Photo by Jesse Chambers
bham city hall 8-21-18
Birmingham City Hall seen from 19th Street North.
The Birmingham City Council — at its regular meeting for Tuesday, June 23 — voted unanimously to create the Avondale Entertainment District.
Within the boundaries of an entertainment district, patrons are allowed to carry open containers of alcohol outside as they walk between bars and restaurants.
The district, which will include 8-10 merchants, will be located on 41st Street South between Fifth Avenue South and Second Avenue South, said Taylor Lander of Avondale Brewing Company and the Avondale-Forest Park Merchants Association.
“We are really looking forward to increasing the walkability of our area (and) increasing the foot traffic,” Lander told the Council.
The effort to create the district is “an intentional, collective effort by patrons, merchants and the people of the neighborhood,” said Allison Wise of Post Office Pies and the Merchants Association.
The intention of the district is to “make the area safe and walkable and more vibrant,” Wise said.
This will be the city’s fourth entertainment district. The Uptown area at the BJCC became an entertainment district in 2015.
Pepper Place was approved by the Council in January 2019.
State law allows Class 1 municipalities in Alabama to have as many as five entertainment districts.
The establishment of these districts has been “very successful for the city,” said Hunter Williams, chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee.
Vendors in the other districts have experienced sales increases and told the city that the designations "have been successful for their respective businesses," he said.
“I’ve heard a lot of good feedback over the last three years of us doing this,” Williams said.
RED MOUNTAIN PARK
In other business, the Council voted to execute a funding agreement with Red Mountain Greenway and Recreational Area Commission. As part of that agreement, the city will give the Commission $100,000 to support the operations of Red Mountain Park. The agreement continues through June 30, the end of the city’s current 2020 fiscal year.
