Yesterday could be seen as a microcosm of what’s going on in Jefferson County right now. The Birmingham City Council was able to listen to Mayor Langford present the State of the City address (complete with stern remarks towards the council and others) and then vote against using a portion of the former Social Security headquarters to house the city’s police department. Meanwhile the Jefferson County Commission proceeded to approve spending $237,500 for a lobbyist to Washington, DC to help “fix” the sewer crisis. Their vote allows for the contract to be renewed every 90 days. Quite a contrast…
Category Archives: The City
A new Batman for Birmingham
Someone has donned the mask of the Caped Crusader, if only virtually, for the Magic City. This one hopes that they can make people aware of what’s going on around them in terms of crime.
Birmingham Batman has recently re-appeared as a MySpace profile that connects to a Spotcrime.com map of the area. The profile also includes an widget that pulls the RSS feed from our local Crimestoppers site. According to the profile, comments will be limited to information relevant to dealing with Birmingham crime. We don’t know who it is (though we wish we’d done it first 🙂 ), but we’re hoping that folks will take advantage of it. We’re thinking the original would be proud (we talked about him here in 2007), though we’re not sure…
Tagged Batman, Birmingham, city, Crime, crime map, information, MySpace, Spotcrime
No pets on Wednesdays
The economic crisis is starting to affect our four-legged friends. NBC 13 is reporting that the Greater Birmingham Humane Society will be closed on Wednesdays (and not closing for good on Wednesday as some may infer from their post’s headline) for the foreseeable future, starting tomorrow.
While we haven’t seen the press release, the information is up on their website’s front page, giving you a great excuse to see what else they may need.
Posted in The City
Tagged Alabama, Birmingham, budget cuts, financial crisis, GBHS, Humane Society, new hours, Wednesdays
NYC’s Cheyenne Diner being moved to Birmingham
Thanks to Twitter follower @BhamWiki, we’ve learned that New York’s historic Cheyenne Diner will be making it’s new home in Birmingham, AL. The diner was closed by a rival Midtown eatery early last year. The landmark Art Moderne structure was originally slated for a move from its home of 68 years at 9th Avenue and 33rd Street to the Red Hook section of Brooklyn (as reported on Gothamist in April). Unfortunately, it was beginning to look like efforts were not going to be successful.
The story about its now pending move to the Magic City was first reported on Chelsea Now yesterday with The Associated Press posted a news brief earlier this afternoon confirming the move.
If you want to get a better idea of what we’re gaining here, check out the photos on Tom Fletcher’s New York Architecture site. Hopefully we’ll find out exactly where it’s going soon.
Photo: Farewell. Goggla/Flickr.
Tagged Alabama, Birmingham, Cheyenne Diner, flat bed truck, Manhattan, moving, photo, Red Hook, saved
Preservation Training hits the Magic City
There are a bunch of preservationists who’ve been visiting Birmingham since Saturday and tomorrow they want to show you what they’ve learned. Tne National Trust for Historic Preservation, The Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation and Main Street Birmingham have been conducting the current Preservation Leadership Training session in downtown’s Historic 4th Avenue Business District focusing on the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge. Participants will use what they’ve learned in workshops, lectures, tours, team projects and role playing to develop plans for rehabilitating the building. You may want to venture over to the Lodge tomorrow (Friday) evening at 5:30 p.m. as the proposals are presented for what can be done to best preserve and use this historic structure.
If you want an idea of what some of the attendees are thinking about their visit and their experiences, check out this post on the Trust’s official blog courtesy of Dr. Kimberly Ellis of Pittsburgh’s Historic Hill Initiative.
Photo: Alabama Life neon sign on Lodge building. acnatta/Flickr
Larry Langford arrested, charged as part of 101-count Federal indictment
Photo: Bob Farley/f8Photo. Note: To view the entire gallery of photos taken by Bob, please on the image above.
Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, arrested early Monday morning at his job at Birmingham Budweiser, appeared in federal court in leg-irons and pleaded not guilty in federal court as prosecutors outlined a 101-count criminal indictment alleging bribery, conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and filing false income tax returns; he is named in 60 of them.
Langford, with longtime friend and lobbyist Albert LaPierre and Montgomery-based investment banker William Blount, are accused of creating “pay to play” criminal schemes in which they personally and professionally profited from Jefferson County’s billion-dollar sewer bond deals.
Langford was the County Commission president from 2003 to 2007, and oversaw the county’s financial committee. During that time, prosecutors allege Langford got as much as $235,000 from Blount through LaPierre, and that Blount’s firm, Blount Parrish & Co., received $7.1 million in fees from county bond swap transactions.
Posted in The City
Tagged Al LaPierre, arrest, Birmingham, charges, details, FBI, federal, federal charges, full story, indictment, Larry Langford, William Blount
Walls fall on the Southside
Photo: Travis Bryant/bhamterminal.com
Today demolition crews started tearing down the former homes of Jim Reed Books, Scott’s Koneys, FedEx/Kinko’s and the Birmingham Water Works to allow for construction to begin for the highly anticipated Block 121 development. The project, being developed by Corporate Realty Development and Inland American Communities Group is slated to include retail space and 258 rental units. The last tenant on the block, Express Oil Change, moved to its new location on University Blvd. earlier this year, while Scott’s Koney’s and FedEx/Kinko’s moved nearly a year ago.
Posted in The City
Tagged block 121, Business, Corporate Realty, demolition, development, residential, southside
