Tag Archives: B’ham

Brum City Council in England plugs wedding fair in our Magic City

Posted on March 17, 2014 | Leave a comment

The City Council for England’s second largest city has done it again; they’ve confused the Magic City with the same name from across the pond with itself. This time, the official website for the city council of the British city shared information for the upcoming 1^st Birmingham NotWedding as an event. This is despite the fact it will take place in our Birmingham’s Southside. The folks at NPR decided to do a news brief on the latest error last Friday. The confusion had already received attention from New York’s Daily News and UPI last Wednesday.

The last time we saw an online incident of confusion involving the British city of Birmingham and our own, it was during the summer of 2008 (and there was an earlier incident that January). It’s not like we haven’t seen the incident take place here either, as evidenced by this Birmingham Post article including an interview with yours truly. The end of the account filed by The Mirror on March 11 points out other recent gaffes associated with Brum. Mike Smith at The Birmingham News shares a more recent case of confusion involving citizens and plane tickets.

Maybe they should take a look at the one-off travel blog comparison between the two cities posted in 2011 on Tumblr (or the infographic that made its debut back in mid-2012.

What’s in a hashtag?

Posted on June 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

Several folks who regularly visit The Terminal also keep track of what we say via our Twitter profile. They may notice that we use #bham to highlight those tweets that we think will be of interest to people here in Birmingham, AL. The thing is, all of us who use the hashtag are part of a much larger online family – a virtual secret handshake that may just help connect us with folks we wouldn’t normally think about.

Besides those here in central Alabama, #bham is also used by Birmingham, MI; Bellingham, WA; and some portions of Birmingham, UK. That last one is most interesting as while many there have turned to #brum instead, Wikipedia decided to make a decision on the issue themselves.

Some have turned to #bhm as an alternative, one that makes a great deal of sense considering the its the city’s official IATA airport code and our NPR affiliate’s call letters. It’s also (among other things) the rail code for Birmingham, England’s New Street Station (leading to a lot of tweets including it during their morning and evening rush), Black History Month, the initials used to reference journalist Bambang Harymurti.

Just don’t be surprised by who responds to you when using these tags – and where they’re from.

Screenshot from hashtags.org

Learn more about the Other Birmingham

Posted on January 3, 2011 | 3 comments

A couple of years ago there were a couple of incidents involving folks from Birmingham, AL and the city we’re named after, Birmingham, UK, confusing the skylines of the two cities separated by the Atlantic Ocean.

There’s an online resource that should help keep that from happening again.

The Other Birmingham was created by Fiona Cullinan, who originally created the piece for her travel journalism blog as a one-off. She has since maintained the site, enabling her to accept additional submissions about similarities between the two cities as well as suggestions about what else should be covered. There’s been a lot looked at already, including that growing list of similarities…

By the way, there are several cities named Birmingham in the United States. They’re considerably smaller, like Birmingham, MO (population 214 according to the 2000 Census) and Birmingham, MI (pop. 19,291) to not even in existence anymore (e.g., Birmingham, KY).

3 Comments

Posted in Travelogue

Tagged AL, B'ham, Birmingham, blog, brum, cities, comparison, England, Fiona Cullinan, match, Online, similar, The Other Birmingham, travel, Tumblr, UK, urban

Birmingham to Atlanta high-speed rail study announced

Posted on June 24, 2010 | 2 comments

Earlier today, Birmingham Mayor William Bell joined the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham‘s executive director Charles Ball as plans were formally announced for a feasibility study that could lead to the creation of a high-speed rail link between Birmingham, AL and Atlanta, GA.

Ball stated during prepared remarks that the study would cost $500,000 with half of the funds available due to a portion of the federal stimulus bull. It will be a partnership between the RPCGB, the Georgia Department of Transportation and Norfolk Southern. The study is scheduled to begin on July 1 and take one year to complete.

The video includes portions of Ball’s comments and all of Bell’s comments to those gathered.

2 Comments

Posted in transportation

Tagged AL, Alabama, Atlanta, B'ham, Birmingham, Charles Ball, high-speed rail, information, Transit, travel, video, William Bell

JeffCo Commission District 1 election tomorrow (& July 13)

Posted on June 21, 2010 | 1 comment

election sign Tomorrow’s runoff election is specifically for residents of Jefferson County living in District 1 and pertains to the commission seat vacated when William Bell became mayor of Birmingham, AL earlier this year. The winner serves the remainder of Bell’s term, set to expire at the end of the year.

The crazy thing is that you’ll be given a choice between Birmingham City Councilman Johnathan Austin and retired General George Bowman tomorrow – and on July 13. The second election will determine the Democratic nominee for November’s general election.

Confused yet?

The Birmingham News‘ editorial board explains the situation as clearly as it can be, but it can still be a little disturbing if you think about it. One scenario, for example, could lead us to have to hold another special election to fill Austin’s unexpired term at City Hall if he’s successful tomorrow.

If you’re a resident of District 1 and you want some help figuring out just who to vote for, the Birmingham Young Democrats are teaming up with Women of Will (WOW) to host a candidates runoff forum this evening at 5:30 p.m. at Cosmos Sports Bar and Grill in Norwood.

Candidates for Alabama’s 7^th Congressional District seat in Congress – Terri Sewell and Shelia Smoot – will be there too. You’ll only have to vote for them once (& won’t have to do that until July 13).

1 Comment

Posted in politics, Quirky

Tagged AL, Alabama, B'ham, Birmingham, election, George Bowman, Jefferson County Commission, Johnathan Austin, politics, Quirky, special election

Where are you watching World Cup matches?

Posted on June 11, 2010 | 3 comments

Those wanting to get out of the house to enjoy soccer’s World Cup (beginning today in South Africa) will have plenty of options here in metro Birmingham.

BTW – here’s a really cool presentation of the tournament calendar.

Rojo, Crestwood Coffee Company, Cantina and Urban Standard are among the places that have confirmed that they will be showing matches during the next two weeks. Cantina will open for 9 a.m. matches, while Crestwood will open for 6:30 a.m. matches (Urban Standard will open at 7 a.m. with Rojo keeping regular operating hours).

Café Firenze and Matthew’s Bar and Grill have said that they will be showing the USA vs. England match tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon; it will start at 12:30 p.m. CDT.

The finals will be broadcast live at Sloss Furnaces on Sunday, July 11 at 1 p.m. Proceeds from the event will benefit the programs of the Birmingham-Jefferson Chapter of the American Red Cross.

The fun starts today at 9 a.m. CDT when South Africa takes on Mexico in Johannesburg.

If you know of anywhere else that’s showing matches during the tournament, add them to the comments section of this post.

3 Comments

Posted in Sports

Tagged AL, Alabama, B'ham, Birmingham, options, viewing, World Cup

On the agenda: A new use for our old home

Posted on May 25, 2010 | Leave a comment

We weren’t there for that long (we haven’t been gone for that long either), but there is already a new use planned for the space once known as Shift Workspace.

2308 2^nd Avenue North is currently on this morning’s Birmingham City Council agenda as Item 5 (it’s on consent); the space will see new life later on this year as Pale Eddie’s Pour House.

It was one of three businesses that recently went before the Central City Neighborhood association to ask for support of their liquor license applications. Jeremy Erdreich attended the meeting and describes how each of the applicants will affect the commercial scene on 2^nd Avenue North on Bhamarchitect. Urban Standard‘s application signals their intention to serve dinner while the other application signals new life for the Gypsy Market. Tomorrow’s meeting will have five such applications with only one recommendation for denial among them.

The former Positive Maturity facility in downtown Ensley will also be seeing a new use according to Item 21. Ironically, it is one of the city owned properties that would be considered for sale or auction according to Councilor Smitherman’s submitted Item 28. She has also submitted Item 29, one that would ask the mayor to survey city employees to ask for their suggestions for cutting costs. Their suggestions would be due by May 31.

The fun starts when the live stream begins at 9 a.m.

Photo: Pale Eddie’s comes to 2nd Ave. N. acnatta/Flickr