The grandmas on the
block like to dress scarily
for shakes and giggles.

• • •

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Photo: Fiesta (reprinted with permission)

Dancers entertain the audience at Fiesta in Linn Park. Cultural festivals showcase the diversity and the stories of Birmingham’s communities.

•

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Details at the end.

•

By Teresa Zúñiga Odom

“Festivals ask the audience to be a player, a protagonist, a partner, rather than a passive spectator.”

— David Binder, Broadway producer in his 2012 TED Talk

So many exciting festivals in Birmingham each year draw diverse attendees: Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), the Chinese New Year Festival, Sidewalk Film Festival, the Taste of 4th Avenue Jazz Festival, Oktoberfest. We brought our own event into the mix in 2002.

At the time, I was a board member of the Hispanic Business Council, part of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (now the Birmingham Business Alliance). A few of us were looking for a way to raise scholarship money for Hispanic students in Alabama. A business idea quickly turned into a nonprofit event when we realized how many misconceptions people had about the Hispanic community, from both a business and a societal perspective. That discussion gave birth to Fiesta, the state’s premier Hispanic cultural festival.

The Hispanic population in the Birmingham region was exploding, but the myth was that everyone who speaks Spanish was from Mexico, ate tacos and listened to mariachi music. Creating a festival got our creative juices flowing on ways to educate the non-Hispanic community about the many cultures of Alabama’s Latino community in a relatable way.

Every diverse group experiences misperceptions and struggles with finding ways to explain them to others. For the founding board members, the idea of educating others about these misperceptions through Fiesta compelled us. We felt like a mini-Hispanic United Nations.

Today’s festivals celebrate diversity and multiculturalism. Everyone involved in Fiesta takes pride in pulling it together each year and gathering feedback from all groups to improve it constantly. Putting on the event has had some unexpected benefits in its 13-year history.

One section of Fiesta is the Cultural Village, where booths each represent a country with personal artifacts, food and music. To me, this is the most colorful part, the corazón (heart) of the event. The number of people who experience the stories of these Latino community members never ceases to amaze me.

I especially love hearing conversations with a true give-and-take. One year, I overheard a young woman speaking to the gentleman who pulled the Peruvian booth together. She recounted her visit to the Incan citadel Machu Picchu, only to discover that he had never been. She couldn’t believe it, and he asked her if she had ever visited the Statue of Liberty.

Her face changed, growing a little embarrassed as she said no. A few seconds later, they were both laughing and talking about assuming things and sharing more stories about Peru, travel and culture. This scene is typical. Educating through stories is a valuable part of festivals.

Fiesta and other festivals in our city prove to us how great we can be as a community. Find your festival, and let it give you hope. Share your story, and listen to others. Dance, eat and laugh together. Do your part in positively shaping the diversity of Birmingham.

• • •

Teresa Zúñiga Odom is an energy expert training coordinator at Alabama Power, a blogger at Southern Señora and a founding board member of Fiesta.

• Website | Facebook | Twitter @TeresaZOdom | LinkedIn | Instagram

• • •

The full version of this essay and many more are available in the free ebook, “The Future of Birmingham.”

All you need to do is fill out this simple form. We’ll email you a link to download the book. (And, at no extra charge, we’ll add you to the mailing list for the free Y’all Connect newsletter.)

• • •

Read more essays in our special 10th anniversary series, The Future of Birmingham.

My jukebox: YouTube.
My photo album: Facebook.
My memory: Shot.

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Photo: Max Wolfe (CC)

The UAB campus is likely to grow in the coming years,
becoming even more prominent on Birmingham’s Southside.

•

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Details at the end.

•

By Chris Mitchell

Is there a more intimidating prospect than predicting the future?

If I had been asked 5 years ago, I would have written a scathing missive about how Birmingham would continue to slowly crumble, the pieces doled out among ever increasingly bloated suburbs. Despite the positivity I have today, that is still happening. But much less so now.

It’s not the same city it was. Or I’m not the same man. I’m 40 and have an 8-month-old daughter.

Enough of this, Chris. Tell us what’s going to happen.

Here are some things I believe will occur:

Prediction No. 1: UAB will continue to swallow more of Southside. The footprint of the school from which I graduated in 1999 has probably doubled. I expect this growth to continue, mainly because they print money in one of those labs.

Prediction No. 2: The completion of I-459 with the Northern Beltline will be a success. It will be ridiculously expensive and probably destroy something beautiful, but it will create commerce and jobs … and more sprawl.

Prediction No. 3: We will never have a decent newspaper again. No one is mad about it any more, unfortunately. Whatever goes on in our city that the 10 people who work for al.com don’t see is now lost. I worked in local TV news for 12 years. Every morning, the newsroom would open the paper and decide what to cover that day. A weak paper means weak TV news.

Prediction No. 4: Hoover will eventually be as big as Birmingham by gobbling up the countryside. Its population sits at 80,000, while Birmingham is at 212,000. Hoover is not a defined thing; it’s a confederation of neighborhoods, which is incredibly attractive to a lot of people. As my daughter gets to an age where I have to worry about schools and such, I’ll probably be one of them.

Prediction No. 5: Someone amazing will come from here. I don’t know how, but it will.

Prediction No. 6: Birmingham will never outlive its reputation of racism and bigotry. Before we were born, some very bad men made us look awful, and the world will never forget.

Prediction No. 7: Birmingham will be overrun with murderous robots sometime after the second Civil War. It will be a real bummer. I wrote this in my first novel, “Independent Now and Forever,” which you can buy it on your Kindle [aff. link]. I kind of hope this invasion doesn’t happen, but I feel like it’s worth warning you about.

I don’t know what the hell is going to happen to Birmingham, though I have this “wind of positivity.” Will the next generation continue to fall in love with lofts and the rougher edges, seeing the challenge and aspirations they represent? I certainly hope so.

My time of taking those risks is over. All I think about now is how to put my daughter in an environment of safety and happiness.

The future of Birmingham is not my biggest concern any more. Good luck.

• • •

Chris Mitchell is managing editor of Bassmaster.com and is co-founder of the music blog BhamFM.com.

• Website | Facebook | Twitter @ditchell | LinkedIn | Instagram

• • •

The full version of this essay and many more are available in the free ebook, “The Future of Birmingham.”

All you need to do is fill out this simple form. We’ll email you a link to download the book. (And, at no extra charge, we’ll add you to the mailing list for the free Y’all Connect newsletter.)

• • •

Read more essays in our special 10th anniversary series, The Future of Birmingham.

Harvesting from the
candied apple tree, wearing
gloves and sneaking bites.

• • •

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A look at Birmingham in videos …

A look at Wine-o-logy during Birmingham Restaurant Week at the Wine Loft downtown. From P Marashi.

•

The 500th episode of the weekly webcast, “WeatherBrains”! From James Spann.

•

Randy and Anna Anderson visit Artwalk this past weekend. From Randy and Anna.

•

No Birmingham vlog, thanks to … Windows Vista. From HanBan Randoms.

•

Drone video captures lightning over Birmingham. From al.com.

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Adopt-A-Golden Birmingham teamed up with its Atlanta sister organization fly in 24 golden retrievers from Istanbul. From WVUA-23.

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Andrea Taylor introduced as president and chief executive officer of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. From Alabama NewsCenter.

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Samford student Ashley Lyon (along with suitemate Maggie Terp) created an inspirational video for her younger brother Jason, who was diagnosed in June with an inoperable brain mass and is undergoing cancer treatments. From Margie Terp.

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Promo for Birmingham Blaze tryouts on Sept. 26 at Carver High School. From T4Films.

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Modesty XO on the Birmingham city council raises. From Modesty XO.

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Save Our South sues the Birmingham Parks and Recreation Board and city council to stop the removal of the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors monument in Linn Park. From Save Our South.

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Ashley Roberts performs at Unity of Birmingham on Southside. From Unity of Birmingham.

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Interview with the Kellys, clients of Children’s Harbor Family Center. From United for Life Foundation.

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Wall cloud passes north of downtown Birmingham. “Rotation was weak to none, but sure looked impressive on radar.” From Jill Gilardi.

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Danny Hayes hits a solo homer for the Birmingham Barons. From Minor League Baseball.

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AJR, American Authors and Andy Grammer perform in August at Iron City on Southside. From Jojuan.

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Homewood’s ReVamp Health holds its first neon twerk fitness class. From Erin Doe.

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Avery Jones takes a day trip to McWane Science Center and the Birmingham Zoo. From insidemybrain.

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Promo for Bards of Birmingham nonprofit theater company. From Bards of Birmingham.

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Promo for “Great High Priest” EP from Grace and Peace Music at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Homewood. From Grace and Peace Music.

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Greater Birmingham Ministries staff members speak out to reporters on how increasing the minimum wage would improve the quality of life for citizens. From Greater Birmingham Ministries.

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Top White Sox prospect shortstop Tim Anderson in two Barons games versus the Montgomery Biscuits in August. From FutureSox.

•

Granny Hubcaps at RimTyme Birmingham in Roebuck. From RimTyme Birmingham.

• • •

Send us links to your videos. | More videos on the Birmingham channel.

Photo courtesy Carole Smitherman

Carole Smitherman served as Birmingham’s first and only
female mayor for 28 days. The city hasn’t seen many women
as CEOs and public officials in its history.

•

Get the full version of this essay in our free ebook.
Details at the end.

•

Women wield power, but in Birmingham, that power has almost always been by their deliberate seizure of it, rather than waiting for its bestowal.

We’ve never had an elected female mayor of Birmingham, and only one in Hoover. Only two of the 25 largest private companies in Birmingham have women in charge. Occasionally, a woman has led the Jefferson County Commission or the University of Alabama at Birmingham, otherwise known as the city’s (and the state’s) largest employer.

Birmingham could do worse than female rule. That’s not a ringing endorsement, but I’m willing to let them have a turn for the next 150 years to be fair. If it goes badly, it’s all on me.

We’d need to find a way to transition out all the men as civic leaders and CEOs, whether by board votes or armed coup. Ballots or bullets, I’m willing to spring for either or both.

Sure, it’s not a meritocracy. But if we’re seriously living in a meritocratic city, we have utterly and totally failed. Birmingham high schools have among the worst graduation rates in the state. The city’s unemployment rate is substantially higher than the state and national averages, as is the homicide rate. Transportation, economic development, infrastructure, stopping brain drain, urban planning — none of these are new issues, and yet we’ve seen very little progress in any of these areas.

Women may not have all the answers, but let’s give them a shot.

Assuming we don’t ship off all the male leaders tomorrow, an alternate plan may be in order. Several professional organizations in Birmingham cater to women, but education should be the starting point.

Birmingham schools started six career academies in 2011: architecture and construction, business and finance, engineering, hospitality and tourism, health sciences and urban educators. (I haven’t seen any numbers to indicate results to date.) I propose a seventh, the Women in Leadership academy.

This is an opportunity for female high school students to learn and grow in an environment designed to push them for maximum achievement. Students can partner with mentors, learn about paths to the top and practice the skills of effective leadership and management.

They might run for office someday. They might start their own companies. They might take over Google and Boeing and Starbucks and JPMorgan Chase. They might win James Beard Awards and Oscars and Nobel Prizes and MacArthur Genius Grants.

I’ll leave it up to the new superintendent of Birmingham schools, Kelley Castlin-Gacutan. Coincidentally, the first appointed female leader for the system.

Let’s make the future brighter for half of our population today, so it will shine even more so for all of us down the road.

• • •

The full version of this essay and many more are available in the free ebook, “The Future of Birmingham.”

All you need to do is fill out this simple form. We’ll email you a link to download the book. (And, at no extra charge, we’ll add you to the mailing list for the free Y’all Connect newsletter.)

• • •

Read more essays in our special 10th anniversary series, The Future of Birmingham.

It’s time for Hallo
weenThanksgivingVeterans
DayChristmasNewYear’s.

• • •

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Photo: Alabama Department of Transportation

An excavator loads Caterpillar 777 dump trucks along the
Northern Beltline. The project has a projected $2 billion impact
on the metro Birmingham area.

•

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•

By Johnathan F. Austin

You can see the future of Birmingham by the growing number of buildings and lofts emerging from the downtown skyline, and you can see it by the community revitalization projects.

But what is the blueprint for this remarkable city? Expansion in all areas of development and revitalization of the city’s neighborhoods, all sparked by the establishment of relationships at home and across the globe.

These relationships spawn innumerous opportunities. Just look at the lineup: the U.S. women’s national soccer team match; the Southeast U.S./Japan and Japan-U.S. Conference this fall; the Neighborhoods USA Conference in 2018; and the World Games in 2021.

These events change people’s long-held perceptions by letting them experience it first-hand and spread the gospel. That publicity is getting the attention of many companies. With the coming $530 million expansion of Kamtek, the potential growth for the aerospace industry at the Kaiser Aircraft Industries hangar complex at the airport, and the continuous development downtown, it is clear that Birmingham’s growth is expanding across all areas of business.

According to a University of Alabama study, the Northern Beltline will generate $2 billion in economic impact, nearly 21,000 jobs and $54 million in new tax revenue per year. The In-Town Transit Partnership and Bus Rapid Transit system will move residents and visitors around our city center with ease, convenience and reliability. This alone gives us hope for a better Birmingham.

Economic growth will bring more people and an increased sense of community for those who will call Birmingham home. This is why we as elected leaders are shifting our focus to the heart of it all, our 99 neighborhoods.

With the passage of the recent budget that emphasizes neighborhood revitalization, residents will see a decrease in blight and an immediate increase in pride. People will not only want to work and play in Birmingham, but live here, too.

While the blueprint has been laid out for business development and neighborhood revitalization, at the heart of it all is the enhancement of our schools. The recent hiring of superintendent Kelley Castlin-Gacutan puts our system well on its way to producing leaders for our community. After all, education is the most important economic development tool we have as a city.

As elected leaders, we make decisions that affect our communities both now and in the future. The council recently raised the city’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2017, the first city in the Southeast to do so. We are also paving the way for more innovative businesses like the Uber and Lyft ride-sharing apps. This council is progressive in its ideas, strategy and vision for a thriving Birmingham.

So, from the increased economic development, to the revitalization of our communities, to the innovative laws benefiting our citizens and businesses, coupled with a top-notch school system, the future of Birmingham is one that should excite residents and appeal to newcomers.

We are well on our way to becoming a premier city, best in its class.

• • •

Johnathan F. Austin is president of the Birmingham City Council and general manager of AirOps.

• Website | Facebook | Twitter @jfaustin | LinkedIn | Instagram

• • •

The full version of this essay and many more are available in the free ebook, “The Future of Birmingham.”

All you need to do is fill out this simple form. We’ll email you a link to download the book. (And, at no extra charge, we’ll add you to the mailing list for the free Y’all Connect newsletter.)

• • •

Read more essays in our special 10th anniversary series, The Future of Birmingham.

Photo: Jay Ryness (CC)

My picks for #sundayread for Sept. 13, 2015:

• The Future of Birmingham Is Pride, by @jfaustin, part 3 of 26 #futureofbham
• The Myth of Quality Time, by @FrankBruni (RT @rescuetime)
• Y’all Connect: The way to top-of-mind presence
• Dora Charles Moves on from Paula Deen, by @KimSeverson
• My new series/ebook “The Future of Birmingham” is free: http://itswa.de/futureofbham #futureofbham
• “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” marks end of an era for TV animation, by @timoneil5000
• Flashback: From 2012: Tuscaloosa woman held captive 70 days and counting
• Millennials Are Out-Reading Older Generations, by @AdrienneLaF (RT @melaniesiow)
• Virtual delegation and the speaking tour
• The Dubious, Brand-Led Surge of Fake National Holidays, by @JuliaRubin (RT ‏@kickpointinc)
• Flashback: From 2009: Happy trails, “King of the Hill”
• Katrina, 10 years later: The Yellow House, by @SarahMBroom (RT @melaniesiow)
• DC domestic violence survivors’ affordable housing crunch, by @mhbaskin (via @AndrewGiambrone)
• Sabbath, by Oliver Sacks (RT @ColumbiaSchArts)

•

Don’t miss our new 26-part series:
★ The Future of Birmingham ★

•

More posts from Wade this week:

• Happy Labor Day!

The latest #sundayread tweets

#sundayread Tweets

• More #sundayread recommendations from me

Fights stopped: Around 5.
Phones confiscated: 13.
Lessons taught: 0.

• • •

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Photo: Rob Briscoe (CC)

Cub Scouts hold the flag during the National Anthem at Regions Field. The ballpark’s opening in 2013 brought the Barons back to Birmingham and changed the city’s landscape.

•

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Details at the end.

•

By Carrie Rollwagen

Birmingham is a city that’s both hopeful and humble. As a transplant to this place, I’ve been impressed by the ability of Birminghamians to remain hopeful for change. Lately, that has been rewarded with some amazing projects growing out of that optimism.

Community and civic involvement

Our city’s nasty history with civil rights includes so much tragedy that we should do our best to honor the sacrifices of those Birminghamians. We do this by taking an active interest in our civil rights and government.

Many problems that still plague our city — the sad state of Birmingham schools, our Jefferson County bankruptcy and the abysmal condition of our virtually nonexistent public transportation system — could be solved if more of us took an active role in our political system. The story of Alabama politics is a story so laced with corruption that it’s hard to imagine anything different, but lately Birmingham has changed in ways that give us hope.

•

Read an excerpt from Carrie Rollwagen’s
book, “The Localist.”

•

Birmingham, especially downtown, looks so different than even what the most optimistic supporters imagined years ago. I lived in a loft at the Phoenix Building on Second Avenue North about a decade ago. I couldn’t buy groceries nearby, I couldn’t find a coffee shop that stayed open regular hours, and I certainly couldn’t watch a baseball game.

Now, Regions Field has brought the Barons back to the city, and I regularly go to Railroad Park to read or have a picnic. Community development projects downtown have buoyed business (I now have my choice of great coffee shops: Urban Standard, Octane and Revelator), and they’re attracting new stores to the area (Publix will finally bring a full grocery store to downtown residents in 2016).

Businesses like these are important to the growth of our city, but community projects like parks and stadiums create infrastructure that brings people together (and attracts more business to the area, too).

A hidden benefit to this civic activity is better health. Like all American cities, and especially all Southern ones, Birmingham has a weight problem. Too many of us carry so much weight that affects our health, not to mention our image of ourselves. Being overweight can make us sluggish and unwilling to try new things in our city.

We can help ourselves by nurturing the small businesses and community projects that get us up and moving. Iron Tribe is a huge CrossFit organization that began in Birmingham. Zyp, the new bike share program from REV Birmingham, will give us opportunities to get from place to place more easily in the city center. And we have dozens of small local gyms in almost any discipline to keep us continually active, along with free fitness classes at Railroad Park.

So many individuals work hard to do good in our city, but we aren’t always great at rallying behind them. Our future will be stronger if we create a culture of volunteering and prioritize helping those in need. More organizations need to make it easy to jump in.

• • •

Social Media for Small Business and Personal Branding: Carrie Rollwagen will hold her daylong popup workshop on Sept. 19 at Innovation Depot downtown. Participants will learn blog management, keyword optimization techniques, techniques on communicating through social media and more.

Beginners will get a good start on their personal accounts and learn how to leverage business accounts; freelancers and artists will learn to brand themselves better with social media.

Tickets are $100, which includes lunch. For more information and to register, visit the event page.

• • •

Carrie Rollwagen is author of “The Localist” and co-owner of Church Street Coffee and Books in Mountain Brook.

• Website | Facebook | Twitter @crollwagen | LinkedIn | Instagram

• • •

The full version of this essay and many more are available in the free ebook, “The Future of Birmingham.”

All you need to do is fill out this simple form. We’ll email you a link to download the book. (And, at no extra charge, we’ll add you to the mailing list for the free Y’all Connect newsletter.)

• • •

Read more essays in our special 10th anniversary series, The Future of Birmingham.

Is happiness a
constant? A pool that slowly
drains? A deep, deep font?

• • •

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Photo: Shannon (CC)

The band moe. performs at Avondale Brewing’s outdoor stage.
The transformation in Avondale could spread to other
Birmingham neighborhoods.

•

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Details at the end.

•

By Karl Seitz

The future of Birmingham is not likely to be as bright as it could be. A lack of strong local leadership and obstacles beyond local control limit the improvements that can be achieved.

Oh, some promising signs have appeared, primarily from nontraditional sources of leadership that will make some difference. But the political, business and institutional segments of public life from which municipal leadership typically comes are not doing much leading these days. And looming in the background is the obstacle Birmingham has faced throughout its history, a state government that is more dysfunctional than usual even as it retains its traditional antipathy to urban areas.

So, with all these obstacles, does Birmingham have any hope for a better future? Yes. Perhaps not as much as one would like, but more than we could expect depending on traditional sources of leadership.

Although they could be separated into distinct threads, the combination of the local craft beer industry, high-quality restaurants and the local music-entertainment business has already transformed Avondale and is well on the way to changing other parts of the city. Add the developers who are transforming — not always benevolently — the areas near these dining-entertainment venues, and significant parts of Birmingham will be very different places in 10 years.

Another change, this one in attitudes, that has been going on for more years than most of us realize and is likely to continue is LGBT acceptance. It is no coincidence that Jefferson County probate judges were ready to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples the day it became legal. In marked contrast to the handful of probate judges in Alabama who are refusing to issue any marriage licenses to avoid issuing a same-sex license, Judges Alan King and Sherri Friday had prepared for the change they rightly expected was coming. They had even worked with the state Health Department to change the license application forms to remove gender references.

While one hopes they would have done the same regardless of public opinion, it is likely they knew that a majority of county residents at least tacitly accept equal treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. After all, bars in this city have openly catered to gay customers for at least 50 years. More recently, UAB has been a leader in treating AIDS, which primarily affected members of the gay community early on. And Jefferson County does have an openly gay state legislator in Patricia Todd.

Acceptance and equal treatment of LGBT individuals is not universal in Birmingham, but the trend is clear here as it is across the country. Acceptance will only grow in the years ahead.

Public education might produce positive changes in the next few years. New superintendents always stir hope. However, the cynic in me says such predictions are risky. Better to wait and see.

One would like to be more optimistic about the brightness of Birmingham’s future. But from my perspective, modest improvements appear to be the best we can do. The strong, broad-based community leadership that is necessary for a better result doesn’t currently exist.

• • •

Karl Seitz arrived in Birmingham in 1964 to attend Birmingham-Southern College after serving 3 years in the Navy. While still a student, he began what would turn out to be a 38-year career at the Birmingham Post-Herald. For more than 30 of those years Seitz served as editorial page editor. Since retiring with the 2005 closing of the newspaper, he has been editor of a quarterly newsletter for the USS Caliente Association, a group of men who served on that Navy ship from 1943 to 1973. He has also written for genealogical publications.

• Website | Facebook | LinkedIn

• • •

The full version of this essay and many more are available in the free ebook, “The Future of Birmingham.”

All you need to do is fill out this simple form. We’ll email you a link to download the book. (And, at no extra charge, we’ll add you to the mailing list for the free Y’all Connect newsletter.)

• • •

Read more essays in our special 10th anniversary series, The Future of Birmingham.

More patriotic,
more alert, more fearful, more
wary, more grateful.

• • •

Read more haiku.

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