I was so excited about the WiFi access this morning that I did not fill folks in on some of the other important points from this morning’s meeting:
The Screening Room’s business license was revoked during the meeting with a unanimous vote. The only councilor who did not get a chance to vote was William Bell, who was recovering from an unplanned surgery that took place yesterday. According to his council assistant, he was scheduled to be released from the hospital late today.
During the public comment portion of The Screening Room’s hearing, Mayor Langford offered and eventually proceeded to dispatch a tactical unit to the area surrounding the business. ONB President Michael Calvert and officers from our police department referenced an article originally published in Black & White last July as the main reason for the increased focus on the business.
More after the jump:
The mayor also announced that he was courting three (3) housing developments to be built within the city limits of Birmingham that would provide additional housing options for residents, providing that as the reason for his occasionally having to leave the council chambers during the meeting. The developments would consist of 1,000, 300 and 160 units respectively.
Langford reported that he was going to be attending The Seminar on Transition and Leadership for Newly-Elected Mayors beginning tomorrow in Boston. The three-day seminar at the school’s John F. Kennedy School of Government is sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Harvard University’s Institute of Politics (who pays for the mayors to attend). He’ll be in attendance with more than 20 newly elected leaders of cities from around the country. While in town, he is scheduled to be meeting with representatives for the XO Laptop as part of efforts to equip area students with laptops in the coming months.
The mayor formally introduced his “Let There be Light” program that would install approximately 10,000 lights throughout the city with new street lights with particular emphasis on high crime areas. The funds would come from monies appropriated for neighborhood funds that had not been spent in recent years. The cost to maintain the lights after installation is currently estimated at $8/light according to numbers referred to during the meeting. He is working with Alabama Power to reduce that cost. He also spoke about signing off on all existing capital projects, allowing some projects that have not moved forward for more than ten years to be completed.
17:03 p.m., This post was updated with a link to a detailed story about the Screening Room’s license revocation on al.com.
