Railroad Park as pictured in Washingto Post

Sunday, June 9^th, I was watching TV when suddenly my cell phone lit up with e-mails from people everywhere.

They couldn’t wait to tell me about the positive story about Birmingham in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, Yahoo News, etc. Pretty darn exciting when media everywhere are screaming, “(Birmingham) has a new vibe that’s generating buzz.”

Every major newspaper in the U.S.must have posted the AP piece, “Once dying Birmingham is suddenly hot.”  

I certainly loved the article, but was somewhat stunned by the pictures that accompanied the story in each of the papers.

I honestly can’t remember seeing a picture of Birmingham in the National Press in the past 50 years that didn’t include pictures of dogs and fire hoses.  These articles featured flattering pictures of Railroad Park or Regions Field.  How refreshing!

Of course, the big question is how did we get from “dying” to “hot?”

Some folks might not want to give Larry Langford credit, but many of the projects described in the AP piece originated with his administration.

Our Chamber of Commerce (now BBA) took seven trips to cities around the U.S. to see what was working in other communities.  In 2005 the Chamber went to Nashville. Several of the Nashville corporate and community leaders embarrassed us and tried to make us feel foolish for living in Birmingham.  Langford was on the trip and he wasted no time standing up for Birmingham and our delegation. (Larry has a temper)

On the bus afterwards, he said something I will never forget, “All we need in Birmingham is an attitude adjustment.”  He told us he was committed to tackling big projects to prove we could succeed.

His comments probably aren’t surprising.  After all, when Langford ran for Mayor he beat eight candidates on the first ballot with the slogan, “Let’s do something.”  And say what you want about Mayor Langford, he did something.

I’ve heard people comment that Mayor Bell is reaping the benefits of Langford’s projects, which is both true and not true.  It’s true that many of our successful projects were initiated during the Langford administration, but when Mayor Bell took office, he inherited a huge deficit.

Mayor Bell and his City Council not only worked through the deficit, but kept the original projects and new ones on track. It’s probably safe to say that if we hadn’t had a change of administrations, the outcome might have been different.

And the good news continues.  This week Birmingham was chosen by the National Civic League as an All American City.

Birmingham/Jefferson County has had some bad breaks.  But this time we got lucky–Larry Langford’s big ideas and Mayor Bell’s stewardship.

Let’s turn Birmingham around.  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  There’s power in numbers. (Opt out at any time)

David Sher is the publisher of ComebackTown, a co-founder of Buzz12 Advertising and co-CEO of AmSher Collection Agency.  He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham)), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

(Editors note:  This article is not about Mt. Brook–it’s much broader than that.  It’s also not about the City of Birmingham–it’s about our metro. Today we examine the topic no one wants to discuss.)

A young, well-respected business man approached me after a civic club meeting. He wanted to talk about our region’s lack of progress.

Soon the conversation turned to our 37 municipalities in Jefferson County.

He said he understood how competing cities hurt our region, but as a Mt. Brook resident he was not about ready to sacrifice his children’s education for better government. I said I understood–my children attended Mt. Brook schools also.

I quickly emphasized, however, that I wasn’t necessarily advocating we combine schools or governement, but he did make me think.

I had always heard that historically much of Birmingham’s problems could be blamed on Northern businessmen who controlled companies like U.S. Steel.

Samuel Pullman, editor of the Richmond Dispatch, wrote*

“Birmingham was a “colonial economy” shaped by the influence of northern capital and the willingness of southern politicians to offer northern investors “cheaper money, cheaper taxation, cheaper labor, cheaper coal, and cheaper power” than they found in the North.”

But do businessmen in Pittsburgh deserve all the blame?

Charles E. Connerly wrote a piece titled, One great city or Colonial economy?–Explaining Birmingham’s Annexation Struggles, 1945-1990.

“Because school districts in Alabama are city based, white suburbs could create their own school districts, thereby completely avoiding racial integration. Mountain Brook, home of Birmingham’s economic elite and thus the Holy Grail of Birmingham’s annexation efforts, put this approach into practice…members of Mountain Brook’s elite could institute their own version of the colonial economy, profiting from Birmingham while keeping their taxes and children in their own separate and white city.”

Other states didn’t allow school systems to organize by city–so there was no advantage to splitting into separate cities as we did in Birmingham.

It was just announced that we’re losing another public company (Colonial Properties Trust).  We can make excuses, but metro Birmingham now has 16 fewer public companies than it did 15 years ago.  Cities with common agendas like Nashville are growing, adding jobs, and increasing the number of businesses headquartered there.

We can’t afford to allow our local governments to continue to compete with another and lose our businesses and children to other cities.

Many Birmingham business people must agree that too many competing governments are stifling us.  The BBJ asked in a recent unscientific poll, “Would you support a unified metro government in Birmingham?  Amazingly 64% said yes, 26% no, and 10% not sure. (371 responses as of June 9)

Charles Connerly concludes…

As a colony of both Wall Street and Mountain Brook, therefore, Birmingham was constrained…”

*Samuel H. Pullman to editor, Richmond Dispatch, January 1, 1897, quoted in C. Vann Woodward, Origins of the New South (Baton Rouge, LA, 1951, 1971), 310. For Birmingham’s place in the New South’s colonial economy, see Woodward, Origins of the New South, 299-302, 315-7;W. David Lewis, Sloss Furnaces and the Rise of the Birmingham District (Tuscaloosa, AL, 1994), 217, 498.

Let’s turn Birmingham around.  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  There’s power in numbers. (Opt out at any time)

David Sher is the publisher of ComebackTown, a co-founder of Buzz12 Advertising and co-CEO of AmSher Collection Agency.  He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham)), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

Birmingham’s usually the last to do just about everything.  So if you want to see what’s about to happen, all you have to do is look elsewhere.

When I was Chairman of Operation New Birmingham (ONB) in 1995, CBS42 was desperately trying to build viewership for their newscast.  They were practicing “guerilla journalism” to try to shock and surprise people to build audience.

One day at a public ONB function, a news reporter from TV42 unexpectedly thrust a microphone in my face and asked, “Would you or your wife live downtown?”  Of course the reporter knew what my answer would be—at the time virtually no one lived downtown.

Today there are 3,000 residential units in our city center with more than 4,000 residents.  There is practically no vacancy—only people moving in and out of units.

According to a May 17 piece on al.com, Tide of skepticism recedes as Birmingham City Center rebounds, ”Downtown lofts are nearly 100 percent occupied, and bars and restaurants dot First and Second Avenue North. Businesses, including an apparel company and a new brewery, are snapping up buildings around the new Regions Field baseball stadium.”

A $33 million 245-unit and a $21 million 237-unit apartment complex are planned next door to Railroad Park and Regions Field.  Bayer Properties recently announced it will feature 145 residential apartment suites in the Pizitz building.

Other likely buildings to be developed for residential are the The Thomas Jefferson Hotel (Cabana) and the A.G. Gaston Building across from the Lyric Theatre.  Expect others because there are more potential renters than inventory.  It’s called supply and demand.

According to a recent an article on U.S. News on NBC, “New census estimates show that most of the nation’s largest cities further enhanced their allure last year, posting strong population growth for a second straight year. Big cities surpassed the rate of growth of their surrounding suburbs at an even faster clip, a sign of America’s continuing preference for urban living…”

It doesn’t take a fortune teller to see that the neighborhood around Regions Field will be transformed.  Look what happened to those areas around Montgomery, Chattanooga, and Memphis when each built minor league baseball stadiums downtown.

Though a good school system would be nice, Birmingham schools won’t be an impediment. Many young people, empty nesters, and retires want to live in our city center.

It’s happening in every other city and it will happen here.

As David Silverstein of Bayer Properties often says, “Birmingham’s not the moon.”

Let’s turn Birmingham around.  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  There’s power in numbers. (Opt out at any time)

David Sher is the publisher of ComebackTown, a co-founder of Buzz12 Advertising and co-CEO of AmSher Receivables Management. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham)), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

Comebacktown published by David Sher & Phyllis Neill to begin a discussion on better government for our region.

Today’s guest blogger is Donna Francavilla.

What will it take for Birmingham to remove the tarnish of a half-century ago?

Whenever images of Birmingham’s tumultuous past are flashed before viewers, the black and white footage and photographs of attacking police dogs, of fire hoses blasting teenage demonstrators, and peaceful protesters being hauled off to jail are shown.  You’ve seen those indelible images repeatedly.  They continue to stigmatize our community in the eyes of the nation and the world.

In 1963, Birmingham was considered the heart of the segregated South.  In fact, the Reverend MLK Jr. called Birmingham the most segregated city in the South. The children’s crusade, which happened fifty years ago in early May in downtown Birmingham helped galvanize the civil rights struggle.  Children willingly left schools in droves to take their positions as foot soldiers on the front lines of the movement. They chanted and marched, were spat on and hit with billy clubs, according to 16^th Street Baptist Church bombing survivor the Reverend Carolyn McKinstry, who was 14 at the time.  The marches happened between May 2^nd and May 5^th, 1963.  The children had attempted to march to City Hall to talk to the mayor about integration, but were harassed and arrested instead.

Yet a corner was turned when those very riveting images transfixed American viewers.  White leaders, concerned about the reputation of their city, negotiated a plan to begin the end of segregation. Citing the events in Birmingham, on June 11, 1963, President John F. Kennedy announced his intention to introduce new federal civil rights legislation.  A year later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed major forms of discrimination including racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities and against women.

“It led me to believe, especially after the laws were changed,” McKinstry told the Huffington Post, “that there were many things that were worth fighting for.”

Recently, hundreds of high school and college students and the original “foot soldiers,” those students brave enough to cut school and march, re-enacted a the protest through Birmingham’s streets.  50 years ago, that act of defiance would have landed them in jail, for up to five days.  Interestingly, arrest records from 1963 were recently salvaged for the 50 Years Forward Commemoration.  The documents are archived in the records management division at Birmingham’s City Hall. While reviewing these documents, I discovered that bond set for violations like “parading without a permit” was an outrageous $500 or more.  $500 dollars then is the equivalent of $3,700 now.

How can the Magic City restore its reputation, recover from those damaging images burned into the nation’s perceptions and memories to heal and move forward?

This year, the Birmingham Barons were repatriated from the suburbs to a recently completed ultra-modern sports venue, Regions Field in the city whose name they bare.  Slow but steady city center revitalization includes a recently added Railroad Park, and Westin Hotel, new restaurants and an expanded entertainment district.   Now, the city is inviting tourists to join it in paying tribute one of the landmarks of the civil rights crusade.

The City of Birmingham has purposefully pulled together commemorations, reenactments, panel discussions, seminars, photographic viewings, historic marker unveilings, musical and art tributes in an effort to bring tourists and their dollars from elsewhere to help commemorate the 50^th year of the Movement.  The celebration will culminate with the 50^th anniversary of the 16^th Street Baptist Church bombing, on September 15^th 1963.

A recent black newcomer to this area told me his friends back home in Jacksonville, Florida, warned him to “be careful” in Birmingham, referring to this city’s historical mistreatment of blacks.   Be careful?  50 years later?   Wow!   How monumental of a public relations effort will it take before the rest of the nation doesn’t warn persons of color to “be careful” when visiting or moving to Birmingham?

So, let me take you back to my original question. What will it take for Birmingham to reverse its negative image?

Birmingham officials are fanning out across the nation to broadcast entities encouraging them to take a fresh look at The Magic City.

On April 29^th, 2012, Mayor William Bell appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box.

Mr. Bell attempted to distinguish Birmingham’s robust financial health from Jefferson County’s anemic one. Bell emphasized job creation in the city, and how Birmingham earned a Double-A Bond rating despite residing in bankrupt Jefferson County.

Those of us who reside in the Birmingham area and write or broadcast about Birmingham for major publications and broadcast entities, want to tell positive news stories.  We choose to live here and we love it.   However, when we see crime, graft, malfeasance, corruption, atrocities and natural disasters, we are compelled to do our jobs.

I phoned in reports for a CBS broadcast from the middle of the reenactment of the march, as it unfolded, during the first week of May.  I walked down the streets of Birmingham, alongside high school and college students, foot soldiers and aging civil rights leaders, who lead the way, as they did 50 years ago, while chanting the familiar movement songs that still ring in our ears after a half century.

That’s what the nation heard on CBS Radio.  Celebration. Singing. Marching bands. Better government.  A unified community that cares enough to send more than 1400 of its students to participate in a reenactment.

If you ask me, that’s how we move forward. That’s how we begin to reinvent ourselves and polish our image—one positive step at a time.

Donna Francavilla is an award-winning Birmingham-based reporter/producer for CBS News and owner of Frankly Speaking Communications, LLC. 

Let’s turn Birmingham around.  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  There’s power in numbers. (Opt out at any time)

David Sher is a co-founder of Buzz12 Advertising and co-CEO of AmSher Receivables Management. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham)), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

But on lists that really matter, Birmingham often excels.

In fact, I could have titled this piece, “Atlanta is jealous of Birmingham” or “Chicago is jealous of Birmingham.”

Cities all over the U.S. want to be like us.

If you don’t believe me, just ask our United Way.

Birmingham’s the 49^th largest metro, yet our United Way de Tocqueville Society is the 2^nd largest in the U.S.  De Tocqueville members contribute a minimum of $10,000 a year to our United Way campaign.  That’s not per capita—that’s 2^nd in real numbers.

We have more people donating at least $10,000 a year than Philadelphia, Los Angeles, or even New York.  That doesn’t seem possible.

Here’s the 2011 de Tocqueville Campaign list from United Way of America.

1.       Houston

2.       Birmingham

3.       St. Louis

4.       Cincinnati

5.       Atlanta

6.       Twin Cities

7.       Dallas

8.       Albuquerque

9.       Seattle

10.   Chicago

Caroline Bolvig, VP of Major Gifts at United Way, told me folks in other cities are in total disbelief  when they hear Birmingham’s listed in the top ten.

But our Birmingham generosity story gets better.  It’s unprecedented, but our United Way has made its campaign goal every year since 1934. (Almost 80 years ago).

You might think we appear generous because we have such a great United Way.   Well, our United Way of Central Alabama is one of the highest rated public charities in America, but our generosity is much broader than that.

According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Birmingham is the third most generous of our 50 largest U.S. metros.

I think we would agree that generosity and caring people are top measures of a community’s quality of life.

United Way’s Bolvig told me she is covered up with visitors and callers wanting to know how Birmingham does it.

I asked her how she responds.

She tells them that for cities to be like Birmingham they would have to be Birmingham. 

Now that should make us feel good.

Let’s turn Birmingham around.  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  There’s power in numbers. (Opt out at any time)

David Sher is a co-founder of Buzz12 Advertising and co-CEO of AmSher Receivables Management. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham)), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

Mark Kelly, Publisher of Weld for Birmingham

The primary objective of ComebackTown is to create a conversation on a “better Birmingham.”

We often talk about what’s great about our metro, but we also want to identify our shortcomings so we can begin to propose solutions.

Many are quick to blame our politicians or corporate leadership, but the root cause of our frailties is poor government structure.

Poor government structure leaves our Birmingham region with no one in charge and everyone frustrated.

Recently, Mark Kelly, Publisher of  Weld for Birmingham, wrote an insightful article about the flaws of our City government .  We also have blatant structural issues with Jefferson County (no official elected county-wide) and our State Constitution (no home rule).

Mark wrote this article several weeks ago, so now there’s less than twenty weeks until City Council elections…

Change on the horizon?

Twenty weeks.

Roughly speaking, that’s how much time remains until August 27. On that day, the voters of Birmingham will have the opportunity to chart a new and hopeful course for the future — or to ensure that the progress of our city continues to be hard-won against the individual and collective dysfunction of the Birmingham City Council.

Devoid of leadership, allergic to common sense, addicted to empty gestures, rife with petty corruption, utterly indifferent to the crying need for a cohesive and all-encompassing vision, the city’s governing body is a dead-weight drag on every great thing to which the less timid among us still dare to aspire. It is an embarrassment to anyone who even pretends to care about good government.

It is tempting to single out the actions — or complete lack thereof — of individual members as evidence of the miasma that pervades the chamber where the Council weekly renders risible the inscription above the doorway: The People Are the City. But in point of fact, individual shortcomings, stunts and shenanigans are just part of the scene, a natural outgrowth of the culture of I, me, mine that makes the big room on the third floor of City Hall the place where enlightened thoughts and civic-minded deeds go to die.

Not all of the fault for that can be laid at the feet of the current Council. The source of dysfunction can be traced back to 1989. Prior to that time — since the adoption of the mayor-council form of government in 1963 — the nine members of the council were elected at-large, meaning everyone ran citywide. Under that system, council elections were staggered, with five seats up for grabs every two years; the top four vote-getters won four-year seats, and the fifth-place finisher got a two-year term.

Elections in those days were extremely competitive, with candidates obliged to crisscross the city to appeal to voters of all races and classes. As a result, the council by and large functioned as something very much like an effective legislative body. Sure, there was plenty of give-and-take and no small amount of infighting and splitting into factions — especially after the early 1980s, as then-Mayor Richard Arrington’s political organization, the Jefferson County Citizens Coalition, consolidated its power among a council that became majority-black for the first time in 1985. But there also was a tendency toward consensus building, along with a prevailing sense that the council as a whole was focused on the good of the city as a whole.

All of that began to change, and rather quickly, after ‘89, when a lawsuit resulted in the reconfiguration of the council into districts, each represented by a single councilor elected by that district’s voters. At the time, the city council had three white members — Russell Yarbrough, Bettye Fine Collins and Bill Meyers — and it was they who filed the suit with the stated purpose of preserving minority (in this case, white) representation by creating three districts that, presumably, would remain majority-white in perpetuity.

It hasn’t worked out that way, of course, as blacks continue to comprise an increasing proportion of Birmingham’s total population, growing from 63 percent in 1990 to nearly 75 percent today. Reflecting that trend, the black majority of the city council has been 7-2 since the last election in 2009 — and, at least theoretically, could grow to 8-1 this year.

While this is not a good or bad thing in and of itself, it is indicative of the fact that the district system, far from its presumptive intent of preserving at least the appearance of fair representation for all, has instead served to accentuate the racial divide that continues to plague Birmingham. In addition, it has pitted district against district and perpetuated a misguided competition between maintaining a vital downtown area as the engine of citywide economic development opportunities and addressing both needs and wants at the neighborhood level.

What’s more, the system hasn’t worked out in the way the council…well, works. Or, more accurately, the way it doesn’t. The path from the advent of the district system to the present day is one in which parochialism has become institutionalized. Through a combination of political calculation, willful ignorance and sheer laziness, the default approach of the council to its budgetary and policymaking roles is to simply divide everything by nine, regardless of whether that redounds to the greater good.

So what am I saying here? That there are no good city councilors? Not exactly, though there certainly are no great ones, not one that shows any inclination to provide the kind of courageous leadership that would reverse the decline of the institution over the past quarter-century and position it as a force for moving Birmingham forward in creative and innovative ways. That there are some current councilors whose very presence is a mockery of the term “public servant”? Well, yes, but that is only a small part of the larger point, which is that there is no reason that Birmingham cannot do better.

No reason, that is, except ourselves, the voters of Birmingham. The state of our city council is an outrage, but with a pivotal election just a little more than four months away, I’m having trouble finding many people who are outraged enough to do something about it. The future of Birmingham is an open question, one that will be resolved by the quality of candidates this year’s election attracts, the number of people who become engaged in recruiting and supporting good candidates, and the percentage of voters who turn out at the polls on August 27 to make their preferences known.

What is the future of Birmingham? We’ll find out together in twenty.

Editor’s note:  Weld for Birmingham offers an excellent series of articles on the History of Birmingham titled, “No more bull.”

Let’s turn Birmingham around.  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  There’s power in numbers. (Opt out at any time)

David Sher is a co-founder of Buzz12 Advertising and co-CEO of AmSher Receivables Management. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham)), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

John Northrop

Comebacktown published by David Sher & Phyllis Neill to begin a discussion on better government for our region.

Today’s guest blogger is John Northrop.

If Birmingham is a “comeback town,” what do we want to come back to? Surely not the days and ways of Bull Conner. Nor of chain gang labor in coal mines. Nor as a mere colony in a 19^th-century steel empire.

Birmingham’s “good old days” were better for some than others. The same can be said of Alabama as a whole. Long before the Magic City’s birth in 1871, the big planter crowd farther south built an economy on slavery, helping sow the whirlwind of 1861-65.

Two traditions of privilege—industrial and plantation—met in Montgomery in 1901 to write Alabama’s sixth constitution, a real stinker. The verbatim record shows that 155 white men of property set out to advance what they called “white supremacy.” They strangled African American suffrage. They concentrated power in Montgomery with tight limits on home rule. They laid the foundation, fully realized in later decades, for one of the most regressive tax systems in America. They set means to invest in rural roads and highways, never bethinking the need (even the possibility) of urban mass transit.

By mid-20^th century, the U. S. Supreme Court was crushing the overtly racist provisions in our constitution, but problems persist. In particular, Alabama remains one of four states investing NO state funds in mass transit. We remain bound constitutionally to low property taxes, strongly benefitting big landowners, in-state and absentee. This places a greater tax burden on the poor, fosters public school spending gaps, and reinforces economic segregation. In Birmingham, the core city loses population as those with means exit. Desperate neighborhoods become blighted, more violent, a hidden drag on the regional economy, and a potential menace to other life and property only short drives away.

Alabama’s 19^th century governing framework enshrines 19^th century attitudes—above all, the notion that the better people live apart from and above the unworthy. Our continuing separation is rooted in racism, but economic prejudice began early, too. Now, more of us seem willing to bridge racial, economic and political gaps. But we also still seem to fear linking too closely with anyone or anything we think might hold us back, drag us down.

Some business urges constitutional revision to promote flexible growth. I urge a full constitutional reboot, because I believe that without it our metro and statewide dreams will continue to bend under the weight of a dead (I hope!) age. I believe a 21^st century convention would prove diverse enough to negotiate a new governing contract more in tune with modern realities, including urbanization. Whether Alabamians would ratify such a constitution is an open question—but if progressive metro money spoke large, we’d have a good chance.

And would a new constitution guarantee a strong Birmingham “comeback”? No. Even best case change will be slow. But without a new constitution, I believe change will come even more slowly. We shall remain even longer a “city of perpetual promise,” in thrall to the better people of 1901 and their spiritual heirs.

John Northrop is a retired school administrator with experience in Birmingham, Arizona, California, Georgia and Kentucky. As a member of the Birmingham Metro Diversity Coalition, he has joined in urging creation of a Birmingham human rights commission. His photo essay “Red State Blues” will appear with works by artist Jose Torres-Tama in an exhibition at Space One Eleven, a visual arts organization in downtown Birmingham, April 19-May 17

Let’s turn Birmingham around. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  There’s power in numbers. (Opt out at any time)

David Sher is a co-founder of Buzz12 Marketing and co-CEO of AmSher Receivables Management. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (ONB), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

People were obviously excited and wanted to share our good news.

At first I was surprised, but then realized this was just the continuation of an amazing few weeks.

Our blog of March 26 titled, “Birmingham haters eat your hearts out,” went viral. Quite frankly, this had never happened before. The piece was an aggregation of national articles praising Birmingham.

We’ve always had strong readership, but nothing like this.  I watched the number of page views explode.  People were posting links on Facebook and Twitter, and our number of e-mail subscribers soared.

Then a follow up piece, Birmingham’s back—tell the world, also created a sensation.

I’ve lamented that Birminghamians seem to concentrate on our negatives, but we’re in the midst of a sea change.  Not only are good things happening in Birmingham, but our pride is swelling.

Maybe we haven’t noticed our transformation—but outsiders keep reminding us how good we are.

You’ll feel great pride when you read this piece.  But this article is actually more powerful in print than it appears on the Internet.  A good friend sent me a copy of the actual article.  It completely dominates the LA Times travel section—giant color pictures and all.

Birmingham, Ala., embraces its complex history

Los Angeles Times

April 14, 2013

Alice Short

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — When I told friends I was planning a trip to Birmingham, the reaction was universal.

“Alabama?” one asked. “On purpose?”

I shared their skepticism, viewing the travel literature with the jaundiced eye of a longtime Angeleno who puzzled over the concept of vacationing in the South. But I was flying here for a business meeting that had been scheduled for Presidents Day weekend, so why not take some extra time and look around?

Read more

Let’s turn Birmingham around.  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  There’s power in numbers. (Opt out at any time)

David Sher is a co-founder of Buzz12 Advertising and co-CEO of AmSher Receivables Management. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham)), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church bombing

I can’t help myself.

When I see pictures of victims, particularly children, who were killed or maimed in the Boston Marathon bombing or the Newtown massacre, my eyes well up and I grieve.  I know I’m not alone, but knowing these horrendous events sadden others doesn’t make me feel better.

Our President said. “Anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror.”  And acts of terror—whether they are shootings or bombings are happening much too often.

From 1947 to 1965, Birmingham was the site of about 50 racially motivated bomb attacks. We would probably agree that these bombings were acts of terror set off by a small number of terrorists.

But I wonder.

When I think about Newtown, I don’t think of the residents of Newtown as bad people. I don’t feel the people of Aurora are evil because they had two mass shootings.  The greatest U.S. act of terror was at the World Trade Center in New York, but no one faults New Yorkers. We think of people from Boston, Newtown, Aurora, and New York as victims.

Yet many people want to define Birmingham as hateful because of terrorist acts performed by a few depraved individuals.

I wasn’t an adult at the time of the bombings, but my parents and all their friends were kind, decent people.  I remember them being apprehensive and scared—as you might expect.

You may want to say there were other civil rights embarrassments in Birmingham, but I contend that contemptuous acts occurred regularly all over the South.

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., once said “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.”

Research recently done by the Multiracial Congregations Project found that today, 50 years after Dr. King’s comments, 8% of Christian congregations in the U.S. are racially mixed.

Some people have described Birmingham as the most segregated city in America, but Birmingham doesn’t own segregation–it’s everywhere.

My friends and neighbors in Birmingham are the kindest, most generous people in the world.

I contend the good people of Birmingham are just as much victims as the fine people of Newtown.

Let’s turn Birmingham around.  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  There’s power in numbers. (Opt out at any time)

David Sher is a co-founder of Buzz12 Advertising and co-CEO of AmSher Receivables Management. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham)), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

Regions Field first night fireworks

We need your help.

We’d like you to take action.

Do you know what’s really wrong with Birmingham?

We concentrate on our shortcomings and don’t celebrate our victories.

A funny thing happened while we were wallowing in self-pity.  Birmingham was being transformed.

Below are pictures of  our new Birmingham.  Many are actual–a few are renderings, but all  are well on their way.

PLEASE CONSIDER:

• Forwarding to your friends
• Posting on Facebook/Twitter
• Commenting on good things we missed.

We’re doing great things in Birmingham.  Let’s tell the world!

Regions Field

Birmingham- Shuttlesworth International Airport

The Birmingham Baron’s Regions Field and Railroad Park are transforming downtown Birmingham.  A $33 million 245-unit and a $21 million 237-unit apartment complex have already been announced next door.

Next time you go to our Birmingham Airport, you may have to pinch yourself.  You won’t believe you’re in Birmingham.

Iron City

Iron City:  We now have a first class entertainment/music venue on our Southside that’s one of the best in the Southeast.  You won’t believe how this old automotive repair shop has been energized.

Our Lyric Theatre will look like the Wells in Norfolk

The Lyric Theatre, built in 1904 and across the street from our nationally recognized Alabama Theatre, is an exact replica of the Wells in Norfolk and when renovated will look just like it. The Marx Brothers and Milton Berle, who originally performed at the Lyric, won’t recognize it when completed.  Fund raising’s well under way.

UAB Student Recreational Center

UAB is the crown jewel of Birmingham, but you wouldn’t expect the UAB Student Recreational Center to be named one of the 25 most amazing Rec Centers in America.

Westin Hotel & Uptown

Birmingham’s new Westin Hotel and Uptown entertainment district are game changers.  We now have the opportunity to attract much larger conventions to Birmingham.

Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum

There’s nothing like our Barber Motorsports Museum.  George Barber, spent more than $80 million of his own money, excluding contents of the building, to build this world-class museum and track.

Red Mountain Park

Birmingham with Railroad, Ruffner, and Red Mountain Parks, has more square feet of green space per capita than any city in the U.S.

Children’s of Alabama

People bring their children from all over the U.S. to our Children’s of Alabama.  Most of us in Birmingham often don’t appreciate the world-class healthcare provided here. As a bonus, Children’s Hospital has changed the Birmingham skyline.

Rotary Trail

The Rotary Club of Birmingham recently celebrated its 100th Anniversary and kicked off a fund raising campaign to transform this abandoned railroad cut on 1st Avenue South to a linear park for bikers and walkers.  The Rotary Trail will be a gateway between Railroad Park and Sloss.

Birmingham Zoo

If you haven’t taken your children or grandchildren to our Birmingham Zoo recently, you don’t know what you’re missing.  Trails of Africa, the Giraffe Encounter, and our new Dinosaur  exhibit will make your children squeal with joy.

Birmingham Crossplex

Other communities are jealous of our new Birmingham Crossplex.  Teams are traveling  to Birmingham from all over the Southeast to compete in this must see, state of the art facility.

Vulcan Park 

Vulcan and Vulcan Park are unique to Birmingham. Vulcan, the Roman god of the forge, was cast in 1904 and is the largest cast-iron statue in the world.

There is nothing like it anywhere.

Highlands Bar & Grill

Birmingham’s known as a hot spot for good food.  Highlands Bar & Grill, and Hot & Hot Fish Club are two of our many fine restaurants.  Recently, Saw’s Juke Joint was written up in the Los Angeles Times.

Birmingham Civil Rights Institue

This year Birmingham celebrates 50 years of Civil Rights progress. Our Civil Rights Institute is actively involved in efforts to improve civil rights for all people  and is the heart of our celebration.

Honda Indy Grand Prix

Birmingham now hosts a major auto racing competition.  Our  Honda Indy Grand Prix is the talk of the racing world and our Barber Racetrack is internationally recognized as one of the best in the world.

Railroad Park

Our Birmingham Railroad Park is special.  It recently edged out parks in New York City, Portland and Calgary to win the Urban Land Institute’s Urban Open Space Award.

Sloss Welcome Center

Sloss Furnaces first opened  in 1871 just a few years after Birmingham was founded. Sloss, now a national historic landmark, helped propel Birmingham into industrial prominence.  The new welcome center is under construction.

Birmingham Museum of Art

People from everywhere are amazed when they visit our Birmingham Museum of Art.  The quality and magnitude of our exhibits are just not expected in a community our size.

McWane Science Center

Hundreds of thousands of children and adults learn about our world and science at our McWane Science Center.  A new early childhood area is on the drawing boards.

Alys Stephens Center

UAB’s Alys Stephens Center is one of the most beautiful and engaging performing arts centers in the South.

All these venues are in the City of Birmingham.  Folks in our suburbs who think the City of Birmingham’s not needed, might want to reconsider.

This should make us proud.

Now tell your friends.

Let’s turn Birmingham around.  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  There’s power in numbers. (Opt out at any time)

David Sher is a co-founder of Buzz12 Advertising and co-CEO of AmSher Receivables Management. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham)), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).