As a UA student from far-off, thriving, bingo-loving Dothan, Birmingham’s political and economic health was never really on my radar until I started dating a girl who was born and raised there. Even then, I assumed she had to have been exaggerating the details of Birmingham’s problems — no city could be as “Looney Tunes” as she claimed. Or so I thought.
I know I’m not from Birmingham, but perhaps my outsider’s perspective can be a fresh bit of service.
I noticed in a recent issue of The Birmingham News that the city is experiencing lackluster revenues, which have pushed the city’s budget toward a projected $50 million deficit. This is apparently not a new problem and has been temporarily band-aided together with a 10 percent sales tax and an increase in business license fees. These are not viable long-term solutions for a city whose suburbs have shopping centers and other businesses that collectively attract more customers (and tax revenue) than Birmingham. The disparity between this city and its suburbs is growing every day — demonstrated by that the fact that whenever my friends leave Tuscaloosa to “go shopping in Birmingham” they really mean “go shopping at the Hoover Galleria.” Unless the city of Birmingham makes itself commercially distinct, it will continue to see potential tax revenue seized by suburbs.
Secondly, there appears to be an overall mistrust of local leaders, including newly elected Mayor William Bell. Like the deficit, this mistrust is not new — the Larry Langford trial made that clear. But these leaders cannot elect themselves; someone votes for them. If Birmingham citizens want respectable leadership, then citizens must become more knowledgeable of the people they elect. At the very least, Birmingham voters should stop re-electing the same people who have increased their monthly utility bills because of the mammoth sewer debt. If this mistrust cannot be remedied, then perhaps a professionally trained city manager should be hired to run the city’s day-to-day operations. A city-manager-council system of municipality operations may not be completely flawless, but it has to be a significant improvement over the present mayor-council system since city managers are usually out-of-staters who are obligated not to get involved with the childish politics prevalent in cities like Birmingham.
Lastly, none of this positive change will be possible if Birmingham’s public schools do not improve. I would hope local teachers and parents love their children enough to properly prepare them for college and the working world, but I have not seen much evidence of this love. In my time here at UA, I have rarely met any students who actually attended Birmingham public schools. Almost all went to Birmingham private schools or suburban public schools. That number is growing as parents are removing their children from Birmingham City Schools by any means necessary. I admit that I am not an education expert, but even a novice knows that one cannot possibly maintain a quality education system with such a massive exodus.
The overall solution for Birmingham can be concisely conveyed with the oft-used commonsensical motto of my industrial engineering major, “If it’s broke, fix it!”
Ben Baxter is a senior majoring in industrial engineering and business administration.
