Tag Archives: Birmingham

A Community Agreement is ready for Birmingham

We the People, in order to form a more perfect school system…” Those are the words that introduce readers to the Community Agreement developed through the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham‘s  Yes We Can! Birmingham campaign as the result of months of Community Conversations allowing input from residents across the city’s 99 neighborhoods about what they wanted to see for our school system’s children. Approximately 1,800 people participated in the conversations, focused on the following two questions: What kind of community do you envision for the future? and What kind of schools do we need to get us there? 

The agreement was unveiled at a gathering held at Vulcan Park this past Saturday morning. It is available as a PDF for you to review and download.

A rally for green jobs

Photo: Courtesy of Alabama Environmental Council.

This weekend dozens of people gathered in front of the Alabama Environmental Council‘s (AEC) Recycling  Center downtown to do their part in showing our government and our Presidential candidates that they were ready for the country to focus on the creation of green jobs in support of a green economy. The gathering was part of Green Jobs Now – A Day To Build The New Economy, one of the largest days of citizen action focusing on economic issues and global warming in our nation’s history. 

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Transit chief heads to the West Coast

Remember the series I was going to file about San Francisco? Well, we’ve held off because of the prominent role transit was going to have in it – didn’t make sense to talk about their system when ours was going through (and continues to go through) a period of turmoil. Well, now David Hill will be responsible for that city’s Muni System bus fleet as he resigns as executive director of the BJCTA on October 17. He’ll also be able to do something we can’t right now; ride one of our old street cars. Or he can ride the commuter rail down to Riverside, CA and compare notes with another former BJCTA executive director, Mark Stanley.

David Neal’s back… on CBS

The Birmingham Business Journal has reported that former Fox 6 chief meteorologist David Neal is returning to the airwaves as a weekend meteorologist for CBS 42. Neal, who was fired from Birmingham’s Fox affiliate earlier this year and settled a lawsuit in July that he filed as a result, will begin his new gig this weekend.

UPDATE: He’s also working for WeatherNationTV.

On the agenda: City Stages

Today’s actually an extremely light agenda for the Birmingham City Council. The most interesting item of note, besides the one that cleans up the hurdles left in the implementation of the city’s new curfew laws going into effect today (#6), is #12, currently listed as being on consent.

If approved, it will provide the Birmingham Cultural and Heritage Foundation (the group behind City Stages) with up to $300,000 to assist in producing next June’s 21st edition of the music festival “to maximize family participation from all walks of life.” We’ll see if it’s pulled off from consent for discussion if not in person, online starting at 9:30 a.m.

An update for skateboarding fans

We wanted to share a comment that was posted over on Magic City Question by Peter at Faith Skate Supply that gives as good an update as any on the current grassroots push for a local skate park:

“Here is an update on what is going on with our quest. There is an Andy MacDonald skateboard Demo going on at Belk Dept store on Oct. 11? They are building a big ramp for him to skate and have nothing to do with it afterwards. Faith is working with the city to purchase the ramp and donate to the city of Birmingham for a public halfpipe for kids to skate. It will be 5 feet high and 20 feet wide. As of right now, sounds like its going to happen….but we all know how things happen and get messed up. Faith will service the ramp and patrol the area daily too. What ever it takes to show the “higher ups” in Birmingham that there is a huge need for a skatepark.

This is the first step of many. Please cross your fingers and know we need support with this and in the future. Thank you to everyone who has left nice informative comments!”

You can still add your thoughts to the original question over on MCQ.

UPDATE: Reports that Citigroup purchases Wachovia

The New York Times is reporting that Citigroup has agreed to purchase the banking operations of Charlotte, NC-based Wachovia (portions of which are formerly Birmingham based AmSouth Bank sorry, SouthTrust Bank) for $1 a share. We’ll see if we can’t get more information for you as it becomes available today.

So how are you dealing with the financial crisis? Let us know as you answer today’s Magic City Question!