{"id":902,"date":"2012-07-09T16:37:01","date_gmt":"2012-07-09T21:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/mybirmingham\/?p=902"},"modified":"2012-07-09T16:37:01","modified_gmt":"2012-07-09T21:37:01","slug":"bell-pedestrian-bridge-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/2012\/07\/09\/bell-pedestrian-bridge-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"Musings on a bridge to somewhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Looking<\/a>I went for a run recently at Railroad Park<\/a> – the newness of being able to say that still hasn\u2019t quite worn off yet. I tend to stay on the cushioned portion of the trail circling the four-block urban oasis. I decided I\u2019d stop at the stairs that take you down to the portion of the trail that leads you along the lawn before rising again. It\u2019s approximately where Mayor Bell\u2019s bridge would connect 16th Street North with the park and Southside<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After I stopped thinking about how crazy it would be to run through the potential foot traffic, I started wondering what other reasons there could be for constructing this bridge – provided the feasibility study recently approved by the Birmingham City Council<\/a> says it makes sense and the funding sources are identified and tapped. It\u2019d be nice for tourism, but there are some more practical reasons that can be shared with the community that speak to its long term effects.<\/p>\n

Here are a few that came to mind:<\/p>\n

A symbolic gesture towards the future<\/strong>. Yes, this is the case already being presented by its proponents. Next year the spotlight will be focused on Alabama\u2019s Magic City as people from across the country and around the world look to see what\u2019s changed since September 1963. There will be just as many wondering who\u2019ve never paid attention before wondering what\u2019s happening in this city. Even though it wouldn\u2019t be finished in time, it would be the type of civic project that could be pointed to when asked how things are progressing (though Railroad Park and the baseball field<\/a> would do a pretty good job on their own). That\u2019s nice, but it\u2019s probably more of a symbolic gesture for the region\u2019s residents than it is for outsiders.<\/p>\n

Despite the best efforts of some locals, the days of the city\u2019s central business district alone serving as the city\u2019s downtown is over. It is \u201cgreater downtown Birmingham\u201d nowadays, and it includes Southside. If we\u2019re not going to be able to get an interstate sunk, we\u2019re still going to want to go over something to claim success of truly connecting our city – and showing what else is possible as these cracks continue to be repaired. It also\u00a0gives us a way to hearken images of the Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga<\/a> as we cross our “river” running through the center of town (I know that’s running through some minds out there, admit it).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a businessperson\u2019s special<\/strong>. When I lived downtown, I used to prefer running over the 22nd St. bridge to attempting to go under the railroad tracks on 20th<\/sup> St., despite that being where signs currently live guiding runners new to the city through it. Considering I could run a little faster when I first moved here, occasionally switching up the route didn\u2019t phase me that much – especially on hot evenings where it did provide a cool respite. Now imagine a bunch of folks who drive into town solely to work in the city\u2019s central business district who\u2019d rather walk over something rather than under while in town for a game – and who\u2019d rather park somewhere familiar to them. It suddenly opens up a lot more parking options for the ballpark too, doesn\u2019t it? Not to mention the potential foot traffic. This leads to…<\/p>\n

The UAB\/Bridge to the future angle<\/strong>. The state\u2019s largest employer occupies a significant portion of the property south of the railroad tracks and a concerted effort needs to be made to encourage those associated with UAB to travel just a little farther north. This becomes much more important as people begin to realize how much land is available for redevelopment in the area known as the Entrepreneurial District – a portion of the city center with an easternmost boundary of 16th<\/sup> Street North. As efforts begin to encourage additional, denser development of the area, you\u2019d love to offer them a really cool way to get to those games in addition to giving students and employees a reason to head towards downtown on foot – and thereby providing additional numbers to consider when attracting new businesses.<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>I\u2019m really not saying we should or we\u00a0shouldn’t\u00a0do this bridge; I\u2019m asking folks to be willing to look at several reasons for the project and to start having slightly deeper conversations about it and everything else you hear about going on in town right now. We already seem to be building a bridge to somewhere for this city. It\u2019d be nice to start taking a look at just where it can possibly go and where it can take us once we\u2019ve built it. This study is the latest step in that movement.<\/p>\n

It also doesn’t hurt that each of these reasons point to a group that could help the mayor win re-election next year – provided he runs…<\/p>\n

I just offered up three of the crazy reasons I thought of just standing there. Perhaps you\u2019ve got some others (or maybe you think mine are silly). If so, share those thoughts and ideas below.<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Natta is The Terminal’s<\/em> stationmaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

The pedestrian bridge Mayor Bell just got permission to get a feasibility study done on is one of those divisive capital projects that seem to come along almost annually. Maybe we can take a look at other reasons a project like this could be conceived – both positive and negative. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-development"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p50I8-ey","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bhamterminal.com\/dearbham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}