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Discussion: Birmingham's Progress and Sustainability


kayman

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The core problem with Birmingham is the people in governmental leadership positions there. Case and point, the mayor of Birmingham, Bernard Kincaid, he has done nothing in the last 7 years besides fought and bickered with the City Council over issues of power. The point of the Council is serve as the legislative branch of municipal government whereas he suppose to be the head of the executive branch. Checks-and-balances is philsophy that man's lacks.

Also people seem to antagonize Larry Langford, but he is a good leader. If it wasn't for the man there wouldn't be any Alabama Adventure (formerly Visionland). The people who seems to criticize him are the ones that support the oldheads like Mary Bucklew, Bettye Fine Collins, and Gary White. What have those 3 done for Jefferson County really, and what are they known for? Exactly, because they serve absolutely no purpose on the County Commission other than take up space.

On a legislative level, people like John Rogers are always derailing the wheels of progress because he is so selfish. They man does nothing for the region or his legislative district. He is so stuck on getting that dome expansion built at the BJCC, that he has filibuster every bill in the legislature on the floor for funding mass transit in Jefferson County. The suburban mayors and legislatures aren't any better because other than Waggoner, all of them don't care about the region's future. They seems to be so shortsighted and only care about their small area.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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Man...it is truly a shame that the Birmingham Region can't come together and agree on the future. Finally...someone at the top laid out the problem. Of course, Kincaid did not attend the meeting...but agreed with the governor...good one.

I'm so mad...I'm not sure what to say. The fact that the state had $50 million set aside for UAB....but gave it to South Alabama and UAH all because local legislative leadership could not agree. It is truly disgusting and paints the wrong picture to the rest of the world about the Birmingham Region......MAN!!!!!!!!!

Question:

Who is going to step up? and who needs to get out of the picture?

Riley assails city's lack of unity, vision

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/inde....xml&coll=2

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well there you go, no surprise as people on this forum and others have identified this problem years

ago. Kudos to the Governor for laying it out for everyone. Interesting that the mayor was not there???

When the Governor comes to town you make yourself available.

The question is it too late?

Doesn't have to be but a complete change of the guard is probably necessary.

Birmingham has the ball, don't fumble it.

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I've been saying this for YEARS. Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid knows his goose is cooked, so he has this "What the f*** ever" attitude. His arrogance was very evident with his fighting with the City Council over public servant pay raise. Councilwoman and former mayoral candidate Carole Smitherman or Jeffco Commissioner Larry Langford will step up to the mayor role in the election next year. Kincaid, Jefferson County Commissioner Bettye Fine Collins, and many inept suburban leaders are the reason this constant stagnation. None of those clowns want to sit down and cooperate and make the region progress. Instead they want moan and groan about losing power to somebody else over things like BWWB, BJCTA, BJCC, and the list goes on and on. Hints the "Too many chiefs and not enough Indians" mentality.

IMO, opinion if I see anybody as a true leader, it would be Larry Langford. The man has done more for the region than any politician has in the last 10 years. I still think many area governments officials don't like him 1) because he is black. 2) He is willing to speak his mind. 3)He has numerous ideas that many others haven't thought of first. Many government officials don't like the fact that they didn't think of most things like Alabama Adventures first.

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I've been saying this for YEARS. Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid knows his goose is cooked, so he has this "What the f*** ever" attitude. His arrogance was very evident with his fighting with the City Council over public servant pay raise. Councilwoman and former mayoral candidate Carole Smitherman or County Jeffco Commissioner Larry Langford will step up to the mayor role in the election next year. Kincaid, Jefferson County Commissioner Bettye Fine Collins, and many inept suburban leaders are the reason this constant stagnation. None of those clowns want to see down and cooperate and make the region progress. Hints the "Too many chiefs and not enough Indians" mentality.

IMO, opinion if I see anybody as a true leader, it would be Larry Langford. The man has done more for the region than any politician has in the last 10 years. I still think many area governments officials don't like him 1) because he is black. 2) He is willing to speak his mind. 3)He has numerous ideas that many others haven't thought of first. Many government officials don't like the fact that they didn't think of most things like Alabama Adventures first.

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Kincaid sues council on raises

Just another example of what is wrong with the current administration of mayor in the City of Birmingham. Kincaid is suing the council over his lose with the Jefferson County Personnel Board approval of the 15% raise for law enforcement and firefighters. He is wasting taxpayers money on a frevious lawsuit when it was legal for the council to override his veto with 2/3rd majority as written in the Mayor-Council Act of 1955. This man has to be the worst mayor in Birmingham history because under his administration the crime rate in Birmingham has skyrocketed with a lame duck police chief. :wacko: No wonder there is so much factionalism amongst the governments because look at this mess in City Hall.

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The amusement of the leadership void continues with the Birmingham City Council choosing to reappoint Anthony Barnes for the BWWB another term which violates the City Ordinance. This will just give the state legislators more reason to strip the City Council of the majority power it possesses to appoint members of the BWWB. In all honesty, I hope they do this very thing because they BWWB serves the entire region not just the City of Birmingham.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I think this thread should be revisited due the on-going problems at hand:

Building a better Birmingham

Bernard Kincaid

The Birmingham City Council reappointing of Anthony Barnes for a 3rd term as BWWB president while violating their own bylaws on term limits

Birmingham City Schools

The Birmingham Water Works Board (BWWB) in general

Jefferson County Commission

All this issues above were discussed in that articles, so let's have own discussion about how can these problems be alleviated.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am getting sick and tired of Birmingham's lack of creativity, especially in that darn, no-good, rotton picece of stone called city hall. If there is one thing the city, region, and state needs to do is turn the imaage of our state into one representing "The New South". Well, one asks how are we going to get this image out to the world? The city and state needs to bring as much as possiball attention to itself at one time. If there is one thing that can do that, its a major sporting event. Now, were not Chicago, Los Angeles, or Atlanta for that matter so just foget about The Olympics. But, there is always the Pan-American Games. Imagnine all the TV cameras, newspaper reports, sponcorships, and all the tourist, which means MONEY, MONEY, MONEY for the city. I'll be starting a new thread soon, with more on the possibilty of BIRMINGHAM 2015, THE PAN AMERICAN GAMES!!!

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Letter to editor

I couldn't have said this better myself. Birmingham area's leaders have continued to bicker and squandered the region's progress because there is "Too many chiefs and not enough Indians" mentality. We have leaders that continuous splice the region over issues that should have been long resolved that hidden in the Birmingham's monopolization of BWWB appointment process. Also how certain municipalities have constantly fought with Birmingham over or just opted to not participate in the creation and funding of the region public transportation system. Let's not forget the opposition of the MAPS plan which was lead by a group called RAPS who later proved to me a do-nothing lobbying group that further hindered the region's progress.

We are screwed up in the head around here. We need to get our heads out of the sand before we wind up as the "Detroit of the South".

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  • 1 month later...

Riley urges area leaders to unite or risk falling behind

Governor Riley once again was in Birmingham to urge area leaders to united under a cohensive regional plan or risk falling behind Huntsville and Mobile. He hit the nail on the head. Greater Birmingham is the largest region in the state, but also the most factionalized. We have more infighting over such simple matters, but when it comes to realizing the idiocracy behind this constant infighting only finger pointing results.

We all must stay on top of every move of ever public official in this region. Contact every official and let them know that you want them to support the key issue to helping this region progress as others have and to make it a economically and populous booming region. I'll be doing this myself starting with the Jeffco Commission and legislators.

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Group tackles health, area woes

This story explain some of Birmingham's biggest problems like lack of sidewalks in the rank amongst large metropolitian areas that are walkable. Birmingham ranked 266 out of 288. It also depicted how for the past 2-3 decades how we have chosen to pave our way out congestion on roadways. It also given a list of priorities the region must accomplish to achieve a high-ranking quality of life:

1. Transportation.

2. Education.

3. Employment.

4. Health Care.

5. Raising children.

6. Crime and drugs.

7. Information and Access to Services.

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  • 1 month later...

For long-term sustainability, I think the B'ham metro needs a major investment in transit. Elevated highways (280) or other bogus pavement schemes will have the same long-term effect as putting a band-aid over a melanoma.

Unfortunately, most of the metro residents don't seem to care. MAPS was voted down in the 90's and tens of millions of federal dollars were left on the table recently when area leaders couldn't come up with matching money. Senator Shelby was right to be livid over that one.

As the article posted previously clearly states, good leadership is desperately needed. A good leader could sell some of these ideas to a skeptical public.

I sincerely hope that Birmingham can find that kind of leadership, and soon.

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Well... alot of "sustainability" has to do with attitude. And traditionally, it's been that of a negative one.

But some encouraging news came out today. Jefferson County, by Census estimates, is no longer losing population. That's a welcome shot of encouraging news that I've been trying to tell people all along. You need only drive around a few minutes in this county to know that we're not losing folks at an alarming rate. Moreover, ALL SEVEN COUNTIES in Greater Birmingham saw population gains. From July 2005 to July 2006, Greater Birmingham grew by nearly 12,000. Today, the population of Greater Birmingham MSA is 1,101,127. The Greater Birmingham CSA is up around 1.2 million.

:thumbsup:

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It is great to see that Greater Birmingham is growing, and if this trend continues there will additional 100,000-200,000 inhabitants added to the metro area population by the 2010 Census count. That would bring that the region's population to 1.25-1.3M & 1.3-1.4M in the Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman CSA, and this is if Talladega and Tuscaloosa counties aren't added to the CSA.

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For long-term sustainability, I think the B'ham metro needs a major investment in transit. Elevated highways (280) or other bogus pavement schemes will have the same long-term effect as putting a band-aid over a melanoma.

Unfortunately, most of the metro residents don't seem to care. MAPS was voted down in the 90's and tens of millions of federal dollars were left on the table recently when area leaders couldn't come up with matching money. Senator Shelby was right to be livid over that one.

As the article posted previously clearly states, good leadership is desperately needed. A good leader could sell some of these ideas to a skeptical public.

I sincerely hope that Birmingham can find that kind of leadership, and soon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think there should be a "Take Pride in Birmingham" type of campaign kind of like there's the "Birmingham Pledge" against racism and prejudice where you get people to sign their name indicating their committment to taking pride in BIRMINGHAM. Get people to take pride in BIRMINGHAM. Put aside all the petty "I'm from Mtn Brook and they're from Vestavia" type of garbage that exists between just about every little suburb out there... you're all from Birmingham. I think that's held up progress in this city more than any other thing out there... and yes, I'd say that's probably been more damaging than our history/reputation of racism. I think people's inability to see the forest for the trees (ie, that we're all a part of the same greater city rather than a bunch of little independent municipalities fighting against each other for people, resources, and entertainment dollars) has really held back the kind of great potential this city has. I'm all for suburbs wanting what's best for themselves, but in the end, what's best for them is if everyone in Greater Birmingham would cooperate to achieve larger goals rather than trying to alienate folks based on race, politics, religion, or any other criteria.

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I think there should be a "Take Pride in Birmingham" type of campaign kind of like there's the "Birmingham Pledge" against racism and prejudice where you get people to sign their name indicating their committment to taking pride in BIRMINGHAM. Get people to take pride in BIRMINGHAM. Put aside all the petty "I'm from Mtn Brook and they're from Vestavia" type of garbage that exists between just about every little suburb out there... you're all from Birmingham. I think that's held up progress in this city more than any other thing out there... and yes, I'd say that's probably been more damaging than our history/reputation of racism. I think people's inability to see the forest for the trees (ie, that we're all a part of the same greater city rather than a bunch of little independent municipalities fighting against each other for people, resources, and entertainment dollars) has really held back the kind of great potential this city has. I'm all for suburbs wanting what's best for themselves, but in the end, what's best for them is if everyone in Greater Birmingham would cooperate to achieve larger goals rather than trying to alienate folks based on race, politics, religion, or any other criteria.
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add me to the list of inconsequential voices who have been bleating this song for as long as i can remember. my early posts on the bham forum were all full of piss and vinegar about birmingham's balkanization, its silly and unnecessary identity crisis / image 'problem', and all-around greatness of potential (key word: potential) if it can organize its fiefdoms.

in short, i agree, blazer.

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Unfortunately, the US Census Bureau has confirmed what we have all been suspecting.

Area's population growth trails

The numbers show that the Greater Birmingham area has only gain a net growth of 50K inhabitants in the past 6 years with 4.6% growth rate. This is compared to Huntsville-Decatur, who has kept up with the South's other much larger cities in percentage of growth at <10%.

"I think most of our leaders and residents understand that has probably been something 40 years in the making," Ball said. "We do need to work harder to be competitive. We have terrific assets. But we're not very good at getting the most out of them."

Ball said the metro area needs to develop public transportation, reduce the dropout rate and make other improvements in public schools. He said the state and region need to invest more in the University of Alabama at Birmingham in ways that foster jobs in technology and research.

"UAB has still not reached its potential."

--Charles Ball, Executive Director of the Greater Birmingham Regional Planning Commission

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Unfortunately, the US Census Bureau has confirmed what we have all been suspecting.

Area's population growth trails

The numbers show that the Greater Birmingham area has only gain a net growth of 50K inhabitants in the past 6 years with 4.6% growth rate. This is compared to Huntsville-Decatur, who has kept up with the South's other much larger cities in percentage of growth at <10%.

This type of news aggrevates me because people like the 3 Stooges on the Jeffco Commission are always trying to factionalize this region with their partisan BS. In addition, Kincaid and a******s like Miriam Witherspoon, Steve Hoyt, Roderick Royal are in City Hall killing every progressive idea for this place because their ignorance and selfishness. It bothers me how Birmingham is constantly missing out on so many good things because of its poor leadership.

There is also one thing that I keep hearing conflicting reports on is the Jeffco population between 2000-06. From the state estimates, Jeffco has grown, but from the US Census Bureau has lost ppl.

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Are you certain? What I thought was that they said we've still lost population from 2000 to 2006... but that from 2005 to 2006, we've gained. No matter the case, there are a LOT of signs that the area is really beginning to grow... in spite of incompetent leadership.
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