When I was child, I’d go to work downtown with my father on Saturday mornings probably once or twice a month… He worked in the John Hand Building on what was billed as the heaviest corner on the earth. It was a real treat! Once a month, I would take the street car (those
same street cars that now run on St Charles Ave through the Garden District in New Orleans) from the end of the line near the Roebuck Golf Course right in front of the Chateau just east of Lou Jac’s with my grandmother to have lunch at Britling’s and see a movie at one of the downtown movie houses: The Alabama, The Lyric or the Melba… This was the 50’s … the early 50’s at that… in a time when Birmingham was still known as the Magic City.
As the returning vets from World War II and the Korean War began buying homes in the suburbs for a little space and some fresh air, Birmingham continued to grow and thrive… but absent the PR push of it’s sister city Atlanta it began to loose a bit of its magic. In 1950 Birmingham’s population was only 15,277 less than that of Atlanta. The magic died in the 60’s with our national infamy and unrest. Though voted an All American City in 1970 with much energy and investment made to renew the city through operations like “Birmingham Green,” my hometown continued its decline for decades. You don’t have to be a native to know the history and reputation.
During the more than 42 years that lapsed between Birmingham’s first and second recognition in 2013, as an All American City, there had been many attempts to resurrect this once bold city on the move… to breathe life back into the giant of Alabama cities. So much hope placed in the recognition of UAB as an emerging medical leader, or commercial redevelopments of Morris Avenue, multiple iterations of 5 Points South, the building of the BJCC in hopes of re-uniting the city with it’s northern neighborhoods … all with little impact against the forces of history, the stigma of the past, the migration of its citizenry to the surrounding townships creating a wall of containment to the once great and magic city.
However, if you’ve been downtown lately you’ve no doubt heard the reverberating din of activity and seen the noticeable signs of rebirth or perhaps experienced the treat that downtown has become. Once thought of as a wasteland or the southern version of the rust belt… viewed as doomed… seen by many as a city destined for ruin or at best a hopeless existence, Birmingham is once again a special place. I could go one with adjective and verse describing the enthusiasm I feel about the re-birth of this city… but that is not my purpose. Instead I wish to look at the why.
Who are those responsible for what we see today?
While no doubt some credit could be given to corporate entities now non-existent and perhaps even to politicians… some of whom have fallen into disrepute but who nonetheless refused to quit on the possibility that the Magic City had life yet experienced. There were committees and action groups endless performing CPR on her. There were institutions that gave us something to be proud of and thus kept hope alive. All were contributors to what is today. But the energy that drives what is today comes not from those traditionally viewed as powerful influencers, as much as it does from those that collectively saw the possibility of Birmingham as a place to live and play… largely to that oft maligned group called the “Millennials.”
The “Millennials” … those born between 1982 and 2004, the older of which are now coming of age and into the position of influence have demonstrated a desire for a different kind of life … a more livable life style. Not afraid of but embracing diversity, they seem to look for a place where living and playing all happen within their reach… without the need to traverse chaotic travel corridors, places where there are sidewalks, local pubs and eateries they can walk or bicycle to… for the most part disdainers of chains… lovers of the unique and perhaps freaky … the live and let live generation have found beauty in this old town now better than new… Yes, a town with a not so beautiful past but reborn in hope, recycled and re-tooled.
While still constrained by the forces of history, politics and decades of decline, Birmingham once again has more than a twinkle in its eye, or a spring in its step and hopes for a brighter future… It seems the magic is back. And the source of that magic is likely to make more changes that to many will defy what we may have believed possible… Those changes may soon be coming to a neighborhood near you. They are after all the folks who may well decide what the future value of your home shall be. Pay attention.
May the Market be with you.
