{"id":270434,"date":"2025-06-03T11:49:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T11:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/alabama\/birmingham-could-have-had-a-river-walk\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T11:49:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T11:49:14","slug":"birmingham-could-have-had-a-river-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=270434","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham could have had a river walk"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Eva Dillard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today\u2019s guest columnist is Eva Dillard.<\/em><\/p>\n

Have you ever visited the San Antonio Riverwalk<\/strong><\/span><\/a>?<\/p>\n

Or driven two hours north to the Chattanooga River Wal<\/strong>k<\/a><\/span>?<\/p>\n

Tampa, Louisville, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Providence, Spokane all have river walks\u2014and the list goes on and on<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

But not Birmingham, even though long ago plans envisioned a city built around water.<\/p>\n

The Birmingham Historical Society\u2019s archives<\/span><\/a> <\/strong>tell the fascinating story of what could have been.<\/p>\n

In 1925, Birmingham Parks and Recreation Board commissioned a \u201cthorough and scientific study of park requirements and facilities\u201d for the city.<\/p>\n

At the time the study was commissioned, Birmingham\u2019s parks comprised 600 acres (or less than 2%) of the city\u2019s area. The Board acknowledged the need for more dedicated public spaces to promote the \u201cphysical, mental [and] moral\u201d development of the area\u2019s citizens.<\/p>\n

Although recently formed, the new Board knew exactly what they were doing.<\/p>\n

They conducted a wide search and ultimately chose Olmsted Brothers<\/a><\/strong><\/span> to conduct the planned study. Led by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., the firm released \u201cA Park System for Birmingham\u201d (the Olmsted Plan) on May 1, 1925.<\/p>\n

Olmsted was the son of America\u2019s first landscape architect, responsible for Central Park, the U. S. Capitol, and Biltmore Estate among many notable projects.<\/p>\n

Olmsted\u2019s plan for Birmingham was no less visionary.<\/p>\n

He conceived of a city centered around Village and Valley creeks as well as the area\u2019s other natural features. Large parks and athletic fields for the public would be developed around the creeks and in their floodplains.<\/p>\n

The city would connect by wide boulevards and build parkways along ridgetops and mountains to capture scenic views. Strikingly for that time, the plan even included recommendations for parks and play space for the city\u2019s African American population.<\/p>\n

Olmsted envisioned boat lagoons like Chicago\u2019s Washington Park or parks similar to Boston\u2019s Riverway and Alewife Brook.<\/p>\n

Even in the 1920s, he immediately understood the problem of flooding in Jones Valley.<\/p>\n

He knew that preserving and protecting the creek floodplains could mitigate that risk while offering local citizens an opportunity for beauty and recreation.<\/p>\n

According to Olmsted, \u201cthe problem and the opportunity\u201d were the same. \u201cSuch a development would permit an open channel solution\u201d to the drainage and flooding problems presented by Village and Valley Creeks while serving as a beautiful focal point for Birmingham\u2019s development.<\/p>\n

At the time the plan was written, the necessary land was available and its market value was low because the land was in the floodplain.<\/p>\n

So why wasn\u2019t the plan implemented?<\/p>\n

The usual suspects helped kill the plan.<\/p>\n

Emerging industry needed the water from local creeks and their workers needed the cheap housing that was ultimately constructed in the floodplains. The Parks and Recreation Board turned over and the new members were not as educated about the plan.<\/p>\n

Although some parks were built and existing parks improved, many of the plan\u2019s recommendations were never pursued.<\/p>\n

Instead of serving as a focal point for a system of beautiful green spaces, Village and Valley creeks became urbanized, polluted streams flooding so frequently that, from 1988 to 2007, Birmingham had to initiate a series of homeowner buyouts.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, places like San Antonio have capitalized on their natural features instead of paving them over.<\/p>\n

San Antonio\u2019s journey to a river walk began at roughly the same time Birmingham began consideration of the Olmsted Plan.<\/p>\n

Today, their Riverwalk offers a vibrant cultural center and meeting place for locals. It is a huge draw for tourists and millions visit every year.<\/p>\n

The Riverwalk offers a mix of restaurants, shops, entertainment venues, businesses, museums, historical sites, and recreation areas. And, according to the San Antonio River Foundation, the Riverwalk\u2019s economic impact is estimated at $3.1 billion per year<\/span><\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In Birmingham, we are largely back where we started.<\/p>\n

In a 2005 preface to the re-publishing of the Olmsted Plan, the Birmingham Historical Society highlights current efforts to return to the spirit of the Olmsted Plan in identifying opportunities \u201cto save vast tracts of scenic land or recreation to improve our water and air quality and to develop new means and routes of transportation along our stream beds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The community\u2019s embrace of projects like Railroad and Red Mountain parks pay respectful homage to the Olmsted Plan. But retrofitting parks and projects in the present is far more complicated and expensive than following a good plan from its inception.<\/p>\n

By failing to implement the Olmsted Plan, the Birmingham region missed a signature opportunity to define itself for years to come.<\/p>\n

Today we are still playing catch up.<\/p>\n

In a future column I\u2019ll write about another potential watershed moment for the Greater Birmingham area.<\/p>\n

I hope we get this\u00a0next\u00a0one right.<\/p>\n

For the past fifteen years,\u00a0Eva<\/span>\u00a0Dillard<\/span>\u00a0has been the Staff Attorney at Black Warrior Riverkeeper<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. She lives in Homewood .<\/em><\/p>\n

David Sher is the founder and publisher of\u00a0ComebackTown<\/strong><\/a><\/span>.\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).<\/em><\/p>\n

Click here to sign up for our newsletter.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Invite David to speak for free to your group about how we can have a more prosperous metro Birmingham. dsher@comebacktown.com<\/p>\n

(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eva Dillard Today\u2019s guest columnist is Eva Dillard. Have you ever visited the San Antonio Riverwalk? Or driven two hours north to the Chattanooga River Walk? Tampa, Louisville, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Providence, Spokane all have river walks\u2014and the list goes on and on. But not Birmingham, even though long ago plans envisioned a city built […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":270435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11763],"tags":[13518,4810,5752],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-270434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alabama","tag-birmingham","tag-river","tag-walk"],"yoast_head":"\nBirmingham could have had a river walk - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=270434\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Birmingham could have had a river walk - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eva Dillard Today\u2019s guest columnist is Eva Dillard. 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