by Glynn Wilson

I am sick and tired of hearing people in the suburbs bitch about the city government in Birmingham, Alabama.

As you may already know, Larry Langford was just elected as Birmingham's new mayor. And what was his platform? Building that great domed stadium he has long sought.

Now it looks like that stadium will be built.

What we are wondering is: Who will play in this new stadium? We realize that high school football is a big deal to a lot of people these days, but isn't Legion Field big enough for the high school football playoffs?

(Please notice that I am laughing out loud as I write this).

UAB already has an indoor stadium for its fine basketball team. The football team is a joke and should never have been funded in the first place.

Back in the 1980s, the city lost the biggest sports event in its history when it lost the Iron Bowl, that great fall clash between Alabama and Auburn. Blame it on Pat Dye or Mayor Richard Arrington if you will. I blame it on the perpetuation of white flight.

And here's the big clue. Birmingham is not big enough to attract a major sports franchise. Why? Because it was developed and cut up into white flight suburbs in that era of segregation so long ago that Birmingham will never be a great city, ever.

This just dawned on me the other day when listening to suburbanites bitch. These are people who either do not bother to vote in Birmingham elections, or who do not live in the city limits and so have no voice in city government.

But somehow this does not dawn on them or stop them from bitching from the Peanut Gallery.

Now like a lot of the suggestions we make on this Website knowing full well they will never be implemented, here's what Birmingham should do if it ever wants to be a great city. Start a concerted drive to annex Homewood, Mountain Brook, Vestavia, Hoover and yes Center Point, and maybe we will take the commentary seriously about making Birmingham great.

Think about it. Is Buckhead a municipality separate from Atlanta? Are the five boroughs of New York apart from the city itself?

As long as Mountain Brook wants to keep its rich school system mostly white and separate from Birmingham, the Birmingham school system will continue to crumble.

As long as the money and the talent pool from those suburban municipalities are kept separate from the little city itself, there will always be people sitting around bitching about Birmingham - and nothing will get done.

What we are wondering is: Why did the Birmingham News bother to build a new building downtown? It's amazing the Newhouse chain monopoly behemoth didn't decide to move to Hoover like the Birmingham Barons.

Speaking of contradictions, is that baseball team still called the Birmingham Barons? Shouldn't that be the Hoover Barons?

Sometimes I am deeply ashamed of my hometown. Sometimes, I just laugh at the silliness that passes for understanding.

At least Langford had one good idea - how to get laptops into the hands of Birmingham students.

Of course if the Birmingham News were being honest with its readers, it would run an editorial saying that's a bad idea. What they really need is a subscription to the paper edition, right?

Then all the little African-American students in the Birmingham school system could be converted into little black conservative Republicans like Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas and Louis Franklin.

That's what they really want down there on Fourth Avenue. Why won't they just come out and say it?

Ain't the Web great? We can call it like we see it, like Bill Maher on HBO, and there's not a damn thing anybody can do about it - except read it and weep.

Posted by Glynn Wilson at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

A test of the air over north Birmingham shows that Jefferson and Shelby counties are in violation of a new air pollution standard on the first day it was being enforced, according to the Associated Press.

A meteorologist for the Jefferson County Health Department, Sam Bell, says a monitor in north Birmingham captured more than 45 micrograms of particles of air pollution, 35 micrograms allowed by new Environmental Protection Agency new rules.

Jefferson County officials have predicted that the area will fail unless cleanup measures are taken.

What the AP is not reporting in this context is that the chief sources of air pollution in the Birmingham area are Alabama Power's coal-fired power plants.

Alabama Power is asking the Public Service Commission to allow a 5.3 percent hike in electicity rates to cover the cost of new emissions control equipment to address some of the company's pollution issues, typically passing on the cost of cleaner power to the consumer, according to this earlier story.

Perhaps the quasi-public company with a virtual monopoly should consider a reduction in the executive pay level of Charles D. McCrary, President Chief Executive Officer and Director of Alabama Power, who takes home at least $1,858,385 a year, according to Salary.Com.

And, with their monopoly, we are wondering why Alabama Power and the other Southern Company affiliates spend so much money on "green washing" advertising? Have you seen the stupid blue bird campaign?

Instead of raising rates, we suggest they may want to eliminate the company's advertising division.

Posted by Glynn Wilson at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

According to Richard Florida, a professor of regional economic development at Carnegie Mellon University and author of The Rise of the Creative Class: And How Its Transforming Work The Creative Secretary, Birmingham, Alabama is number nine on the creative index of medium-sized cities in America.

Washington Monthly: Why cities without gays and rock bands are losing the economic development race.
CreativeClass.Org

Posted by Glynn Wilson at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)