08-11-2017, 06:34 PM
08-11-2017, 06:46 PM
This guy is huffing paint, I went back and forth with him on Twitter all day today and basically the only argument he can make is "governments shouldn't build stadiums" which if this was for a privately owned team, I'd agree with.
He ignores several important things though:
1. The money that will be spent on this is earmarked for the BJCC authority. It can't be spent on anything else, it can't be spent in neighborhoods.
2. He acts like the primary tenant will be the USL team, but that is just icing on the cake. An additional use for a facility already planned.
3. He brings up Regions Field like it's a bad thing, but Regions Field has been an unqualified success. I challenged him on this specific point and just said "well that was a depressed underdeveloped area, the BJCC isn't". That's basically untrue, north of the BJCC is just as desolate as the area between UAB and the railroad tracks was pre-Regions Field
4. He kept coming back with "if UAB wants a stadium, let them build one". I swear to god I think he doesn't understand the UA Board of Trustees. He swears he was raised in Birmingham but I don't think he realizes UAB is anything except a hospital.
5. In that same vein he said "well, why should the city do anything for UAB?" as if he didn't realize the economic impact a vibrant UAB has on the City of Birmingham.
6. This isn't a corporate handout to a private for profit enterprise. UAB is a state school, non profit, and this will benefit college students both on and off the field. Some of those college students will even be graduates of Birmingham City Schools, and BCS is full of teachers with diplomas from the UAB School of Education.
I asked him if he thinks government money should be spent on any event venues at all, like the Alys Stephens Center, the BJCC Arena, Theatre, Concert Hall, etc, but never got a reply. I suspect he regularly attends Symphonies in the Park, Broadway in Birmingham events, and plenty of other cultural events in government owned and operated facilities.
In the end, he wrote this just to gin up a bunch of controversy among both UAB supporters and detractors, and it worked. Seconds after it was published on al.com he posted it on Twitter with the tag "come at me, Internet". I know this is an opinion piece but writing something just to piss people off is dishonest and disingenuous.
Maybe the richest part of this is at the end where he says Birmingham needs to "start thinking beyond the tired stadium debate the city has been having for decades" which is *exactly what this new proposal does*. It's something the city can actually afford, and is actually appropriately sized for the tangible uses that will actually materialize vs. the 30 year old debate about a dome and an NFL team that is never coming
He ignores several important things though:
1. The money that will be spent on this is earmarked for the BJCC authority. It can't be spent on anything else, it can't be spent in neighborhoods.
2. He acts like the primary tenant will be the USL team, but that is just icing on the cake. An additional use for a facility already planned.
3. He brings up Regions Field like it's a bad thing, but Regions Field has been an unqualified success. I challenged him on this specific point and just said "well that was a depressed underdeveloped area, the BJCC isn't". That's basically untrue, north of the BJCC is just as desolate as the area between UAB and the railroad tracks was pre-Regions Field
4. He kept coming back with "if UAB wants a stadium, let them build one". I swear to god I think he doesn't understand the UA Board of Trustees. He swears he was raised in Birmingham but I don't think he realizes UAB is anything except a hospital.
5. In that same vein he said "well, why should the city do anything for UAB?" as if he didn't realize the economic impact a vibrant UAB has on the City of Birmingham.
6. This isn't a corporate handout to a private for profit enterprise. UAB is a state school, non profit, and this will benefit college students both on and off the field. Some of those college students will even be graduates of Birmingham City Schools, and BCS is full of teachers with diplomas from the UAB School of Education.
I asked him if he thinks government money should be spent on any event venues at all, like the Alys Stephens Center, the BJCC Arena, Theatre, Concert Hall, etc, but never got a reply. I suspect he regularly attends Symphonies in the Park, Broadway in Birmingham events, and plenty of other cultural events in government owned and operated facilities.
In the end, he wrote this just to gin up a bunch of controversy among both UAB supporters and detractors, and it worked. Seconds after it was published on al.com he posted it on Twitter with the tag "come at me, Internet". I know this is an opinion piece but writing something just to piss people off is dishonest and disingenuous.
Maybe the richest part of this is at the end where he says Birmingham needs to "start thinking beyond the tired stadium debate the city has been having for decades" which is *exactly what this new proposal does*. It's something the city can actually afford, and is actually appropriately sized for the tangible uses that will actually materialize vs. the 30 year old debate about a dome and an NFL team that is never coming
08-11-2017, 06:47 PM
Totally agree with mixd.
08-11-2017, 07:42 PM
we should invite him to Legion and see what he thinks of our glorious accommodations.
That guy was looking to get a bunch of clicks and he succeeded.
That guy was looking to get a bunch of clicks and he succeeded.
08-11-2017, 08:30 PM
That guy is what is wrong with Birmingham
08-11-2017, 10:38 PM
(08-11-2017 06:47 PM)the_blazerman Wrote: [ -> ]Totally agree with mixd.
+1, couldn't have said it better myself.
08-12-2017, 12:21 PM
There is nothing new in the author's views that all important building should be by private money. Read the critical remarks about the New Deal programs of the 1930s, and you see the same POV toward the TVA, PWA (which built the University Hospital), WPA, CCC, AAA and the NIRA. It is all part of the "small government" POV that the government that does the least is the best government. Alabama is a good example of this POV in action.
08-12-2017, 08:42 PM
its the same world view that does not thing public money should go to education. everything should be private sector only. the fee market will fix all.