Tag Archives: AL

Birmingham's internal battle has got to stop

Posted on January 29, 2009 by | 5 comments

Yesterday’s debacle at the BJCC board meeting shines a bright light on some of the issues still facing our region despite having attempted to put on a face to the outside world that we’ve overcome.

Even more disturbing were the comments that have been appearing after hearing about the exchange between Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford and State Representative Mary Moore. The underlying tone of the discussion seems to insinuate that all African-American contractors do bad work (not to mention the fact that other minority contractors don’t seem to exist) and that the facility shouldn’t even be built because we can’t support a professional sports team.

I’d ask those throwing that second stone all the time to take note that in most cases, the problem has not been lack of community support for the team but the lack of success of the league. In many cases, the city led league attendance figures. Plus, if we do so poorly supporting sports teams, why do we even get considered for things like U.S. Soccer and the upcoming Davis Cup matches. More importantly, the facility should not be seen as only being used for those 8-10 sporting events a year.

Our convention center needs the space, period. Whether we want to admit that or not, it’s true. Despite the fact that the new facility will never fully recoup its construction or operating costs for itself, it is something that can provide long term jobs and revenue for this region. We spend so much time in this city taking pot shots at each other and not realizing that the true change is going on despite what loud mouths with bully pulpits say (and I’m not talking about Larry). As we continue to grow and change regionally, we must start to act our age and put the petty bickering behind us.

The fact that a state constitutional amendment can be introduced at the whim of someone feeling that there is not enough being done is absurd and speaks to the issue of self-rule and why the 1901 Constitution should be replaced as soon as possible. This is an example of wasting taxpayer dollars on an issue that should be settled locally without having to run to Montgomery to have Daddy or Mommy fix it for us. The mayor is correct – he represents the city on the board. Having council members appointed may take us down a very slippery slope, especially considering some of the positioning that people are starting to do now for 2011. It should not be political and should serve the best interests of Birmingham and the community.

While in Washington for the Inauguration, I was surrounded by people of all races and creeds. I was part of a mass of humanity that did not have one incident or arrest (save for that one person falling from a tree trying to see The Mall). The issue of race, at least in that corner of the world, was there but ceded to the idea that we had to work together to solve problems without finger pointing and the We do need to do something that will allow for more minority contractors and minority businesses in general getting that foot in the door so that they can achieve the American Dream. It is our duty to help change things to make them better. However to ignore those groups that are truly minorities when looking at the numbers in Birmingham and the surrounding area while doing it makes it shallow and pointless.

But maybe that means that I’m not Black enough…

André Natta is the managing editor of The Terminal.

5 Comments

Posted in politics

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Folks, we need real funding for transit

Posted on December 17, 2008 by | 1 comment

 

If the $1.7 million in question for BJCTA paratransit service is taken from that which is already in the city’s budget for BJCTA this fiscal year and is not in addition to the amount set aside, our local transit authority would be forced to make reductions to its existing bus service (viewed as underfinanced and underperforming by many).

It’s disappointing to see the city continue to struggle to find ways to maintain a functioning bus service – particularly in light of the business fee increase supported by the business community and passed last December, which according to a several reports, including this one from us last year on November 19, included transit funding.

There still seems to be more name calling than action when it involves mass transit. The issue is of particular importance to me again as I sit in a hospital waiting room in New York City knowing that reliable mass transit continues to make it easy for me to get around my home town without worry.

Recently moving from downtown Birmingham also marks the first time that I did not stick to my personal rule of living within a block of a bus or train station stop. I just knew that my car or my bike was becoming more reliable.

My level of faith in the future of the BJCTA is not completely lost – their new website and the interim executive director provide a glimmer of hope that the system can be fixed, or at least wants to be.

My faith of future funding sources – from both the City of Birmingham and those other cities in the community that need to be providing substantial funding for it – is.

If we couldn’t get it done or at least really get it going when gas was approaching $4/gallon, I’m nervous about whether or not more than a temporary patch can be applied to our transit issue.

While folks already complain about the evening commute along Highway 280, I’m not quite sure folks out there are ready for the types of delays that folks from those cities our civic leaders always compare us to, like Denver, Austin and Atlanta already deal with. Waiting to do something could very well lead us to that point and then it will be too late.

It is especially disturbing considering that it is paratransit that is now involved in this shell game of funding sources.

Making that evening commute on the bus won’t look so bad in the near future – and shouldn’t (if we still have a working system to make that commute on). 

André Natta is the managing editor of The Terminal.

1 Comment

Posted in regional, transit

Tagged , , , , ,

UPDATE: Keeping music in our hearts and our children's lives

Posted on October 1, 2008 by | Leave a comment

UPDATE: 10.1.2008, 6:15 p.m. Good news…

UPDATE: 10.1.2008, 4 p.m., We’ve received word that things may be getting worked out. We’d still encourage anyone who can to attend Saturday’s performance. We also thank those of you that did reach out.

Late last night, we received an email from organizers of this weekend’s Barrage concert at the BJCC. The event had been created to serve as a benefit for Scrollworks, a non-profit organized last year with a mission “to offer quality music education for children in the local community regardless of their ability to pay, with a focus on minorities and the under-served areas of Greater Birmingham.” The simple version is, they need our support now more than ever.

They informed us that they’d recently received the estimated bill for miscellaneous fees associated with the use of the concert hall after repeated requests for that information in order to determine how to budget for the event. They’ve now determined that even if the hall sells out at adult ticket prices, the $6,000 bill, covering security costs, first aid needs, and ushers, necessary for Saturday’s concert, which will include performances by young string players coming from Selma and Gadsden, will make it impossible to raise funds as a result of the event – it would in fact place the organization in dire straits.

They’ve sent messages to the BJCC’s Jack Fields, Birmingham City Councilor Roderick Royal and Mayor Langford’s chief of staff Deborah Vance (or at least the mayor’s office) to see if something could be done to help, especially considering the fact that the performance and educational session is scheduled for the end of the week.

Now I’m not necessarily sure of what I can ask our readership can do. There are two things though – well three. We could encourage all of you to attend the concert, beginning at 7 p.m. on Saturday, no matter where it ends up being held.

We could ask that you contact Scrollworks and see how you’d be able to help, either by offering to usher, providing additional funds to help offset the costs of the event or by seeing what else they need.

We could also ask that you add your voices to theirs in seeing if something could be done to reduce the cost to Scrollworks.

It is a lot to ask, especially considering the roller coaster that our national economy has been on in recent weeks. But the benefit to the children that will take part in this educational experience and who will have a chance to perform and showcase their musical talent is worth making a plea through our virtual hub for the city and to see what can happen.

Leave a comment

Posted in education

Tagged , , , , ,

Respect all that use the roads, including bikes

Posted on September 18, 2008 by | 4 comments

NOTE: We got this letter in earlier today and thought it was appropriate with all of the talk about transportation. Daniel Tenpas reminds us that we need to be aware of what’s around us.

So, I’m riding my bike to the grocery store down Crestwood Blvd. As I was turning left onto Oporto Way behind 2 cars-the driver of the car in front of me makes eye contact with me in her rearview mirror-then promptly slams on her brakes. And I promptly ran into her passenger side rear fender-with my body and my bike. I go over the handle bars, slide on my back in the middle of the intersection of Crestwood Blvd. and Oporto Madrid. I’m a little shocked as she drives away. Thankfully, the car behind me stopped, waited for me to get up and leave the busy intersection and to make sure I was okay. I was then asked by two other drivers who witnessed the accident if I was okay. Which, I am-barring a couple of scrapes, strains and bruises.

Aside from the fact that the driver in front of me left the scene of an accident-I would just like your readers to be conscious of cyclists on the road. I am a son, a brother and a husband and I don’t want to lose my life in this city or any other because of reckless and careless drivers. Traffic law warrants that cyclists ride on the road (not the sidewalk.) Because of our state’s lack of bike lanes, drivers should use due diligence and share the road. Life is too important and too short. Can we have some respect for our fellow citizens?

BTW – you have a letter or an editorial you want to share? Send it into info@bhamterminal.com.

4 Comments

Posted in guest

Tagged , , , , , , ,

So, why WordCamp Birmingham?

Posted on August 25, 2008 by | 4 comments

If you’ve been to the front page of the site today, you’ve learned that we’re serving as an organizing sponsor for WordCamp Birmingham on September 27 & 28. A simple explanation of the event is it’s an unconference for fans, users and folks just interested in blogging in general and WordPress in particular. I’ll wait for you to check out the program’s website to learn more if you want to.

We know one question that may be running through your minds is “Why do this?”

This is my attempt to answer that question for you.

Some look at blogging as our new public access channels or a new form of talk radio. Blogging allows individuals to share of themselves (whether it’s their opinions, their photographs, or their favorite recipes) with anyone who cares to pay attention. Blogging is also social media, to me in its most visible form and tangible form. It is the sharing of ideas coupled with the ability to get feedback from those that either support or disagree with them. You can do it for the love of sharing your thoughts, a longing to change the world and to earn a living.

Selfishly, we here at The Terminal want more voices out there online. We want more people to share their thoughts and opinions about what’s going on in Birmingham and its metropolitan area in all of the ways available through social media. We want there to be a more complete virtual picture for folks who wonder just what’s going on in The Magic City. We want more folks comfortable with how blogging actually works. There’s no better way to do so than to bring together people from all over the region and potentially the world to learn from and share with each other. WordCamp Birmingham is a forum we believe that will allow us to do just that. It will give folks a peek into the world of social media in all of its forms, including ways to integrate many of these tools into a WordPress blog and finally answer that nagging question for many, regardless of what software you choose to use, “Why blog in the first place?”.

There have already been more than 20 of the unconferences held throughout the world, including San Francisco, CA (WordPress parent company Automattic‘s hometown); Birmingham, England; Cape Town, South Africa; and Dallas, Texas. All of these locations allowed for conversations to be held and collaboration and cooperation to be fostered. For those that may need to look at this more competitively, the week following our event, Raleigh-Durham, NC is scheduled to host one. We’ll also be slightly ahead of my hometown as New York’s first WordCamp will be held the day after RDU’s.

It is also a great weekend to showcase Birmingham to its visitors. The Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary while the Taste of 4th Avenue Jazz Festival enjoys its fifth year of providing a musical interlude to jazz aficionados of the region. Folks that want to enjoy more music on Sunday can make their way up to Vulcan Park and enjoy the Vulcan After Tunes series in addition to breathtaking views of the city. This is not to forget that two incredible exhibits will be opening at the Birmingham Museum of Art that weekend, including the one featuring Leonardo Da Vinci.

For others we plan to give our visitors a chance to wander the city via a scavenger hunt and invite folks to talk about other ways that Birmingham in particular and the South in general can continue to connect and share their voices with each other and the rest of the world.

Registration is scheduled to open on Wednesday Thursday morning and space will be limited.

What can you do? We hope a few things – that you’ll join us for what we hope is the first of many ways that we can contribute to our community’s technological goals; that some of you will consider contacting me about sponsorship opportunities; that you’ll consider volunteering and help us publicize the conference. That you’ll consider presenting at the conference.

Have I at least made you interested in what’s going on? Good…

Send me a message with “wordcampbham” as the title to acnatta@gmail.com or andre@bhamterminal.com and we’ll go from there.

André Natta is the managing editor of The Terminal and one of the organizers for WordCamp Birmingham.

4 Comments

Posted in Commentary

Tagged , , , , , ,

What would Larry say on a blog?

Posted on July 14, 2008 by | 11 comments

Larry Langford - acnatta/FlickrCould you imagine the conversations that would result from Birmingham’s mayor, Larry Langford, taking his ideas directly to the blogosphere? We had definitely thought of it and all of the possibilities – that’s why we offered him a chance to write a weekly column here on my Birmingham during the early days of his administration. We also tried to include him in the interviews that we conducted as part of our election coverage. We never received an official response from him on either of those invitations.

One may ask, “Why would the mayor want to share his thoughts with us using a blog platform?” The better question may be “Why not?” Mayors across the country have turned to the blogosphere to share their thoughts for the future of their city, to control potential spin on comments and to help shape their image of #1 cheerleader of the city. Maybe some folks would be a little nervous about giving Larry that much access to us, or that he wouldn’t have access to enough people. That hasn’t stopped Mayor Slay of St. Louis, who recently used his blog to voice his opinions surrounding what’s become today’s announcement about IN Bev’s purchase of Anheuser-Busch. Huntsville’s mayor, Loretta Spencer, hasn’t posted since late January but saw the benefit of having one set up. Mayors in Richmond, VA; Phoenix, AZ; and Miami, FL all use their blogs to broadcast announcements affecting the day-to-day lives of their citizens and to share their ideas for the future of their cities.

Maybe the immediate feedback would help temper some of the grandiose aspirations that have come out of the mayor’s office – though we were all warned that we were going to have to hold on tight back on Election Night. He also doesn’t seem to be one that likes to be criticized or second- guessed (that’s why we’re still expecting fireworks at 5:15 p.m. tonight). It would be funny to see how he’d react to the instant, immediate and sharp wit shared both in support of him and against him via blog comments.

Some may wonder why we wanted him to participate on this site in the first place. Our answer is simple, “Wouldn’t you?” It would be a great way to truly encompass all thoughts and perspectives on issues in our community directly from mayor’s mouth. “Where does he actually want to lead the city?” “What has to happen to get there?” “What else do we need to know before a decision can be made?” These are all questions that are asked by a lot of people nowadays that would be easily answered if he or anyone else in his position chose to join the conversation wholly. Until then, it remains a guessing game, one that could lead many to wonder with all of the ideas floating in Larry’s head, imagined or otherwise, what more don’t we know.

André Natta is the managing editor of The Terminal.

11 Comments

Posted in politics

Tagged , , , , , , ,

An Olympic-sized dream

Posted on June 23, 2008 by | 8 comments

As I looked at the story that ran on the Birmingham News’ site on Saturday about Mayor Langford wanting to bid for the 2020 Olympics and saw the reaction of readers, a few things ran through my mind.

I found it funny that people will say that all outsiders know about Birmingham is what happened during the Civil Rights movement, yet “no one’s even heard of Birmingham” whenever we want to think big. I also find it funny that people think that downtown is so dangerous. My current plans to move have nothing to do with safety – it’s more to do with the costs. It is probably one of the safer downtown areas I’ve ever lived in. Finally, (at least to me) it’s not about actually getting the Games – though that’s the ultimate goal – it’s about knowing that you could be an Olympic minded city.

I also stumbled across this post over on Daily Dixie late last night. While some of the things in the list are true, maybe having a goal as unattainable as hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics could start to move us in the  direction we want to go in. It would also force us to begin to look at taking ownership of some of the bigger issues in our community ourselves as citizens, an idea whose time I believe has finally come in The Magic City. Why sit back and wait for someone else to do something when you can take initiative yourself?

I’m not saying that I think we have a chance at all to get the Games at all. I think besides the arbitrary reasons people will want to give, I’d point to the International Olympic Committee‘s historic precedent (and dislike) of not having cities so close to each other hosting games so soon after one another, even with the 24 years that will have elapsed between the Centennial games of Atlanta and our elected leader’s goal. Our chances will also hinge on whether Chicago is successful in its current bid to host the Games in 2016 – if they are, it would further hurt our chances. There’s also the quality of the 27 other cities that are hoping for the nod when the lucky city is announced sometime in 2013. While I won’t be as caustic as Scarbinsky was, there are other numbers that don’t necessarily say “over here, over here!”.

This is one time though where I think many of us pundits would love to be proven wrong. A familiar quote has resurfaced during my research and founding UAB President Volker’s comments have never echoed in my mind as much as they do now. We must dream big dreams for the city and the region, but our leaders must realize that they must work together to solve the issues of the day. Compromise and partnerships are two things that, while becoming more prevalent in recent conversations, still seem to elude us when they matter most. The thing is, attempting to win the right to host a Summer Olympics would force the city of Birmingham and its leadership, elected and otherwise, to take a good hard look at the issues that face the city and the region and have significant progress made by a clear and absolute deadline.

The year 2020 has always appeared to be an important one to our area’s community leaders. Several organizations, most notably Region 2020, have chosen the arbitrary date as a deadline for when things need to be accomplished. Mayor Langford’s proclamation while in attendance at the Alabama Sports Festival may have been “classic” Larry, however those around him will realize quickly that many of his ideas, if linked together under this umbrella, may actually get some traction, whether it’s a dome, new housing, new businesses, better transit, etc. So long as the improvements made to the city are done for the good of its citizens and not to be “as good as” any other large Southern metropolitan city, it could be the goal that finally makes us work for it. It also provides something for us to hold him accountable to and a bar to reach for when 2020 finally descends upon us.

If you use Chicago’s current bid for the 2016 Summer Games as an example, many of the infrastructure improvements that would need to be made would have to see significant progress by 2012, giving Langford until the end of his current term to leave what would be an indelible mark indeed. Even if we were unsuccessful, it would be a feather in his cap to see just what could be accomplished for our citizens in order to try to even compete, especially after reviewing the 257-page application completed for consideration to host the 2016 Games. It could also be a great way to measure his success and determine if he deserves another term in office.

André Natta is the managing editor of The Terminal.

8 Comments

Posted in politics, sports

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,