Photo: Elizabeth Swift (CC)

A giant crane is a sign of progress along Birmingham’s skyline.
More than 30 projects are under way in or near downtown.

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By Rod Walker

After several decades of decline, the people of Birmingham are finally starting to shed the inferiority complex that so many have felt for so long. We’re seeing cranes on the skyline, the old, long empty buildings being restored with new eateries, music venues, spaces for the arts, for recreation and for residence. We may be on the threshold of living up to the “potential” talked about for so many years.

When state laws changed in 2009 making small breweries possible, a new art form arrived: craft beer. Avondale Brewing Company was the first building block for the renovation of the neighborhood, which now includes several eateries, art galleries and a new music venue, Saturn.

Railroad Park seems to have been the beginning. Then came the Barons’ new stadium. Then more new projects: the Uptown restaurant district; the Westin; the living spaces, restaurants, arts and entertainment in the loft district.

The change now seems to be happening exponentially with more than 30 projects under way in or near downtown, either new construction or renovation. They include the Thomas Jefferson Hotel, the Pizitz building, the Booker T. Washington Insurance building, the Lyric Theatre, the Powell steam plant, the Merita Bread building and the Publix supermarket.

I’m very excited about what Birmingham is becoming. The magic is back, only without the choking pollution and the barbaric racial segregation laws. We should be happy about all the good things without losing sight of lingering challenges.

The first challenge is jobs. What it takes to get new Birminghamians to stay are good-paying, stable careers. For cities like Austin that have experienced rapid growth, many jobs have been in technology. If we could add high-tech jobs to our health care and banking sectors, we would have an easier time attracting transplants.

The second challenge is old perceptions. Many people around the world have a negative perception of this city for several reasons:

• The resistance to the 1960s civil rights movement;
• The horrid air pollution for most of the city’s history;
• The crime wave of the 1990s;
• The fact that it’s located in Alabama, perceived by many to be backward.

The best way to overcome negative stereotypes is to create a new positive image that overshadows the old images. If we try, we can do that.

The last challenge is inequality. Birmingham is much more than just downtown or Avondale or Southside. Neighborhoods such as Ensley, Titusville, North Birmingham, Fountain Heights and Collegeville are just as much a part of this city. We should use our newfound prosperity to improve the lives of all citizens. By upgrading the infrastructure everywhere. By improving public transportation.

People from more prosperous areas of the city should reach out to those in less prosperous areas to help those neighborhoods improve themselves. We should invest in new businesses that provide goods, services and jobs in areas that need them most.

If we keep our heads up, if we never give in to the negativity spouted by some, and if we never forget our neighbors in all parts of the city, the future of Birmingham is brighter than ever!

• • •

Rod Walker is a driver for Yellow Cab and a blogger at Birmingcabbie.

• Website | Facebook | Twitter @RodWalker2 | Instagram

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Photo: Bahman Farzad (CC)

The historic Alabama Theatre has been home to many color
films over the years. It anchors a growing cultural scene
in Birmingham.

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By Candie A. Price

I may be showing my age, but when I was younger, I remember watching old movies that boasted a color process called Technicolor. Upon further research, I found the words “candy-colored,” “boisterous” and “lush” used to describe its various effects, moods and sensations.

This process monopolized cinema’s first half-century, accurately producing the full spectrum with amazing results. Although it’s not used nearly as much in today’s filmmaking, the idea of something being in Technicolor intrigues me still.

How do I relate this to Birmingham? As a Philly girl in the South, I am fully aware of Birmingham’s history and need to shed her ugly images, specifically the ruthless acts of domestic terrorism during the civil rights movement. However, 13 years here, I see a Birmingham that is learning, growing and attempting to move forward from her stigma of 1963.

Our city is moving from the black-and-white photos of segregation, hate and racial disunity toward a more welcoming collage in Technicolor. Of course, we have room for improvement in many areas — socio-economic disparity, racial relationships and other issues — that also exist in many cities. Birmingham has a unique opportunity to show the rest of our country, especially in such volatile times, that change, forgiveness, resiliency and vibrancy can happen everywhere, especially in a place formerly dubbed “Bombingham”!

The future of Birmingham is candy-colored, boisterous, lush: a vibrant city wherein people of all walks of life can enjoy the city center; Railroad Park; Uptown; CityFest; a growing foodie scene; neighborhood revitalization via REV Birmingham; museums; top-notch medical research and educational facilities; countless conferences and events for small businesses and entrepreneurs; one of the most philanthropic cities in the country; affordable cost of living; impressive banking center; and a growing diverse cultural climate. Just a few of the strides made in the last five decades.

We still have much work to do, but we are no longer seeing life in Birmingham in terms of black and white. The colors, representing all of our citizens working together and in tandem, can produce a more accurate depiction of what a community should look like. A diverse spectrum, resulting in a dazzlingly rich quality of life for all … in full Technicolor! Our future depends on it, and just like 50 years ago, the world is still watching.

• • •

Candie A. Price provides public relations and marketing services to Christian authors, entrepreneurs, ministries and businesses. Her blogs include Your PR Diva and Philly Girl in the South.

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

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Photo: Liz Parker (reprinted with permission)

Tina, left, and Maya are pet stars on Instagram. They are
among thousands of companion animals in Birmingham.

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By Joey Kennedy

The future of Birmingham has to involve animals. A progressive city — and our city is a progressive one — can’t put animals, especially companion animals, in second place.

A society can be judged on how well it treats its animals. If so, Birmingham would be judged poorly.

Many people dump their dogs and cats in neighborhoods, knowing that somebody is likely to take care of them. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Animal control is a hell into which they go. Often, they never come out. Animal control officers take strays to the Greater Birmingham Humane Society, where they’re more likely to be adopted than under previous systems. Still, most strays that enter the system are put down. Killed. Doesn’t matter if they’re healthy and adoptable. So many animals come in that they have to be killed for space.

Most animals in Jefferson County taken in by animal control come from the City of Birmingham. Many are pit bulls, the Satan of dogs. That’s a shame, because pit bulls are among the most gentle breeds. Golden retrievers, cocker spaniels and Chihuahuas are much more aggressive. Yet, the pit bull gets that bad rap.

Part of the problem is that pit bulls are used for fighting. Collateral dogs — pugs, cockers, other pit bulls, Labrador retrievers — are used as bait dogs, to make the fighting pits more vicious. I can train pugs to fight; that’s a human flaw, not an animal one.

This happens in Birmingham every day.

So for our future, the city council needs to adopt these measures to make life better for all animals:

An anti-tethering ordinance. Homewood recently passed one, setting a time limit that dogs can be chained outside without supervision. Keeping them on chains 24/7 makes them mean. Birmingham should put limits on how long dogs can be chained outside without adequate food, water and shelter.

A licensing program for pets. Owners who have them spayed or neutered would pay a nominal cost, say $5, for licenses. Those who insist on foregoing this process would pay a much higher fee, $25 to $50.

Feral cat colonies. Instead of ignoring this persistent problem, let’s encourage TRN: trap, neuter and return. This would fund rescue groups to trap these cats, spay or neuter them and release them into their colonies. They won’t reproduce, eliminating the problem.

Recognition of animal rights. We must acknowledge that dogs and cats are sentient beings. They deserve life like we deserve life. They think and plan, feel pain, hope and love. Birmingham’s future must include companion animals as part of the culture and positive benefits of the city. These animals need love, not derision. They need care, not indifference. They know what we’re doing.

No-kill policies. No upside exists for killing thousands of dogs and cats a year when they could be saved. It’s not a budget question; it’s a humanitarian question: Are we humans, or are we something else? The city should include the Greater Birmingham Humane Society in all levels of animal control and care. The organization has the resources and know-how to save these animals from certain death.

We need to treat the city’s animals as we treat ourselves. They want to live. To simply collect and kill them is not what we want the future of Birmingham to be. That’s a cruel future. That’s an unacceptable future. That’s a future of demise for the city we love.

• • •

Joey Kennedy is a Pulitzer-winning editorial writer and a veteran journalist for four decades. He teaches composition and American literature at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, serves as the back-page columnist for B-metro magazine, writes a weekly column for Alabama Political Reporter and is co-founder of Animal Advocates of Alabama.

• Website | Facebook | Twitter @JoeyKennedy | LinkedIn

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Photos: Christine Prichard. Reprinted with permission.

The Birmingham Barons celebrate winning the Southern League
Championship in 2013, the team’s first year back in Birmingham.

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By Christine Prichard

Nearly all of the innovative things that have popped up in the ’ham since I dropped anchor here in 1997 exist because of creative collaboration.

So many productive partnerships are out there, including Jones Valley Teaching Farm + the Birmingham City Schools + Southern Living and Cooking Light. Or Innovation Depot + UAB + entrepreneurs. Or McWane Science Center + corporate sponsors + volunteers.

Collaboration is what created Railroad Park and Regions Field. Collaboration is at its best during the Sidewalk Film Festival, where the rich talent of our local film production community plus enthusiastic volunteers and filmgoers work together to create one of many celebrated arts events in Birmingham.

Shella Sylla is the founder of Birmingham company Sister Golf,
which teaches the game’s fundamentals to busy professionals.

And think of metro area youth who passionately participate in arts, sports and academic activities. This wouldn’t be possible without the joint efforts of teachers, coaches, parents, volunteers and the students themselves.

Metro Changers, a Birmingham-based nonprofit group,
takes a moment for prayer.

All of these projects, places and people collaborate and thereby create a vibrant community for all who call Birmingham home.

A gala benefitting the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham.

Just think what could happen if this collaborative spirit were more influential in areas where Birmingham needs to improve, such as air quality and mass transportation.

Habitat for Humanity site supervisor Chris Cosby, left, works
with a volunteer while constructing a house in Avondale for
World Habitat Day.

Collaboration is what makes us great and is the future of Birmingham.

• • •

Christine Prichard is a Birmingham-based photographer and photography educator who collaborates with solo entrepreneurs and small businesses to create custom photography, mobile apps and mobile websites.

• Website | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

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Photo: Greg Willis (CC)

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1. Hipsters forced to sit in the back of the (solar-powered) (karaoke) bus.
2. Automated city council pay raises with compounded interest.
3. Newspaper printed three times a month on super-secret schedule.
4. CrossPlex holds IronTribe CrossFit Games; nerds hide in basements.
5. Drivers use bike lanes as intended … “emergency” parking.
6. Barbecue-flavored craft beer.
7. And deep-fried gourmet popsicles.
8. And throwed trolls.
9. Our inevitable annexation by Atlanta.
10. City lands not one but two NFL franchises fleeing gently used stadiums.
11. UAB football team disbanded for second time, during winning drive of national championship game.
12. Vulcan gets a tattoo!
13. No more toxic dumps — cancer injected directly into North Birmingham residents.
14. Farm-to-table movement grows crops directly in dirt pile on your dinner plate.
15. Newly rebuilt I-20/59 collapses after looters strip it for copper wiring.
16. Illegal immigrants escape impoverished Hoover to sneak into the land of promise, McCalla.
17. Nightly races between Taco, Hot Dog and recently out-of-work Finebaum. (Spoiler: Finebaum cheats.)
18. As Millennials turn 30, indicated by flashing crystals in their hands, they come to Boutwell for the renewal of Carousel.
19. The Combloggerator Matrix comes online, mercilessly assimilating all posts and bloggers.
20. The new Publix? All bread and milk.
21. The new Trader Joe’s? Speculoos Cookie Mayo.
22. Fusion-powered Bank for Savings rooftop sign visible from space.
23. MTV arrives to film an episode of “Pimp My Airport.”
24. New sport diathlon from combining firing ranges and trampoline parks.
25. Bessemer revolts, dumping sweet tea into Alabama Splash Adventure.
26. Airwaves ruled by wacky morning team of Barkley and Bubba.
27. The gUber app: Users get rides from ’82 Camaros with flame decals (seat belts and airbags optional).
28. Tiny trailers infest Homewood … with cuteness!
29. Schools sort children into bins: Soylent Green, Soylent Teriyaki, Soylent Gluten-Free.
30. St. Paul and the Nicely Mended Bones, thanks to rehab at UAB Hospital.
31. “Welcome to the Courteney Cox-Kwon Museum and Muffler Shop!”
32. Everyone lives in at least two condos and parks in their living rooms.
33. The zoo’s biggest attraction? Man!!!
34. Advanced parking meters simply explode at random.
35. A lone survivor crosses the food desert in search of rhubarb.
36. Self-driving city buses take payment in cash, tokens and stray animals.
37. Prize2theFuture … ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!
38. In Trussville, you’re either eastern Walmart or western Walmart.
39. Loudspeakers from every corner blare sports talk radio nonstop.
40. “The Walking Dead,” but with fatter, slower zombies.
41. Drone delivery of tacos is a thing. Like, straight to your greedy tacohole.
42. City flag? Magician’s hat with a dead rabbit.
43. City mascot? Diabetes.
44. Bus terminal smell upgraded to “uptown funk.”
45. Steel plants converted into discotheques.
46. Segregation limited to humans, cyborgs and robots.
47. We finally land a car factory. It’s for the Kia Mucus.
48. #HashtagCity
49. (No, seriously. That’s our new nickname.)
50. Water/sewer bills in convenient podcast form.
51. Kiddieland reopened to genetically engineered dinosaurs that can never ever go berserk and devour their human masters.
52. Meat and four, baby.
53. (The four are also meats.)
54. Montgomery takes Birmingham’s lunch money, holds the city upside-down over a toilet.
55. Mayoral debates via Dubsmash.
56. Quantum technology allows pork to be simultaneously chopped and sliced.
57. Some dissension over 50-foot Larry Langford bronze statue in Linn Park.
58. Cyber attack exposes everyone’s real names from al.com usernames.
59. The World Games never leaves. IT NEVER LEAVES.
60. Secret NASCAR races inside Century Plaza.
61. Pop-up eating contests.
62. Baptists now greet each other at the liquor store and the strip club.
63. Richard Scrushy holds city hostage with a mustache ray and taunts a helpless public.
64. Lacrosse, but with balled-up copperheads.
65. Prominent websites continue to include Birmingham in Top 10 lists, but only ironically.
66. The Barons move to Mt. Olive.
67. Giuseppe Moretti LXXXIII discovers the remains of the tiny Statue of Liberty and the horrifying origin of the City of the Apes.
68. Rectal vaping not only encouraged but mandatory.
69. Annual city budget is one part speed traps, one part business licenses, one part GoFundMe campaign.
70. Dome built in wrong shape.
71. The final phase of gentrification goes perfectly, as every house in Birmingham costs at least $500,000.
72. The Regions Park Supermax Correctional Facility.
73. Megachurches become sentient, overcharge for coffee.
74. Birmingham Bowl played to the death, as per ESPN rules.
75. Public spaces: dog park, cat park, skateboard park, hoverboard park, Confederate dog park, sacred Indian burial ground park.
76. Everyone finishes the new Metric Mercedes Marathon, a bracing 26.2 meters.
77. Clone of Lou Wooster saves city after Ebola epidemic.
78. Elevated 280 barely used by hover cars.
79. Paying sales tax requires installment plan.
80. One-way streets all head north-northeast.
81. Mountain Brook grows clones each fall for fresh harvest of domestic servants.
82. The last locally owned company does, in fact, turn off the lights.
83. GMOs hold Pepper Place hostage.
84. Thanks to stern billboards, human trafficking down 70 percent.
85. Everything is as Sun Ra predicted.
86. By the light of the full moon, Condoleezza stalks the city streets, a grim avenger of the night.
87. The Second Life version of Birmingham suffers from clone flight.
88. Graffiti king Moist becomes artist laureate.
89. We feed the poor feral cats.
90. Correction: We feed the poor to feral cats.
91. A revitalized Ensley still only one-third full.
92. Trains merely slow down at station, as passengers expected to hop off and on quickly.
93. Bonnaroo juggernaut leaves our festivals with drummer from Blink-182 plus Kenny Chesney.
94. County bankruptcy paid off, but debt collectors keep calling at all hours.
95. School days and sporting events begin with civic anthem, “Do I Make You Proud?”
96. Civil Rights Heritage Trail selfie stations.
97. Police body cam footage powers entire season of “Cops” and “The First 48.”
98. Plasma force fields shield buildings from tornadoes, debris and other outside agitators.
99. Home schooling expanded to home churching, home sporting.
100. Upon sudden impact, cars equipped to deploy business cards for Alexander Shunnarah.
101. Red Mountain renamed Peak Birmingham.

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Photo: Rob Briscoe (CC)

Father and daughter go hiking at Red Mountain Park, which
opened in 2012. Children have a wider array of activities in
Birmingham for learning and growing.

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By Angie Cleland

It wasn’t until 2005, when my first daughter was born, that I seriously considered the future of the Magic City and what it would and could offer her and the family that my husband and I were building here. Until this point in my life, my view of my hometown had always been, well, half-empty.

I was a naysayer. I watched the go-getters come and go from a city that lost hope and forgot to look to the future.

No, it wasn’t until my first daughter was born that I realized I wanted more for this city that she would call home. I wanted her to fondly recall the experiences of her youth here. Her birth created in me a new interest in unearthing the magic of our city for her and her generation. I no longer wanted to sit on the sidelines.

So, I started digging in to see what the city already had to offer children and families and created a group for stay-at-home moms like me. I didn’t find too much. I felt this growing need to prove to them that their misinformed perceptions or negative stories about Birmingham weren’t true — even if I didn’t fully believe it myself yet.

Finding events and activities for our children became easier. Our city, my city, was beginning to change. It gave me a renewed sense of pride, one that eventually led to the creation of the site Birmingham Mommy. My weekly events calendar grew, and my family grew, too, with the addition of twins. New places to take the children were opening left and right. I was giddy, and my kids were as well.

Having seen what nearby cities were doing reaffirmed for me that our town, too, was full of potential — we just needed a little more guidance and direction. We needed the right people in place to push us, people who would not give up when their ideas were met with resistance and skepticism.

With a new generation of doers and makers and leaders in place, we’ve witnessed the emergence of the Lyric Theatre, Regions Field and Railroad Park. We’ve enjoyed new breweries like Avondale and Good People, and watched in delight as the food scene has exploded with restaurants like El Barrio and Bamboo on 2nd and Post Office Pies.

Thanks to local artists, we’re sporting our cool new T-shirts that profess our love for the “’ham.” We go to food festivals to support our growing food truck scene, we take in concerts at venues like Iron City and Saturn.

For the first time in a long time, people are actually participating. And as a result, local businesses are thriving.

One of my most favorite things to do with my kids is make a summer bucket list. We used to spend a lot of time away from Birmingham marking the activities off of our list. While “riding a dolphin” might not be possible here (yet!), zip-lining through Red Mountain Park, rock climbing at First Avenue Rocks and cooling off at Alabama Splash Adventure are all within reach.

Now, when I see the Birmingham in which my children are growing up, I’m amazed and proud of all they can experience here. This makes my little Birmingham heart very happy … and maybe more than just half-full.

• • •

Angie Cleland is owner and co-founder of the website Birmingham Mommy.

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

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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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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.”

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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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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

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

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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.

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•

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.

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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Details at the end.

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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: 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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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.

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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.

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.

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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.