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.

LOL

Paint me as unimpressed with the typical reaction of aversive biased white Alabamians reacting to Alabama House Representative Joe Mitchell's comments to the northern Jefferson County resident, Eddie Maxwell when he wrote his letter to state house representatives warning them to not to even attempt to draft a gun control bill in the Alabama legislature.  *The audacity and arrogance of this man alone deserves reprisal*

From: Eddie Maxwell

Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 10:54 PM

To: (all members of state legislature)

Subject: Gun Control and our Constitutions

Can the officers of our state government change our constitution when the change is forbidden by the people? The Supreme Court of Alabama has ruled that it cannot in an opinion dealing with another matter where change is forbidden. You have sworn to support our constitution. You have defined a violation of an oath in an official proceeding as a class C felony (C.O.A. Section 13A-10-101 Perjury in the first degree).

Do not violate your oath of office by introducing additional gun control bills or by allowing those already enacted to remain in the body of our laws.

Mitchell responded at first with response of the nature of why are you worried about this when shit has gotten real for years for black Alabamians...

From: Representative Joseph Mitchell

Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 11:59 PM

To: Eddie Maxwell

cc: (all members)

Subject: Re: Gun Control and our Constitutions

Hey man. You have used the word ‘except’ when I think you mean somethin’ else.

Hey man. Your folk never used all this sheit to protect my folk from your slave-holding, murdering, adulterous, baby-raping, incestuous, snaggle-toothed, backward-a**ed, inbreed, imported criminal-minded kin folk. You can keep sending me stuff like you have however because it helps me explain to my constituents why they should protect that 2nd amendment thing AFTER we finish stocking up on spare parts, munitions and the like.

Bring it. As one of my friends in the Alabama Senate suggested – “BRING IT!!!!”

JOSEPHm, a prepper (’70-’13)

Mobile County

Maxwell then responded with a "how dare you...because I have a black friend and my daddy helped blacks...."

From: Eddie Maxwell

Sent: Monday, February 11, 2013 2:23 PM

To: Representative Joseph Mitchell

cc: (all members)

Subject: Re: Gun Control and our Constitutions

Rep. Mitchell and other members of the Legislature of Alabama,

That’s not the type of reply I expect to receive from a state legislator. The lack of response to your racist comments from your fellow members speaks volumes about the state of our legislature as a whole.

I’m not a racist and I find your reply to be especially offensive considering the position you hold.

My parents and grandparents taught me to love God and my fellow man as myself. My father was threatened by members of his church back in 1954 for inviting a black family to attend the church he pastored.

My father-in-law was threatened when he hired a young negro man to work in his shop back in 1968 in a community where several neighbors were members of the Ku Klux Klan. He didn’t allow those threats to keep him from treating people of all races equally.

In 1969, I was a draftee in the US Army and bunked with a young negro man named Earl Shinholster at Fort Benning. Earl later became a prominent leader of the NAACP back home in Georgia after serving with me in the Army. When I received numerous racist threats from negroes who knew I lived near Birmingham, Earl warned me of the knives they carried and cautioned me to be more careful around them. Earl had been watching me and he had come to know and respect me for my Christian values. Earl and I became friends and he helped me get through some tough times there.

Racism is not exclusive to my own people. I learned that before 1955. It is just as ugly now as it was then, regardless of the race of the person who is consumed by it.

I love my country and my state, and I vowed to support and defend our constitutions. I expect you and all of our representative to do the same.

Sincerely,

Eddie Maxwell

Anyways, Mitchell responded in due regard by reading that motherfucker for the filth and then some.  I mean he read his ass...

From: Representative Joseph Mitchell

Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 5:09 PM

To: Eddie Maxwell

cc: (all members)

Subject: Re: Gun Control and our Constitutions

Eddie. I grew up in Albany Ga. I was a military brat for most of my youth. Air Jump Master and DI USMC. Because I preference my issues with the values that I learned in ‘the heat of battle’ during the mid-fifties through the ‘70’s and into today might tell you what and who I am. I find no need to define it or explain it to you because you can identify with the threats of reprisals against your folk for helping somebody of African Descent. I know ol’ Ft. Benning and Columbus like the palm of my hand.

Where were you during the Albany Movement? Oh…. You shoulda been there. I am certain that your experiences through how your kin folk ‘helped’ colored folk would have helped us a lot when we were bombed in Albany, Leesburg, Newton and Sylvester.

I apologize for the restless nights your folk endured out of fear of the Klan. At least as they stood on the sidewalk watching my cousins and me get beat up by some of your neighbors they were able to push you out into the street to physically intervene. They did do that didn’t they? Oh …. Well, I rear where you were one of the first to integrate the all-colored school to prove your parents point.

Do you that your fathers ‘black’ friend was unable to get FHA benefits? Knowing about those knives and stuff were of benefit but did you know that colored military typically carried knives to protect themselves from folk who looked like your father? Historically, violence on Black folk was committed by White folk. It’s a fact but is it ‘racist?’ It is ‘racial.’ I had seven uncles and three aunts who served in three different ‘encounters. My father was Regular Army.

Eddie, a person without the power to exercise a threat cannot be a racist because he or she will be eliminated. A person who can, by merely stepping back on the sidewalk’ ore being quiet can support racism and benefit from the ‘first hired,’ affirmative action, preferential treatment fostered by systemic racism and bigotry.

It is unlikely that I, through sharing my many experiences on the receiving end, will convince you of your errors. For that matter, you will never convince me that our discomforts were comparable. Let the next generations resolve this continuing story.

Lock and load.

jmitchell

Meanwhile, House Representative Patricia Todd of Birmingham, also the only openly gay member of the Alabama Legislature responded with this:

From: Patricia Todd

Sent: Monday, February 11, 2013 4:41 PM

To: Eddie Maxwell

Cc: (all members)

Subject: Re: Gun Control and our Constitutions

Mr. Maxwell:

I am Patricia Todd, a member of the house. I just received this chain of emails and wanted to let you know that I am with you on the gun issue and am saddened by the tone of my colleagues email. All of us have suffered from the racism of the past and I thank you for your civic and thoughtful response.

We all have different life experience that shapes our values. I pray that we can all respect, and, celebrate, our differences. That is what make America the greatest country on earth, scars and all.

This member hears you loud and clear. 

Now Todd could have kept that $5.02 to herself.  Although she has been a victim to the idiocy of the Alabama Democratic Caucus's and Joe "the Jackass" Reed's Alabama Democratic Coalition's homophobia and racial prejudice because they don't want an openly gay, white woman as the representative for the heavily black 54th house district of Alabama, but still...  I am not here for Todd's "oh but I understand...blah, blah, blah..." to that assclown Maxwell from northern Jefferson County.   Maxwell's ass feels entitled due to his white privilege, Southern upbringing, and being a male, whom clings to his gun because his inferiority complex to make up for his likely "fear of the others taking over this nation".

Also the Birmingham News' website and its comment section is perpetrating allowing individuals that share this entitled and myopic philosophy a way to pretend to be faux victims via this incident.  This is why Alabama is held back because so many white Alabamians whine and dramatize things that almost never happen like this but ignores the true inequities like how majority black school districts are underfunded by the archaic Alabama Constitution along with other institutionalized measures. So pathetic.

Birmingham’s school district debacle

Where do I start? I will say that Birmingham school district is royally fucked if this isn't solved very soon.  In my opinion, they seem they have such a dilemma that most urban school districts seem to have these days. That problem is fiefdom mentality when it should even be this way. (Preference, what I am about to say is the honest yet objective truth). When it comes to the Birmingham school district, the whites that mostly now live in the suburbs such as the municipalities Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Gardendale, Fultondale, Clay, and Trussville or incorporated areas like McCalla and Grayson Valley, or western Saint Clair and northern Shelby counties were the ones that screwed up the school district because they didn't want their children to attend schools with blacks back in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, but it was the mismanagement of the majority black and AEA (Alabama Education Association) led administrators that has led to the school districts problems since the 1990s. This is nothing new because school districts in New Orleans, Memphis, Atlanta, Washington DC, and many others across the South has this problem as well.

The whole "they are trying to take over our schools" mantra perpetuated by the Frank Matthews and the same crew of misguided individuals aided the selection of the ineptitude leadership of William Bell aka "the Jackal".  I weep for the socially progressive, working-class, and urban enthusiasts in the city of Birmingham because they have no true allies at all. It seems like instead of find some common ground with those across the city whom want to turn the school district around.  Many of these individuals have children in the district's schools that refuses to provide a quality education that is offered in the surrounding school districts.  As a result, many are forced to do just day either leave for the suburbs if their children cannot get into the Ramsey High School, the baccalaureate academy at Parker High School, or cannot afford to send their children to one of the private schools in the region if they want to remain within the city.  Instead of trying to improve the school district, the board members want to continue status quo so they preserve the jobs of those whom are family and friends in the Birmingham Board of Education central office.  Advocates of reform had to turn to the one entity within the government organization that probably has the least amount of regard for the urban school district in the one city that it wish would die more than anything else, the Alabama State Board of Education.  

Yeah, sure the current board has attempted to oust the current superintendent, Craig Witherspoon, more than once, but the Alabama Board of Education and apparently the courts are against that. However, it is the unlikely allies that reformers of the school districts battle against mediocrity and the current foes are what are worrisome. Let me not forget the current Birmingham School Board president being ruled a resident of Trussville rather than Birmingham after proof of him not being a full-time resident of the city was discovered. The school district is at risk losing its accreditation with the Southeast Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) over the recurring problems with specific schools and the majority of the board's idiocy (can you say Clayton County, Georgia all over again). Finally, having a group of entitled urban mostly black bureaucrats are actually making things worse than their white counterparts and have the working-class, majority black electorate in the city thinking this is a racial usurp to get retribution on them by the state of Alabama. Now this is truly sad…

The one bright spot is the fellow blogger, Laura Kate Whitney, of MagicCityMade blog pointed out that Birmingham like most urban places are worth fighting for in the long run.  This battle has revealed that racial animus is behind the majority of this foolishness on the black members whom are against district reform on the Birmingham Board of Education.  As a black American, I understand and fight for the struggle of a socially egalitarian US by calling out the inequities of all times and bigotry of all.  However, the board members needs to realize that sometimes it best to not fight change because all they are doing is inadvertently destroying Birmingham's chances of recovering.

It's not about you guys, it is about fixing this declining school district before there is nothing left. *SIGH*

Am I Surprised? No

I certainly am not surprised by the recent report released by the Urban Institute about the state of social equity in Greater Birmingham.  Not at all, Birmingham has the unique sociological condition where its citizenry on both sides of the two predominate racial groups to have this separatist disposition.  What I mean by this?  Anytime there is an election in Birmingham itself, there are is always a candidate running for office that has the secured black establishment vote then there is a candidate that has the progressive vote, which includes socially egalitarian blacks, whites, and usually the politically active/aware LGBTs in the city.  Unfortunately, the black establishment candidate always has to say or allow one their supporters without checking them make a derogatory statement about the LGBTs in the city, thus reinforcing the division between blacks and other predominately socially progressive voting blocs.

If you want to expand this to the entire region, the "Over-the-Mountain" suburbs like Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, and Hoover, other regional suburbs like Trussville, Gardendale, Fultondale, and those places in Shelby County seem to be reluctant allowing any form of regional cooperation between the duplicated entities in the region.  Usually, there is more racial and some class-based bias that is tied to why the refuse to cooperate with Birmingham.  It's quite stark how the comments on al.com are usually white posters behind their computer screens making off-base statements and generalizations about blacks and Birmingham inhabitants being 'poor, lacking morals or responsibilities'.

What's is even more embarrassing is Birmingham is the only major Southern metropolitan area aside from New Orleans that gotten this reputation.  However, it is not really a surprise.

Another reason why I'm vacating Alabama soon.  I can stomach this type of crap in my youth and rather be around like-minded individuals in other places because there is more to life than constantly fighting over rehashed bullshit that should be resolved years ago...

On Birmingham...

Well, to make a long story short, Birmingham was driven over the cliff by the likes of Scott Beason and William Bell.  The blame goes both ways with whites and blacks in Birmingham.  I lived there for enough years to realized that the people of Birmingham (yeah, I mean all of you in the region not just within Birmingham city limits), lack discerning abilities to wise decision on whom will represent you a local leadership or the Alabama Legislature.  It just seems there is no real willpower on the part of a significant portion of the citizenry to care enough to want to make an effort to progress the city forward rather than hobble along the way.  

Even more embarrassing is the filing for bankruptcy for Jefferson County, but this is a result of urban sprawl without any regard to negative effects to the surroundings, the idiocy within the Jefferson County government, and the city of Hoover.  Hoover was the ones whom owned the sanitary sewer treatment facility on Shades Creek that overflowed and wind up with the DOJ forcing Jefferson County to take control of all the sewer lines within the immediate Greater Birmingham area. 

As today, Birmingham has become battleground for where the Alabama immigration law debate will take place with leadership from congress meeting the local leadership about how it has negatively affected the city's  resources.  All I have to say is good luck because we all know that the reason why the Congressional Republicans haven't take up the immigration debate there in DC is because they know they will be exposed for the due-nothings they are in the US House.

UPDATE:  The latest developments with Birmingham itself is the creation of its first citywide, long-range, comprehensive plan since 1961 called "The Plan Birmingham".  Yeah, I'm like COME AGAIN?  Yeah, this is the first comprehensive plan they have created since post-integration period.  This alone is an embarrassment to humanity and anyone that has worked in the planning, economic development, and public policy making in Birmingham.

On the welcome page of The Plan Birmingham, there is a picture of Birmingham's mayor, William Bell's goofy, gap-toothed smiling face with a "message" about what he feels is the vision for the future of Birmingham.  Right below, his message was Roderick Royal, the current Birmingham City Council president with his statement as well.  Why is it this is the most substance of detail about this website's home page is beyond me?  The site details including the "Birmingham Resource Book" which is most GIS maps by census tract or overall area assessments of land usage, public facilities, water & watersheds, parks & recreations, personal vision statements by citizens, etc.

Overall, it is a well put-together site, but the GIS maps need major improvement like the parks and recreation map that doesn't label or has arrows that doesn't even point to the actual location of these facilities.  That is embarrassing, and should have been done better, Barry William, who is the city's GIS manager...

Finally, why is the city of Birmingham wasting taxpayer funds for outsourcing to a Boston-based firm for consultant work when you have full-time planners that handle community planning and development at the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham (RPCGB) right there on 1st Avenue North in downtown?   That is just plain STUPID and WASTEFUL on the mayor and city council part's not to take advantage of a free or nearly free resource of staff planners at the RPCGB, whom have done comprehensive plans for Bessemer among other area municipalities.  Also they can work on a regional scale and is very well capable of administering the regional initiatives such as the Green Birmingham, Prosperity and Opportunity economic development, and Getting from Here to There transportation and mobility initiatives with other area governments.

Can Birmingham be saved?

I have pondered this for years now and wondering if this major city can return from the abyss of mediocrity.  It seems that everytime is something proposed, initiated, or mentioned that is productive to the civic pride of the region that the C.A.V.E. people whom will show their asses.  Also there is my personal term "P.A.V.E." people as well that exist nowadays, which are Politicians Against Virtually Everything, mainly because they didn't think of the idea themselves or because their pocket-lining lobbyists wouldn't benefit from the idea/concept/initiative.

A number of fellow bloggers have blogged on this including Mack Lyons, Wade on Birmingham, Kyle Whitmire, among many others that have echoed what I've been saying for years that Birmingham has civic disengagement or pride issues.  Meanwhile, in the surrounding suburbs there are Y.I.M.B.Y., which is Yes In My Back Yard, which is why the minor league AA, Birmingham Barons, wind up in Hoover at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium (which the name within itself is ironic), i.e. Regions Park in the first place.  Hoover, which has a serious case of "Anywhere syndrome" because the place no sense of place at all.  It's home to the  now in-its-twilight-of-existence, Riverchase Galleria, mixed-used development and Alabama's largest retail center.  Yet, it's boosters and chamber of commerce are its main culprits saying "Hoover Has It", when in reality it doesn't.  Even retail is starting to leave Hoover for other ares like most places in suburbia when its past its heyday.  


Back to the main discussion, Birmingham has so much potential from its well-organized urban core with a southwest-to-northeast gridiron layout to its wealth of areas worthy of redevelopment.  I was recently at economic development conference where the topic of most discussions were greenfield developments into 'industrial sites', which are about as need as another hole in my head.   Meanwhile, the truth of the manner is Birmingham has a plethora of brownfield sites that are mostly former heavy iron and coal processing facility sites.  These sites can be home to number of redevelopments such as mixed-use projects that could easily be integrated into the urban form of Birmingham's grid layout.  Also with the strength of UAB, the Innovation Depot, and their ability to create a variety of spin-off start-up businesses can reinvent Birmingham's economic base.  Birmingham is no longer the largest financial hub outside of the New York Tri-State region, but it has more than enough resources at its dispose to produce a skilled workforce.  Birmingham has the strong base of smaller, regional financial institutions that could aided in them building up into its next generation of major financial heavyweights.  


Birmingham should also serious explore what is its internal problems and stop electing reactionary and "catchphrase salesmen" as its elected officials such as mayor and city council members.  It's obvious the constant rehashing of the same stock of characters whom have lived and breathe manipulating the lowest common denominator of the populous hasn't worked at all.  I don't reside in the city anymore and honestly have very little interest to return anytime soon because the place isn't where I need to be nor does it feel like "home" anymore.  However, I know enough about said place to know it has the potential to rebuild itself but it has to shed some of the ailments.  

Alright, now

I'm back to posting for this short in-between semester break and will try to continue throughout the summer when possible.  First thing first, my personal life...single again but by choice.  Couldn't deal with the idiot I dated for over a year so it had to cease and desist.  Secondly, I'm doing good academically with a 4.0 graduate-level GPA, so hopefully I'll continue this trend until the end, next year.  Third, what the hell is wrong with some people in south of the Greater Birmingham region in Alabama?  I swear this region is like the abyss for intelligence outside of these college campuses.  I've met 5 people non-affiliated with the university I attend for graduate school, Auburn University, and only 2 of them have shown any ability to hold my attention beyond 5 minutes.  Now I know why people don't deal with this region...

Anyways, on the societal issues.  Yeah, Birmingham (and Tuscaloosa but to me all of it is Birmingham since it's all one urbanized region) got hit hard by the April 27th tornado outbreak.  It turned out the tornado outbreak was quantitatively larger and deadlier than the Super Outbreak of 1974, but it is debated on the strength comparison.  I just know I was in the middle of finals when this outbreak occurred on that now historical Wednesday stuck doing presentations and examinations throughout the day.  It along with the April 16th tornado outbreak in North Carolina has shown Alabama and the world that nature still has plans under its sleeves for our increasingly belligerently ignorant and divisive society.  Raleigh and Birmingham will be dealing with the aftermath of these significant weather phenomena for the next few years.

On politics, I swear the aversive racists have shown their asses literally.  First, President Obama listens and folds to Front Lace Wig aka Donald the Chump over his birth certificate, and there was no merits to the bullshit claims.  Then, he takes out Usama bin Laden and the racists keeps adding flames to the fire by whining about seeing his body.  Then the brigade of assholes on the GOP ticket running for the presidency is laughable from Newt "I'm a whore" Gingrich to Mitch Romney.  The idiocy begins and this time it's racial.

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.

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.

Terri Sewell is now a seated representative for Alabama's 7th congressional district

It's an interesting yet remarkable accomplishment for Alabama with the seating of the 112th Congress of the United States, the first black female is congressional representative has been sworn in.  It's one bright spot for Alabama is Terri Sewell since all the other Democratic House representatives either lost their seats (Bobby Bright) or changed parties yet still lost (Parker Griffith aka "Mr. Two-Last Names").  Sewell supports economic development and major improvements of transportation infrastructure of the Alabama's 7th congressional district (which includes the cities of Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and Selma) along with the passage of DADT, hate crimes legislation including LGBTs, the passage of ENDA, and even same-sex unionship (i.e. "same-sex marriages" for you jargon-heads who love that goofy term).  Sewell pride herself as a pro-women's rights advocate (for equal pay and reproductive choice for women) also supporter of healthcare reform, and financial reform.

It's going to SO INTERESTING watching Republicans trying to play damage control when the media scrutinized them like they did with the Democratically-controlled 111th Congress.  Especially after them already waffling on their stance of being so transparent.  However, let's take a moment to enjoy Terri Sewell.

CHEERS!

(h/t to Left in Alabama and WAKA-TV for the links)

What did I miss?

I guess back in the Greater Birmingham area, there has been the continual battle amongst Jefferson County Commissioners over the 2011 general budget.  It's mostly been over whether or not they should allocate funds to open the Bessemer branch of county jail and paying the federally-appointed receiver a $1 million annual salary for the overseeing of the sewer debt.  We also have to throw in the future of the existence of the occupational tax administered on all incomes generated from Jefferson County.  Cruella de Ville, Jim Carns, and George Bowman voted to do neither, but sooner than later they will have to do these tasks...

Also suburban Bessemer voters has ousted two-term mayor Ed May from office on October 5th for Kenneth Gully.  I guess the incident of firing the Bessemer city clerk the night before the election was the straw that broke the camel's back...

Meanwhile, the Alabama legislators and lobbyists that went down over stalling the regular session in the spring over the gambling bill vote has cause all the leadership and their sycophants of the ADP (the Alabama Democratic Party for outsiders) to call foul over the case.  Many are claiming this is partisan and an "October Surprise" to ruin any chances of the idiot on the Democratic side of the gubernatorial ticket, Ron Sparks, of winning come November 2nd.  (Oh hell, oh well.  They brought that shit on themselves because those assholes in that damn party do right by Artur Davis then will continue to suffer from a bitch named "karma".  In the words of Cadillac Kimberly, "They all need to hold hands and kiss his muthafuckin' ass..."

I'm just plain blank staring at this mess because it's just aggravating watching this mess occur here.

If we didn't already know, Joe Reed is a JACKASS!

It just seems like that splaboo doesn't spare any clockwork when he proves to the entire world along with the entire the Alabama Democratic Party (ADP) that he is one.  Instead of having some dignity and showing that he isn't a pompous egregious bigot about race (and sexuality), NO!!!!  He had to prove that he likes to be all about race and direct representation of it.

In the curious case of the replacement of Kenya Lavender Marshall, a lawyer whom was suppose to be the Democratic nominee for the Jefferson County Circuit Court seat come November (since there is no Republican competition), whom wind up disqualified and disbarred for using clients funds for personal usage.  The Alabama State Democratic Executive Committee had to appoint a replacement in time for the August 27th deadline, which is 45 days after the run-off.  Meanwhile, where comes the mighty splaboo, Joe Reed, to sweep in with his usual brand of down-home splabuvian ignorance that has been recorded time and time again on this blog.  Instead of appoint the runner-up in the Democratic race, Nicole Stills, the ASDEC (lead by that splaboo) appoints Elisabeth French, some random lawyer whom happens to be black, to the seat because Reed wants a black person to represent since a black woman won over a white woman (Stills).

If we have learned anything from all this crap is that playing racial politics in the South never bodes well for anybody especially progressives.  Reed is so ignorant and pathetic because all this type of buffoonery is going to lead to is destruction.  It's like Reed wakes up in the morning and says, "I wonder how in the world can I screw up the possibility of Alabama ever getting a decent black politician elected from a statewide office?"

I'm too through with this crap and the ADP because they gave him the keys to its destruction when they let his racially bigoted ass into the executive committee nearly 4 decades ago...

The only upside to this story is that the Alabama New South Coalition (ANSC) and the Birmingham chapter of the SCLC called out this foolishness.

One year, and so...

Now back to regular posting.  Today on the other side of the Sunbelt, a federal judge repealed California's Proposition 8 that banned same-sex unions and such, so congrats to them (for now because you know THEY are going to repeal to the SCOTUS)...

It's another one of those cases where you have to give those in the Democratic establishment in Georgia the side-eye.  This time it's Roy Barnes, whom deliberately avoided being seen near President Obama in Atlanta on Monday when he was there for Disabled Veterans organization speech and Democratic National Convention fundraiser (all in the same hotel, Hyatt Regency Atlanta in downtown).  That's what I call a "nod and wink" stunt to the black Democrats, whom he went all out the way to court up until 3 weeks after he won the Democratic gubernatorial primary...

In the Greater Birmingham area, an young, black Democratic nominee for circuit judge position of Jefferson County, Kenya Lavender Marshall,  might be disbarred by the Alabama State Bar for using clients compensation for personal use.  UH OH, HOT DOG!  That's has to be one of the DUMBEST things I've seen person do when they are running for a judicial position when it requires prudence and discernment to do the job...

Oh yeah, black Democratic Congress members Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters ought to be ashamed of themselves for being SO DAMN STUPID.  I mean allegations of taking money and using it for their own personal usage and now both face ethics violations when they know they are up for reelection in 3 months.   I don't care how progressive you too maybe on key social issues, you have to be DUMBEST DEMOCRATS in the current sitting Congress, plain and simple.  Once again you see another Southern (white) Democrat pretending to be too busy worried what some rural (white) people will think of them rather than just showing their face for a few minutes with the president...PATHETIC!

LESSON TO ALL BLACK DEMOCRATS: DON'T GIVE OTHERS A REASON TO GET YOU WHEN YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT THEY WILL THOSE OUT THEM WANTING TO GET YOU!  YOU WILL GET GOT!

On the Jefferson County issues...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, former Jefferson County Commissioner Gary White is finally going to the chokey, but what does this mean to the constituency?  I'm honestly wondering what type of outlook does this leave for the citizens of Jefferson County on the county governmental structure, particularly the elected representation...

All of the current sitting commissioners are going to be gone in November regardless of how the election turns out since the only one running for reelection (Bobby Humphryes) lost his primary about 4 weeks ago.  It just seems to anti-climatic for the citizens to continue to see this status quo exist with the county government.  Although they want to reintroduce merit raises for county employees, for now...

All I can say is, OH BROTHER!!!!

Oh, WOW! Step away for a week and all hell breaks loose...

In Virginia, Bob McConnell pretty much tells his own State Attorney General to STFU on the whole removal of non-discriminatory language from state colleges and universities.  McConnell's own words:  "It was very important for me... to say discrimination will not be tolerated, and there will be sanctions for anyone that engages in discrimination."  Now, that's what I call COMEDY!  He told Mr. Cuccinelli to shut his shit the fuck up on the political grandstanding against LGBTs in Virginia.  Also McConnell is covering his own ass so he won't be seen as an overt bigot but not as a "traitor" to the socially conservative cause. 

The officials in Itawamba County, Mississippi, decided to cancel the main county high school's prom because of a lesbian couple want to attend together as a couple.  Now, unlike what went down at Thraptown High School in Franklin County last year in Northwest Alabama, these students both attend this high school, so the circumstances have a more internalized effect.  Whereas, the Franklin County situation was their "justification" of outside-of-district, but it was soon resolved when the lack of logic and rationale of the argument was exposed for the world to see.  However, in the case of Itawamba County in Northern Mississippi, the officials are standing by their guns so one of the teens has filed a lawsuit against the school district in federal court.  In all likelihood, she will win because the school isn't violating any real policies since they are both students of the school at an event just hosted by not an official event of the school. 

In Texas, a state that I've always considered a lost cause socially and politically, the state board of education has approved a referendum that would enforce an ultra-conservative curriculum in state public schools.  An ultra-conservative faction within the Texas Board of Education was successful in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of students for the next decade.  They want to remove mentions of the Enlightenment period and Thomas Jefferson from the state curriculum and replace these with the discussion of John Calvin and the Judeo-Christian ideology of the nation.  Also mention the nation is not a democracy, but constitutional republic.  Now, that is true about the last part, but the rest is bologna.  However, I stand my statement that Texas is a lost cause politically because it is one of those places where you see more ignorance-based emotional foolishness pedaled than logic.  Let's be real, the only real election there is the Republican elections because outside of Dallas, Houston, and Austin, there is little to any progressiveness in the state, and even then I wouldn't waste my time trying to move there.  Honestly, Austin doesn't count because it is too damn whitewashed for politically because the non-white population is too small to make any real affect, so that "Keep Austin Weird" crap is for the birds.  It's a crazy state where you have to give the side-eye to altogether. 
 
Also in Oklahoma, another lost cause, the state senate has approved a bill that would become an amendment of the state constitutional allowing the law enforcement to chose not to assist federal officials in the investigation of hate crimes.  Here's some of the bill's language:  Under the new provisions of Senate Bill 1965, reports that were collected during investigations of possible hate crime that did not end in a conviction would be destroyed or kept by the Oklahoma Bureau of Invesigations.  The bill originally was to investigate the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association, but state senator Steve Russell, a socially conservative Republican from Oklahoma City and former army commander at Fort Hood in Texas, was the one who perverted the bill into its current form.  I'm going to take some words from Dr. Martin Luther King, "an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere".  Especially in a racially-aversive state like Oklahoma, where if you are non-white, LGBT/SGL, or anything out of the WASPy-ordinary then you are subject to be a victim of this ignorant law.

Meanwhile, here in Alabama, a caravan of idiots, OOPS!  I mean Birmingham City Council members, mayor, and some of their staffers are going to the National League of Cities conference in DC this week.  However, they are practically leaving the city without any really leadership.  The jackal, William Bell, just announced last week that the city is going to have to make cost-cutting measures such as delaying funding and contracts for the rest of the fiscal year, yet he along with the rest of the caravan of idiots are going to DC blowing $31,000 of city funds.  Now, Carole Smitherman is staying behind and politically grandstanding saying "somebody has to man the shop".  Yeah, the judgment is clear that all of the leadership in Birmingham is idiotic and irresponsible as hell as far as I'm concerned.  Who in the fuck goes on a trip and then takes their staffers as well to when you have a $77 million gaping hole in the budget?  Smitherman, you are just as irresponsible as the rest in my book because you knew what has been going on since jump and just trying to reconcile your reputation with folks, but it's tarnished so save the drama for ya mama.  SMDH

Oh yeah, the jackal and that xenophobic third-generation Greek immigrant mayor of Hoover, Tony Petelos, wanted to question the financing of the monstrosity that is being forced-fed on people in the Greater Birmingham area.  Here's a clue you two morons, why don't you flat out and oppose the thing instead allowing this bullshit to be constructed? Also the Battle Royale of 2 white women with power trips is amusing to me, Jefferson County Commission President Bettye Fine Collins and Jefferson County Treasury Jennifer Parsons Champion over the distribution of federal funds that were allocated from the federal stimulus package last year.  CUTE, BUT YOU BITCHES ARE BOTH STUPID...

That's what been going on that I want to talk about in the past week, and I'll be back to regularly posting probably this week...

Both Birmingham and Atlanta lost out on their T.I.G.E.R. grant bids

On February 17th, the 2010 Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant recipient list was announced, but Birmingham and Atlanta main transit projects weren't on the list.  The grant program is worth over $1.5 billion in funds to well over 50 different programs that will improve transportation infrastructure in various cities and regions across the nation.  However, the Norfolk-Southern received grant funds for their projects including a major hub in the Greater Birmingham area with the Crescent Corridor Intermodal Freight Rail Project with $244 million.  On the other hand, other regions in the South did receive some funds such as the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority did get $45 million for the Loyola Loop extension of their streetcar system and for the Union Passenger Terminal improvements, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) received $23 million for a downtown streetcar system in Dallas, and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation received $48.4 million for the I-244 multimodal bridge replacement in Tulsa, and the National Capital Planning Commission received $58.8 million for priority bus system in the DC metro area.  Here is the link to the full final report from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The problems that plague both Birmingham and Atlanta were pretty much their respective state governments doesn't invest in transportation infrastructure outside of roads and bridges.  Although the In-Town Transit Partnership bus rapid transit system would cost $65 million and $6.5 million to operate annually, the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham (RPCGB) failed to secure the grant most likely due to the lack of allocated funding sources from the state of Alabama and local governments.  The same can be said about the issues plaguing the Atlanta Beltline light rail and streetcar system.  The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), like ALDOT, doesn't allow any funds to go towards public transit, so the Atlanta Regional Commission along with the Friends of the Beltline and the City of Atlanta are vying for the project one their own.  This is the very likely cause for the failure of securing any of the T.I.G.E.R. funds. 

Since the recent loss, the RPCGB has promised to find an alternative source of secured funds to push the In-Town Transit Partnership forward from the drafting table.  Similar efforts have been announced with the officials associated with Atlanta's Beltline. 

All I can say to both entities is, GOOD LUCK.  Considering the economic environment we are in during these times, both cities will be lucky to fund their existing mass transit infrastructure without making massive cuts in service.  Sadly, the BJCTA of Greater Birmingham isn't seeing its best times already with it begging the city of Birmingham to provide them a much needed $9 million in funds to continue its service through the rest of fiscal year after March 30 (which is the 6 month point for FY 2010).  The jackal is about as idiotic as they come, so don't expect any real decisions coming from the mayor's office on the problems with the BJCTA.  Sadly, MARTA is facing a similar crisis with tax revenue slipping from both Fulton and DeKalb counties, and the fact that DeKalb County is facing a financial meltdown that could possibly lead to a layoff or furloughing of county employees (sounds like Jefferson County all over again...).

SAD! 

Cruella Deville will not run for a fifith term on the Jeffco Commission

Congrats Cruella, I mean, Bettye Fine Collins for having the common sense to realize that you have a better chance of going to hell than being reelected to the Jefferson County Commission.  It's not a surprise considering under her tenure as Commission President, i.e. pretty much the head fool who runs the county government, that there have been more meltdowns at Jefferson County than the 3-Mile Island in Pennsyvlania.  Now if we could tell Shelia Smoot to realize that about running for Alabama's 7th Congressional district race and William Bell about running for Birmingham mayor then we will be on to something.  IT'S OVER, FOLKS!  TIME FOR YOU ALL TO GO HOME AND GET REGULAR JOBS THAT DOESN'T INVOLVE MAJOR DECISIONMAKING THAT AFFECTS ANYBODY BUT YOURSELF AND YOUR HOUSEHOLD!

Ron Sparks Opted not to leave the gubernatorial race

On Tuesday, Ron Sparks announced in front of the under construction  Madison County Courthouse that he would not leave the Democratic nomination race for Alabama's governor for the AL-5.


However, this doesn't mean it's over for a possible Democrat to enter the race for the 5th Congressional of Alabama race after the partisan-defection of Parker Griffith to the Republican party.  Word in the blogosphere is that Deborah Bell Paseur, Alabama State Rep. Randy Hinshaw, and Ala. State Rep. Tammy Irons may be in the race for the seat. 

Interesting, I must say because these guys in the Tennessee Valley are disparate to get a Democrat on the ticket since Griffith will likely win by default on the Republican side.  However, I know for a fact that unlike AL-7, AL-5 is more on the socially conservative side since the majority the district population isn't in the immediate Huntsville area, aka, Madison and Limestone counties, rather its spread throughout the Tennessee Valley from the Florence-Shoals area to Decatur to Huntsville.  It would take a populist or centrist Democrat to win the race at this point because Griffith has shown the progressives and liberals in the region that "they don't matter at all".  All of which I knew already because I've been saying for years, Huntsville is still another 20 years before it even reaches a point of becoming a political powerhouse like Greater Birmingham in statewide races, but is well on its way with the current population growth trends.  They might have to contend with the fact that along with the proof of the results of the 2008 Presidential elections that anything remotely non-WASPy or even a "hint of progressive" doesn't matter to the major white AL-5 district voters.  

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. 

Three buses disappear from Trussville...but nobody seen them being moved?

Has anyone ever seen a magician make an elephant disappear?  Neither have I, then how in the hell did so-called "thieves" get away with 3 large, yellow, school buses over the weekend in Trussville?

According to the local news sources including Birmingham FOX affiliate, WBRC, are reporting that 3 school buses were stolen from suburban Birmingham municipality, Trussville.  The Trussville Police reports that 1 bus was stolen from a locked, fenced area at Hewitt-Trussville High School whereas the other 2 were stolen from an open parking area at Hewitt-Trussville Middle School.  The police believes the buses were taken between 1 and 2 a.m. Saturday.

The Trussville School District has 47 buses.  The District spokeswoman Kelly Bowles said damage to the fence at the high school was discovered Sunday, but the buses weren't discovered missing this morning.  HUH?  

The one stolen from the high school has a 09-05 license plate, number 44485 MU. Of the two buses from the middle school, one had a 01-10 license number, 44501 MU, and the other had a 05-08 license number, 44515 MU. The buses were standard yellow buses varying in years from 2005 to 2009.

Somebody is very negligent when it comes to this, and needs to lose their job(s).  How in the hell does one not realize that if fence is broken that something wasn't tampered with or stolen on Sunday? This is Trussville, the same school district is home to nepotism out the ying-yang with the "national accredited" superintendent being paid $130K annually while laying off non-tenure teachers just earlier this year.  Yet the city reported a massive shortfall in municipal coffers because its tax base being totally retail-oriented.  SMH.  I think I'll stick to Birmingham where at least some logic would go a little bit further with the regular day-to-day operation employees...

UPDATE: The buses were found all severely damaged beyond repair via fire on Tuesday.  Today, there was an arrest made, and presumably more to come...