{"id":34254,"date":"2025-01-18T06:09:24","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T06:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/alabama\/birmingham-slammed-but-should-be-applauded\/"},"modified":"2025-01-18T06:09:24","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T06:09:24","slug":"birmingham-slammed-but-should-be-applauded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=34254","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham slammed, but should be applauded"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\"Birmingham<\/a>
Birmingham sign at Regions Field<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By David Sher<\/em><\/p>\n

A good friend sent me a link to a column published by Idolator.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span> with the headline, \u201cOnce powerful cities that now struggle to get by<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I scrolled down through the names of cities that always rank poorly like Pittsburgh and St. Louis, I knew Birmingham would be included.<\/p>\n

And sure enough, as expected, there was Birmingham<\/p>\n

Idolator<\/em> wrote, \u201cThroughout the United States, there are cases of cities that showed promise as the metropolises of the future. However, for many of these cities, unforeseen circumstances would see their attractive features decline, and their populations shrink.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, some of these U.S. cities are more famous for failing than for their early success. We hope for a brighter future for these American cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Birmingham gets clobbered in the rankings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pittsburgh, located in Allegheny County, is home to 128<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>separate municipalities.<\/p>\n

St. Louis County, which does not even include the City of St. Louis, is divided into 88 municipalities<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

And Birmingham, as you likely know, is one of 35 municipalities in Jefferson County.<\/p>\n

And therein lies the problem.<\/p>\n

Highly segmented Pittsburg, St. Louis, and Birmingham, which are populated largely by their region\u2019s urban core, are ranked against cities with their more affluent suburbs intact.<\/p>\n

The City of Birmingham\u2019s numbers do not include suburbs like Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Trussville, or Homewood.<\/p>\n

Yet Birmingham is compared with cities like Nashville, Jacksonville, and Louisville whose <\/span>data include many of their prosperous neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Consequently, segmented cities get clobbered in these \u2018apples to oranges\u2019 rankings.<\/p>\n

Idolator<\/em> slams Birmingham<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is what they had to say\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cBirmingham, Alabama, experienced a meteoric rise as one of the nation\u2019s fast-growing cities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. According to the Federal Reserve Bank Of Atlanta<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, much of this success was due to the discovery of abundant deposits of iron, coal, and limestone in the surrounding area, which attracted big boosts from the steel and coal industries.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, Birmingham began to experience a sharp decline in the mid-20th century due to the loss of industry, increased racial tensions, and population shifts. The steel and coal industries there were historically volatile at the best of times, and the city\u2019s status as an infamous civil rights battleground during the 1960s prevented other industries from taking hold.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Federal Reserve applauds Birmingham<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Idolator<\/em> got most of its information about Birmingham from the Federal Reserve article<\/a><\/strong><\/span> mentioned above.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ironic, even though Birmingham is described as \u2018struggling,\u2019 the Federal Reserve praises Birmingham.<\/p>\n

\u201cBirmingham today is a different place from the national pariah of the 1960s. Much of the civil rights battleground is a 36-acre national monument established by President Barack Obama in January 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Civil Rights Institute, near the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, is among the nation\u2019s foremost attractions devoted to African Americans\u2019 struggle for equality\u2026Birmingham has generated more middle-class and professional employment among African Americans than Charlotte, relative to city size.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Birmingham-Hoover metro area\u2019s employment base today boasts a bigger concentration of jobs in financial activities than New York, Charlotte, or Atlanta, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Birmingham\u2019s 43,000 financial jobs pay more than the national average.<\/p>\n

\u201cA downtown incubator affiliated with UAB houses 102 startup companies employing nearly 900 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpened in 2010, the 19-acre Railroad Park\u2026has become a major downtown destination\u2026.The 19-acre Railroad Park\u2026has become a major downtown destination.<\/p>\n

\u201cUAB and its renowned medical complex, of course, are the economy\u2019s linchpin, employing 23,000 people and attracting the 10th highest research funding among public universities from the National Institutes of Health in 2015. Nearly twice as many jobs are in education and health services as manufacturing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, Birmingham\u2019s metro area employment is less concentrated in manufacturing than Alabama\u2019s or the nation\u2019s. Manufacturing is not dead, to be sure. Birmingham sits between automotive assembly plants in Talladega (Honda) and Tuscaloosa (Mercedes) counties\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Birmingham doesn\u2019t appear to be struggling.<\/p>\n

Birmingham appears to be flourishing.<\/p>\n

David Sher is the founder and publisher of\u00a0ComebackTown<\/strong><\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 He\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\u00a0here\u00a0to sign up for our newsletter<\/span>.<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(Opt out at any time)<\/em><\/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 3,987 times, 1 visits today)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Birmingham sign at Regions Field By David Sher A good friend sent me a link to a column published by Idolator.com with the headline, \u201cOnce powerful cities that now struggle to get by.\u201d As I scrolled down through the names of cities that always rank poorly like Pittsburgh and St. Louis, I knew Birmingham would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11763],"tags":[22740,13518,22739],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-34254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alabama","tag-applauded","tag-birmingham","tag-slammed"],"yoast_head":"\nBirmingham slammed, but should be applauded - 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=34254\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Birmingham slammed, but should be applauded - 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