Photo by Sydney Cromwell.
After decades of stagnation, Birmingham — with its booming City Center, vibrant food culture and increasing number of successful entrepreneurs — seems to be moving in the right direction.
Birmingham is, perhaps, finally regaining its status as the so-called “Magic City.”
At Iron City Ink, it’s our mission to write about the city’s progress — and about creative, grassroots efforts to solve its problems — as we move into 2017.
We’re gazing into the proverbial crystal ball and listing a few of the Birmingham stories we expect to hear more about in the upcoming year.
Municipal elections
The city will hold municipal elections Aug. 22, and Mayor William Bell and all nine City Council members — at least those who desire additional four-year terms — will face re-election.
Bell, who’s been mayor since 2010, told media outlets in August he will run again. He’ll have at least one challenger, Randall Woodfin, president of the Birmingham Board of Education, who announced his candidacy in August.
“I think there’s an opportunity to have a conversation with voters, with residents, with business owners … about how we can be more accountable, about how we can be more transparent and how we can have a vision and plan around growing our city,” Woodfin told Iron City Ink at the time of his announcement.
Birmingham City Council President Johnathan Austin, one of Bell’s political sparring partners, said in August he hasn’t ruled out a mayoral run.
National Senior Games
The Magic City is hosting the World Games in 2021, which isn’t that far away — not if you’re a city like Birmingham preparing to host its first international, multisport event.
But Birmingham will have a chance to test its capacities, including lodging and transportation, when it hosts the National Senior Games on June 1-15, with thousands of athletes over 50 competing in nearly 20 sports.
The games will use numerous local venues, including the BJCC and Birmingham CrossPlex.
UAB keeps growing
It’s not just football where UAB will make news. The school has been the single biggest engine for growth in Birmingham for decades, and that likely won’t change soon.
The university continues to grow, with a record-high enrollment of 19,535 for the fall term.
There are numerous big construction projects in the works for 2017, including major renovations to the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel at University Boulevard and 20th Street and the construction of a new home for the Collat School of Business and Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
And last summer, UAB President Ray Watts told Iron City Ink the university would soon help develop a new Innovation District downtown, leveraging the success of the Innovation Depot business incubator.
UAB Football
Sept. 2, 2017, has been circled on UAB head football coach Bill Clark’s calendar for quite some time. That’s when the Blazers will return to the field after a two-year absence, following the program’s near-death in December 2014 and resurrection in June 2015.
And excitement is building. The new Football Operations Center, which broke ground in September 2015, should be complete July 1. Amendment 14 was passed by voters in November, thereby protecting a proposed stadium at the BJCC that could be the future home of Blazer football. UAB spent the 2016 season practicing and preparing as if there were games to be played, and a pair of scrimmages drew healthy crowds to BBVA Compass Field.
Fans, players, coaches and administrators are anxious for the return of real games — beginning with that Sept. 2 Legion Field contest versus Alabama A&M. The momentum within the program is strong, and the Blazers hope to keep it rolling.
– Kyle Parmley
New life for the BJCC?
The BJCC could see big changes soon, based on a draft of a new master plan that includes the much-discussed open-air stadium and major upgrades to Legacy Arena, which recently celebrated its 40th birthday.
Legacy would get a new façade, suite level and entrances, improved concourses and enhanced food and beverage. “It’s a top-down, soup-to-nuts overhaul of the building,” BJCC Executive Director Tad Snider said.
Before moving forward, the BJCC board of directors is “working through the due diligence phase” but should be able to “finalize a plan” for the facility sometime in 2017, Snider said in November.
The BJCC got a boost in November when the Birmingham City Council approved plans for the building of Topgolf, a 65,000-square-foot, high-tech golf entertainment complex adjacent to the Uptown entertainment district.
Civil Rights District status
President Barack Obama, before he leaves office this month, was expected to sign a proclamation making the Civil Rights District downtown a national monument.
This designation would have a major economic impact on the district, including the traditional African-American commercial strip along Fourth Avenue North, according to Mayor William Bell.
“It will also mean access to some federal dollars, as well as grants and other funding for the entire district, to improve quality of life in that area,” Bell said.
The district includes such key sites as Kelly Ingram Park, 16th Street Baptist Church, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the A.G. Gaston Motel, which the city would like to renovate.
Mass Transit
There may finally be some improvements in the city’s horribly inadequate public transportation beginning in the spring when the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority is set to adopt its new Transit Development Plan.
As Iron City Ink reported in August, the plan calls for increased service frequency, improvements to bus routes and schedules, more evening and weekend service, and a 12.5-mile Bus Rapid Transit Project, which would connect the city between Woodlawn and Five Points West and work in tandem with the existing MAX bus system.
However, word came in early December that the scope of the BRT may be reduced due to a funding shortfall. According to a report by the Birmingham Business Journal, the Birmingham City Council was told by Strada — a consulting firm working with the BJCTA — that only $40 million in federal funding had been secured so far for the BRT, which has a price tag of $66 million. But the firm expressed optimism that the city could find more funding.
ALDOT plan for I-20/59
It seems that ALDOT’s plans to replace and widen the aging Interstate 20/59 bridge through downtown Birmingham keep moving forward, despite some vocal opposition.
In November, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by some Birmingham politicians and activists that sought to block the plan and said he was satisfied that federal and state highway agencies have properly assessed the new bridge’s environmental impact.
However, Darrell O’Quinn, executive director of the nonprofit group Move I-20/59, told AL.com that the plaintiffs were considering an appeal.
And the Birmingham City Council recently voted to do another study of options for the bridge, using $3 million from ALDOT.
Move I-20/59 seeks to move the highway north of the BJCC, arguing that the present elevated highway has cut off the poorer, mostly black neighborhoods north of downtown from economic development.
Downtown rocks on
Downtown Birmingham is rapidly being rebuilt, with dozens of projects in progress, both renovations and new construction, including hotels, restaurants and apartment buildings. “You go from one construction site to another … and I love it,” said Michael Calvert, former longtime director of Operation New Birmingham.
One of the projects that should be completed in 2017 is the renovation of the iconic, long-vacant Pizitz department store building as a mixed-use retail, office and residential complex.
The facility will include a movie theater operated by Sidewalk Film Festival and a food hall on the main floor. Stalls in the food hall will include REV Birmingham’s ”Reveal Kitchen,” an incubator for Birmingham's up-and-coming restaurateurs that will rotate quarterly.
The Thomas Jefferson Tower, once the Thomas Jefferson Hotel, is undergoing a $30 million renovation to create almost 100 apartments, as well as a restaurant, ballroom and event space.
The Waites Project — a $16.5 million retail and residential development — is nearing completion on Seventh Avenue South near UAB. The retail spaces could be open as early as this month, with apartments available by May, according to developer Rodney Barstein.
And downtown will finally have a major grocery store when the long-awaited Publix store opens, most likely in January, as part of a three-building, $100 million complex at Third Avenue South and 20th Street in Midtown.
Saving the neighborhoods
Last but not least, expect to hear lots of talk in 2017 about improving Birmingham’s neighborhoods — especially during the elections.
Some of the city’s neighborhoods, including Norwood, Avondale, East Lake and Woodlawn, have shown signs of rebirth, but more remains to be done in Ensley, Inglenook, North Birmingham and other communities.
“The city of Birmingham is only as strong as its lowest quality-of-life neighborhood,” Woodfin said during an interview after announcing his mayoral run.
We will follow other news, as well, including Alabama’s continuing drought and progress on the Crossplex Retail Development Project in Five Points West and other developments.