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(08-08-2017 10:07 AM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  

(08-04-2017 05:22 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  You are correct in that B'ham will never be another Atlanta. That ship sailed several decades ago when our 1960s state and city leaders made us look more like 1930s Germany than 1970s America. The question is - in that frame of reference - just exactly what will B'ham become? Another Dothan? Another Bessemer? Another Macon? Another Columbus? Another Jackson? If B'ham can't see its way to become another great city, what level example city should it aim to become short of that?

We have built a minor league baseball park for our Class AA team, and now we want to build a minor league seasonal stadium. There is (in my opinion) a good chance that without the year round traffic of the MPF, the Uptown entertainment district will whither and go away just like the Morris Avenue entertainment district did.

Morris Ave in the 80s and 90s were a victim of crime. I don't know if you've been downtown to the 2nd Ave corridor, but Birmingham is doing pretty well without a debt saddled domed stadium ideal for literally nothing in town.

"Debt saddled" is what every choice for public expenditure / investment comes with in a state that brags about its lowest in America tax structure. Whether it be a prison, university building, stadium (of any size), city government building or highway, it comes with a debt charge for using borrowed money instead of having income from taxes.

Interest charges eat up a major share of state and local appropriations annually. At one time, interest charges consumed the entire state highway budget for the year. The state's plan for new prisons would have Alabama paying back for two prisons for every one prison built.

Morris Avenue was hurt by a couple of well publicized crimes, but was killed by state and municipal "Blue Laws" which banned sale of all alcoholic beverages (except for private clubs) after midnight during the week and all day on Sunday. When a city makes it hard on "visiting firemen", it fails in competition with other cities.