Phyllis Neill & David Sher
Objective: To create a conversation on a better metro Birmingham.
Government structure is killing Birmingham.
Birmingham’s the city of perpetual promise.
After World War II, Birmingham and New Orleans were the top two leading cities in the South. Now they’re at the bottom. New Orleans had Katrina. What’s Birmingham’s excuse?
Birmingham’s centrally located in the South, is absolutely gorgeous, and has very smart, generous, likeable people—as do other Southern cities. Why have we performed so poorly? Is there something in the water?
Our government structure’s wreaking havoc. No one single person or entity has the power or authority to do anything; not the Mayor of Birmingham; not the City Council, not the County Commission; not the State Legislature. Instead, everyone’s working against one another.
This blog is a passion project for David Sher and Phyllis Neill, biz partners at Buzz12 Advertising Agency, who believe we desperately need to begin a conversation on how to fix our fragmented and dysfunctional government.
There’s no easy solution and we won’t make progress until people understand our core problem’s government structure and decide to do something about it.
We aren’t proposing we combine the governments of Jefferson County and Birmingham. That’s worked in other peer cities, but may not be appropriate of us.
We’re not proposing a solution. This may take years to formulate and execute. It might be best accomplished in small steps? Our objective should be to promote economic development (that’s where Birmingham’s really losing), and accordingly our business community should lead the way.
And we’re certainly not proposing we combine schools. That’s a non-starter.
Let’s begin a conversation on how to improve government structure and let our comeback begin…
- Phyllis Neill, David Sher
