The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(06-14-2013 09:49 AM)Smaug Wrote:  Ullman Hall is between Bartow and the practice field.

The problem with Ullman is that it's one of the few actually OLD buildings on campus, and one not without historic significance.

Ideally, you could retrofit Ullman for athletic department use somehow (it would be both cheaper and less politically sticky than tearing it down and building something else). Some of our construction guys should chime in and set me straight if I'm off base.

Right now, I think it's currently being used as a bigass junk closet.

Ullman is being used by the athletic department. Several sports have their offices there, as well as UAB Athletic Marketing.

UAB bookstore to move to former supermarket while Hill University Center work is underway
http://www.al.com/business/index.ssf/201...forme.html

(06-07-2013 07:51 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  Build them both. I support both projects 100% Hallman be damned. One project has absolutely nothing to do with the other. UAB will continue with facilities no matter what happens with the MPF.

I like Hallman about as much as an Poison Ivey outbreak but he is not against UAB. He simply does not care about anything that does not make him a dollar. Both projects can be successfully completed.

I know I am in the minority on this subject and that's ok. I have a different perspective of having built projects that were said to be a waste of time and money only to see them be successful.

This!

(06-07-2013 03:12 PM)stc Wrote:  Both should be built. It hurt Birmingham when Super Six left and now SWAC titłe game. Bowl game is good for city as well. Money spent at those events benefit UAB because we are locked at the hip with Birmingham. I personally wish we would make it official, drop UAB and become Birmingham U. The MPF could serve as a useful stop gap for UAB football. Closer to campus, safer area, hot water would work. Ill take it if we can't have OCS for several more years. We could generate more revenue. I fully believe the argument Blazr made about Mackin and the need for a full time tenant to start. Once we play a few successful seasons and build an OCS the dome would already be established in other areas. The best scenario long term is as Attalla and Vines stated and that's to build both. Memphis Blazer is also right. The OCS is dead in the water right now. In my opinion that will not change without on field success and I believe the MPF can help us accomplish that.

This, too! But neither one (OCS or MPF) is being built...& time is slipping away...

(06-07-2013 11:02 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  He should pump all his articles. It feeds his family... LOL I do like the fact he gives UAB the time of day and he also actively defended UAB several times. More than I have heard anyone in the media. It was a rare day I was able to listen to a good portion of that show. Good topics and good discussion. That is what talk radio SHOULD be about. A variety of subjects instead of the same old ROW TOD. That said the two best shows I have heard them do the co host was not present to screw it up.

& that!

Re post #61:
My father (born in 1903) attended Ullman Elementary School when he lived on 13th Ave.South. He went from there to Paul Hayne HS which was then downtown. The (then "White") elementary school was closed later but reopened in the 1940s as a "Colored" high school to augment Parker which had been, prior to WWII, the only "colored" high school in all Jeffco. It was closed again in the late 1960s or early 70s, and its faculty and students dispersed to other B'ham schools. It became part of UAB at that point. The original building is over 100 years old today. Its present designation as an "historical building" may affect how it can be remodeled or replaced.

In those days, the "colored" schools were usually not called "high schools" because they failed to qualify for that definition due to funding / accreditation differences and were instead called "Industrial Schools" or "Training Schools" instead. This legal distinction remained in place for many years after WWII. In Pell City, the "training school" is now the "Intermediate School" (or was when my first wife taught there).

(06-09-2013 07:22 PM)Marathon Blazer Wrote:  

(06-07-2013 02:30 PM)backyardblazer Wrote:  

(06-07-2013 02:01 PM)BlazerFromMD Wrote:  

(06-06-2013 11:11 AM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  

Quote:"It wouldn't make sense to do both in my opinion," Hallman said. "My selling point to UAB, which I have recently made and consistently make, you get a brand-new state-of-the-art facility (in a dome). Sure, it's not ideal in that it's not on campus ... It's better than having to build it and pay for it. They would just pay rent on that day but not have to pay the expense of building it.

"We'd build it with them in mind for offices and other things. and then let the program grow. Let it flourish. If at some point you need to go on campus, then do it, but in the interim, we've upgraded our facilities for sporting events and conventions and trade shows ... which we simply don't have enough space for right now."

Gene Hallman needs to kiss the fattest part of my ass.

I was thinking more like the deepest.

Having worked with Genie, um I mean Gene, I wouldn't want him anywhere near my rear end.

Is that how you got the name "backyard blazer?"

No, you did not just say that!

(06-14-2013 10:56 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  My father (born in 1903) attended Ullman Elementary School when he lived on 13th Ave.South. He went from there to Paul Hayne HS which was then downtown. The (then "White") elementary school was closed later but reopened in the 1940s as a "Colored" high school to augment Parker which had been, prior to WWII, the only "colored" high school in all Jeffco. It was closed again in the late 1960s or early 70s, and its faculty and students dispersed to other B'ham schools. It became part of UAB at that point. The original building is over 100 years old today. Its present designation as an "historical building" may affect how it can be remodeled or replaced.

In those days, the "colored" schools were usually not called "high schools" because they failed to qualify for that definition due to funding / accreditation differences and were instead called "Industrial Schools" or "Training Schools" instead. This legal distinction remained in place for many years after WWII. In Pell City, the "training school" is now the "Intermediate School" (or was when my first wife taught there).

You, sir, are a "walking history book", your knowledge of some things & people pertaining to this town and state is/are at times, astounding. I have very little to no recollection of how the southside used to look when I was a kid, only vague rememberences/guesstimates of what used to be where the Kirklin Clinic (the Merita Bakery, I think) and the parking lot across the street from it. (Zip's fast food restaurant - I loved those greasy-assed french fries they used to serve up!) that's about it. Nothing about Ullman outside of what I used to hear at WENN-AM every morning courtesy of "Tall Paul" White.

ALDOT plan for downtown Birmingham could doom dome, BJCC expansion
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/06/aldo...lyout_news

Remember this about ALDOT.

They'll do whatever they hell they want, they'll do it with your money, and make you like it.

So it doesn't work both ways?

Meaning, they bring up dome talk whenever a UAB OCS is mentioned however when the dome seems doomed they fail to mention the UAB OCS.

Of course we all know that the 2 should be considered independently of each other.

The question is will ALDOT go through with getting rid of the interstate overpasses in downtown B'am and putting them underground and out of the way or not. The existing interstate decks are near the end of their operational life.

They'll have to do something, and it's not easy no matter what they try to do.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/05/majo...059_i.html

http://weldbham.com/blog/2013/05/09/oliv...ng-a-bone/

(06-14-2013 11:13 AM)Matrix Wrote:  

(06-14-2013 10:56 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  My father (born in 1903) attended Ullman Elementary School when he lived on 13th Ave.South. He went from there to Paul Hayne HS which was then downtown. The (then "White") elementary school was closed later but reopened in the 1940s as a "Colored" high school to augment Parker which had been, prior to WWII, the only "colored" high school in all Jeffco. It was closed again in the late 1960s or early 70s, and its faculty and students dispersed to other B'ham schools. It became part of UAB at that point. The original building is over 100 years old today. Its present designation as an "historical building" may affect how it can be remodeled or replaced.

In those days, the "colored" schools were usually not called "high schools" because they failed to qualify for that definition due to funding / accreditation differences and were instead called "Industrial Schools" or "Training Schools" instead. This legal distinction remained in place for many years after WWII. In Pell City, the "training school" is now the "Intermediate School" (or was when my first wife taught there).

You, sir, are a "walking history book", your knowledge of some things & people pertaining to this town and state is/are at times, astounding. I have very little to no recollection of how the southside used to look when I was a kid, only vague rememberences/guesstimates of what used to be where the Kirklin Clinic (the Merita Bakery, I think) and the parking lot across the street from it. (Zip's fast food restaurant - I loved those greasy-assed french fries they used to serve up!) that's about it. Nothing about Ullman outside of what I used to hear at WENN-AM every morning courtesy of "Tall Paul" White.

Thank you for the compliment. I was born @ Carraway Hospital in 1941 and had lived in B'ham from that time to 2003. My knowledge springs from a family of some note from 1899 to the 1970s, and an interest in state and local history, some of which happened as "current events" -- I graduated from Bama in Aug. 1963, the summer session that began with George Wallace's "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door" and followed by being back in B'ham when the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed in Sept. One day you will probably look back on things that happen that become important in a future history like happened with me.

BTW, The calendar for 2013 is the same as for 1963 so we can commemorate those events of that year on the same day of the week that they happened. It was a very busy year with assassinations, bombings, marches met with fire hoses and dogs, and the change of B'ham's government from the old City Commission to the Mayor - Council form we have today. Albert Boutwell was elected the first actual Mayor of B'ham (the term "Mayor" was used by the old Commission but just for procedural purposes like the "President " of the County Commission - you get to play with the gavel).

(06-20-2013 01:50 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote:  The question is will ALDOT go through with getting rid of the interstate overpasses in downtown B'am and putting them underground and out of the way or not. The existing interstate decks are near the end of their operational life.

They'll have to do something, and it's not easy no matter what they try to do.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/05/majo...059_i.html

http://weldbham.com/blog/2013/05/09/oliv...ng-a-bone/

No, they won't. I've heard a few different camps. Some people want to bury the interstate, some people want to realign it with Finley Blvd north of downtown, some people want it rebuilt the way it is, and some people want to tear it down and not replace it with anything.

Burying the interstate is a laudable goal, but the problem is it would cost nearly a billion dollars and there is no way the state would ever in a million years be able to come up with that money. On paper, good idea, but it's just not possible

Same applies to the "move it north" plan. Would cost even more than burying it.

Some people have advocated just tearing it down like San Francisco did with the Embarcadero, or New York did with the West Side Highway. The problem with that plan is that those cities have vastly better public transit options and a large population of the area served by the freeways live inside the city. Plus, I-20/59, as part of I-22, is part of a freeway that they just finished between Oklahoma City and Atlanta. The feds would never allow a break in that freeway (yes, I know about 78 not being a freeway in part of Memphis but it's on the drawing board). Tearing it down and replacing it with a boulevard is not an option.

And, rebuilding it as is is not an option. The exits through there are death traps. Suppose you want to go from US 31 to I-65 south. You have to merge onto the interstate at the right, get across three lanes of traffic within a mile or so, and merge into an on ramp of traffic that is likely trying to get all the way back over. The current plan isn't perfect but the whole "cutting North Birmingham off" thing is stupid. The traffic will be getting off on 11th Ave. N, but the same thing happens at UAB on University and that is a thriving area of town. Additional traffic on 11th Ave would increase the property values, not decrease them.

The only thing truly worrisome about the plan is that right now they plan to close 31st Street, and that would cause a lot of headaches getting to that industrial area. I think that needs to be modified, but rebuilding it exactly as is isn't an option. And, not doing anything at all isn't an option because they're going to fall down at some point.

Quote:Burying the interstate is a laudable goal, but the problem is it would cost nearly a billion dollars and there is no way the state would ever in a million years be able to come up with that money.

I understand that J.P. Morgan Chase has some synthetic credit default swaps that would make the financing cheap and risk-free.

(06-20-2013 09:52 PM)58-56 Wrote:  

Quote:Burying the interstate is a laudable goal, but the problem is it would cost nearly a billion dollars and there is no way the state would ever in a million years be able to come up with that money.

I understand that J.P. Morgan Chase has some synthetic credit default swaps that would make the financing cheap and risk-free.

Throw in a beluga whale and we'll talk.

It seems to me that building the Interstate replacement roads at some other location, like through North B'ham, would be an advantage since the existing roadway would remain in full service during the construction of the alternate route. Once the new route is completed, the traffic would be interrupted only during the shift of access from the present route to the new one. Imagine the area around the BJCC with that elevated roadway removed completely.

(06-22-2013 10:05 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  It seems to me that building the Interstate replacement roads at some other location, like through North B'ham, would be an advantage since the existing roadway would remain in full service during the construction of the alternate route. Once the new route is completed, the traffic would be interrupted only during the shift of access from the present route to the new one. Imagine the area around the BJCC with that elevated roadway removed completely.

Do you have a billion and a half dollars to pony up to make that happen? It seems like my own private jet would be an advantage so I didn't have to deal with security and people at airports, but at some point we have to live in the realm of what is possible and what is not.

(06-22-2013 12:34 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  

(06-22-2013 10:05 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  It seems to me that building the Interstate replacement roads at some other location, like through North B'ham, would be an advantage since the existing roadway would remain in full service during the construction of the alternate route. Once the new route is completed, the traffic would be interrupted only during the shift of access from the present route to the new one. Imagine the area around the BJCC with that elevated roadway removed completely.

Do you have a billion and a half dollars to pony up to make that happen? It seems like my own private jet would be an advantage so I didn't have to deal with security and people at airports, but at some point we have to live in the realm of what is possible and what is not.

As Band Dad pointed out, the existing I-20/59 "bridge through downtown" has a limited future. Doing nothing is not a useful long term option, and once you decide to do "something", that something is going to be very expensive regardless of route &/or design. A new route would have the advantage of not interrupting interstate traffic for years while it is built. Another possible route - south of the ridge / north of the expanded BJCC - would be above 12th Ave north rejoining I-59/20 near 31st Street, near Tallapoosa Exit or out near the airport. That route might be useful if the MPF is ever built in the planned location and maybe allowing the redesign of Malfunction Junction as a bonus. The more I think about moving I-20/59 farther north toward the ridge, the more I like that placement. Removing the present "bridge" from 10th street to 31st street would open the area to many choices of how to improve the BJCC, Art Museum, and other public &/or private ways to use the land.

Rebuilding it where it is (with the modifications they've proposed) is in the $600 million range. Burying it where it is would be north of a billion. No one has come up with an estimate of realigning it north where Finley Blvd is but I'm sure it'd be in the range of a billion too. I'm not proposing doing nothing, but the "alternate plans" that keep getting thrown about always seem to forget about actually paying for them.