The Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Agency board of directors has fired Ann August, the very effective executive director who lead the transit agency through a successful reorganization, acquisition of new buses, development of two new commuter routes, and the development of plans to optimize use of resources within the agency. Coverage from The Weld about her initial decision to leave in… Read more →
Category: Birmingham
Tornadoes
Alabama gets a lot of tornadoes. (An AL.com article reminded me of this recently, with a severe forecast for the upcoming 2015 secondary tornado season.) [embeddoc url=”https://www.acanuckamuck.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Improved_Average_Annual_Tornado_Reports.pdf”] It’s in the central U.S., a region stretching from Texas in the west to the Appalachian foothills in the east, and from the Gulf Coast in the south, up to the Great Lakes in… Read more →
Walking, running & cycling in Birmingham
So, you’ve just arrived in the city and you’re a regular walker, runner or a cyclist? Awesome! Here’s a few things to get you oriented. Places to walk, run or ride: As an industrial city that matured in the 1920s, and that then experienced white flight to the suburbs in the seventies and eighties, this region is built for people who have… Read more →
Birmingham transit – a trail of tears
When I married, moved to Birmingham, and returned to school, my original plan was to take the bus to and from my suburban apartment to the downtown UAB campus. I was a heavy transit user in Toronto, using the city buses and subway when my destination was too far to reach easily on my bike. In my inner west end… Read more →
Fair weather drivers
Southerners are fair weather drivers. They get timid when it rains, and snow? Forget it. As a northerner, it took me a while to understand why everyone gets very excited leading up to winter storms. Grocery stores are cleared out of bread, eggs and milk. Batteries? Good luck. And getting your hands on salt, sand, snow melters or traction aids?… Read more →
Hiking and outdoor recreation
Compared to other places I’ve lived, the Birmingham metro area is a bit…. light on hiking and recreation trails. And they aren’t linked. (Gee, you’d think that there wasn’t much regional cooperation – or something.) Now, just to assure you that I’m not whining without context, here’s where I’ve lived, with the accessible trail systems: Toronto, Ontario – and the Toronto… Read more →
Welcome to the ‘ham
Birmingham, that is. So, you’ve come here from outside the U.S. You want to get a grip on why things work the way they do here. Stick with me, baby, we’ll walk your newcomer butt through the essential intricacies of this town. There’s lots you don’t know, and no one is going tell you, because, to them, it’s so obvious. Read more →
Is Alabama Ready for Its Next Century?
This entry is based on a paper I wrote in the spring of 2011 for my political science class on state and civic government. Any errors or omissions are my own. As of early 2011, Birmingham has been through some tough years. As part of banking reforms put in place after the 2008 stock market crash, available credit across the… Read more →