Heads and tales: Population shifts
By Wade Kwon
Size matters: Birmingham is losing residents, but could it actually become second in size to … Montgomery? The latest Census update has some folks worried, especially with federal funding at stake. Birmingham has 231,483 residents, Montgomery has 200,127. The good news is that Montgomery is facing the same problem of shrinkage as residents flee to outlying suburbs. The bad news is that Birmingham hasn’t found a way to bring more people in to enjoy its soaring crime rate, declining schools and combative government. Those are the selling points, right?
• Population loss could cost Birmingham federal money [Birmingham News]
Bus start: Area officials are stumped. Why aren’t more people riding the bus? As part of a cooperative regional effort, they’re planning on surveying residents to find out why they don’t ride and what would attract them. Maybe we can help. They don’t ride because service is spotty and usually being cut back. Birmingham is designed as a car-friendly place, so it’s tough to get anywhere on time without a car. And more people won’t ride public transportation until the cost for using cars becomes prohibitively high — that means gas prices, traffic, parking costs/space and so on. Life just isn’t fare.
• Officials wonder why few ride buses [Birmingham News]
Asistencia telefónico: The phone book is getting an accent. A telephone directory in Spanish is headed to 50,000 homes and businesses in Birmingham and Columbus, Ga. Hispanics make up 2.2 percent of the state’s 4.5 million residents. But when was the last time you used a printed phone book?
• Spanish phone book gaining users, sponsors in Alabama [Birmingham News]
Counting rows: Fewer people went to see the Alabama Ballet, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Alys Stephens Center and Summerfest Musical Theatre last season. The organizations are reporting drops from 5 to 19 percent. Some groups are blaming competition from the 2005-06 attendance leader, “The Lion King.” (The Broadway show, not the cartoon film.) Other groups that saw attendance increases are Opera Birmingham and the Birmingham Museum of Art. “Hakuna matata — it means no audience …”
• ‘Lion King’ leads arts attendance numbers [Birmingham News]
Also:
- Trussville embraces cultural diversity of Purple Onion
- Fireworks stands peddle discount finger- and eye-removal kits
- Summer school cliques have second chance to shun outsiders
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Wednesday, June 28, 2006, 3:45 pm
The question about riding busses always seems to ignore a basic premise… does it fit into the local social fabric?
Bus and train systems are typically stable in communities where the local working environment is regimented — as in when a majority of the working population punches a clock and gets to work and/or leaves work at prescribed times and has _nowhere_ else to go but back home afterwards.
Yes, Birmingham remains a car-friendly town. It’s still a 15 minute trip to about anywhere, 10 minutes on Z-rated tires .