Considering the weight of the items that were on the agenda today, we decided to hold off on our weekly preview and post now sharing some of the more interesting parts of today’s meeting. As the post title says, two items before the council during today’s meeting may breathe new life into two historic buildings in the Magic City – the Ramsay McCormack building in downtown Ensley and Quinlan Castle on the city’s Southside.
Category Archives: On the agenda
Name change for Birmingham International Airport?
That is what was proposed by Mayor Larry Langford earlier today during the City Council meeting. He said that he would be asking the Birmingham Airport Authority to rename the current facility for civil rights icon the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.
Aerial of Seibels/Bryan Birmingham International Airport. Bob Farley/f8photo
The proposal would change the name from the current, seldom used one – Seibels/Bryan – Birmingham International Airport (for former Birmingham mayor George Siebels and Brother Bryan. (No, we didn’t know either until we did the research ourselves…)
On the agenda: Shortening of meetings begin
It’s a fairly quiet agenda for our city councilors here in Birmingham today, with item 6 addressing an issue that has been getting a lot of attention recently. Last week’s City Council meeting lasted nearly seven hours, definitely giving a reason for the council president to submit a proposal moving all Council presentations and commendations to the first Council meeting of each month. It had been included in last week’s agenda but a vote was delayed.
Posted in On the agenda
Tagged agenda, AL, Alabama, Birmingham, City Council, government, On the agenda, politics
On the agenda: Festival season’s upon us
This morning’s council agenda reminds us that the festival season is already here. Two items on the agenda cover two of Birmingham’s more popular festivals. Item 21 is on consent (and hopefully it stays there) and provides the Function at Tuxedo Junction Jazz Festival $27,000 for its 2008 edition in Erskine Hawkins Park in the city’s Ensley community. Item 26 is also on consent and amends the contract between the city and the organization responsible for City Stages, increasing the amount received by the festival from $200,000 t0 $700,000.
Item 66 should be an opportunity to remind people about this Friday’s Relay for Life of Urban Birmingham being held at Legion Field. BTW, it goes from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. and there’s still time to give.
There are also items that call for a feasibility study to determine a location for the proposed Negro League Baseball Association Museum (item 33 – there is already a nationally designated Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, MO); as well as one (item 27 – also on consent) that could lead to some interesting discussion considering one of the stories in today’s Birmingham News.
Check out the agenda and the online broadcast of the meeting on the city’s website.
On the agenda: Money, development, money (and anger)
So the big news for this morning’s City Council meeting is not necessarily one that is on the agenda, but an item that will be brought up during Mayor Langford’s comments, at least according to this morning’s Birmingham News. They reported that the mayor, upset with City Councilor Valerie Abbott over the situation represented in this video (use of a city car), will be pulling his compromise plan for the former Knights of Columbus property in Glen Iris, frustrating a community that one could say was already quite frustrated. This will allow Formation Methods the opportunity to develop apartments on the property. Check out the links and see what you think.
Now on to the agenda…
On the agenda: The disparity study finally moves forward
So besides the 684 properties on this morning’s City Council meeting for having “noxious and dangerous weeds” (that’s got to be some kind of record), there is one issue that for some has taken way too long to finally reach the dais: a resolution adopting the results of the long referenced disparity study commissioned by the Council during the Kincaid administration.
There are four items on the agenda relating to the study (items 11 – 14): one that would adopt the findings; two that would authorize the Council’s economic development committee to create and appoint members to a sub-committee to create an implementation plan based on the results of the study; and one to approve The Freeman Group, LLC to facilitate the sub-committee’s planning efforts (for fees not to exceed $20,000).
It will definitely be interesting to see how the results are used to deal with this important issue in the city.
You can always watch the meeting at your desk on the city’s website; the fun starts at 9:30 a.m.
Posted in On the agenda, politics
Tagged Alabama, Birmingham, City Council, disparity study, information, On the agenda, plans
