Langford proposes sales tax increase and doubling business license fees

[tedo420]

Larry's not dumb, I think he is just using this Fairfield, dog track stuff as a destraction so that the dome/BJCC location will be voted on/accepted more swiftly. Everybody agrees if we have to have a dome the BJCC is the place, but a dome out in Ensley would cause an uproar. So my thinking is that the BJCC site is going to be picked and the original opponents of the entire dome project/tax hike will quiet down because its at the BJCC and not in the ghetto.

[woob]

Larry's not dumb, I think he is just using this Fairfield, dog track stuff as a destraction so that the dome/BJCC location will be voted on/accepted more swiftly. Everybody agrees if we have to have a dome the BJCC is the place, but a dome out in Ensley would cause an uproar. So my thinking is that the BJCC site is going to be picked and the original opponents of the entire dome project/tax hike will quiet down because its at the BJCC and not in the ghetto.

[kayman]

ensley absolutely scares me as does fairfield.. I work near USS I have heard gunshots many times while at work.. right across the street from where I work. Driving through ensley is sad because it consists of a once great business district and a bunch of burned out frames of old homes.. why are those burned homes still standing?

[kayman]

The more I think about, the more I think that building a 60,000 seat dome is just plain dumb right now, ESPECIALLY if it gets built out on John Rogers Drive instead of downtown.

If you've passed the taxes to issue $500 million in bonds, what about doing this instead?

Invest $200 million in completely overhauling Legion Field with new locker rooms/luxury boxes/seating/facade and parking. Spend $150 million on a new 25,000 seat arena for the BJCC with enough floor space for major conventions/trade shows. Put another $100 million into a new AA/AAA baseball park next to the Railroad Reservation Park downtown and bring back the Barons. Then divide the remaining $50 million between the zoo's proposed new exhibits, Sloss furnace's proposed new welcome center, and Rickwood Field's proposed museum and renovations.

For the same amount that it would take to build a huge white elephant in the outskirts of town that would be used (MAYBE) 12 times a year, you could make a huge impact on Legion Field, the BJCC, the RR Park, Sloss, Vulcan and the Zoo and do a heck of a lot more good for the city.

[Alabadrock]

That's probably the wisest thing he could do with that propose $500M bond, and I've been recommending the revitalization of Legion Field and the surrounding Graymont neighborhood for a while now. Along with the constructing of a new BJCC Arena or total retrofitting of the current one with 20-50 luxury boxes/skybox suites. We should be taking a note from New Orleans and Raleigh and just expand our current convention center with bigger exhibition halls.

Unfortunately, Langford has listened way too much to uninformed and outdated convention/sport facility information of whoever. However, I'm thinking it is the vocally-reprehensible John Rogers among other characters. In addition, word on the street is he allegedly isn't even pulling the strings with his own administration, so that is why the "dome" plan is going through regardless.

[woob]

Ensley's crime rate has actually went down and is one of the safer areas in the western part of the city. Now if this was still the 1990's when it was downright abhorred then I would understand as my late grandmother used to live in Ensley. Ensley is actually experience the beginnings of a major revitalization, more neighborhood involvement (hence the increasingly high turnout for the Tuxedo Junction Jazzfest in July since the festivals inception in the early part of the decade), and conditions there has seen some major improvements in the past few years. There is a project in the works to built $100-150K single-family house there among other new developments there. The only major crime that has occurred in the past year in Ensley was the robbery of the America's First Credit Union branch back in the summer.

If anything you should be more scared of Wylam, Central Park, Roosevelt City, Graymont, Titusville, Powderly, and Wenonah, all of which have seen their crime rates accelerate since 2000.

Fairfield isn't dangerous either, it is one of the safest municipalities in the metro (where my other set of grandparents lived). Fairfield is a well-patrolled municipality with a police chief with zero-tolerance for any type of crime. Its crime rate is actually lower than Irondale, Leeds, Moody, and Tarrant City (all of which are municipalities of similar size). If you are hearing gunshots that parts of Birmingham nearest to US Steel is actually not Ensley, but Wylam. So your assumption of those 2 areas being very dangerous are quite unsubstantiated. I practically grew up around those areas, and are quite familiar with their crime patterns.

[kayman]

If the revitalization along with increased police patrols are there, yeah people would go to Legion Field to watch any sports event. The Graymont community is basically an area of shotgun houses that are in dire need, so if the houses are razed and the area made into a stadium district with a police substation.

[Dystopos]

I like that to.. but the crime problem won't go away on its own.

[Dystopos]

...and I cannot see the council approving any location for a dome other than at the BJCC. Anywhere else would be absurd for such a facility...

[zen509]

Langford knows how to get what he wants. Prior to approving the tax plan several of the members of the City Council acted as if they were going to require Langford to provide the details before they approved a plan that is going to have such a strong impact on this city, be it positive or negative. Langford responded by chastising these council members in public and portrayed them as if they were an opponent to the progression of this city when really they were just acting responsibly. I believe this city is suffering from tunnel vision right now and everyone is so focused on something, anything, being done that they probably haven't actually considered that their may be alternatives that will better serve the city. Many of the council members who had reservations about approving this plan probably felt pressure from their constituents to approve this, especially after Langford called them out, and did what was popular instead of doing what was responsible. I guess that's politics.

[woob]

wow Larry Langford is some peice of work... who the heck elected this guy?