After focusing on what they thought was wrong in Birmingham, the second question had our respondents talk about what excites them about The Magic City.

Choose three thing that you feel make Birmingham an exciting place to be right now:

The written comments received for this survey question ranged from focusing on downtown to not really being convinced that there was anything good to begin with.

More after the jump:

There were some that were more guarded about their optimism for the city’s future (or just thought it wasn’t about to happen any time soon):

nothing really excited me about birmingham right now. i hope the promises about new developments downtown aren’t empty…but then again, they’d have to make it safer down there to even get people going

NOTHING ELSE REALLY BECAUSE BIRMINGHAM IS REALLY MESSED UP AND NEEDS A CHANGE!

Initiatives to clean up the city. A greater focus from City Hall on Southside and Downtown’s issues like safety, homelessness, etc. Downtown and Southside should be the sparkling jewel of the city. Until we put the resources into these two “calling card” areas, we can’t build Birmingham.

Several of the comments seemed to focus on young professionals themselves and how motivated or driven they were:

There seem to be a lot of young, motivated professionals who are committed to improving Birmingham.

Birmingham is on the cusp of change. I find it very empowering an inspiring that young professionals are taking an active part in the city’s progress.

Those that were most positive focused on the area’s strongest fields (or potential to support new businesses):

it is a great place for those in the medical/health care field. UAB, Children’s Hospital and the multiple other research and provder organizations are a major bonus for the city.Opportunities for entrepreneurs is incredible and it seems to be young professionals stepping up, going out on their own, and creating things needed in this city.

While others looked at the growing cultural scene:

Underappreciated but vibrant arts and entertainment opportunities.

great cultural atmosphere (theater, museum, ballet, symphony and superior food and wine scene)

We didn’t get many responses for our last question, but those that we did get should bring some interesting conversation. Check in around lunchtime tomorrow and we’ll take a look.