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This is a fun, way to discuss ideas about how you would improve things in our area or even our state, if you ran the show. This is general discussion, and here are a few of mine.
— Red Mountain Expwy at the Highland southbound on ramp. The accelerator lane will be extended, with a ramp meter. This would help tremendously with merging onto the expressway. The same needs to be applied to I-65 southbound at University Blvd.
—Alabama high speed rail between Huntsville and Birmingham. Believe it or not, with the increase in collaboration between Hudson Alpha and UAB/Southern Research, this would definitely create a unique mode of transportation for the state. Birmingham to Atlanta high speed rail, coming soon. (Quick trio for Huntsville to Atlanta). Stations at the BHM airport and downtown Bham.
—Midfield, Fairfield, Lipscomb, and Brighton will all merge to create a new city. This will help to create a better life for residents of each city, while eliminating some unnecessary cities in the area. Downtown Fairfield/Western Hills Mall will be the official city center for the new city.
— Civil Rights District/The Switch- all of the car dealerships will be relocated to free up space for new cultural amenities and high tech companies. The car dealerships will be relocated elsewhere near the city center.
—City Center Hoover(Patton Creek)/ Riverchase Galleria- how about forgetting about the Riverchase Galleria as the new planned City Center, and shift these operations to the Patton Creek shopping center. The “Main Street” is ideal for sidewalk cafes, bars, lofts, offices, or anything else that would be in a downtown area. The theater will remain as the anchor in one end, and Barnes and Nobles, DSW, etc. will remain to anchor the other end of Main Street. The big box stores must go, along the perimeter of the center. These will be converted to new office, living, and municipal spaces. The sea of parking will be replaced with a city park and more living spaces.
• Sears will be demolished and will be replaced with a “main” entrance to the mall. The area would be converted to exterior shopping like the Coolsprings Galleria outside of Nashville. This will allow for more upscale stores to return to the mall area or at the new entrance, once the reshuffle of mall stores is complete. I am concerned that the current set up will eventually allow more upscale stores like J Jill, Johnston and Murphy, Clark’s, and True Religion, to close (maybe I’m wrong). Express, Sephora, and Lane Bryant are already in the wing of the new entrance. The current tenants could be relocated to vacant spaces in the mall. This would allow the mall to somewhat return to it’s former glory, thus better competing with The Summit.
• Dick’s Sporting and World Market could relocate to the former Earthfare; Buy Buy Baby will relocate to the former Sears Auto. A plaza connecting the new entrance to the relocated big boxes will be created, along with a Hoover City Center connector/shuttle that will go from the mall to City Center Hoover.
• JC Penney is destined to close, due to bankruptcy, so a new performing arts center would be created in the space.
—Brookwood Village Mall will be demolished, and an open air market will be created with condos.———
—McCalla/Bessemer- A new community park with be created on the north side of I-459, opposite Bent Brook Golf Course. The lake will be the focal point of the park, as with Railroad Park. I live in McCalla, and we lack a decent park to exercise and to enjoy.
-- Constitutional convention right out the chute with sufficient provisions for home rule. That way cities such as Birmingham and Huntsville don't have to obtain statewide approval to do the simplest things.
-- Civic services of all the municipalities in JeffCo are merged. Police, fire, emergency services, 9-1-1, city clerks, jails, sanitation, parks and recreation, you name it. Leave the school systems alone simply because there's no realistic way to do merge them all together. But fund the hell out of inner city schools.
-- Double down on incubators such as the Innovation Depot. Create public/private partnerships to lure startups to the market.
-- Reinstate the trolley system within the core metro area. We had one for decades and it was fantastic.
-- Spoke-and-hub commuter rail lines reaching to Chelsea, Hoover, Alabaster, Bessemer, Gardendale, Trussville, and Leeds. Spur line to the airport.
-- High-speed rail line to Atlanta and Huntsville.
-- Creation of an industrial/tech corridor between Birmingham and Huntsville. Both cities have highly complementary industries to one another.
-- Continuing development of the downtown area. Continue the good work done over the past 12 years.
-- Concentrate policing efforts on high-crime areas.
-- Creation of an ampitheater or outdooors entertainment venue in the downtown area.
-- Accelerate development of the bike trail system.
-- Heavy marketing of the Civil Rights District and Birmingham's restaurant scene.
There is actual a plan to extend the on ramp from Highland ave. south on RME by ALDOT in it's 5 year plan for Jefferson County. So that more than likely will happen. Refer to this post.
--Constitutional convention right out the chute with sufficient provisions for home rule. That way cities such as Birmingham and Huntsville don't have to obtain statewide approval to do the simplest things.
-- Civic services of all the municipalities in JeffCo are merged. Police, fire, emergency services, 9-1-1, city clerks, jails, sanitation, parks and recreation, you name it. Leave the school systems alone simply because there's no realistic way to do merge them all together. But fund the hell out of inner city schools.
—Seriously, is a unified metro too much to ask?
-- Double down on incubators such as the Innovation Depot. Create public/private partnerships to lure startups to the market.
—Was the Alabama Futures Fund not supposed to play a role in this or did I make that up?
-- Reinstate the trolley system within the core metro area. We had one for decades and it was fantastic.
-- Spoke-and-hub commuter rail lines reaching to Chelsea, Hoover, Alabaster, Bessemer, Gardendale, Trussville, and Leeds. Spur line to the airport.
-- High-speed rail line to Atlanta and Huntsville.
-- Creation of an industrial/tech corridor between Birmingham and Huntsville. Both cities have highly complementary industries to one another.
-- Continuing development of the downtown area. Continue the good work done over the past 12 years.
-- Concentrate policing efforts on high-crime areas.
—Hopefully, they will go ahead and hire the extra officers they promised.
-- Creation of an ampitheater or outdooors entertainment venue in the downtown area.
—The area near Back Forty Brewery seems like a logical place for this.
-- Accelerate development of the bike trail system.
-- Heavy marketing of the Civil Rights District and Birmingham's restaurant scene.
1. absolutely agree that a rewriting of the state's archaic constitution should be a major priority
2. any high speed rail discussion, in my opinion, should focus on atlanta. i think huntsville would be logistically difficult (what road/route would it follow?) and i don't think there would be much demand. a connection to atlanta, however, would likely attract more residents to birmingham who might want a lower cost of living but quick access to shopping, airport, pro sports, etc. honestly i think there's more demand for that than any type of commuter rail. our suburbs just aren't dense enough and are so spread out.
3. dissolve some of these smaller cities that are not doing well (fairfield, for example) and incorporate them into birmingham
4. create an entertainment district encircling the new stadium. topgolf and uptown are good starts. the north and west sides of the stadium appear to have vacant property just waiting to be developed.
5. turn parkside into birmingham's 100th neighborhood. it really does not make sense to belong to five points south anymore.
6. brookwood mall - i think the writing is on the wall here, with several closures over the past few months. this never became the high end mall that was envisioned, even though it is right in the middle of some wealthy zip codes. i think we'll see this torn down, and that's ok with me. mixed use development would be preferable... not sure how i feel about samford potentially crossing the street.
7. the galleria and legion field - two things i honestly don't have a good solution for... i think both of their days are numbered, sadly.
There is actual a plan to extend the on ramp from Highland ave. south on RME by ALDOT in it's 5 year plan for Jefferson County. So that more than likely will happen. Refer to this post.
1. absolutely agree that a rewriting of the state's archaic constitution should be a major priority
2. any high speed rail discussion, in my opinion, should focus on atlanta. i think huntsville would be logistically difficult (what road/route would it follow?) and i don't think there would be much demand. a connection to atlanta, however, would likely attract more residents to birmingham who might want a lower cost of living but quick access to shopping, airport, pro sports, etc. honestly i think there's more demand for that than any type of commuter rail. our suburbs just aren't dense enough and are so spread out.
3. dissolve some of these smaller cities that are not doing well (fairfield, for example) and incorporate them into birmingham
4. create an entertainment district encircling the new stadium. topgolf and uptown are good starts. the north and west sides of the stadium appear to have vacant property just waiting to be developed.
5. turn parkside into birmingham's 100th neighborhood. it really does not make sense to belong to five points south anymore.
— I am sure this will happen soon. It is developing a personality of it’s own, a part from Five Points South. The Parkside name just sprang out of nowhere, and sounds very marketable!
6. brookwood mall - i think the writing is on the wall here, with several closures over the past few months. this never became the high end mall that was envisioned, even though it is right in the middle of some wealthy zip codes. i think we'll see this torn down, and that's ok with me. mixed use development would be preferable... not sure how i feel about samford potentially crossing the street.
— I agree about Samford. As it continues to grow, more of the nearby homes will more than likely be purchased. I wish Bayer would’ve bought Brookwood, to make it complimentary to The Summit vs them being competitors.
7. the galleria and legion field - two things i honestly don't have a good solution for... i think both of their days are numbered, sadly.
Thanks! I am always thinking about what I would do, if I ran the show!
To my earlier post, I think a unified metro is an exceptional idea. But the minute you try to merge school districts, it's politically dead on arrival.
Alabama Futures Fund is good, but we need more of that. We have to get investment capital in Birmingham away from the FIRE economy (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate).
To my earlier post, I think a unified metro is an exceptional idea. But the minute you try to merge school districts, it's politically dead on arrival.
Alabama Futures Fund is good, but we need more of that. We have to get investment capital in Birmingham away from the FIRE economy (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate).
Since the pledge was signed by most of the mayors of JeffCo already, I think they need to come to the table to discuss what a unified government looks like. Someone needs to map out what it could look like, and bring it to the table. Only if we were in charge.
Since the pledge was signed by most of the mayors of JeffCo already, I think they need to come to the table to discuss what a unified government looks like. Someone needs to map out what it could look like, and bring it to the table. Only if we were in charge.
Well, those talks were underway before Covid essentially shut down the metro area. Everyone then went into survival mode.
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