Free wifi and IT training for Birmingham residents

Not a bad idea at all.

WiFi, short for wireless internet, is set to be installed in a couple of places throughout Birmingham particularly in some housing communities.  This initiative is funded by a $500,000 federal grant for designed to bring technology to those who can least afford it.  Also another $75,000 federal grant is to fund training and education of 15-21 year olds in information technology (IT) for certification and other computer science oriented trades.  The city of Birmingham will be distributing the funds and conducting the programs.


Of course the C.A.V.E. (citizens against virtually everything) twats are on the al.com comment section of the story on the Birmingham News site whining and proclaiming another "socialist agenda".  Of course, as usual you know most of these "commenters" are white Republican suburbanites or exurbanites that are the first to talk negative about an urban area yet will be the first to cheer for their own social welfare programs conducted by their local governments.  However, the morons fail to realize this is a form of economic development for the city of Birmingham and the region as a whole since it provides a trade for youths seeking a career in information technology. 


(h/t to the Birmingham News for the links)

Some urban planning and development stuff to chew on

OK, who thought it was A'OK for the municipality of Hoover to propose an ideal to convert the former 3-level Macy's at Riverchase Galleria mall into a convention/events center with stage theater?  The project is now on hold, but they wanted to turn the 285,000 square foot space into a public space.

Here's the pros and cons of the project according to Hoover municipal officials:

• -- The Galleria is one of the largest malls in the state/region and has helped enhance recognition of Hoover.
• -- There is a relatively large number of restaurants and retail businesses surrounding the mall and throughout the city.
• -- There's a perception of safety and convenience with parking and accessibility.
• -- Relative to its size, Hoover offers a large number of hotels.
Weaknesses included:
• -- Hoover has a limited perception as a convention destination, and the city is viewed by some non-locals as a "suburb with a big mall."
• -- The city lacks a traditional downtown and/or central business district with a density of visitor amenities and entertainment options.
• -- There are a number of potentially competitive event venues in the greater local marketplace.
• -- The city is inland, versus on a coast.

Last time I remember, Hoover is the middle of the socially and fiscally conservative territory, where "socialist" initiatives like that to a minimum or non-existent (remember how you guys didn't even want a measly bus line in your community?).  Now they want to overstep on partial owners General Growth Properties and Jim Wilson to turn their largest vacant space in their shopping center into a "public entity"?  Now the GGP and Jim Wilson  is very actively pursuing finding a replacement for the space that was to become a Nordstrom but thanks to GGP screw up it failed.  LOL  Hoover, you guys kill me because your community has low-range to mid-range hotels aside from the Wynfrey Hotel at Riverchase itself, and that is 1 upper-tier hotel.  Then there is the lack of downtown or central portion of the community to designate as a "downtown".  You are a suburb of Birmingham and that is all Hoover will ever be because its development patterns are incompatible with "hub status" of the region.

My alma mater, the University of Alabama at Birmingham aka UAB, has finally made up their minds on the design and scope of what they are going to place on the corner of 10th Avenue South & 13th Street South.  It's going to become a visual arts center with classrooms, essentially replacing the nearly 40-year-old George Wallace Humanities Building on the 13th Street of the UAB campus.  At the moment, the corner is a parking lot for the engineering buildings and Alys Stephens Center for the Performing Arts, home of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.  Also UAB, has committed to finally placing an on-campus stadium for the UAB Blazers football and soccer teams at 6th Avenue South and 12th Street South.  It will seat 25,000 to 30,000 and will have a large plaza adjacent to the stadium for tailgating.  The stadium is a part of a measure will be presented to the University of Alabama system trustees for approval soon.  The new master plan  also calls for new access roads lining Interstate 65, a new science complex on University Boulevard and 18th Street South, and the eventual elimination of much of the street parking on campus, which would be replaced by parking decks.  Score 2 for UAB and its decision to make some major moves and attempting to produce more dense and coherent development flowing with the urban core of Birmingham this past week.

So Kasim Reed apologizes to the Atlanta LGBTs for the police raid

In an unceremonious manner, Atlanta mayor, Kasim Reed, apologized to the victims of the 2008 raid of the Midtown Atlanta gay bar, Eagle, and called for "healing".  According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the settlement resulted in $1 million to the owners and 60 individuals involved in the raid where Atlanta Police officers handcuffed bar patrons and workers without a warrant.  Reed said:

“I believe that what occurred that evening should not have happened and should not happen again,” Reed said at a news conference. “As mayor of Atlanta, I feel pain for anyone mistreated in our city and apologize to each plaintiff in the . . . case.”

“This week’s settlement agreement is a step forward, and I hope, the beginning of a healing process,” said Reed, who was not mayor at the time. “The plaintiffs and the city . . . have agreed upon clear steps which will strengthen and improve our law enforcement capabilities and help ensure that an incident such as this will not happen again in our city.”

Reed is hoping this will help "heal" the divide between the current administration and the LGBT constituency.  IMHO, that is yet to be seen because I know how some people will be bitter as hell and will hold a grudge for a long time.  Anyways, good to see this case resolved and maybe the APD will not do such random things in the future.

Video is courtesy of the Georgia Voice

The aggregavation of housing...

Some things I do wonder about the world we reside in such as housing.  It seems to be the fabric of our communities since they offer shelter for all of us.  However, that necessity seems to be seen as a luxury by many bureaucratic paper-pushers.  In the case of the Metro Atlanta area, where nearly all the public housing developments have been demolished and replaces with high-end condominium development.  On the surface, this looks as if it is a good thing since public housing seems to attract all the "undesirable" elements in our nation's society, but on deeper look reveals that many of these people have no where else to turn aside from being homeless.  This within itself is disheartening because you have to evaluate the entire situation before casting a broad judgment on housing for low-income residents.

Since 2001, the Atlanta Housing Authority has practically eliminated all the public housing in Atlanta (gotta love gentrification and its side effects).  Now suburban Marietta, in Cobb County, its housing authority is doing the same and hopes to shutter and demolish all public housing by 2012.  The replacements for such developments were vouchers given to former residents so they could either get into senior housing for older residents or at-market rate private housing or apartments for others.

On the other hand, the realization that most of the vouchers only pay for only 65% of such living costs associated with housing puts these people in a tougher situation.  Many people don't have the luxury of being able to afford private apartment, which most decent ones start at $600/month in rent in Metro Atlanta.  The lack of affordable housing is seriously lacking nationwide, but particularly in the South.  Ironically, most of those suffering from this dilemma are our fellow non-white citizens.

I know it's wonderful to see cities like Atlanta, Birmingham, New Orleans, Memphis, and other Southern cities move from their past images as low-income, crime-ridden places with projects everywhere.  However, you should never go from one extreme to another where you are pricing out your own residents to appease a reluctant crowd of non-natives of the city to move there.  It creates a new vacuum where you continuously force those whom need government assistance to another rough place.  There needs to be some type of median place where we can create affordable housing and not go from one extreme to another.

On the road again....

I guess it's time to blog about what is really good with me....

I'm now in Auburn trying to obtain my Masters of Community Planning and graduate minor in Economic Development.  I've been trying to adjust to this really small urban area compared to that of the Greater Birmingham and Metro Atlanta.  I'll try to include some of the happenings and debauchery that occurs in the Auburn-Opelika and Columbus areas.  However, it is going to be an ADJUSTMENT because the area is clearly a fractured region where everything is at least 5 miles from anything.  I consider this a "pit stop" along the journey of my life, so it will be interesting how I can blog about the Greater Birmingham area (Central Alabama), East Alabama, and Georgia (which I've been doing for awhile now).  I can already tell it's going to be an interesting 2-3 years in this area.  My heart is still in the major metropolitan areas, but my body is there.

Oh yeah, small rant.  The Columbus (Georgia) television market sucks ass.  I've never seen a market that needs to get its act together and I mean SERIOUSLY.  Why is that ABC affiliate, WTVM also known as "WTVM, News Leader 9" (HORRIBLE BRAND NAME, BTW) is the only news operation in the market that actually airs regular newscasts all 7 days of the week?  They also produce the lone nightly newscasts on WXTX "FOX 54", which is operated by WTVM via a shared-services agreement (legalese for co-ownership via a property trust or a front company).  The Media General-owned CBS-affiliate, WRBL, "WRBL, News 3",  used to be a strong competitor of WTVM, but due to the cheapness of Media General the station only airs 4 newscasts per day and 5 days a week (meaning no weekend newscasts).  It is a shotty at best news operation with practically no on-air talent at all.  It's quite embarrassing.  The piped in news product of NBC-affiliate WLTZ, "WLTZ NBC 38"  is so-so as they do try to make it look local, but like WRBL, it doesn't have air anything on the weekend and only have evening newscasts for 5 days a week.  There is practically no CW affiliate (unless you get WLTZ digital sub-channel called "GA-BAMA CW"), thus me having to watch my Thursday night show, The Vampire Diaries, online.  The sad and twisted irony is WTVM Raycom Media-owned sister station in the Montgomery market & NBC affiliate, WSFA, "WSFA 12" airs on Charter Auburn cable channel line up, which essentially means the market is fractured because WLTZ has no real pull on Lee County viewership.  Anything I've learn about TV market designation is that there is 1 affiliate allowed in each market's local area and if there is a duplication amongst the major networks then it is a fractured market with weak stations.  The Columbus (sometimes hyphenated with Opelika-Auburn, AL) market reminds me of most Southern TV markets in the 1990s, where there were only 4 full-powered TV stations and all the good syndicated old sitcoms that didn't put you to sleep wind up airing on the local FOX affiliate (which it does with WXTX) along with some other channels from other cities airing on the line-up in some of the key places outside the main urban area (Columbus metro area).

ON THE URBAN LANDSCAPE: The layout of the area is laughable.  U.S 431 is practically a two-lane country road most of the area until you get to the core of Opelika.  U.S 280 is a four-to-six-lane highway through the entire region and all the way to Birmingham as well as Columbus.  280 does come close to being an official freeway when it gets to the western periphery of the Columbus urban area in Russell County (Alabama) near Phenix City.  However, the only real freeways in the entire region is I-85 and I-185.  It's an area that lacks major freeway/throughway infrastructure serving the area population.   I will give Auburn some points for its continuous usage of sideways and crosswalk signals around most major intersections within its corporate limits.  The area also tends to lean towards a neighborhood retail center type of spread with some retailers like Winn-Dixie and Kroger locations.  However, the area is poorly laid out as the main regional retail area surrounding The Village Mall is located on East University Drive, which a road that less that 2 miles to the south is in a residential area.

If one to compare Auburn to Opelika then you would know Opelika is the better planned one of the two.  It is also more proactive in its economic development initiatives like the power center, TigerTown at US 280 & I-85 led by the Opelika Development Authority.  However, its also a texbook example of urban sprawl and short-term, retail-oriented economic development rather than more sustainable white-collar and self-investing knowledge-based developments like pushing toward getting a more research center or entrepreneur incubator (since it's near Auburn University).  Auburn seems to go more towards the latter mentioned since they recently opened the Auburn Research Park, which will have long-term economic development benefits for the region.

Columbus is just there.  I mean I've been there a couple of times, but it doesn't seems like beyond the military base, Fort Benning, that there is much to its economy beyond that.  The lack of direct freeway/throughway access is an impediment for accessibility to anyone.  I-185 suck since it's a north-south directional freeway that only serves as a way for others on the Georgia side of the region to get to I-85 from Columbus and Fort Benning.  There are the attempts by locals in Columbus to make the RiverCenter, the Riverwalk walk and bike path along & whitewater rafting in the Chattahoochee River, and the local theaters via "Broadway in Columbus" as a draw, but I'm unimpressed.  The city just lacks the population base to pull anything major which I'm more accustomed to in North Alabama and North Georgia.

In general, I'm in an "it is what it is" mindset about this region.  Lee County (Alabama) and Muscogee County (Georgia) are the main population centers, but they aren't very cooperated in their strategy to make the region more attractive or impressive to newcomers or outsiders.  I'll just spend my time focusing on my studies and networking with those in the Auburn-Opelika area and look forward to transitioning to Georgia...

The continuation of Birmingham's population decline...

Last week the U.S. Census Bureau released their last population estimates before they release the official figures (which are currently being compiled).  However, Birmingham population still look as if it is in the ranks of the Rust Belt cities rather than the ones in the Sun Belt.  Birmingham has declined by an additional 5% according to figures to 230,130 from 242,840 in 2000.  This all due to the poor leadership and political baggage that seems to impede its growth seen in other fellow cities including majority black cities like Atlanta, Memphis, New Orleans (although it suffered a huge blow with Hurricane Katrina), and Washington.  The only Southern city that has seen continual decline as Birmingham is Baltimore (and for similar reasons).

Meanwhile other fellow Sun Belt Southern major cities like Atlanta (climbed to 540,921), New Orleans (up to 354,850 after Hurricane Katrina's aftermath) Nashville (climbed to 605,473), Memphis (slipped to 676,540), Orlando (climbed to 235,860), Jacksonville (climbed to 813,518), South Florida: [Miami (climbed to 433,136), Fort Lauderdale (up to 184,892),  West Palm Beach (up to 99,504)] , Tampa Bay Area: [Tampa (up to 343,890), St. Petersburg (slipped to 244,324)], Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex: [Dallas (jumped to 1,299,543), Fort Worth (climbed to 727,575)], Houston (jumped to 2,257,926), Austin (climbed to 759,673), San Antonio (up to 1,373,668), Oklahoma City (up to 560,332), Tulsa (balancing out at 389,625), Louisville (up to 566,503), Charlotte (jumped to 709,441), The Triangle: [Raleigh (jumped to 404,718), Durham (up to 229,136), Chapel Hill (up to 51,247)], The Piedmont Triad: [Greensboro (climbed to 225,061), Winston-Salem (climbed to 229,828), High Point (up to 101,618)], The Upstate: [Greenville (up to 61,782), Spartanburg (balanced out at 40,387), Anderson (up to 27,181)], Richmond (up to 204,451), The Hampton Roads: [Norfolk (balancing out at 233,333), Virginia Beach (balancing 433,575), Portsmouth (slipped to 99,321), Hampton (slipped to 144,236), Chesapeake (up to 222,455), Suffolk (up to 83,659),] The DMV (District-Maryland-Virginia): [Washington, D.C. (climbed to 599,657), Baltimore (slipped to 637,418)]. 

It's pathetic, but another fact of the Birmingham problem.  The city is still losing more residents than gaining them to balance out or increase city population.  At the rate it going, it will be a city that will wind up seeing a political coup in the next few years lead by yuppies and wealthy whites because there won't be enough black voters to keep the city the way it is politically.  This is all meanwhile the suburban areas in the Greater Birmingham area gaining major population boosts at the expense of the city and the region as a whole.  Birmingham is well on its way to becoming a Southern-version of Detroit, where everybody lives in the metropolitan area rather than the racially stratification city proper.

Uh ok...

So there is a heaping load of craziness in the Greater Birmingham area to keep me looking at the region with a blank stare.

For starters, the jackal for mayor, William Bell, has proposed cutting city employee salaries by 10%, closing 5 public libraries, community and recreation centers, and killing funding to non-profits to "close the financial gap".  Meanwhile, he along with the City Council has given the A'OK to the entertainment district near the Birmingham-Jefferson County Convention Complex (BJCC) anchored by a Westin hotel.  The kicker is the Birmingham City Council is basically alright with funding the entertainment district via the tourism tax money (aside from the 2-member oversight board consisting of Birmingham's mayor and a member of the BJCC board to issue the bids and planning process).  Of course, the City Council would be up in arms about the cuts in services and salaries, but not for the reasons one would initially believe.  It's about the fact that it essentially cuts their slush fund they have sitting around and ability to do what they want with it.  IMHO, this is a huge clusterfuck screwing over everybody except the elected officials and their appoint staffers who are practically immune to this since they will always find a way to pay those overpaid fools a salary as long as they are in power.  Meanwhile, the average city employees are going to have a chunk taken out their asses along with that jackal proposing to leave a number of areas of Birmingham without a public library or community center for months.  It just shows that idiot shouldn't have been elected as mayor in January or allowed to wreak havoc on the populous.

Then on to the ongoing saga known as the Jefferson County occupational tax and its now-defunct predecessor.  Apparently, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that Jefferson County must refund taxpayers $37.5 million of their money from the now-defunct Jefferson County occupational tax which levy 0.5% of each check.  However, the Ala. Supreme Court also ruled that Jeffco could get back that money via usage of its current occupational tax statute and to give those greedy ass bastard lawyers who sued to remove the tax $13 million.  HUH?  In other words, they want to tax the taxpayers after they were just told their former tax was illegal.  Just another bizarre lesson in Alabama's warped legal code that makes no sense at all.  This is main reason why I don't care for the lawyers or Jeffco Commission for this bullshit that has basically destroyed the reputation of Jefferson County worldwide in the media.  It's like the greedy just can't stop on either side of the foolishness.

UPDATE: After being ridiculed by City Councilors, citizen, and other groups, the jackal suspended the vote on the extension of the tourism tax and its allocation towards the entertainment district and hotel on Tuesday.  Now the BJCC board and the full Birmingham City Council will make to discuss the contract details.

The EPA has been issuing grants to non-profits in Birmingham and Atlanta

The U.S. Department of Environmental Protection (EPA) has been issuing grants to clean-up and preserve of brownfields across the nation.  In Birmingham, the Freshwater Land Trust, a non-profit created in 1996 as a result of the Jefferson County violations of clean water regulations (which led to them being practically going bankrupt), has secured a $200,000 grant to purchase and preserve land surrounding Village Creek in the western portion of the Greater Birmingham area.  However, the majority of the Village Creek watershed is located within Birmingham corporate limits.  The grant would allow the Freshwater Land Trust to assess and clean up areas after years of abuse such as petrochemical dumping along Village Creek.

In Atlanta, the city is being rewarded $400,000 in brownfield grants to clean up parcels of lands along the proposed Beltline project and other redevelopment corridors.   The Beltline is one of the nation's largest urban redevelopment projects with it being proposed to have 22 miles of rail transit and green space.  Although the project has seen some major roadblocks, its most aggressive proponents have worked extensively to continue to push for it to come to fruition. 

Houston's mayor issues all encompassing executive orders including ethnicity, race, sexuality, and gender identity

According to the Houston Chronicle, Houston's first LGBT mayor, Annise Parker, has issueed 2 executive orders including all city employees from discrimination, slurs, or harassment including race, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, and gender identity.  This order essentially extends the order issued by former Houston mayor and Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Bill White, which included all homosexual and bisexual city employees after Dallas.  This first order now includes transgenders city employees and the second one prohibits in form of harassment or intimidation based on the aforementioned category of groups.

However, all within Houston municipal government is showing much enthusiasm associated with the orders like City Attorney Arturo Michel, who said the city orders only extend to city employees only. This leaves individual citizens vulnerable existing ordinances which pretty much excludes transgenders.  Also the socially conservative community activist, Dave Wilson, who campaigned against Parker in last year's mayor's race because of the fact that she is openly gay, said he fears the executive orders may be “only the beginning” of city efforts to strengthen gay rights under Parker's leadership. 

Oh hell, oh well!  I mean Houston is now one of the 4th largest city in the nation, so if they are going to hold the title then it's best they act as if they are a major city.  The fact those naysayers are whining shows that the South still has a long way to go before as a whole it's a more progressive region although this is the 4th largest municipality in the U.S. 

Tragically, ACORN is done...

While the healthcare reform legislation passed in the House and Democrats and some Progressive patting themselves on the back for the accomplishment of a controversial issue, ACORN's board of directors decided to fold the national urban issues advocacy organization citing depleting funds.  SIGH! 

It's a time like this when we really need ACORN because they have fought long and hard for the people against predatory lending involved in the housing crisis, jobs, living wage, voting right, and education reform.  Last fall, the ignorant brigade of Angry White People Coalition and idiots and so-called "progressives" like Congressman John Conyers voted to strip the critical funding that the federal government gave to the organization.  Those idiots were reacting and believing that garbage from that idiotic white boy who prove to be a fraud and a criminal himself.  ACORN did win a court battle that they fought to get their funding back, but unfortunately the damage was done...

This shit disgusts me to no end because this organization actually helped those who couldn't speak for themselves.  The New Orleans-based organization's mission was always to fight to the hardships of those who were either impoverish, undeserved, or non-white, but of course this will go into the abyss because healthcare... SMH

What is wrong with Houston's METRORail?

This afternoon, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County's METRORail experienced another crash with its fellow METRO Bus in downtown Houston.  The problem with METRORail is their long track records of collisions with either private vehicles and fellow METRO Buses in the Greater Houston area since the system's inception in 2003 prior to Houston hosting Super Bowl XXXVIII.   In the system's inaugural year of 2004, there were 61 crashes and on April 15, 2006, is where one turned fatal.  Now what I'm wondering what in the hell is wrong with this particular system?  Houston is a very automobile-oriented city and this one of the last major cities to implement rail transit into their public infrastructure.  However, those cities like Denver, Salt Lake City, and Charlotte have all introduced light rail transit (LRT) in the 00s, but in the case of Houston their LRT has mixed traffic right-of-way.  Interestingly enough, other cities with mixed traffic right-of-way, METRORail has been one crash after another hence their fucked up reputation.  Texas Department of Transportation (TDOT), like most southern state transportation departments, seems to be so gung ho to continue to build roads over public transit.   So this doesn't bode well for the system when they are in the midst of planning and implementing a massive expansion by 2030 the plans are on the table to have 5-line regional LRT system servicing most areas withing the I-610 (Houston) beltway.  I want MTA of Harris County needs to get it together on this and fix this shit because Houston is in the league of Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Washington as gridlock cities when it comes to commutes, so PLEASE GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER! 

Violent crimes are down in Birmingham, Mobile, and slightly in Montgomery, but up in Huntsville

In a report where law enforcement agencies across the nation reported crime to the F.B.I., overall violent crime in Birmingham was down 12.8% from January through June, according to the report. Mobile reported a 9% decrease, and Montgomery a 3.8%t decrease.  However, Huntsville saw an 9.9% increase in violent crimes.

Under the helm of Birmingham Police Department Chief A.C. Roper, the city has seen a major improvement in the public safety.  Homicides have dropped significantly since he took the helm in late 2007 where it no longer surpasses the 100 mark annually, but more needs to occur.  However, overall Roper is doing a damn good job for Birmingham and hopefully we'll see another year of drastic decreases in the number of homicides and violent crimes in Birmingham. 

Now in Huntsville's case, poor execution along with the fallacy of the mentality where so many flocking there believe they are immune to crime in such a "shiny, growing city".  The city also has show a great amount of apathy to the black residents there were they have either been left out of the political process or were thrown under the bus.  Huntsville in my opinion, is just a giant suburb rather than a large city, where it would have came up with some type of action plan to handle such growth and realize that with growth comes crime.  Maybe it just a fluke this year in the numbers, but I doubt it considering there have been an increasing spike in homicides in Huntsville since 2003.

Birmingham is slashing and burning left and right and BJCTA along with other things are affected

Today during the usual Monday City Council Budget committee meetings, the Birmingham City Council has to figure out a way to remove $8 million of expenditures from the operating budget.  Some of the things mentioned to save funds includes 10 day furloughs for city employees, charges for garbage disposal, and not fully funding the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority (BJCTA) the $9 million in payments.  This comes at a very bad time for the BJCTA which just settled for $30,000, one-fourth of the original $120,000 it charged Hoover for its U.S. 31 bus route that was saved by the negotiations.  The BJCTA is in literal dire straits, not figuratively at all, with buses leaking during rainfall, regular breakdowns, and disruptions of service due to these breakdowns.  Ironically, the funding for the BJCC multipurpose facility expansion wouldn't be affected since the city funds it after receiving invoices of progress and it comes from the "Birmingham Fund" capital budget that is separate from general budget fund.

Back to the Birmingham City Council budget debacle, interim mayor Roderick Royal was the one who proposed the reduction of expenditures.  Royal discusses plans to not pay the city employees for the New Year's Eve, Martin Luther King holiday, Good Friday and Memorial Day holidays to save $3.7 million.  However, many criticize this move along with the fact that just 3 weeks ago Royal said that the figures saying that the city unbudgeted itself by $20.89 million under Langford was an inaccuracy and it was only $1 million.  Now the tune is quite different and saying that he want wants to reduce $8 million from the budget any way possible since the FY 2010 revenue won't be enough to cover the $423 million expenditures budgeted.

Geez, my head is spinning and I can only image how anybody else feels about this.  The idiots that voted for Langford are to thank for the abyss of nuttiness where Smitherman and others knew what was going with Langford, but didn't do a damn thing until it was too late.  I'm so tired of this lot of morons it doesn't make any type of sense. 

Oh why o why?

Last week the Calhoun County Commission voted to demolish abandoned structures on the campus of former  Fort McClellan.  Get this these buildings have significant historical status, but Calhoun County officials feels that they are so dangerous that anyone going into them could get hurt.  Uh, I used to work for the state of Alabama and one of the things I used to do is go on to the campus all the time, yet noticed that the campus has much potential to be something great and conductive for future growth for the Anniston area particularly the City of Anniston.  McClellan could easily be incorporated into the urban infrastructure of Anniston and help Anniston set standards for that would be allow for more sustainable growth and development.  Also there are a number of bus shelters there that could be incorporated into the Anniston Citizens Transit System (ACTS). 

However, the campus was forcefully de-annexed from Anniston because of legal technicality specifying that Calhoun County, not Anniston would have zoning and land-use authority over the campus of Fort McClellan, which effectively has no zoning or land-use authority thanks to the inadequate Alabama Constitution.  Now there is suppose to be a commission that is made up of officials from Calhoun County Commission, the City of Anniston, state legislators, and congressional representative to issues recommendations for the future of the McClellan campus, but these recommendation practically have zero legal standing when it come to developers.  Calhoun is one of the 64 counties in Alabama that lacks home rule or self-govern authority over zoning, taxation, or land-usage.  Anybody can practically do anything they want as long as it falls within legal standards of state code on building and land-usage.  

Well, I for one think that Calhoun County Commission inability to find alternative solution to the problem with these structures is another symptom to Alabama's inability to progress under its lame state charter.  It is debatable who could or would be the better operator of the Fort McClellan campus, but the fact that one has land-usage authority and the other doesn't does matter.  Until somebody can get land-use and zoning authority to Calhoun County then more shortsighted decisions will be made on things involving McClellan area and its historically and developmentally-speaking sustainable layout.  What a shame!

Today is the day of reckoning for Birmingham

Today is election day for the person who will fill the remainder of the term for the next 2 years in the city of Birmingham's mayor.  13 candidates, but turnout is expected to be low with only 20% of voters predicted for today's election due to the rain and voter apathy in general.  This could be a double-edged sword for candidates on the western portion of town because that's where the majority of the city's black voters reside.  The election could be very much determined by the more diverse and socially progressive, eastern portion of town.  However, updates will be delivered this even on the results of this election...

UPDATE:  There will be a run-off on January 19th, so it's about to get real ignorant and racialized here all over again...

Birmingham Mayor -- 159 of 160 precincts reporting (99%)

	Patrick Cooper	13,992	40%
	William Bell	8,752	25%
	Carole Smitherman	6,552	19%
	Emory Anthony	4,344	12%
	Steven Hoyt	641	2%
	Scott Douglas	201	1%
	Harry Turner, Jr.	81	0%
	Jody Trautwein	173	0%
	William Sumners	31	0%
	Jimmy Snow	23	0%
	Edith Mayomi	28	0%
	Stephannie Huey	60	0%
	Ernie Dunn	13	0%
	T.C. Cannon	40	0%

Kasim Reed is Atlanta mayor-elect, but Norwood is still requesting a recount

Kasim Reed has been declared the mayor-elect of Atlanta, and outgoing mayor Shirley Franklin along with her staffers are already transitioning out the door for the Kasim administration.  Even before Kasim Reed was declared Atlanta’s official mayor-elect Saturday, he had already begun assembling a government and moving forward on campaign priorities.  He had picked a second-in-command (chief-of-staff), begun the search for a new police chief and started drafting plans to slash Atlanta's high pension costs.  However, Mary Norwood is still planning on requesting a recount from the Georgia Secretary of State's Office and Fulton County Board of Registars before the January 4th inauguration date for the new mayor.  On public safety, Reed is putting together a police transition team to look at the department’s needs and how to increase staffing.  Reed has set up a conference call with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for this coming week to get advice on running a national search for a new commissioner and on tackling Atlanta’s gang problem.  Reed plans to hire more police and to overhaul the Atlanta's troubled and controversial 911 system.  Reed administration would be prepared to take money from other city departments to increase funding for public safety.

“If that means a patch of grass doesn’t get mowed for awhile, we are willing to accept that,” Peter Aman, Atlanta Mayor-elect Kasim Reed's Chief Operating Officer said.

 Reed has drawn up plans to ask Washington for federal money to bolster public safety and other city services.  Reed's new chief operating officer (chief-of-staff), Peter Aman, said that Franklin was Reed's mentor, so there won't be any massive staff changes.

Interesting, the new mayor-elect is another Franklin-lite like I said, so expect more of the same regardless of anything said here.  Boy, Atlanta is going to continue to go down the shithole and fast under Reed.  At least Birmingham, Memphis, and New Orleans will now have Atlanta as as company in the league of Southern cities that have black establishment leadership that is more of the same, SMH. 


I can only pray tomorrow holds promise for Birmingham...

Today is the day of reckoning, part deux for Atlanta

Polls opened this morning at 6am, my time, 7 am Eastern time in Atlanta for the mayoral race.  They will be open until 8pm Eastern (7pm here).  I'm hedging bets that it going to Reed will prevail because of his massive number of endorsements over Norwood on the black and the LGBT side along with the fact that many blacks that fear the idea of seeing black leadership falling in Atlanta.  More to be updated later...

Smaller cities are losing their appeal for medium-sized and large cities

According  the U.S. Census Bureau, smaller cities and communities are losing their appeal to those who are economically mobile and educated in a report released Monday. 

A review of newly released census data shows, for example, that cities of between 20,000 and 50,000 residents have lagged behind their larger counterparts in attracting higher-educated residents in this decade.
In 2000, small cities, which include remote towns and the distant suburbs known as "exurbs," ranked at the top in the share of people with college diplomas. They slipped to No. 2 last year with 30 percent holding degrees -- in between medium-sized cities, which had 31 percent, and big cities, at 29.8 percent.
Poverty is growing in the small cities, fueled partly by population growth, although average median income of $60,294 in those communities is still higher than other places.

Compared with previous years, they had smaller incomes, higher housing costs, longer commutes, more poverty and more single-parent families. Demographers attributed some of the shifts to the housing downturn and a spike in gasoline prices, which has hit residents in the far-flung exurbs harder. Many families in smaller towns also are looking for jobs in larger cities because of the current recession and are rethinking the wisdom of a lengthy commute to work.
Some small cities may have become victims of their own success. As their local economies boomed mid-decade, many places grew rapidly and attracted lower-income residents needed to build roads, schools and other public works projects. Some of these areas have shot up in size and are now medium-sized communities.
"Small towns have a certain appeal to people, and their quality of life there is backed up by the data," said Mark Mather, associate vice president of the nonprofit Population Reference Bureau. "But as more people move in, small towns start to lose the qualities that attracted people there in the first place."
The shifts are notable in the ranks of the educated.

Now all these places like Hoover, Anniston, Tuscaloosa, and Gadsden are starting to feel the pinch of the economy and aren't growing as fast as they used to.  They are seeing levels of poverty increase with its inhabitants and aren't fully-equipped to handle it like the large cities like Birmingham. 

I knew this was going to occur since here in Central Alabama everybody wants to diss Birmingham as this "horrible place" and flock to the suburbs and exurbs.  Now they see that if you run from your problems then your problems will always find you even in the smaller cities.  Hence why I enjoy and continuously want to live in the city where you know what to expect and expect what you know. 

OH WELL! 

Results of the Atlanta, Houston, and Charlotte mayoral races

Well, the polls were wrong in the case of Charlotte because they elected their first Democratic mayor in 14 years and first black mayor in 21 years with Anthony Foxx.  It's also their first Democratic in over a decade, so Charlotte-Mecklenburg is forging ahead by leaning Democratic although it is still a moderate-right leaning region.   It doesn't change my opinion of Charlotte, but is nice to see Charlotte isn't one of those Southern cities that believes in electing candidates regardless of race.  Let's be honestly most of the "progressive" medium-tier Southern cities are all ran by a white mayor, so it will be good to see another city (and no Atlanta is not an adequate example) with black mayor and is truly progressing.

Now, the Houston race was a surprise to me because Pat Brown was leading everybody in the polls by at least 9 points.  However, polls sometimes aren't worth a damn, and Brown lost out in the run-off between Gene Locke and Annise Parker, so Houston has a dilemma to be solved come December 1st either a black guy or a white lesbian.  Let's hope this doesn't become politically contentious on the basis of race or sexuality...

In Atlanta, as expected Mary Norwood wasn't able to win by 50% +1 in the mayoral race, so she is forced to face Kasim Reed in a run-off on December 1st as well.  This one is going to get real ugly real fast because it was getting there just this past week before the election, so it's going be nasty 3.75 weeks in Atlanta.

Birmingham is in the hole thanks to Steve Sayler and Larry Langford...

Well, not a surprise to me, it turns out that Birmingham is $20M in the red although Steve Sayler's, former mayor Langford's handpicked finance director, after the budget report was released yesterday. 

It's gets even better, Sayler stepped down as finance director yesterday morning after acting mayor Carole Smitherman noticed that there were conflicts between the data the City Council received and Sayler's data.  Then Smitherman has spent the better part of the last 24 hours trying to save face by saying she will do everything in her power not to eliminate any jobs to get the city out of the red.   Oh what a web we weave...

Now, I don't directly blame Smitherman for Langford's fools because she can't control what the mayor did when she was Council President.  However, it has been known amongst us in the know that Sayler was involved with the bond swaps at Jefferson County, so when he crept to the City of Birmingham with Langford most smelt trouble.

Smitherman and the City Council will have to figure out what needs to be done because the Fiscal Year 2010 budget was stuffed with numbers from the Fiscal Year 2009, so everybody is in the dark on this.  Now according to media reports, Smitherman, the City Council, and a number of business leaders will be apart of a task force to figure out how Birmingham can fill this $20M hole without laying anyone off.

I say heads should roll including Deborah Vance-Bowie since she was over Sayler and requested the reports over the summer when the budget was up for debate.  Also Sayler should be prosecuted for placing fuzzy numbers in the place of real numbers to make this look good to Langford who was swearing Birmingham had a $28M surplus.  As much as I want to see things funded, repaired, and constructed, but you can't put the city in the hole to get what you want.  You gotta pay the bills and fund the already existing things first then explore what else you can do afterwards with the final balance.