Tag Archives: Birmingham

You are still Beautiful, Birmingham

Posted on November 16, 2010 | 1 comment

One of the newest pieces of graffiti in Birmingham, AL is located directly across the street from Railroad Park in downtown Birmingham, AL. It is the second major location of the phrase “You Are Beautiful” in the city in recent weeks; the first was placed on the Highland Avenue bridge located over the Elton B. Stephens Expressway on the city’s Southside.

When The Birmingham News first reported about the graffiti in October, it was suggested that it may be part of the Operation Beautiful movement. Other sites have pointed out that it is more likely part of the movement explained and chronicled on you-are-beautiful.com.

No matter what the reason, it’s one good reason to get together on Twitter for a #bhamchat conversation tonight. We’ll be getting started at 7 p.m. CT. There will also be an interesting take posted over on Dear Birmingham tomorrow morning.

Photo: You Are Beautiful, too. acnatta/Flickr

1 Comment

Posted in The City

Tagged AL, bhamchat, Birmingham, downtown, graffiti, highway, locations, purpose, statement, urban, You Are Beautiful

On the agenda: Support for the beltline and parks

Posted on November 16, 2010 | Leave a comment

This morning’s Birmingham City Council agenda is a little smaller than normal – 15 pages to be exact. It’s the stuff covered within those pages that are interesting.

Item 35, if approved, will state that the City Council fully supports the Northern Beltline “in order to address regional transportation needs.” The item was on consent but was removed.

Item 17 will make some changes to the contract between the City of Birmingham and the Railroad Park Foundation. It will simply change the name of the agency that the City has the contract with and allow for the first of ten renewals of three years each.

Items 1 & 2 will allow for a new establishment, the Emporium Nightclub, to open in the space most recently occupied by the Continental Ballroom.

The meetings are streamed online and available for review; the agenda is available for review now.

New hope for independent film fans in Birmingham

Posted on October 5, 2010 | Leave a comment

It’s only been two weeks since the annual Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival took place in downtown Birmingham, AL. It appears that some are preparing to take advantage of momentum from projects like Railroad Park to provide a year-round venue for locals to enjoy independent film in the immediate metropolitan area while a new movie theater on the city’s east side has recently pledged to fill that need, at least partially.

A Facebook group appeared shortly after the festival, inviting people to become fans to help build support and interest in a new art house theater. Birmingham Indie Film Supporters appears to be loosely affiliated with the film festival’s parent organization, the Alabama Moving Image Association.

It’s interesting to note that in the midst of this recent wave of Facebook activism, Birmingham’s newest independently owned cinema complex, The Edge 12 located in Eastwood, told reporters for CBS 42 in August that they were planning to dedicate two screens to independent, non-commercial films.

BhamArchitect reports that one of the two screens is currently showing 2009’s The Girl Who Played With Fire, keeping in line with CrestwoodNorth’s tweet that only half of the screens were currently being used.

Birmingham abuzz about Blueprint

Posted on September 28, 2010 | 2 comments

Blueprint Birmingham logo The Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA) was hoping for a great deal of buzz after the official unveiling of their Blueprint Birmingham last Thursday, their five-year strategic plan recently adopted by their board. There has indeed been a great deal of conversation about the plan, including tonight’s live chat hosted by The Birmingham News’ Eddie Lard beginning at 6 p.m. on al.com. There is also limited seating at the actual event this evening at Alabama Power headquarters; it is presented by the Birmingham Association of Black Journalists and the BBA.

There are countless ways to review the plan and to be exposed to the campaign underway to secure general support for the principles mentioned within. The plan’s official website (complete with the full plan and all supplemental documents) is joined by a promotional campaign website that provides links to signs similar to the billboards that say that “we’re open” to moving the region forward and a Facebook page. There’s also an official hashtag for folks talking about the plan on Twitter – #blueprintbham.

Columns by Joey Kennedy and Lard speak of the plan, as do the co-chairs of the committee tasked with creating the plan. Area bloggers have started multi-part series looking at what needs to be fixed or offered analysis of the plan (I’ll finally be adding my two cents to the matter in the coming days on Dear Birmingham). It will not be going away any time soon (in fact, it will be the topic of tonight’s #bhamchat on Twitter, starting at 7 p.m.).

2 Comments

Posted in Business

Tagged analysis, bhamchat, Birmingham, blueprint, chats, conversation, information, links, plan

Our first blogging awards explained

Posted on August 20, 2010 | Leave a comment

People following us on Twitter and Facebook are aware that we launched our first ever blogging awards on Monday morning in partnership with b-metro Magazine. It’s gotten a great deal of traffic so far though it hasn’t been mentioned by many people. We wanted to make sure that those of you not on those networks understood the basics.

There are two separate sets of categories – a readers choice poll and a juried contest that will also contain a readers choice component beginning August 30. Nominations for both sets of categories will close next Friday, August 27, at 11:59 p.m. CT. We’re asking effective the publishing of this post that those submitting readers choice nominations fill out at least three (3) of the categories per submission (you’re allowed to submit one set of nominations per day). Those submitting their blogs for consideration of in the juried categories are required to submit an entry fee of $10 per category.

Those of you looking for suggestions on what blogs and posts to nominate will be interested in checking out our new blog aggregator, http://bhamterminal.com/managingnews. It’s a work in progress but we think it will become quite useful to folks in the coming weeks and months. We’re looking forward to adding more blogs to the list and hearing which ones are your favorites!

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.

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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