I am still around

I am currently contemplating if I will be shifting to the WordPress site I own or continue to hold this domain to blog.  As more free time and renewed dedication to expressing myself comes clear to me in the coming weeks I will decide.

Oh yeah, let's me say this.  I am annoyed with Beyonce and her hype machine, but that is all.  I have never been a fan like that rather appreciative of the artistry.

On the planning front, it looks like the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham is under fire again by Alphabet Soup but this type using a lobbyist firm.  They accused RPCGB of aiding environmentalists in sabotaging their pet project that leads to nowhere and goes through nothing but ecologically sensitive environs.  Those assholes stay trying to force the Greater Birmingham area to continue to sprawl out into the hollow ground of northern Jeffco with their multi-billion dollar boondoogle.  I do mean hollow ground considering I know how many abandoned mines are located in that portion of Alabama's most populous county.  Can you say sinkholes?

In Metro Atlanta, the rush to municipalize all areas within the two core counties that are economically viable and thriving continues.  Now the aversively racist white suburbanites (whom are actually urbanites) within DeKalb County are pushing for the creation of the "City of Briarcliff" in North Central DeKalb County.  This initiative is another imagination-gone-wild creation of upset over the shift in demographic suburban white Georgians that DeKalb County is no longer a white-dominated haven of years past (see the creation of the "City of Dunwoody, Georgia" for proof).  The Briarcliff group will release a "feasibility study" about their imaginary "city" so it can become reality.  The true gag is the conflict with the better organized (terms in developmental patterns and actually having a "main street business district") "City of Tucker" initiative over the Northlake Mall commercial and business district.  Apparently, there is a battle royale over whom will claim the Northlake Commercial District.  Yep, Atlanta is trying to catch up with Birmingham over which Southern major metro has the most balkanized urban core.

'Tis is all for now.

The ever-shrinking Birmingham and Jefferson County

The 2010 count of the U.S. Census on the city of Birmingham has been unveiled and it looks like Birmingham, Bessemer, Fairfield, Midfield, and Jefferson County have all decline in population.  It's disheartening that these areas have loss a number of inhabitants since 2000, but the thing is can anyone honestly blame them?  I'm so ambivalent these days about the Greater Birmingham area because it seems to be a region without a singular voice of unison or leadership.  The current mayor, William "the Jackal" Bell is a failure in my eyes because he represents another fixture of the past grasping on to what little power is left in the city amongst some of the ill-informed, socially regressive, and in many ways prejudice citizenry.  Yeah, he has made some strides by attempting to get the Birmingham Baron back to the city from suburban Hoover along with groundbreaking with the Central Station expansion and progress of the Entertainment District @ the BJCC, but there has been little to no progress on any major infrastructural improvements on the area's mass transit system or recapturing the spirit needed to turn around areas on decaying portions of the city.  Birmingham is truly lacking and the effects of that void isn't limited to Birmingham corporate limits.  Other municipalities on the western portion of the metropolitan area are feeling this as well such as Fairfield, Midfield, Adamsville, Graysville, and Bessemer.  Although there isn't any hard numbers for Lipscomb or Brighton, but there in that same pack of economically depressed and downtrodden "suburbs" of Birmingham.  The heavily industrialized suburb of Tarrant (City) has seen a demographic shift from a white majority to a non-white majority.  Others have slid, but because of their increase in non-white populous as well like Center Point.  The one anomaly in the region, Homewood practically remained at the same population as it did a decade ago, so this stasis says something about Homewood that it's too socially ambiguous and densely developed for their liking (it is the most densely populated municipality in Alabama at 3014.7 per square mile).

Meanwhile, the more suburban in nature areas like Hoover, Trussville, Clay, Hueytown, Pleasant Grove, Fultondale, Gardendale, Vestavia Hills, Shelby County, Saint Clair County, Blount County, and Chilton County have all increased by leaps and bounds.  However, most of these new inhabitants are by the vast majority white (see a pattern...).

This all speaks to the notion that a metropolitan form of government will the only thing that will help create the needed unison for the Greater Birmingham area.

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.

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! 

Why o' why, is ALDOT and Bob Riley trying to force unneccessary road projects on Greater Birmingham

First the foolishness with the Northern Beltway and its irrational route going through properties that have been in people's families for generations in areas like Clay and Pinson to now the idiocy coming from Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) and Alabama Governor Bob Riley where they want to steamline the construction of the elevated tollway over the current route of U.S 280 from I-459 to Eagle Point Drive in Northern Shelby County.  "Something is very unclean in the water" what the hell is Figg Engineering going to pay for this stupid thing.  The only thing I agree with on this steamlining of the improvement of U.S. 280 is limiting the access points along the route like U.S 231 also known as Memorial Parkway is in South Huntsville.  However, the convoluted thing is Riley wants the version along the U.S. 280 to have a below grade toll road in 4 of the 10 lanes of the proposed roadway.  Idiotic.

I can't for the life of me understand why these Alabama officials have so much regard towards outdated mindsets when it comes to alleviating the traffic issues of Greater Birmingham.  More roadways will now solve the problem rather further exacerbate.  The issues with the traffic along U.S 280 is simply that it doesn't flow well, and it's not the capacity of the road itself.  If ALDOT would eliminate the traffic signals and replace them with interchanges with access roads then the road would be more functional as a route from the southeastern suburban areas of Greater Birmingham.  Now, this half-ass idea to construct a toll road that is below and above grade along this road is just dumb, dumb, dumb.  A bus-rapid-transit route that could be eventually converted to a light-rail transit route along the corridor would be more appropriate along with the recommendations of the limited-access expressway setup like Memorial Parkway in Huntsville with access roads from the Red Mountain Expressway to the Coosa River bridge on the Shelby/Talladega county lines.

On to the dubious Northern Beltway, tentatively named I-422, where former Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce lobbyist (prior to its merging with Regions 2020 and Metropolitan Development Board to form the Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA)), Pascal Caputo, made a Facebook page title "Birmingham Northern Beltline" to advocate the roadway.  Sounds like to me he is trying to get back on at the BBA. The foolishness even made it to a news story in the September 13th edition of the Birmingham News.  Caputo even blogs about it on his own site the Caputo Report, where he advocates it should be "a top priority for the Birmingham business community".  This guy is too much, and fails to realize this is an outdated idea to improve the economic development prospects in Greater Birmingham.   

In the December 13th edition of the Birmingham News, there was a story discussing how the poorly planned Northern Beltway will plow through large tracts of land where there have been family homesteads for generations.  The original route of the Northern Beltway was to connect with I-459 at both ends, but ALDOT swore up and down it would be more costly to allow it to connect to I-459 because it would displace residents in eastern Birmingham.  However, they could have easily accommodated the route to the residents in the area by still connecting  and having the road go east a few miles then resume its northwestern trek towards I-65.  The topography of the original route and the current proposed route are both extremely rugged, but the original one wouldn't hurt the Cahaba River watershed. The development patterns of the region doesn't need to spread out any further than it already is, but poorly executed rushing will just make the problem even worse.  The excuses and bum-rushing of these projects will likely put Birmingham in mess that will take decades to correct because so officials within the state government and Birmingham business sector doesn't listen to the community or use rationale.  SMDH. 

The Northern Beltline (actually Beltway) is on Facebook

This is when I think Facebook should be taken out to pasteur because recently the media announced that nearly as many profiles are on Facebook as the US population now this garbage.  Pascal Caputo, former public relations (PR) guy for the former Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce, has created a page on Facebook for this ridiculous project. 

Actually, the funding for the project has come to a holt because Congress has limited funding of this project to $500 million although current price tag is $2.5 billion. LOL

"It's a project I truly believe in. It's not just something I did because of where I was employed," he said Monday. "It's something I feel the county needs. Our county is in a desperate situation right now, and we've never been in a position like this. We need some good news and something to get us back where we should be. We're not going to be able to tax our way back into prosperity but we can grow our way into prosperity. Opening up the northern parts of the county to development is a way to do that."

Uh yeah, you really believe this will help Jefferson County get out of the hole by continuing to sprawl outward.  That has worked so well in other cities.  Also the audacity of the numbering of the road I-422 instead of I-459 shows that they don't care to even connect it with the original bypass south of town. 

Caputo, go sit down and find something worthwhile to advocate that doesn't further destroy this region...

Attempts to rejoin SWMA fails

Well, Bettye Fine Collins attempted to get a resolution passed Tuesday to have Jefferson County rejoin the Storm Water Management Authority of Jefferson County (SWMA) after pulling out earlier this year.  Instead the commission also voted unanimously to carry over another resolution to authorize the finance director to transfer as much as $1.4 million from the SWMA account to the organization.

Apparently, Collins realized that the county government can't afford to make payments on its bonds, pay its employees, or maintain anything at this point that if they were to do their own water testing and management that would require them either hiring or training 15 employees to do this (which they can't afford).  So it was a smart move on Collins part, but too little, too late because what's done is done and the "majority" (3 commissioners) have cock-blocked the county from rejoining the organization.  However, after the resolution failed to pass (3-2) she said that she wouldn't bring it up again.

Of course this another lobbying move by BARD, Business Alliance for Responsible Development, who are IMHO the fools like Alabama Power 'n dem that likes to make sure the Greater Birmingham area continues to sprawl out of control.  The main commissioners blocking the resolution includes Bobby Humphreyes, Jim Carns, and Shelia Smoot, who allegedly have all been recipients of campaign contributions from organization affiliated with BARD. 

SWMA was created back in the 1980s as a result of the EPA getting on to area governments for not being up to federal guidelines when it came to stormwater and drainage runoff to area waterways.  So this "ahead of its time" regional agency was created with the involvement with then all area governments including Birmingham, Jefferson County, and all municipalities.  However, BARD has made it their goal to destroy SWMA accusing them of "having too many employees", "being another bureaucratic mess", "wasting valuable funds" etc.; in other words, used faux libertarian accusations without offering any solutions themselves other than promoting further irresponsible development and sprawl.  Ironic, considering their name has "responsible development" in its tag.

Sigh!  SMH
   

Birmingham is making waves globally with 2 new green design initiatives

Since Birmningham hosted the Green Building Focus Conference and Expo in late July, the attendees have put together 2 initiatives that are key to the future of sustainable development.  The "Birmingham Charter", a new sustainable development platform they hope to present to the United Nations at a summit in Copenhagen this December along with the "Birmingham Manifesto" being proposed by the Alabama chapter of the American Institute of Architects. 

Not bad, not bad at all.  Now only if these two initiatives started here can be enforced with future developments in the Greater Birmingham area.  We need to be working towards being not only the template for development and growth, something most of our fellow Southern cities have failed epicly doing just look at Metro Atlanta, Nashville, Raleigh, etc.

Now this is funny, 2 stores are coming to the Summit from Vestavia City Center and Bridge Street in Huntsville

The intimate apparel store, the Fitting Touch and women's boutique, Moods, are leaving their current respective centers in Vestavia Hills and Huntsville to locate the Summit.  The Fitting Touch is located in between White House/Black Market and Swoozie's in the main strip of the center; whereas, Moods is locating in the Saks Plaza in between J.Crew and MARY. 

LOL, it's funny how everybody in Huntsville was talking about how much Bridge Street was going to be this major upscale project for Huntsville and the Tennessee Valley and now retailers are leaving it along with the fact that there still no major anchors to the center.  The main tenants are the run-of-the-mill stores like Bed, Bath, & Beyond, Old Navy, etc. along side a few exclusive tenants like Juicy Couture and Ketchup. The Summit has those former tenants as well, but most of them are on their way out since their leases are set to expire in 2012, and the center's owner, Bayer Properties, made it known they are not being renewed.  The Summit is also within the corporate limits of Birmingham, so it is a true city landmark and super-regional destination for upscale shopping.  I wouldn't be a bit of surprised if Juicy Couture moves to the Summit in a few years since Bridge Street is a bust.

Vestavia Hills City Center was already out is its league because it was designed to be local open-air lifestyle center and nothing more than that.  It's been losing tenants left and right because of the extremely high leasing rates along with the tomfuckery owners and management of AIG Baker.  Yeah, this company is affiliated with the same federally-bailed out AIG that foots the financing for this commercial real estate company with developments in AL, GA, TN, FL, MS, and SC.  The only thing good about the company is its efforts to redevelop some older centers like Vestavia City Center, which used to be Vestavia Center enclosed shopping mall, and 1-million square-foot Wildwood Center in Homewood.  I do find that very admirable because the last thing Birmingham needs is more urban sprawl.

Good job, Bayer Properties and Birmingham!

Chains that need to be boycotted because they left Birmingham

Dunkin' Donuts
Baskin' Robbins
Denny's (but then yet I don't care about them because they like to discriminate against blacks or any minority group anyways)

However, my rant is why on earth did these 3 chains all over asudden vacate Birmingham in the 1990's. Dunkin Donuts used to have about 5 stores in Greater Birmingham back in the early to mid 1990's. I remember the locations in Homewood on Oxmoor Road and the other on in Eastwood where the current Olive Garden Italian Restaurant is located at Crestwood and Oport-Madrid boulevards. Then there is Baskin' Robbins suddenly leaving Alabama in 2000 when there used to be one in almost every decent-sized town or city across North Alabama. I remember going to their ice cream stores amongst every birthday asking my parents for either an ice cream cake or a large order of my favorite type of ice cream in a large container to go for multiple servings of enjoyment. However, I remember hearing that the last Baskin' Robbins was still open in 5 Points West as late 2002 before finally closing.

Ironically, both chains announced in 2007 that they were going to re-enter Alabama and open stores around Birmingham. Keyword: "around" rather than in Birmingham. I hate when chains do this crap because most of them don't care to do the proper research to open locations in key areas around Birmingham itself like Eastwood/Crestwood area, Roebuck/Huffman, or even the City Center (Downtown and Southside). These areas do have a significant population of middle-income households that can support these stores; instead, most want to run to Hoover, Northern Shelby County, Trussville, Gardendale, etc. These types of businesses irk me more than the current leadership in the region because they don't try to invest back into the city where people are moving to (contrary to popular opinion on al.com).

Anyways, rant over.

UPDATE:

According to the Birmingham News, Baskin-Robbins wants to open 35 locations in the Birmingham.  However, they will all be franchises after reading in between the lines.  So that means it can take forever for them to get their act together.  I'll believe it when I see it...

Textbook reason why Birmingham is screwed up

After watching this video from "Blueprint America" on PBS courtesy of New York affiliate, WNET, I can see why Birmingham is so screwed on an infrastructural standpoint. Lobbyists like Business Alliance for Responsible Development (BARD) manipulating regional organizations like the Birmingham Business Alliance, Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) on things that affect us the most like highway layouts and transportation infrastructure. Why in the world would ALDOT allow the planned route of the "Northern Beltine" as it dubbed going straight through parts of the Birmingham that is environmentally sensitive and unnecessary. The original route of the northern belt was suppose to connect with I-459 at both ends; instead, it only connects on the western portion and the eastern portion connects in the middle of nowhere near Clay. They have the audacity want to continue it own into Saint Clair County to connect to I-20. Map of route is here .