
Modernism and antique both can have positive qualities.

It’s funny that you mentioned that. When we visit family in Atlanta we enjoy seeing the glass structures. And when they come to Mobile for family reunions they enjoy riding around the historic districts.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by PortCity

I think downtown Birmingham has a healthy mix of old and new.

Yeah. Birmingham is really a showcase for some early 20th century architecture.

[Tourian]

Originally Posted by bluebeard

Why is a city better if it has more modern buildings anyway? What's with this obsession with newer, bigger, faster, more?

I don't know, ask mimpdaddy. I don't have an obsession I just don't think that Birmingham is the least modern looking of all the major Alabama cities. I like a mixture of old and new as well, one part Gotham one part Metropolis.

[sleepless in Bham]

At one time, I didnt see the need, nor use of some of the older buildings downtown and throughout the area. I usually called for places like these to be torn down. I didnt view them as historical gems as I do now. At the same time I do also enjoy look of modern, glass structures. Birmingham has a good mix of old and new.

[sleepless in Bham]

Bluebeard, I cant speak for others, but in my opinion now days our society is kinda geared toward bigger, faster, and excess. Why do you think most people my age (im 29) flock to cities like Atlanta, NYC, etc, etc. Im not saying there is nothing wrong with the slower pace and enjoying the little things in life, but places like Savannah, Mobile and even Bham are geared for those who are have settled down in life.