Is BHAM really quiet?

Question

Took another trip to BHAM, and boy is it quiet. Is it just me or is BHAM extremely quiet?

The realtor i was with said the city itself is very quiet.

I went to fairfield and that area is more congested same with homewood, but the city of BHAM from UAB to north BHAM was just DEAD.

Am i missing something?

Also the amount of abandoned buildings including that massive hospital is astounding.

How do you locals feel about this?

Where is everybody hiding ?

Jason Cory · Answer

A couple of points.

Fairfield - the city is bankrupt. It is busy because of the college that is hidden in it. Miles College. Very few investors will touch Fairfield. It's not investor friendly given the police ride around looking for crews to fine to generate revenue for the city.

The hospital - formerly Carraway hospital. For all intents & purposes UAB put them out of business. It's in an area called Norwood. Norwood is an opportunity zone that was included in the tax cut bill. Norwood is also a historical district. I pulled an electrical permit a couple of years ago. An hour later the supervisor from the power company & the city showed up & shut the job down because I didn't have a building permit open. I needed power first before I started renovating but because it's a historical district I had to give a full scope of work for a building permit before I could do any work. The house wasn't on the historical register, nationally or locally, so I did it right but government bureaucracy won out. No one would touch this area because of it & a couple other reasons. If you search the land bank for tax properties the city owns you will find many in Norwood. It's not a coincidence.

North Birmingham is our worst crime area so very few go there.

Homewood is the suburb directly south & wasn't designed well. It's an infill city with 2 lane roads that can't handle the population or the pass thru traffic to more populous suburbs further south.

Downtown Birmingham - people park in parking decks or take Uber to the city from the suburbs. There are cranes everywhere. It is far from a dead or quiet city. It has what many call one of the best unknown food scenes in the country. Multiple James Beard winners. Avondale & Lakeview are your bar scenes. Southside is a hodgepodge of bars, restaurants, & hotels.

The majority live in the suburbs. The city only has between 200-250,000 people living in the city limits. Homewood is the smallest suburb south of Birmingham. It's 5a I think. It may be 6a now. All other suburb schools are 7a(highest classification).

Friday night on espn2 will be a football game between 2 suburbs of Birmingham. The school they are playing at is new with a $100m price tag.

Also, if you drove around on Saturday, you likely didn't realize this state watches football. Birmingham has the highest TV rating every weekend for football. It's 24/7/365 here. If you really want to see a ghost town come during the Iron Bowl. No one will be on the road. You will also likely get cussed calling someone during the game ha.

Akin Okegbile · Answer

tl:dr Yes, Birmingham is a smaller city- No it is not quieter than similarly sized cities.

Birmigham is not a city cut in the same cloth as Charlotte or Dallas or NYC or Chicago. Its a southern town with its own unique atmosphere.  It will be quieter than Other Significantly larger metropolis. Often times your experience of a city can also be reflective of your ability to take a dive into the city. Or your guides or their personalities. A sampling of events in Birmingham this weekend.

James Rodgers · Answer

Your question is pretty vague, so not sure what kind of answer you're looking for other than personal opinion..

But - if your trip was from Fairfield to Homewood to North Bham, I can imagine the impression you got. Fairfield has been struggling for a long time - I mean how often does a Walmart close?

You may or may not have gotten a true taste of downtown, but lots of renovation is going on, residential and commercial. There are some large commercial and industrial projects happening in the near future, not to mention they're completely rebuilding our interstate system through downtown, but you were probably here to see SFRs in cash-flowing neighborhoods and those aren't going to be exciting.

Joel O. · Answer

what...

Joel O. · Answer

Thanks Jason,

as I was riding around saturday and sunday i was trying to figure out why, but this does help. your comments always help

James Wise · Answer

Hey Joel figured that since you were looking into Bham you'd be interested in reading The Ultimate Guide to Grading Birmingham, Alabama Neighborhoods. In it I worked with one of the largest property manager's in Birmingham to grade all of the neighborhoods in the metro area on an A-F scale so investors can assess the level of risk with a particular property. Just some free knowledge for you or anyone else who's interested.

Roderick Smith · Answer

it just depends on where you go avondale, five points south, downtown, lakeview etc.. are areas that things come to life at night. especially on the weekends. this week is magic city classic so there are events all week.

Joel O. · Answer

Thank you, my time in Birmingham during both times was meant to get a better feel of the city. First visit i personally felt a if i missed something. Second visit was much more comprehensive but like i said before i was expecting to see much more life.

Joel O. · Answer

To elaborate, what I’m asking/saying is that during my trips to BHAM I noticed that the city seems very quiet. Granted I went on weekends both times, the roads seem empty and not slit of people around.

I went downtown at night near the UAB area to see if there was a night life and it’s very lack luster.  Nobody is on the street walking around embracing the city on a weekend.

I did see construction such as the cross Plex and the interstate. And I know of the plans the mayor has for the city, but as stated previously I do not see where the locals hang out or are in the street.

Is BHAM really quiet?

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