Despite several recent shootings, Ensley’s Club Euphoria is staying open — for now. The Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to give the venue 13 weeks to institute a safety plan and address neighborhood concerns, after which the council would decide whether to shutter the venue. Read more.
Birmingham finished 2020 with its highest number of homicides in 25 years. So far this year, the homicide rate shows no sign of slowing down. That’s putting increased pressure on city leaders to curb the violence. And a lot of that pressure falls on Birmingham Police Chief Patrick Smith. “There are times to where it’s going to be incredibly difficult,” Smith said. “This is one of those times.” Smith, who’s originally from Tuscaloosa, has led the Birmingham police force and its 900-plus officers since 2018. Before, he spent most of his career with the Los Angeles Police Department. According to Smith, deadly violence typically increases during the summer months. So, officers have been focusing on areas of the city where the data indicate crime is more likely to occur. “One of the things we have to do is to stay on top of things, make sure we’re doing positive patrols in certain areas,” Smith said. Smith discussed his approach with WBHM’s Andrew Yeager. Read more.
UPDATED — Though many campaigns already are well underway, June 25 marked the official start of the qualifying period for Birmingham’s 2021 municipal elections. Candidates will have until July 9 to officially add their name to the Aug. 24 ballot, which will include the city’s mayoral, city council and school board races. Voters have until Aug. 9 to register to vote. So far, four of the eight declared mayoral candidates have officially filed to run: incumbent Mayor Randall Woodfin, former Mayor William A Bell, businessman Chris Woods and philanthropist Cerissa A. Brown. Community activists Philemon Hill and Darryl Williams also have announced runs for the seat, as has Jefferson County Commissioner and former Birmingham City Councilor Lashunda Scales. Birmingham resident Juanita Jones has also filed preliminary paperwork to run for the seat, though she has not yet officially qualified. Woodfin turned his qualification into a miniature campaign event, hosting a press conference on the steps of the Jefferson County Courthouse shortly after filing his statement of candidacy. “I don’t want anybody to think we’ve just got this in the bag,” he told supporters. “I don’t want to get anyone to get comfortable,” he said. As qualifying opened, several new faces joined council races: Don D. Scott in District 2, Roshanique Yvette Taylor in District 5, La’Toya Lee in District 7 and D. Denise Webber-Jenkins in District 8. See the lists of candidates who have filed qualifying papers and candidates who have announced they are running for Birmingham city offices.
A pair of road projects are closer to fruition after the Jefferson County Commission on Thursday approved resolutions related to those two projects. Each project is in the city of Hoover. One authorizes a joint services agreement with Hoover and Jefferson County and CSX Transportation on improvements to South Shades Crest Road, to which a third lane will be added from Alabama 150 to Eden Ridge Drive. That project includes replacing a bridge that passes over CSX train tracks. The other project authorizes paying for tract 6 of the Galleria Boulevard extension project. For years, motorists have driven through the parking lot of Ashley Homestore as they’ve made their way from Alabama 150 to Lorna Road on the other side of the hill. Read more.
The Jefferson County Commission today approved a resolution to provide economic incentives for Bill Smith’s latest venture – Landing – but not before Lashunda Scales had her say. The matter passed 3-1, with Scales casting the dissenting vote. Sheila Tyson was absent. Scales expressed concern, saying she wanted to see what efforts the company will make to give priority to hiring residents of Jefferson County. Additionally, she said she is concerned that a long-term plan for the company was not presented even though the incentive plan covers six years. The District 1 commissioner said that while the company currently arranges apartments for rentals, she is afraid the operation will go beyond apartment rentals Read more.
Fourteen states passed 22 election laws this year, some of which caused a stir as voting advocates complained that they restricted the rights of voters, while others argued the new laws were needed to add security to the vote. Alabama has eight new election-related laws this year out of 27 voting-related bills introduced in the Legislature. While some stirred opposition in the state, it was nothing like the national outrage over changes in some other states. That’s at least partly because Alabama already had adopted one of the most controversial bills passed in other states – a requirement that voters show ID at the polls was passed here in 2014 – and because Georgia attracted so much attention for its ban on delivering water to voters standing in line at the polls. Alabama did pass a few other laws. One to ban curbside voting, which was not being offered in any of the counties, anyway. Others require a partial post-election audit in three counties, move up the deadline for applying to vote by absentee ballot, and specifically make it a crime to vote in Alabama and another state, for instance. Read more.
A pair of long-awaited road improvements came a step closer to fruition as the Jefferson County Commission moved those matters to the agenda of Thursday’s commission meeting. Each road project is in Hoover – extending Galleria Boulevard from John Hawkins Parkway to Lorna Road and widening South Shades Crest Road. The latter project would add a third lane to the heavily traveled stretch of road. Read more.
MONTGOMERY — Term-limited state Auditor Jim Zeigler is forming an exploratory committee to test the water as a possible GOP challenger to Gov. Kay Ivey next year. Zeigler has been Ivey's chief critic over the past four years, opposing several of her proposals, including plans for a new Interstate 10 bridge over the Mobile Bay, the plan to lease three new, large prisons and a constitutional amendment to replace the elected state school board with an appointed commission. He touted himself as the “common sense” candidate, according to a press release today. Read more.
Five children have been killed or injured by gun violence in Birmingham this year, and city leaders are pleading for witnesses to come forward. “Our detectives are doing everything they can,” Mayor Randall Woodfin said in a Tuesday morning press conference. “This is a community issue and it needs to be a community effort, and I don’t think we can leave it to the five detectives for these five cases.” Read more.
State Rep. Andrew Sorrell, R-Muscle Shoals, formally announced his campaign for state auditor Monday, saying he wants to bring more responsibilities to the role. Read more.
