Category Archives: The City

City Councilor Miriam Witherspoon dies

Posted on April 21, 2009 | Leave a comment

witherspoon-91City flags fly at half-staff today as we learn that Miriam Witherspoon, Birmingham City Council President Pro Tempore, passed away last night. The first-term representative for Birmingham’s District 7 was 48. According to BhamWeekly’s Twitter profile, Birmingham City Council President Carole Smitherman confirmed the news in City Council chambers earlier this morning. 

The Birmingham News‘ breaking news blog has more details, with the city website’s bio and BhamWiki entry providing a glimpse of what she was able to accomplish.

Photo: Bob Farley/f8Photo

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Norwood’s Home Tour a fun way to explore neighborhood’s past, present

Posted on April 20, 2009 | Leave a comment

How does a century-old neighborhood on the rebound in North Birmingham reintroduce itself to metro Birmingham? Similar to how new home communities advertise themselves – with a collective “open house”.

That’s the big idea behind the first annual Historic Norwood Home Tour, taking place May 2nd from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.  Its organizers, all neighbors, are calling it a “hard hat” tour because all of the homes included have either been totally renovated or are in the middle of that process. They hope the tour will inspire with ideas and provide first-hand tips on how to manage a home renovation.

Eleven homes will be open for tours with proceeds from ticket sales benefitting the Norwood Resource Center, a local community non-profit operating in one of Norwood’s restored homes. Local businesses are taking out ads in the tour’s guide to cover the expense for putting on the event.

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Langford to host town hall meetings

Posted on April 8, 2009 | 2 comments

There are actually two stories that are taking place at the same time. First of all is the fact that The City of Birmingham’s Office of Public Information is on Facebook. The group is the latest move by the city to reach out to residents online.

Larry LangfordNow onto the reason for the post – Mayor Larry Langford is hosting a series of town hall meetings throughout the city. The first one, called “Why Birmingham Can’t Wait,” will take place on Thursday evening at Boutwell Auditorium beginning at 6 p.m. Additional ones will be held at area churches in the coming weeks, providing residents with the opportunity to ask the mayor and other representatives about current initiatives and learn about projects such as the planned repaving of neighborhood streets. You get to submit your questions for the mayor to ask as well in advance – via email to opi@birminghamal.gov. If you can’t make it to Boutwell, Fox 6 is scheduled to stream the event on its website.

Photo: Bob Farley/f8Photo

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Parking deck construction = road closings

Posted on March 29, 2009 | Leave a comment

Construction work on the addition to the 4th Avenue parking deck in downtown Birmingham today means that Richard Arrington, Jr. Blvd. between 4th and 5th Avenues North is currently closed to traffic.

While it is a quiet day of the week downtown, it could lead to delays for folks that use the road to access area churches as well as the last day of events at this weekend’s ImagiCon.

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Sigler makes Ebony’s Top 30 under 30 list

Posted on March 11, 2009 | Leave a comment

Marquelon Sigler has become the second person from Birmingham, AL in three years to be included in Ebony Magazine‘s Top 30 under 30 Young Leaders of the Future 2009. Sigler, a native of the Magic City, stays pretty busy working for Exford LLC/ Southern Real Estate Group as both their director of property acquisition and a realtor while being active in so many organizations, we’d be here a while if we listed them all. Plus, there wouldn’t be a reason for you to run out and pick up the current issue of Ebony, now would there?

Congratulations, Marquelon!

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Ken Owens, architect & preservationist, dies

Posted on March 9, 2009 | Leave a comment

Ken Owens , a co-founder of Birmingham’s first African-American owned architecture firm and an advocate for preservation in the city, died on Saturday. He was 69 years old.

According to the account published on The Birmingham News‘ blog, Owens had been battling cancer for the last two years. The former Blach’s building and the former Fire Station #4 (where his offices were located) were among the numerous projects that he and his business partner, Franklin Woods were responsible for throughout the city and Alabama.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. on Friday, March 13, 2009, at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church.

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Cable outage in Crestwood, Southside

Posted on February 28, 2009 | 6 comments

We’ve just learned via Wade Kwon’s Twitter feed that cable and Internet service in Crestwood has been down since about 1 a.m. this morning. Another Terminal Twitter follower, _colm_, let us know that the Bright House service outage is also affecting sections of Birmingham’s Southside. According to Kwon’s tweet, a line was cut due to a fire on Southside last night, causing the disruption. There’s currently no estimate being provided for when service will be restored.

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