Why do people put down Birmingham, AL? (Mountain Brook, Fulton: 2013, violent crime)

[Iconographer]

To answer the question, it boils down to the fact that many posters on CD feel compelled to address a subject on which they have limited to no experience or knowledge. It applies to many threads I've seen on here, not just this one.
Birmingham is in my opinion a fine town. I'd be proud to call myself a resident.

[Mutiny77]

1) Civil Rights history
2) Alabama stigma
3) Lack of new downtown development (until relatively recently)

[JerseyGirl415]

Originally Posted by RunDMC

My opinion is that if you assume that people are racist despite no evidence of it then you are the racist. If you can read minds you ought to be making money off that skill rather than determining who is a covert racist.

Why? Brmingham is historically very racist. I don't doubt that there are lifelong locals who were alive before and during the Civil Rights Movement who are still racist, as well as their family members who may share their beliefs and were influenced by them. Assuming people are racist doesn't make one racist. It's not like we're picking people out of a crowd in Birmingham and saying - "you're racist!" Its just that it's likely there are people living there who are racist and have been for years, since Birmingham and the Deep South in general were badly segregated and deeply racist until just about 60 years ago or so. History like that doesn't just disappear in a few decades or one to two generations. Tensions may take much longer to recede. Hell, I think Newark, NJ is still a racial mess from the race riots in the 60s - and it's a northern city.

Anyway, I have genuinely never heard anything bad about Birmingham today.

[RunDMC]

Originally Posted by JerseyGirl415

Why? Brmingham is historically very racist. I don't doubt that there are lifelong locals who were alive before and during the Civil Rights Movement who are still racist, as well as their family members who may share their beliefs and were influenced by them. Assuming people are racist doesn't make one racist. It's not like we're picking people out of a crowd in Birmingham and saying - "you're racist!" Its just that it's likely there are people living there who are racist and have been for years, since Birmingham and the Deep South in general were badly segregated and deeply racist until just about 60 years ago or so. History like that doesn't just disappear in a few decades or one to two generations. Tensions may take much longer to recede. Hell, I think Newark, NJ is still a racial mess from the race riots in the 60s - and it's a northern city.

Anyway, I have genuinely never heard anything bad about Birmingham today.

Well nobody ever denied there are racists, there just aren't that many of them. I think people who are obsessed with racism are a type of racist, an Al Sharpton type of person. The racists today can't stop you from voting, from getting into a college, from getting a good job. They are not in positions of power, mostly lower income whites.

[DevanXL]

Crime is an issue as it ranks among the likes of Memphis and Detroit statistically.

[SouthernBoy205]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

I've passed through B'ham going from Jackson to Atlanta and the geography makes the city seem way smaller than it actually is. I mean, I really thought of it as a small town under 100K before looking up the actual population figure. Some of the suburbs in the hills do look pretty nice for a southern city.

Actually, Birmingham feels bigger than its true size. The hills add so much beauty to the area.

[isawooty]

Originally Posted by DevanXL

Crime is an issue as it ranks among the likes of Memphis and Detroit statistically.

Atlanta was once amongst the most dangerous city in America. Yes it's larger but by comparison, Columbus-Phenix City is a third of the size of Birmingham with a comparable crime rate. It shows much worse there than Birmingham. I've never felt unsafe in B'ham the way I do in Columbus. Jefferson County is massive so crime isn't widespread. It's very concentrated in certain areas, from my experience. I also never feel unsafe in Atlanta unless I'm deep in SWATS or the Westside. No where else, except Clayton County. But again, that's just to say crime stats sometimes carry more weight than necessary IMHO.

[isawooty]

Originally Posted by Aficionado

Now this I do agree with. Problem is, the average person who passes through, or even visits just to check things out aren't aware that there's even a reason to cross Red Mountain headed south. They usually take 20-59 straight through to Atlanta, and see plenty of ghetto much of the way. To drive that same distance along 459 versus 20-59 is like night/day.

To be brutally honest, Birmingham needs some serious inner city gentrification efforts. Most of the homes in the core (that one would see along that 20-59 stretch) are ghetto, and shot-out looking... that's just the truth. Once you cross Red Mountain, it's like a utopia compared to the inner-city neighborhoods. It's truly a city with two totally different personalities.

I co-sign all of this. But what Birmingham does have is a true urban core. I love to see Southern cities with expansive urban cores.

[IndieIndy]

Originally Posted by isawooty

They're, you mean? And in Birmingham?

I'm black and I've never once gotten an inkling of a sign of racism while I was in there. I actually have a friend that I went school with and is a family practitioner there. He's black as well. He's never had a problem either.

I'm not attacking you but simply asking... Have you visited or are you just making assumptions?

If you`re going to correct someone do it right, it should be "there are".

[RunDMC]

I've always thought white-black relatons were better in the south just b/c there are more blacks in the south and white and black kids grow up with each other. I bet you find more racists in lily white states like Vermont than in the south.