Heads and tales: Making progress

Your place and mine: Birmingham Realtors sold a record 16,715 houses in 2005, worth $3.23 billion. The region with the biggest jump in sales from 2004 to 2005? The northern area, including Gardendale and Warrior, with a near 40-percent increase.
• Home sales hit record, average cost up in 2005 [Birmingham News]

Taking off: The Birmingham International Airport accommodated a record 3.1 million travelers in 2005. December was the airport’s 15th consecutive month of growth (not 15 years, as erroneously reported in the story/headline). The previous record was 3 million passengers in … 2001, when the 9/11 attacks crippled the travel industry.
• Birmingham airport reports 15th straight year of growth [Birmingham Business Journal]

Southside’s spiffy space: A popular festival venue is nearly done with its renovations. Caldwell Park — home to Do Dah Day, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra summer series, EarthFest and theater productions — has better drainage and new lights and handrails, with new picnic tables, benches and trash cans on the way. Cost: $220,000.
• Caldwell Park’s Face Lift Almost Complete [Black and White]

Incentive invoice: Progress comes at a cost. In Alabama, that cost is nearly $5 million, but money well spent. The Legislature is working on paying the incentives promised to industries, but it has helped the state make big leaps in jobs and productivity. One economist said, “This is the kind of forecast I’ve been waiting 30 years to give you. Our state economy is vibrant. It is dynamic and it is growing.”
• State owes almost $5 million promised to lure new industry [Associated Press]

Also:

• Midfield pharmacist fills prescription for laughter, Lortab
• Skate punks ruin park experience for taggers, gang bangers
• Trees unite over sorrow for fallen highway brothers

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Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2006, 6:10 pm, in Headlines.
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