EchoBooming in Birmingham

I love Kyle Whitmire….

Proclamation of the Hypocalypse via. Birmingham Weekly’s Mixed Media Blog

I’m sure Chapter 4 will be all about the the Federal case the SEC just filed against LaLa.

The Birmingham News will have to wait another two weeks to find out if their plan to tear down their old building for parking will be approved by the design review board.

The person representing the News was extremely detailed in his description of the planned parking lot, focusing on details such as the type of brick to be used along the sidewalk and the 10 feet of grass between the road and the 120 something parking spots. He acknowledged that it was a very sensitive issue and that the News hoped to lessen the loss of the old building with the grandeur of the new building (which is dead sexy in my opinion).

There was a good bit of vocal opposition for the demolition of the old building by a few members of the board, with one of them stating that the News wanted to replace a “landmark with a parking lot”.

Ultimately the vote was tabled until the next meeting (the second Wednesday of next month I believe) because two of the key members of the design review committee were absent (the head of the committee, and the head of the Auburn Urban Design department).

edit: Dre’s on top of the details.

I’ve been stupid busy at work, so I guess it’s great that Helluva covered this yesterday, so just head over to his place and fill out your schedule for this weekend….

And if you need something to do to fill in the last hour or so of work:

KBCO HD-2 Studio C Stream <– All in studio performances going back to 1988, what you wish your local radio station was (OMG, they’re playing Short Skirt, Long Jacket by CAKE right now!!!)

Ding ding ding…

As Birmingham Blues said, the gloves have come off. Patricia Todd held a press conference yesterday to encourage the Alabama Democratic Party to dismiss the contest of the election results (full text of her statement here).

I tried to quit talking about this subject earlier this week, but a quick glance at some local blogs got my blood boiling again.

Andre also took his gloves off in his first post this morning, a thing he does not do nearly often enough in my opinion (although I understand why he doesn’t). In the 60’s Black leaders in this city and state quickly brought about drastic changes for the civil rights of minorities for this entire country. It seems that ever since that victory, Black “leaders” have been shooting themselves in the foot. The district 54 “race” is just the latest in a long history of Birmingham area Black “leaders” and politicians attempting to bolster their race’s position in society, politics, power or whatever, but instead end up dividing the community and continuing the long running stagnation of ideas and action in our region.

I’m ready for cooperation, I’m ready for progress, I’m ready for REAL LEADERS, and I don’t care if they’re white, black, purple, male, female, gay, lesbian, christian, etc.

More items of interest:
Tapestry’s story of Spider Martin’s struggle to document the Civil Rights fight in Alabama. Link. Audio..
I listened to this on my ipod on the way to work this morning and it really shook me to my core. After I got in to work and read the blogs that I linked to above, I nearly cried because of how far we haven’t come.

Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America–and What We Can Do About It. I’m lazy when it comes to reading, but I’m buying this book…

Birmingham Blues went to Montgomery in order to witness the hearing surrounding the District 54 race (which is slowly begining to garner some national attention).

Her observations are best summed up in this paragraph:

I talk (sic) to a source who does not wish to be named who says that Joe Reed, head of the legislative black caucus, was initially appointed to serve on the subcommittee. That sounds questionable, given that he strongly supported Ms. Hendricks in the runoff. It becomes even more questionable when I hear that Ms. Hendricks’ check for the contest filing fee bounced, and Mr. Reed covered it. This presented a conflict of interest (no sh*t), so he couldn’t serve on the committee, and supposedly there wasn’t enough time to replace him.

(emphasis mine)

Sounds like typical Alabama Politics to me .