Category Archives: The First 100

News, Weekly take one, two punch at Mayor Langford

Birmingham’s mayor made the front pages of two of the area’s print publications, though not necessarily for good reasons. The stories result from both The Birmingham News and Birmingham Weekly obtaining copies (warning – it’s a big file) of what has been identified as Larry Langford’s June 2007 testimony to the SEC (no, the other one).

The Birmingham News ran their coverage below the fold of this morning’s paper. Their story focused on the then county commission president’s testimony that he regularly asked recipients of county contracts to give to charities that he was associated with and controlled.

Kyle Whitmire follows up two teases on the Weekly’s blog (here’s the latest one) with a War on Dumb filing (we’ll link when it gets posted) that digs a little deeper into the mayor’s testimony, contrasting it with comments made during the mayor’s inaugural address.

Definitely an interesting time for these stories to break, especially considering some of the heated discussion that took place at Tuesday’s marathon council meeting.

Which leads us to ask: What do you think?

Click on the question to let us know…

Now hear this: Matthews vs. Murphy online

It’s currently one of the featured posts over on Birmingham Weekly’s Mixed Media blog – Kyle’s piece about Frank Matthews’ “exchange”with Matt Murphy on Murphy‘s February 8th broadcast resulting from John Archibald’s* blog post on February 7 about Larry Langford’s mayoral campaign’s media dealings. Now you can hear how it went down.

WAPI-AM has posted the audio from this exchange on-air; listen up and let us know what you think:

http://www.wapi1070.com/getpodcast.aspx?sid=22245&lid=5017&id=581546&source=2&url=http://podcasting.fia.net/5017/2405697.mp3

*Incidentally, I’ll finally get a chance to meet the Birmingham News columnist when he and I join Wade Kwon as panelists at today’s PRSA meeting beginning at 11:45 a.m.

The First 100: Mayor Langford hosts crime summit tomorrow

10/30 logoMayor Langford is inviting all African American males in Birmingham, Alabama to attend a crime summit tomorrow evening beginning at 6 p.m. at Fair Park Arena. Two inmates from the St. Clair Correctional Facility will be on hand as well as a presentation of Plan 10/30 Why Am I Dying?/Do You Care?, an effort to reach out to this particular group and “change their mindset.”

There will also be a gun buy-back conducted by the SCLC tomorrow afternoon from 4:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. This flier has been received by The Terminal for purposes of distribution to anyone interested in attending tomorrow evening.

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City Council green-lights Langford’s Fair Park plan

Birmingham city councilors gave Mayor Larry Langford a collective nod to move forward on a multi-million dollar plan to overhaul Fair Park, and potentially jump start redevelopment in the oft-neglected west side of town.

Image from Langford Fair Park presentationThe seven councilors present at Thursday’s Committee of the Whole meeting questioned how the city could shift earmarked bond funds to pay for the park concept, when the previous administration told them shifting funds wasn’t possible. Nevertheless, they unanimously agreed that Langford could hire an architect and begin the process of bringing to life an Olympic-style sports, entertainment, retail and residential complex on the 40-acre site.

Langford could barely contain his joy at the councilors’ decision. “For the first time, you have city councilors saying, if you take a little money out of my district for the good of the city, it’s okay.”

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The First 100: Around the Magic City after 80 days

Larry Langford

Birmingham mayor Larry Langford. Bob Farley/f8photo

If you’re counting actual calendar days, it’s day 80 of the Langford era in Birmingham, Alabama. Some would call it a little whirlwind-like, especially after Tuesday’s $90 million proposal announced for the Alabama State Fairgrounds on the city’s west side. We’re curious about what you think about how it’s going so far…

We’re hoping that you’re actually willing to share your thoughts. We’d really love it if you clicked on the following link and posted your comments to the Great Room thread (with a tip of the hat to former New York mayor Ed Koch):

How’s he doing after 80 days?

The First 100: The other guys cover the mayor’s first State of the City address

UPDATE: 1.17.2008; You may also find an audio file (available in WMA format, 22.5 MB) of the mayor’s speech on the city’s website.

Everyone seems to be taking away something different from yesterday’s first State of the City address presented by Birmingham mayor Larry Langford. For those that want to know what he actually said, you’ll want to go to CBS 42’s website (get to their local news section) scroll through their online videos and click on the link to the full 30-minute speech. (Yes, it’s there; we actually have a copy of that coverage, but it’s their video, so check it out if you’ve got time). Then take a look at the following links to see how the mainstream did with their coverage.

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