Birmingham City Council Archives - Page 44 of 54 - BirminghamWatch
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Birmingham City Council

Willine Body

Willine Body Birmingham City Council, District 6 Age: 73 Residence: Birmingham (Graymont) Political Experience: President, Graymont Neighborhood Association, 2012-present; Applicant, Birmingham City Council District 6, 2018; Vice President, Graymont Neighborhood Association, 2002-12 Professional Experience: Self-Employed, Home Quality Inspection Services Civic Experience: Minister, Greater Temple Missionary Baptist Church Main Issues: Economic development, rehabilitation and restoration of

by Sam Prickett

Haki Jamaal Muhammad

Birmingham City Council, District 1 No information was available for Muhammad and he did not respond to requests for information from BirminghamWatch.org. Top Contributors: None filed  

by Sam Prickett

Birmingham Votes Today on School Taxes, Three Council Seats

Election officials are expecting a light turnout in today’s city election, which will decide the fate of three property taxes for schools and three seats on the City Council. Most voters will have only the three ad valorem tax renewals on their ballots. Those taxes generate about 12% of the Birmingham City Schools’ budget. Voters in City Council Districts 1, 6 and 7 also will have a choice of city councilors to represent them on their ballots. That’s almost half of the council seats up for grabs. Councilors representing those districts were appointed after the elected councilors resigned their positions. Under the Mayor-Council Act, appointed councilors may serve only until the next election. If no candidate in the city council elections has more than 50% of the vote, then a runoff election between the top two vote-getters will be held Nov. 19. Some city polling places have changed this year. If you are uncertain of your polling place, you can verify it at AlabamaVotes.gov. Voters who have questions or problems at their polling places can call the Birmingham City Clerk's office at 205-254-2290. BirminghamWatch’s city voter guide provides profiles of the candidates, an explanation of the school taxes, information about casting a ballot, links to sample ballots and a map of council districts. Read the city voter guide.

by BirminghamWatch

Birmingham Launching Pilot Ridesharing Service

Starting in December, residents of some Birmingham neighborhoods will have a new transit option. The Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to approve a six-month transportation pilot program with ridesharing company Via, funded in part by the city and in part by the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. The program will provide on-demand transportation using marked Mercedes Metris vans, which can be summoned online, through an 800 number or on a smartphone app. Each trip will have a flat fee of $1.50 per rider; the vans can accommodate six riders at one. The pilot program will cover a 6.7-mile area that includes parts of downtown Birmingham, along with western neighborhoods such as Smithfield, Graymont and College Hills. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

City Gives Negro Southern League Museum More Money to Finish Off Construction, Surprising Councilors Who Thought It Was Done

The Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to allocate an additional $290,274.39 toward construction on the city’s Negro Southern League Museum. But many councilors, including those who voted in favor of the funding, weren’t happy about it. “There are so many things that I vote on that I have to hold my nose while voting,” said council President Valerie Abbott. “Sometimes you have to vote for things that you don’t really want to vote for, but we need to complete this project.” The Negro Southern League Museum, which first opened in 2015, is part of a downtown development that includes the adjacent Regions Field. But much of that building has remained unfinished since then, representatives from the city’s planning, engineering and permits (PEP) department told the council. With a new restaurant slated to move into the building, extra funding to complete construction was needed. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

Getting by in Food Deserts: Mobile Grocery Stores, Neighborhood Farms Help Residents Find Fresh Food

Roland Washington checked off the names of his neighbors who had come to buy groceries at the mobile store that twice a month visits his apartment complex near Tarrant, an area of Birmingham that has few to no options for fresh food. The mini crowd-control task for which Washington volunteers his time is managing the people who come to take advantage of the wholesale-priced fresh produce, meat and other food provisions sold on a first come-first serve basis. He makes sure no more than a few people enter the trailer at a time. For Washington and his neighbors, that mobile grocery store is the difference between getting fresh vegetables and fruits or not. The Corner Market, the mobile grocery store run through a program of the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama, is an initiative aimed at relieving the difficulties faced by people who live in food deserts. Food deserts are defined as areas where at least 500 people live more than half a mile from a full-service grocery store. The lack of access to fresh food is a problem faced by people across the world. About 23.5 million people in the U.S. live in food deserts, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report. Nearly half of them are low-income. Closer to home, almost 2 million people in Alabama live in food deserts, according to a 2015 report on food access by the The Food Trust. In Jefferson County, that number is 205,657. In Birmingham, 69 percent of residents live far enough away from a grocery store to make it difficult for them to obtain fresh food, Mayor Randall Woodfin told the City Council in a meeting this spring. He said part of all nine council districts exist in a food desert. The Corner Market and other mobile grocery stores are one way communities are trying to alleviate the difficulties for people who live in food deserts. Read more.

by Cheryl Slocum

Self-Storage on Montclair Allowed Despite Moratorium

A self-storage facility on Montclair Road will be allowed to expand despite a citywide moratorium on such businesses, the Birmingham City Council decided Tuesday. The council voted to allow Montclair Storage to continue with construction on a 10,000-square-foot expansion to its current facility, which had been roughly halfway completed when the council enacted the moratorium last month. The facility currently operates in a building formerly occupied by the now shuttered Montclair Baptist Medical Center; the expansion would also be on that property. Read more.

by Sam Prickett
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