Category Archives: Citywide

UPDATED – News flash: Council approves sales tax, business license fee increases

Langford celebrates passage

Birmingham mayor Larry Langford shakes Councilor Steven Hoyt’s hand as he leaves chambers shortly after the passage of his proposed sales tax and business license fee increases. They will take effect on January 1.

Photo credit: Bob Farley/f8photo

The Birmingham City Council voted to approve both of the mayor’s initiatives during this morning’s city council meeting. While we need to confirm the final vote, Councilor William Bell was not in attendance due to his continuing recovery (though he did take part in the discussion via telephone), while Councilor Valerie Abbott abstained from both votes. We will provide more information as it becomes available.

The sales tax passed 7-0 while the business license fee increase passed 6-1, with Councilor Joel Montgomery casting the lone “no” vote. The increases are set to take place on January 1.

The First 100: Online petitions begun against taxes

iPetitions screenshot - Tax increase opposition in Alabama

Screenshot from iPetitions for opposition to tax increase.

One of our readers sent us a link yesterday to this online petition for residents against the proposed increases in sales tax and business license fees in Birmingham. It will be interesting to see how many signatures are collected. It’s not the only development from over the weekend as our local newspaper of record decided to share its thoughts on Sunday (and we already told you about the piece in this week’s Birmingham Times).

We’d love to know if there are any more petitions out there either in support or against the proposals. Contact us using any of the methods listed on our contact page.

UPDATED: The First 100: The Times joins in on the act

The Birmingham Times that is – in the public discourse taking place throughout the media regarding Mayor Langford’s proposed tax increases. Johnnie Wyatt adds his voice to the conversation (and don’t assume you automatically know what that voice is saying, either) and even invites you to contact him about your thoughts at the end of his piece in this week’s Birmingham Times.

We’d just love it if you’d share a few of those thoughts with us as well (after you check out his piece).

UPDATE – 10:05 p.m., 11.30.2007; links changed to direct readers to current location of story.

Travelogue: Cincy’s coming to the dance…

Bearcats logo…but do they really want to? Here are a couple of posts from the Bearcats’ neck of the woods offering you some insight into what some of them are thinking about visiting the city on December 22 to face Southern Miss in the PapaJohns.com Bowl. The Bearcats were formally introduced yesterday as the Big East representative.

The UC Bearcats blog on Cincinnati.com has fans venting about not being picked for a “bigger” bowl game, but it sounds like they’re going to be trying to turn out in force to prove a point. Dan over at Queen City Survey also decided to do his own research on the city and seems destined to be here and see what’s available.

Based on the comments, it sounds like The Magic City is about to be invaded on Christmas weekend by a large contingent from the north’s Queen City. Hopefully they’ll be pleasantly surprised by what they find. And since I know that some of them will be looking at this post, there’s plenty to do in the Magic City besides The Big Guy atop Red Mountain (though he is pretty cool). Check out the list we’ve started over on Timetable to learn about more things to do while you’re in town:

UPDATED: The First 100: Notes from today’s mayor’s report

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:

Continue reading

The First 100: Cooper challenge dismissed

The final legal hurdle surrounding the 2007 mayoral election has been cleared as Judge Alvin Horn dismissed the election challenge filed by second place finisher Patrick Cooper to Birmingham mayor Larry Langford’s October 9 victory.

The Birmingham News’ breaking news blog has linked to a copy of the judge’s decision.

See The Magic City in pictures

Screenshot of Flickr City pages - Birmingham, AL.

Well, we’ve already started using the latest Best of the Magic City photos on our front page (that’s just in case you didn’t already know).

We’ve also created our own Flickr Group trying to encourage folks to tag pictures that could be used for stories or that simply show things you enjoy about the Magic City. The folks at Flickr have gone one step further and they’ve created pages for cities. The one that exists for Birmingham is shown in the screenshot above. Check it out and see if your city’s already set up.