Elements of Urbanism: Birmingham

[DemocraticNole]

Does every city have a bigger convention center than Jacksonville? It's really sad to see many smaller metro areas having bigger convention centers.

Also, did anyone else chuckle when they saw Ruby Tuesday's as part of the happening dining district?

[thelakelander]

At least the Ruby Tuesday didn't have a parking lot between it and the street.  Yes, just about every peer city near our size has a larger convention center and one with a hotel.  We've simply dropped the ball on that issue.

One thing I like about Birmingham is that outside of the train station (which is a travesty), they did not go demo happy to the extent that Jax did.  The downtown core still maintains a dense collection of historic building fabric.  However, for some reason its just not vibrant.  Haven't spent too much time in the city so I really can't put my finger on why. 

Nevertheless, the Southside was much more interesting to me.  Its got a ton of Riverside like neighborhoods, urban commercial districts and UAB.  I also love what they did with the old Sloss Furnaces steel mill.  Instead of demolishing the closed mill, they turned it into a museum about the steel industry. 



http://www.slossfurnaces.com/

By comparison, it would be like converting the old Ford plant into a transportation museum or the shipyards (unfortunately we tore the buildings down) into a maritime center.

[A-Finnius]

There's a pretty cool bar across the street from that Ruby Tuesday though.... If memory serves me correctly, it's called Dave's...

[reednavy]

The thing that is still hurting Birmingham is it's image as a dangerous city of crime. That said, it is partly true because there are some downright dangerous neighborhoods just north of downtown, hell, all around the city, and some of it has spilled into the CBD.

Another thing is that overall, the City of Birmingham is still an industrial city, and most of the office development is occuring in The Summit area in the far SE side of the city. The other area of growing office space is Hoover, especially aroung the Riverchase Galleria.

[Ocklawaha]

A classic 1886 station, a city block in length, with a concourse nearly as big, was torn down for a "new" station in 1960.

Some might have questioned my statement about finally a city dumber then Jacksonville. Sad to say, here are two more "proof photos", from Birmingham.



Though simple, this 1960's modern station went up to serve the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, in Birmingham. There is no consensus on when it was torn down but probably sometime after Amtrak's takeover in 1971. This station served the Pan American, L&N's flagship train from Louisville - Nashville - Birmingham - Mobile - New Orleans... It also served "The South Wind," Pennsylvania railroads midwest-Florida, flagship train, from Chicago - Louisville - Nashville - Birmingham - Montgomery - Jacksonville - Tampa/Miami... Another flagship was that of the Illinois Centrals "City of Miami", sister to the famous "City of New Orleans", on a trek from Chicago/St. Louis - Carbondale - Corinth - Birmingham - Columbus - Albany - Waycross - Jacksonville - Tampa/Miami. Amtrak only operated the single "South Wind" train between Chicago and Florida, until budget cuts under president Carter cost us 2 of our 4 remaining flagship trains, as well as ALL SERVICE between Florida and points west. "Thanks Jimmy!"

So Birmingham didn't tear down their station after all, they tore down all 3!  Jacksonville, has only lost it's way stations, IE: Yukon, Springfield, South Jax...etc.

OCKLAWAHA

[lewyn]

I visited Birmingham once.  The downtown made Jacksonville look good.  The suburbs have no sidewalks.  The public transit system makes JTA look like NYC.  What a dump.