Lowest Major Metro Unemployment -- April 2021

[mcalumni01]

What need to happen to make a consolidated population happen in Jefferson County. Not a consolidated government, just the population. Each city keep their government, but consolidate the population together to form a Birmingham-Jefferson census title. I would think 659K looks more appealing than 212K when recruiting ecomomic developments for the area. Do anyone really think the city of Jacksonville, FL is 900K, Memphis is 650K, Columbus, OH is 892K, Nashville is 692K or Oklahoma City is 649K looks the part of having those numbers.

This is about the population status. Not about schools or government. If the mayors can come to an agreement on working together as one for all of Jefferson County, let's work together as one name under the Birmingham-Jefferson population title to attract even more businesses and perhaps more entertainment events to the county.

[Surge0001]

Originally Posted by mcalumni01

What need to happen to make a consolidated population happen in Jefferson County. Not a consolidated government, just the population. Each city keep their government, but consolidate the population together to form a Birmingham-Jefferson census title. I would think 659K looks more appealing than 212K when recruiting ecomomic developments for the area. Do anyone really think the city of Jacksonville, FL is 900K, Memphis is 650K, Columbus, OH is 892K, Nashville is 692K or Oklahoma City is 649K looks the part of having those numbers.

This is about the population status. Not about schools or government. If the mayors can come to an agreement on working together as one for all of Jefferson County, let's work together as one name under the Birmingham-Jefferson population title to attract even more businesses and perhaps more entertainment events to the county.

I'm not sure if I follow, need more information

[mcalumni01]

Originally Posted by Surge0001

I'm not sure if I follow, need more information

Just a simple thought. Nothing more.

[BamaDave]

Actually, most of those cities/metros have higher urban populations and population densities than Birmingham. In 2010, Memphis had an urban population of just over 1M, whereas Birmingham was 750K. So 33% higher. To me, Memphis has a significantly larger feel than Birmingham, and I'm sure that is why. Nevertheless, as you are saying, that population figure of just over 200K makes the city sound much much smaller than it really is and opens us up for the press reporting about how Huntsville is poised to take over as the largest city in the state (urban population of 290K in 2010, so not even remotely comparable).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...es_urban_areas

[TimCity2000]

Originally Posted by mcalumni01

What need to happen to make a consolidated population happen in Jefferson County. Not a consolidated government, just the population. Each city keep their government, but consolidate the population together to form a Birmingham-Jefferson census title. I would think 659K looks more appealing than 212K when recruiting ecomomic developments for the area. Do anyone really think the city of Jacksonville, FL is 900K, Memphis is 650K, Columbus, OH is 892K, Nashville is 692K or Oklahoma City is 649K looks the part of having those numbers.

This is about the population status. Not about schools or government. If the mayors can come to an agreement on working together as one for all of Jefferson County, let's work together as one name under the Birmingham-Jefferson population title to attract even more businesses and perhaps more entertainment events to the county.

not sure you can consolidate population without consolidating governments, right? for instance, let's say fairfield merged with birmingham. i assume in that instance, fairfield would lose its mayor (since it wouldn't be its own city anymore) and government.

Nashville-Davison County is one single government entity, correct?

[MinivanDriver]

I think you will never have a combining of school districts. At least not while I'm alive. Too many bureaucracies and entrenched interests on both sides of Red Mountain. However, there is already movement towards consolidating things like garbage pickup and other services to achieve economies of scale. Maybe everybody will behave like adults.

[OldBankhead]

Let's face it, school districts define property values which is what they want to protect. If they could find a way to conserve that and redefine each city as a fiefdom or hamlet or whatever the "haves" prefer, then it would be great to combine all of it into one pot of population. Getting Birmingham to ~600k population should hold the Trash Pandas off a few months.

[BamaDave]

Birmingham really is heavily subdivided for a city/metro of its size. I can remember as a map/geography nerd-kid back in the late '70s looking at my Rand McNally atlas and wondering why the area had so many separate suburban towns and cities compared to Memphis, where I lived at the time.