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Sure it can help, but not being the capital isn't a hindrance--which is what you imply when you say it is among Birmingham's problems. If you were to add Montgomery's metro population to Birmingham's, it would only be around 1.5 million--not much larger than it is now. And Montgomery has a little more going on besides state government so all of its population isn't even attributable to its status as the state capital.
Do you think Birmingham's image issues haven't been among its problems? That goes a much longer way towards describing its slow growth over the years than not being the state capital.
You seem to be significantly diminishing the benefits that come with being a state capital that Birmingham's missing out on. Capitals tend to be magnets that attract a ton of newcomers such as highly paid elected officials, lobbyists from all over the state / country, high profile business leaders, etc. This provides a huge boost to the local economy as these individuals will spend plenty of money lodging at local hotels and eating at local restaurants. State leaders are also under far more immense pressure to pour resources into their capitals that the cities otherwise wouldn't get as they want the first place lobbyists and business leaders see to be a good representation of the entire state.
For a mid-sized city like Birmingham, which (I do agree with) decent enough bones to potentially become an attractive place to live, having such a linkage to drive economic growth would be a boon for the city (just like it has in neighboring Nashville). For cities that lack such a linkage, a tone-deafness of sorts tends to inflict state leaders about the need to pour the appropriate resources into fixing the problems that affect said city, since they don't actually live and breath the problems the city faces on a regular basis, nor do the individuals who lobby them for favors (see Memphis).
As far as Birmingham's so-called "image issues," those "image issues" exist for very legitimate reasons. People, unless they're insane, don't just go around disliking a city for no reason. Birmingham has a lot of negative attributes going against it, such as its financial problems (as the county recently filed for bankruptcy), the lack of jobs (meaning good jobs) as I stated before, and its high crime rate (being one of the most dangerous cities in the US). Until those real problems are taken care of, the "image issues" will remain.
You seem to be significantly diminishing the benefits that come with being a state capital that Birmingham's missing out on. Capitals tend to be magnets that attract a ton of newcomers such as highly paid elected officials, lobbyists from all over the state / country, high profile business leaders, etc. This provides a huge boost to the local economy as these individuals will spend plenty of money lodging at local hotels and eating at local restaurants. State leaders are also under far more immense pressure to pour resources into their capitals that the cities otherwise wouldn't get as they want the first place lobbyists and business leaders see to be a good representation of the entire state.
For a mid-sized city like Birmingham, which (I do agree with) decent enough bones to potentially become an attractive place to live, having such a linkage to drive economic growth would be a boon for the city (just like it has in neighboring Nashville). For cities that lack such a linkage, a tone-deafness of sorts tends to inflict state leaders about the need to pour the appropriate resources into fixing the problems that affect said city, since they don't actually live and breath the problems the city faces on a regular basis, nor do the individuals who lobby them for favors (see Memphis).
You're vastly overstating the benefits of being a state capital. Practically none of things you mention are true for Montgomery, yet Birmingham has managed to become three times as large without being the state capital (not to mention the fact that Huntsville and Mobile are also larger and doing better than Montgomery). Nashville has a ton of other stuff going for it besides being the state capital that explains its recent boom and rise to prominence. For the third time, not being a state capital is not a "problem" for Birmingham. Charlotte, Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Seattle, Portland, NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc have all managed to become major cities without being state capitals and it would be extremely hard on your part to prove that Atlanta, Raleigh, Nashville, Austin, Denver, Boston, etc wouldn't have become major cities without becoming state capitals, especially since it's easy enough to see that factors like geographic location, the presence of major universities, corporate investment, tourism, etc have all played critical roles in making those cities what they are today.
Quote:
As far as Birmingham's so-called "image issues," those "image issues" exist for very legitimate reasons. People, unless they're insane, don't just go around disliking a city for no reason. Birmingham has a lot of negative attributes going against it, such as its financial problems (as the county recently filed for bankruptcy), the lack of jobs (meaning good jobs) as I stated before, and its high crime rate (being one of the most dangerous cities in the US). Until those real problems are taken care of, the "image issues" will remain.
Those are more recent issues; I'm mostly referring to its image issues related to the Civil Rights era which helps explain the relative lack of growth of the city over the past couple of decades. Do you think that has nothing to do with the fact that both Atlanta and Birmingham were around the same size prior to the Civil Rights era but in the decades afterwards, Atlanta pulled away? Or do you think Birmingham not being the state capital largely explains that disparity?
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Originally Posted by siratros
Atlanta pulled away simply BECAUSE of the bad bad civil rights image of Birmingham. Birmingham has yet to outgrow that image in its entirety, despite the locals who continue to bristle with indignation in claiming the city has completely transformed itself. I know, I lived in Birmingham, and Atlanta and several other cities...and was there 2 mos ago...nope, it still has vestiges of that bad bad image osrry to say..but it is changing...give it another 25 years or so.
It wasn't simply because of that. It was because Atlanta leadership (starting with Henry Grady and his bellwether 'New South' speech in 1886; Birmingham was fifteen years old at the time) has had a knack for dynamism and self-promotion that Birmingham decidedly lacked. Birmingham never looked beyond the inevitable decline of the domestic steel industry and their vulnerability to it. Atlanta also had the advantage of home-grown commercial juggernauts such as Delta, Coca-Cola, and later, Home Depot.
At the same time Birmingham was hitching its wagon to industrial Pittsburgh, Atlanta was doing the same with New York financiers. One star fell, the other rose.
The most quintessentially Southern: Birmingham and Memphis.
Also, quintessentially Southern (from the list):
Charlotte
Raleigh
Richmond
Hampton Roads
Jacksonville
Nashville
New Orleans
Louisville
Not quintessentially Southern:
Austin
San Antonio
There may be a couple of Texas towns on the Gulf Coast close to Louisiana that are "quintessentially Southern," but you're right--certainly not Austin or San Antonio. Their cowboy and Mexican influences far override any other regional culture.
I know, I lived in Birmingham, and Atlanta and several other cities...and was there 2 mos ago...nope, it still has vestiges of that bad bad image osrry to say..but it is changing...give it another 25 years or so.
The Boomer generation will have to be dead or at least succumbed to senility in nursing homes. There are still a lot of people who were on the wrong side of history back then still walking around and voting in Birmingham.
Atlanta pulled away simply BECAUSE of the bad bad civil rights image of Birmingham. Birmingham has yet to outgrow that image in its entirety, despite the locals who continue to bristle with indignation in claiming the city has completely transformed itself. I know, I lived in Birmingham, and Atlanta and several other cities...and was there 2 mos ago...nope, it still has vestiges of that bad bad image osrry to say..but it is changing...give it another 25 years or so.
I don't mean to oversimplify the issue; it wasn't only because of Birmingham's horrible image and Atlanta's more progressive image during that era, but that played a MAJOR role and as Iconographer alluded to, economic interests were related to that. The steel magnates discouraged other kinds of investment in Birmingham because they wanted to be the only game in town so Birmingham's horrible racial climate being on display for all the world to see worked to their advantage but ultimately to the city's disadvantage.
At any rate, I mentioned that because the city's Civil Rights-era image goes a much longer way towards explaining the slow growth over the years than Birmingham not being the state capital as citidata18 seems to argue--as if Montgomery has been some kind of boomtown in the last 30-40 years.
Atlanta pulled away simply BECAUSE of the bad bad civil rights image of Birmingham. Birmingham has yet to outgrow that image in its entirety, despite the locals who continue to bristle with indignation in claiming the city has completely transformed itself. I know, I lived in Birmingham, and Atlanta and several other cities...and was there 2 mos ago...nope, it still has vestiges of that bad bad image osrry to say..but it is changing...give it another 25 years or so.
1. You’re obviously a troll
2. You’re wrong
3. You might be over the age of 55
Birmingham has not only outgrew that “image,” it’s not even in the same spectrum as the perception most people on here want to believe. It’s funny because you only hear those type of perceptions coming from nutjobs on here lol; it’s so hard for you guys to accept that Birmingham, that had socialistic problems in the past, to become progressive and prosperous.
It’s 2018 for crying out loud, you’re acting like people are out here in the streets hurling rocks at Black Kids, lol stop it.
Birmingham’s graded a higher HRC Score than Memphis and Nashville, The Immigrant Community is largely embraced, The DNC wanted Birmingham to bid for the 2020 Convention. Come on now, stop spewing lies, it’s toxic.
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Location: St Simons Island, GA
23,462 posts, read 44,090,617 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by _OT
1. You’re obviously a troll
2. You’re wrong
3. You might be over the age of 55
Birmingham has not only outgrew that “image,” it’s not even in the same spectrum as the perception most people on here want to believe. It’s funny because you only hear those type of perceptions coming from nutjobs on here lol; it’s so hard for you guys to accept that Birmingham, that had socialistic problems in the past, to become progressive and prosperous.
It’s 2018 for crying out loud, you’re acting like people are out here in the streets hurling rocks at Black Kids, lol stop it.
Birmingham’s graded a higher HRC Score than Memphis and Nashville, The Immigrant Community is largely embraced, The DNC wanted Birmingham to bid for the 2020 Convention. Come on now, stop spewing lies, it’s toxic.
Birmingham really does not deserve that image anymore. What is does deserve is a lot more credit than it receives.
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