By Chip Reed
Bet you never expected to see a new 30,000-square-foot building rising downtown!
If you’ve driven west on 6th Ave North lately, you may have noticed a construction project at 6th and 22nd Street. Continue reading The new downtown building that will change how our kids think about Birmingham
By Austin Senseman
AI is going to be disruptive.
Be prepared for the disorder and churn.
No one really knows what’s going to happen.
But out of chaos comes opportunity.
That’s why this is such an important moment for Birmingham. Continue reading Birmingham, the disruption is coming whether we’re ready or not
By Reed Baskin, M.D.
Editor’s note: It’s often insightful to read what is published about Birmingham in media outside of Birmingham. This piece was published by Doug Martinson last month in Huntsville on al.com under the same title.
Doug Martinson: “I was in Birmingham recently, and when our Uber driver asked where we were from, she talked about all the jobs in Huntsville and how Huntsville kept gaining population while Birmingham was losing population. Continue reading Nashville’s gain was Memphis’ loss. What Birmingham and Huntsville can learn
By Blake Guthrie
Editor’s note: This column, authored by Blake Guthrie, appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on November 9, 2025.
When he emailed permission to publish, he wrote this personal note to me…
“I have a lifelong love/hate relationship with Birmingham. Having grown up there, all I wanted to do was get the hell out as a young man. Now, I love coming back and seeing all the changes in the right direction.” Continue reading My love/hate relationship with Birmingham
By Jay Taylor
The dawn of 2026 was a rare wet morning on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California.
For only the 11th time in 137 years, rain fell on the Rose Parade. Still, the Homewood High School band persevered for every inch of the 5.5-mile route. We parents beamed even if the sun didn’t.
In the afternoon, it was reversed. The clouds parted. But our Crimson hearts were overcast as we took the grandest whoopin’ of them all. Continue reading Alabama Paid $1.9M to Destroy Louisiana Monroe. Playing UAB for Free Makes Too Much Sense
By David Sher
Editor’s note: PIease read entire column before jumping to conclusions–the proposed change may not be what you expect.
I was asked by al.com to write about the best thing that happened to Birmingham in 2025.
I’m still thinking.
Meanwhile, huge economic development announcements keep rolling in from across the South. Many come from Huntsville. If you’re tired of reading about their wins in ComebackTown, I understand. But I’m writing about them because Birmingham isn’t making these headlines–not because I’m jealous of Huntsville.
Huntsville’s successes are great for our state and prove what’s possible. Continue reading The Surprising Change That Could Save Greater Birmingham in 2026
By David Sher
Editor’s note: This column is based on the podcast, Talking Headways: A Streetsblog Podcast. Episode 552: Under a Highway in Birmingham, Alabama.
If you look at an aerial photograph of downtown Birmingham, you’ll notice something peculiar: Interstate 59 and Interstate 20 make a sharp, inexplicable bend as they pass through the city center. That bend tells a story—one of the darkest chapters in American urban planning. Continue reading Birmingham: Ingenious idea in peril
By Don Erwin
In 2020 I wrote Buffalo Hunting in Alabama, a novel about economic development.
One of the plot lines involved Alabama competing against other states for a giant, blockbuster pharmaceutical plant. In my novel, the Birmingham metro won the project.
Fiction has now become real life. Sort of. I got the state right but the metro wrong. Continue reading Huntsville Didn’t Need UAB to Win Eli Lilly—And That Should Terrify Birmingham
By David Sher
I never met anyone like Sam Tenenbaum.
You likely haven’t either.
Sam passed away on December 5th at age 81.
He was four months younger than me, and we went through elementary school together. In fact, we graduated in the last eighth-grade class at Crestline Elementary. Continue reading My Regret After Death of Mountain Brook Wrestling Legend and Opera Singer
By David Sher
I just finished listening to a podcast on how Chip and Joanna Gaines built a business empire and the extraordinary impact it had on Waco, Texas, their hometown.
We can do the same for Birmingham. Continue reading Let’s harness the power of Birmingham as Chip and Joanna did in Waco