Tag Archives: Larry Langford

City council honor Witherspoon, Miglionico

Posted on April 28, 2009 | Leave a comment

This morning during Mayor Langford’s comments to the Birmingham City Council in council chambers, he asked for two of the city’s upcoming capital projects to be named for two women who had served the city on the council. It took the Birmingham City Council less than 3 minutes to unanimously approve resolutions for both naming opportunities.

They approved naming the planned Five Points West athletic facility slated for Fair Park in honor of Miriam Witherspoon, the council president pro-tempore who passed away unexpectedly last week, and the intermodal transit facility for Nina Miglionico, the first woman ever elected to serve on the Council. Langford then reported that Miglionico is currently in the hospital. Miglionico’s name had been suggested before, in 1999, but it was withdrawn and never voted upon.

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Posted in On the agenda

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Random Shots: The city’s new wheels

Posted on April 28, 2009 | Leave a comment

Larry Langford examines new Honda Civic - Alagasco

Photo: Bob Farley/f8Photo

Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford looks over the city’s new natural gas powered Honda Civic yesterday at a press coinference in front of City Hall. The City of Birmingham announced Monday it will purchase 70 natural gas-fueled refuse and brush trucks. These new trucks will be the largest fleet of natural gas-fueled refuse trucks in the Southeast. By using natural gas-fueled refuse trucks, the city will be able to eliminate 220,000 gallons of diesel fuel usage each year.

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Posted in environmental, The City

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Council supports Rickwood proposal, but not funding

Posted on April 14, 2009 | 2 comments

The Birmingham City Council just voted on items pertaining to a potential restoration project for America’s oldest ballpark, Rickwood Field.

The ballpark is located on Birmingham’s West Side and will turn 100 years old next spring. The following was taken verbatim from the City’s Facebook group, as sent by Alicia Brown:

“Mayor Langford has proposed the formation of the Baseball Museum that will honor both the Negro Baseball League and the Southern League. Some Council members expressed concern about the “change in scope” by including the white leagues, but Mayor Langford explained that Birmingham has matured and is ready to recognize all of its history. Council voted a resolution to support the museum, but did not approve funding, delaying the project.“

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Posted in On the agenda, Sports

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Langford to host town hall meetings

Posted on April 8, 2009 | 2 comments

There are actually two stories that are taking place at the same time. First of all is the fact that The City of Birmingham’s Office of Public Information is on Facebook. The group is the latest move by the city to reach out to residents online.

Larry LangfordNow onto the reason for the post – Mayor Larry Langford is hosting a series of town hall meetings throughout the city. The first one, called “Why Birmingham Can’t Wait,” will take place on Thursday evening at Boutwell Auditorium beginning at 6 p.m. Additional ones will be held at area churches in the coming weeks, providing residents with the opportunity to ask the mayor and other representatives about current initiatives and learn about projects such as the planned repaving of neighborhood streets. You get to submit your questions for the mayor to ask as well in advance – via email to opi@birminghamal.gov. If you can’t make it to Boutwell, Fox 6 is scheduled to stream the event on its website.

Photo: Bob Farley/f8Photo

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Posted in The City

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The mayor… in an Indy Car?

Posted on March 20, 2009 | 2 comments

Imagine my surprise when the FedEx delivery guy comes in where I’m sitting in downtown Birmingham and asks if any of us saw the Indy Car speeding down 20th Street North yesterday morning with Mayor Larry Langford driving. None of us there had, but, after some digging around on Twitter, we found at least one photo floating around online (thanks @vulcansmuse & @rachelpinson). Plus, there’s also this video courtesy of Fox 6 available on their site this morning.

Turns out the mayor wasn’t behind the wheel, but enjoying the ride as he reminded folks about this weekend’s Indy Car test runs out at Barber. Others who were out at the Firestone store in Pelham had the same opportunity to ride in an Indy Car yesterday afternoon.

There were some folks though that wished that they had seen the mayor in person later in the day… in Southtown.

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Posted in Quirky

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OK, it got delayed, but…

Posted on March 11, 2009 | 2 comments

Yesterday the Birmingham City Council delayed a vote on council agenda Item #17, which at first glance would look like a direct correlation with the title of yesterday’s On the Agenda post. If approved, it would move forward plans to complete phase II of the city’s intermodal transit facility on Morris Avenue.

That is, until you let Birmingham Weekly‘s Kyle Whitmire and The Birmingham News‘ Joseph Bryant fill in the details about the concerns regarding the potential involvement of Larry Langford‘s mayoral campaign manager and CEO of Matrix, LLC, Jeff Pitts.

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Posted in On the agenda

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On the agenda: delay, delay, delay…

Posted on March 10, 2009 | 1 comment

Based on this post on The Birmingham News’ breaking news blog, I’d have to say that today should be an interesting one in Birmingham City Council chambers. The councilors will no doubt have a response to Mayor Langford’s latest campaign. Another thing to watch will be the reaction from councilors to the request being made by residents of the Glen Iris neighborhood that we posted about yesterday. 

Item 8 is one that could be important to watch as it will be a proposal by the mayor to change the boundaries of the city’s urban enterprise zones. These zones do include large sections on the city’s west side, most notably near the old Ensley Works plant and, interestingly enough, nearby Fair Park. Item 17 asks for approval of a contract with Goodwyn Mills and Cawood, Inc., in an amount not to exceed $2,819,300.00 for work to finally begin on the city’s long promised Intermodal Transit Facility. The money is available from federal sources, though it may lead to a what comes first question, among others.

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Posted in On the agenda

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