It’s definitely been a thrilling ride so far and it does not appear to be ending in the immediate future. Last night, nearly 45% of registered citizens in the city of Birmingham elected Larry Langford as its next mayor. As I write this it appears that Patrick Cooper plans to ask for a recount. A decision on that will come in the near future. Another decision will also follow if the results stand about who will fill the seat vacated by Mr. Langford on the Jefferson County Commission from Montgomery.
I’ve been checking the math with results from other areas of the Southeast and while many may feel that it was a pathetic turnout, our city has outperformed its contemporaries in terms of its level of participation. Hopefully the issues of voting irregularities and any formal requests for a recount will be dealt with swiftly and quickly.
For the record, I was necessarily surprised not by the fact that Langford won the popular vote, but that, if the numbers stand, he has become the next mayor of the city of Birmingham without having to first go through a runoff.
Based on what our polls said, it would be safe to say that the majority of our readership is disappointed with the unofficial results. There are many that are upset and who feel that their voices were not heard. I’d beg to differ.
Birmingham’s young professional population demonstrated that they would not sit by quietly during this election. They made sure that people knew where they stood on the issues and - whether it was here or elsewhere on the web, in print, or in broadcast media - and definitely made people aware of their presence.
The Magic City’s online population demonstrated that the web, with all of its issues and with criticism coming from all sides, could in fact play a major role in discussions about what faces the city and the region. Mainstream media joined in on the act, relying on video podcasts and online forums to aid voters in making an important decision about where the city needs to go next.
So, what are our next steps?
Well, one of the great things about the Internet in general and the blogosphere in particular is the ability to engage people in dialogue. To that end, we have already extended an invitation to Larry Langford to write a column in this very section of The Terminal on a regular basis. If it is determined that a runoff is necessary and Mr. Cooper wins, we will extend the same opportunity to him. NOTE: We have not received a response as of yet, but we will let you know when we do.
The only way we think you can move the city forward is to continue this level of interest and conversation. If those that feel they lost clam up and say nothing afterwards then all is lost. Hopefully providing a platform for open, honest dialogue will help us see tangible progress that all are happy with.
In my original plans for this site, I had never intended to give the election the type of coverage and attention that we did, but I am extremely happy that I did. I am quite grateful to those of you that decided to check in with us from time to time as we all went on this ride together. I am also grateful to those candidates that took the time to answer the questions submitted by The Terminal’s readers. I only hope that we will be able to continue to push more people to become engaged in talking about this city and all that it has to offer.
André Natta is the publisher and managing editor of The Terminal. To submit letters in response to this commentary or to contact for general information, use any of the methods listed on our contact page.
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8 responses so far ↓
1 chotty // Oct 10, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Personally, I was flabbergasted watching the coverage on TV… Cooper was (literally) the only candidate capable of
speaking a coherent sentence!
2 CJ // Oct 10, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Hmmm. If Langford accepts your offer, I’d certainly be interested in hearing what he has to say throughout his term.
3 convulso // Oct 11, 2007 at 1:37 am
well stated.
i don’t know whether young professionals comprise a single-voiced political demographic in this city - at least not one that will command the attention of its leadership. the very fact that such a group even enters the discussion is remarkable, though.
birmingham has a very passionate and vocal base of in-town dwellers who evidently love rummaging around in our city’s little toybox of culture and history, tossing out a relic every now and then to see how it plays with the current psyche here. i think that’s great - the bham online community really seems to get it - to cherish how our past inhabits this place, rent-free - an eternal resident that no one wants to completely evict, because, after all, he’s a colorful character. the past is a series of fixed images here - images that shape our self-perception going forward - yet most new blood here has the good sense to esteem those images as invaluable relics no other city can claim (nor would want to); not as flags heading up the front of our little ‘progress’ parade.
i guess i’m trying to say that young professionals in bham are surprisingly old souls, if their collective expressions of interest in this city’s museum-piece qualities are any indication. their (our?) ideas are not the ideas of the past; neither are our values, but we do not condescend to the ideas and actions of our city’s ghosts - the younger generation seems to cohabit nicely with our ghosts; to offer them a place in our ever-hopeful, ever-shifting image of what it means to live in this wonderful, stubborn, almost poignantly self-conscious city, and allow them to live on, inert but not inconsequential, in the cobwebby upper rooms; the harmless empty spaces. up there, where ghosts keep eternal watch on this place they helped make - satisfied with the inevitable nature of their legacy; satisfied that each new generation will have to accommodate them somehow. when a light goes off in the mind of some young person in the here and now - when some sweet young thing falls in love with birmingham - well, we can sublimate our past here; we can co-opt it to serve the prevailing cultural wind; we can appropriate it as we see fit in our revisionist-history agenda for whatever big bold new south / old south city we want for ourselves sometime soon (always soon!) - but we are simply not given the luxury of ignoring our ghosts. to think otherwise is to absurdly defy an axiom.
so anyway, the ghosts sit up there in their quinlan castles and vulcan shoulder perches, watching us grapple with the past, smug in the knowledge that their persistence is a central feature of our identity. but they’re stuck up there, obsessed like all the rest of us with their fixed contributions. they’re static; they watch remotely, while we’re the ones making color on the ground. we get to play in their streets.
what kind of shot can our generation, diverse as it is, take at bequeathing a legacy of its own? can we consolidate; find a few voices here and there; can we achieve what would have to be one heroically painful consensus after another to forge the hot little chunks of our metro into a recognizable form?
is the publisher suggesting that there is a growing demo out there who may have the potential to do just that? that their role in this election is just a recon mission; a dress rehearsal?
brazen…birmingham yuppies as a power bloc. some might accuse you (ed., pub., dre, etc.) of being classist, elitist…..or…or worse (the irony!). but you have to have the courage to step up and take it - to say that we - a minority demo of affluence, youth, education and mixed race, mostly in the city’s core and southside fringes, can will our ideas to power.
in a politically anemic climate such as birmingham’s, i think that’s not just courageous - it’s just plain right.
i hope you are right. the success or failure of online touchstones such as yours will be a great barometer.
p.s. - so i fell into an epiphany and waxed kiddie-lit. rambled. gave my city the harlequin treatment. well - you read all the way through it. do you read those fabio novels, too? i ‘preciate having peers.
saddled! that’s how dad’s job barks for the ice cream bun. bullhorn pony, only for yet. wax on, wax off.
4 steph // Oct 11, 2007 at 1:21 pm
If he is in fact our mayor now, we need to make the most of it. I will be glad to hear what his ideas are, and I plan to either support or rail against them as necessary. He’s an idea hamster, and - good or bad - it will at least be interesting! I hope he is open to input from the people (all the people!) and not just interested in his own power and glory. We shall see. Birmingham has so much potential, and there’s money enough here to do what we need to do… I just hope Langford has the vision to see what needs to be done and the leadership to lay the groundwork.
5 Deon G. // Oct 12, 2007 at 12:40 am
A brilliantly articulated and surprisingly entertaining read, convulso. Too add anything to your poignant observation would be criminal. With that said, thanks for your contribution.
6 chotty // Oct 23, 2007 at 11:14 am
Without a Zero Tolerance approach against ALL crime, ALL quality of life issues and the (psychotic) murder rate, this town will merely limp along. As is, B’ham is a destination for absolutely… nothing. Face it. Change it. Then live in it. Ghosts welcome to stay (for a nominal fee).
7 Jennifer // Nov 1, 2007 at 6:48 am
LL has big plans for our City. For once, I’m excited aobut the possiblity of enjoying the City again. With inner city crime, the only way I see it changing is through new leadership in the PD. If AC Roper (now Asst Chief Hoover PD) will accept COP for Birm, hear me when I say, he’ll get the job done.
Roper is a proven leader and has the strong military background LL desires. He has nearly two decades of criminal justice experience and the class and tempermate to demand more of a city. Roper is a Christian man with family values and the list goes on. With the City’s backing I believe he can assist Lanford in turning the city around and making Birmingham safer, cleaner and will catapolt the PD into the 21st century. Now that’s a good start.
Jenny T
8 ANON // Nov 13, 2007 at 5:04 pm
I am evermore shocked and ASHAMED that our great city elected a nimrod such as Langford for Mayor. Larry is a man with an agenda that get’s him attention and limelight…not something that benifits the city he will work for. You think Bham has problems now..you jsut wait until he has made his mark. We needed someone with half a brain and the ability to have a cerebral conversation of which appear to not be traits of LL. This is a joke and almost enough to move AWAY from the ham, my home of 34 years.
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