The office: Birmingham City Council, District 5
The duties: The nine-member council is the legislative arm of Birmingham city government. It enacts legislation, adopts budgets and decides on policies for the city during weekly council meetings. One councilor is elected from each of nine districts to serve a four-year term.
Birmingham Promise received a $10 million grant from PNC Foundation to promote postsecondary success for city of Birmingham school graduates, the largest grant of its kind since the Promise program was created in 2019. Read more.
It’s about five hours after a cargo ship hit the Key Bridge in Baltimore, collapsing it and sending six construction workers on the bridge into the water. The city’s mayor is holding a press conference when a reporter asks him: “How long is it going to take to rebuild the bridge?”
Calmly and immediately, the mayor responds: “We shouldn’t even be having that discussion right now. The discussion right now should be about the people, the souls, the lives that we’re trying to save. There will be a time to discuss about a bridge and how we get our bridge back up but right now there are people in the water that we have to get out.”
On social media, the mayor got mostly applause. The reporter got mostly ripped apart. One X poster wrote: “Shoutout to our mayor Brandon Scott for focusing on the people and showcasing empathy, because the nerve of that reporter to ask about the bridge repair. Like, sir read the (expletive) room.”
I understand why many people saw the reporter’s question as disrespectful to the victims. But I don’t have a problem with it. How about you? Read more.
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The mood was somber in the auditorium at A.H. Parker High School Monday night as neighbors of Birmingham-Southern College expressed their concern about the announced closing of the liberal arts college as of May 21.
State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, hosted a town hall to field questions about the school. Of particular concern was what will happen to the 192-acre campus. More than one compared BSC to the old Carraway Hospital property, which deteriorated for years north of downtown. Read more.
