Tag Archives: msb

ONB announcement means Main Street Birmingham changes

Fleming and TaskerThe news became official this morning as Operation New Birmingham (ONB) announced they’d named a new president and CEO. David Fleming, the founding executive director of Main Street Birmingham (MSB), will take the reigns of the downtown revitalization organization effective November 1.

It can be viewed as a homecoming of sorts for Fleming, who left ONB as its vice president for planning and urban development in 2004 to launch MSB. He was one of four candidates considered for the position which has been vacant since the departure of Michael Calvert earlier this year.

MSB released its own statement later in the day naming Elizabeth Barbaree-Tasker as the organization’s interim executive director. The seven year-old neighborhood revitalization organization has been enjoying success recently, including an arts incubator in Woodlawn that hosted an open house this past weekend as part of the WOODLAWNx after-party for TEDxBirmingham.

Incidentally, I’ve got some thoughts on Fleming, his new job and what it means for The Magic City over on Dear Birmingham.

Photo: left, David Fleming; right, Elizabeth Barbaree Tasker.

Plans for cultural center in Ensley move forward

nixon4x6 Main Street Birmingham (MSB) got some several pieces of great news in recent days involving the Nixon Cultural Center project in Ensley will be able to move forward.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has awarded MSB more than $4,700 in matching grant funds to be used for future development of the former NAACP meeting space in Tuxedo Junction. The money is from the National Trust’s African American Preservation fund and it will be used to assist in planning for the project’s completion and sustained operations. They also just received word that the Alabama Historical Commission Review Board approved the Nixon Building’s nomination to the National Register of Historic Places clearing the way for National Park Service approval. All of this news follows last fall’s $7,000 grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

Photo: The Nixon Building. Courtesy of MSB.