English Bulldog Puppies for Sale in Birmingham, AL

This is a guest opinion column

What makes a city? Is it the streets, carrying the people and cars out of sight, on their way to wherever?

Or is it the buildings? An identifiable skyline that people can point to excitedly and say, ‘That’s where I live!’

Maybe it’s the neighborhoods where the murmured hum of daily life unfolds, where our core memories live, the place we all long for after time spent away. Maybe it’s all of these things.

I personally believe the heartbeat of a city is paced by the people who wake up in these neighborhoods every morning and help write the story, whether that’s through civic engagement, their careers, their families, or random acts of kindness.

Since taking my seat on the Council, one of my main priorities has been stabilizing our neighborhoods. A way to accomplish this goal is through empowering Birmingham’s 99 Neighborhood Associations and the dedicated people who contribute to their success.

One of my first acts at City Hall was to reallocate $100,000 to the 11 Neighborhood Associations that I represent. These funds were distributed equitably based on the population of their neighborhoods.

Putting resources directly into the neighborhood coffers allows them to make improvements block by block, addressing the needs they see every day and taking ownership of their neighborhood’s growth and development. I hold a deep respect for those who are involved with our Neighborhood Associations and I lean on their leadership and knowledge to help us move District 8 forward collectively.

These funds can be used for things like, beautification projects (landscaping, tree planting, cleanups); park enhancements (benches, lighting, playground features); sidewalk repair assistance; façade/neighborhood sign improvements; traffic calming and video surveillance cameras.

It’s crucial that we continue working with our Neighborhood Associations to find ways we can get everyone involved -- including more young people – so they can buy into civic engagement on a local level.

Lately, I’ve been in several discussions with business leaders about ‘brain drain’ and the critical need for us to retain our homegrown talent. It’s a complex issue. Whether it’s a perceived lack of things to do, the yearning for places unknown, job opportunities, whatever, we must inspire our young people build their future right here in Birmingham.

One issue that consistently comes up in these conversations is the lack of affordable housing opportunities. We know that homeownership among young people in America has been on a steady decline for several decades, and the proliferation of luxury apartments aren’t assuaging any concerns of that here locally.

Since 2005, homeownership rates for individuals under 35 have dropped nearly 20 percentage points, according to U.S. Census data. On average, rent prices across the country have risen 11.5 percent year-over-year since 2021. Ask any young person and they’ll tell you the prospect of buying their first home looks bleak at the moment.

As a member of the Council’s Community Development Committee, I want people to know that my focus is to help build up our communities by prioritizing affordable housing while also increasing opportunities for critical home repair programs for existing residents.

This past week, I joined my colleagues in approving a total of $790,000 for affordable housing and home repairs with Greater Birmingham Habitat for Humanity.

Combined, these agreements will provide 8 new single-family affordable homes and roof repair/critical home repair for up to 20 qualified low and moderate-income residents in the Rising West Princeton neighborhood of District 8.

The agreement also includes $450,000 to provide grants of up to $10,000 for roof replacements for 60 qualified low and-moderate-income households.

By continuing to make these types of investments into our neighborhoods, we can become a more resilient city, built on the conviction that homeownership and opportunity are not reserved for the blessed few, but for all residents of Birmingham. That’s more important now than it has been in a long time, it would seem.

So what makes a city? It’s you, it’s me, and everyone in between.

Sonja Smith represents District 8 on the Birmingham City Council.

Snow flurries could fall across North Alabama Wednesday and Thursday

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —

With Alabama feeling a lot more like winter this week, the question on everyone’s mind is the potential for snow.

A weak front is set to move through the region Wednesday into Thursday. While some social media posts are showing significant accumulation, the data tells a more nuanced story. Currently, we are tracking two primary scenarios:

The likely scenario (European model)

This is the outcome we have the highest confidence in. It suggests a cold rain moving in Wednesday afternoon, potentially ending as light flurries in northeast Alabama — specifically DeKalb, Jackson, Marshall, Madison, Limestone, Morgan, and Cherokee counties — around 12 a.m. Thursday. This would be a low-impact event with no major travel concerns.

The "worst-case" scenario (GFS model)

This model is more aggressive, showing rain transitioning to snow after midnight Wednesday. This scenario could result in roughly a half-inch of accumulation in some areas. While this would have a higher impact on travel, it is currently the least likely outcome.

The bottom line

At this point, we are leaning toward the "cold rain and flurries" scenario for northeast Alabama. In our state, it only takes a few degrees to change rain to ice, so we will watch the trends closely.

Hearst Owned

This is the outcome we have the highest confidence in. It suggests a cold rain moving in Wednesday afternoon, potentially ending as light flurries in northeast Alabama — specifically DeKalb and Cherokee counties — early Thursday. This would be a low-impact event with no major travel concerns.

Hearst Owned

This is the outcome we have the highest confidence in. It suggests a cold rain moving in Wednesday afternoon, potentially ending as light flurries in northeast Alabama — specifically DeKalb and Cherokee counties — early Thursday. This would be a low-impact event with no major travel concerns.

Hearst Owned

This model is more aggressive, showing rain transitioning to snow early Thursday morning. This scenario could result in roughly a half-inch of accumulation in some areas. While this would have a higher impact on travel, it is currently the least likely outcome.

Hearst Owned

This model is more aggressive, showing rain transitioning to snow early Thursday morning. This scenario could result in roughly a half-inch of accumulation in some areas. While this would have a higher impact on travel, it is currently the least likely outcome.

There has been a flurry of speculation among weather watchers about the possibility of snow for Alabama in the upcoming week.

But, according to meteorologists, it’s just that -- speculation -- and as of Sunday there’s no meaningful winter precipitation in the forecast.

However, the National Weather Service said the upcoming week will feature more January-like temperatures, and there will be two weather systems moving through that could increase precipitation chances.

Neither of those is expected to produce meaningful snow, at least that’s what forecasters think right now.

Much colder temperatures will be felt statewide today after a bout of rain and storms over the weekend.

Colder temperatures will hang on through the week.

The weather service said the next chance for any precipitation will be on Wednesday into Thursday when a cold front approaches the state.

The weather service in Huntsville said there will be a “very low (10-15 percent) chance of a wintry mix on the back side of this system, but no impacts are forecast at this time” for north Alabama.

The weather service in Birmingham said some models try to introduce a brief wintry mix for parts of central Alabama early Thursday morning with the same system, but “that appears to be one of the lower probability solutions with the higher likelihood being that any rainfall moves out of the area before any colder air builds in.”

The weather service in Mobile said forecasters are expecting low rain chances for south Alabama with the midweek system, and “anything that does manage to develop would likely be a cold rain given the cold airmass still in place.”

WHAT ABOUT NEXT WEEKEND?

The next chance for some winter weather mischief could come next weekend, when another weather system is expected to approach the state.

That one has meteorologists’ social media feeds working overtime with speculation. So much so that veteran forecaster James Spann has been frequently weighing in to tamp down any blizzard craziness.

Here’s his post on X from Sunday morning:

SNOW... GO OR NO GO? The TikTok nonsense machine is working overtime this weekend, full of "influencers" screaming snow, ice, blizzard, etc for the southern U.S.Most of these guys are qualified to forecast weather much like I am qualified to enter a best hair contest.Here is… pic.twitter.com/uzwRqN3w47

— James Spann (@spann) January 11, 2026

Spann went on to write that “The reliable European global model suggests there will be only some scattered light rain with front Saturday, with potential for a few flurries in the colder air Sunday. But, much like the mid-week front, no impact or accumulation."

Both the weather service and Spann said they will be keeping a close eye on the evolving forecast in case that were to change.

But as of Sunday morning, no meaningful snow is expected in Alabama for the next week.

Spann mentioned that the coldest air of the winter could arrive in Alabama after the system expected next weekend.

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center is seeing signs of that as well. Its six- to 10-day temperature outlook (shown at the top of this post) is forecasting very high probabilities for below-average temperatures for Alabama from Jan. 16-20, which is next Friday through the following Tuesday.

Most of the state is forecast to have a 60-70 percent probability for below-average temperatures during that time, and the odds are even higher, 70-80 percent, for the southeast corner of the state.

The former Carraway Methodist Medical Center Emergency Room will become an indoor entertainment venue as part of renovation of the former hospital campus that now is home to the Coca-Cola Amphitheater just northeast of downtown Birmingham.

Brian Wolfe, chief development officer for Corporate Realty, said he could not yet reveal details of the planned indoor entertainment facility.

“We’re still under a non-disclosure agreement with them,” Wolfe said in an interview. “We’ll have an announcement very soon. We’re working on finishing up the lease.”

Demolition on the parts of the hospital that are being removed must be completed by May 30, with all rubble removed, according to a new timeline approved Tuesday by the Birmingham City Council.

“It’s getting everything off, and back-filling all the former basements as well,” Wolfe said after the meeting.

Construction of cottages and townhomes should begin by March in the block just north of the former hospital along Carraway Boulevard.

The indoor entertainment venue construction and renovation of the former emergency room should begin by June or July.

The last portion of the development will be the outparcel developments on the southern end of the site, along 13^th Ave. North just north of Top Golf. Construction on that should begin by September or October of this year.

“We’ll start three projects in 2026,” Wolfe said. Development of the 45-acre site that was the former Carraway campus should take 5 to 7 years, he said.

At one point demolition was delayed because of requirements of a federal loan application, but that application was dropped, he said.

“It was also a safety aspect,” Wolfe said. “That parking garage that adjoins it was being used by the amphitheater. We can’t be doing demolition that close to active (concert season) because of safety. Now that we’re not in amphitheater season we can get in there and do a little bit more.”

The concert season resumes in April.

The Coca-Cola Amphitheater opened in June 2025 and hosted 28 concerts through October, drawing more than 174,000 fans.

Comeback Town is an opinion column exploring all things Birmingham. It is coordinated by . Today’s column is based on the podcast, .

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.

The Ugly History

When highway planners designed Birmingham’s interstate system in the 1950s and 60s, they didn’t choose that route by accident. They deliberately carved the highway through a thriving Black neighborhood—specifically targeting the area where Birmingham’s civil rights leaders lived. The goal was twofold: destroy a vibrant community and, planners hoped, interfere with the civil rights movement itself.

It’s a pattern repeated across America, where highways became weapons of urban renewal, systematically dismantling Black neighborhoods under the guise of progress. Birmingham’s bend in the road is physical evidence of that intentional destruction, a scar that remains visible decades later.

When the Highway Needed Rebuilding

Fast forward to 2016. The highway’s useful life had expired, and the Alabama Department of Transportation needed to reconstruct it. Controversy was inevitable, though ALDOT apparently didn’t see it coming. Community members organized to stop the project entirely, demanding the highway be buried and capped—an idea ALDOT quickly dismissed as too expensive.

The relationship between ALDOT and Birmingham’s communities was toxic. At initial meetings, representatives from neighborhood councils across the city—not just Black neighborhoods—showed up in opposition, deeply skeptical and angry. Trust had to be built from scratch.

Enter Ben Donsky, an urban planner who was brought in through an unusual channel: a lighting designer working on the highway project recommended him to ALDOT. As Donsky candidly shared interview, he was essentially pitched as “a white guy who was gonna be comfortable talking to all of the black constituents that they were not comfortable talking to.” It was a frank acknowledgment of ALDOT’s failure to engage with the community it had historically harmed.

The ingenious compromise

Over six to eight months of intensive community engagement, Donsky and his team asked a simple question: Could a public space under the reconstructed highway actually meet real community needs?

The answer was yes. Birmingham had no skate park—residents had to drive to Tuscaloosa. Downtown lacked a dog park, quality playgrounds, and adequate green space. The skating and BMX communities showed up to meetings in force. Families needed play areas. With 31 acres of underutilized space beneath the highway, was born.

The project wasn’t just about recreation. It was about creating a management structure that would allow community organizations to host events, bringing diverse groups together in a space that had once symbolized division. Funding came through the federal highway reconstruction project itself—a piece of transportation infrastructure helping to heal the wound it had created.

City Walk opened before the in Birmingham. Today, it’s a vibrant gathering place where high school football teams run drills, families celebrate quinceañeras, downtown residents walk their dogs, and Birmingham’s South Asian community celebrates Holi. The skate park is wildly popular. On hot days, it offers precious shade in downtown’s concrete landscape.

The perilous future

But here’s the problem: City Walk is thriving, yet its future hangs in the balance.

Because the space sits under a highway, it can never become an official city park. That means it has no dedicated funding stream. Every dollar of public support must be specifically appropriated, year after year. The Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center Authority manages the space, but they’ve struggled to generate enough revenue through events and amenities like the beer garden to cover operating costs.

Birmingham’s city government was upfront from the beginning: they couldn’t afford to support City Walk when existing parks were already chronically underfunded. It’s a fair point, but it leaves City Walk in limbo. The park generates real economic benefits—increased foot traffic, improved perceptions of downtown, higher property values nearby—but there’s no mechanism to capture those benefits and reinvest them in the space.

City Walk proves that even spaces with the most painful histories can be transformed into community assets. It shows that good design and genuine community engagement can create something meaningful from infrastructure’s leftovers. But without a sustainable funding model, this ingenious solution to Birmingham’s highway problem may not survive.

The ugly history created the problem. The ingenious idea solved it. Now Birmingham needs to solve the funding peril—or risk losing a space that’s become essential to the city’s future.

David Sher is the founder and publisher of . He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).