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(06-07-2014 05:54 PM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  Can we move this to the other forum now. Didn't take long for it to get personal.

How did that get personal?

I just asked how Birmingham voted? A legit question....

(06-07-2014 05:54 PM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  Can we move this to the other forum now. Didn't take long for it to get personal.

Yeah, might as well at this point.

Personal politics aside, I thought it was neat that Birmingham was taking a shot at a major party convention.

The message of the Democratic Party would certainly get ears nationally if it was held in Birmingham.

As would that of the Republican party.

I really was hoping this would be a neat for Birmingham conversation instead of a Democrat/Republican conversation.

I should have known better.

This is actually an event that would require The Dome instead of the BJCC. However, I don't think it's worth building a half billion dollar dome to hold the DNC, even though I am a Democrat.

I have to think that either the bid is predicated on the imminent groundbreaking of The Dome or that this is just a ploy so that Hallman et al. can have a concrete example of the type of event that would be held at The Dome.

Are there really facilities here to hold the DNC or would they be built before then?

A lot of the RNC's have been held in cities/states that weren't Red States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rep...onventions

They are attracting out of towners. Really doesn't matter which way the locals feel as they aren't the ones attending

(06-07-2014 06:23 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  Are there really facilities here to hold the DNC or would they be built before then?

Adequate facilities do not currently exist, put it that way. Not by comparison to other cities who are bidding.

Isn't I-59/20 suppose to be ripped up in the near future? I haven't been keeping up with it that close, but last I heard – it all has to be replaced.

Anyone know when the work begins and is supposed to be finished?

It sure is going to be a mess. That alone could be a mess for anything trying to come to town/BJCC.

(06-07-2014 06:46 PM)BlazerFire Wrote:  Isn't I-59/20 suppose to be ripped up in the near future? I haven't been keeping up with it that close, but last I heard – it all has to be replaced.

Anyone know when the work begins and is supposed to be finished?

It sure is going to be a mess. That alone could be a mess for anything trying to come to town/BJCC.

I think that project is still in the " OMG that is going to cost how much ???? " Phase .

(06-07-2014 06:51 PM)BlazerPhil Wrote:  

(06-07-2014 06:46 PM)BlazerFire Wrote:  Isn't I-59/20 suppose to be ripped up in the near future? I haven't been keeping up with it that close, but last I heard – it all has to be replaced.

Anyone know when the work begins and is supposed to be finished?

It sure is going to be a mess. That alone could be a mess for anything trying to come to town/BJCC.

I think that project is still in the " OMG that is going to cost how much ???? " Phase .

No, it is going to be torn down from Malfunction Junction to the Red Mountain Expressway. That is happening for sure. The current plan is to rebuild new, wider bridges in the existing location. They already have the money for that.

The "OMG it costs how much" stuff is for the plan that some folks are pushing to move the interstate north of town along Finley, but that plan isn't going to happen.

But yes, the I-20/59 rebuild project would be happening right in the middle of this.

2016 isn't that far away. Adequate facilities could not be built in time. This is as silly as the Olympics in Birmingham

Extending the invitation is likely a political ploy to illustrate to the public what the city needs to host such a convention in the future. Right now the city is struggling to overcome the "football only" local mentality about the MPF. There will be many cities in this particular competition so I would believe it is more about getting free publicity on a national stage, like the "pro-B'ham" articles in nationally read periodicals about the ways the city is trying to move into the new century.

Whether a national political convention, the Olympics, the World Cup for soccer or any other such major event, most cities and / or their nations must build new to serve that purpose. Atlanta had to build many new facilities to meet the needs of the 1996 Olympics while Brazil is presently struggling with the World Cup which is followed by the future Olympics. Any costs (probably negligible) to apply can be written off as gaining positive national publicity for B'ham.

B'ham and Jeffco's lack of interest in supporting George Wallace's political ambitions is why every inch of Alabama's Interstate system was completed before a single one in Jeffco was connected to the rest of the state. For many years, I-65 ended at Fultondale and Hoover, I-59/20 in Fairfield, I-20 at the Montevallo Exit in Eastwood and I-59 in Roebuck at Center Point Parkway.

Only by paying what today would probably be called a bribe (a Harbert endowed "Chair" at UAB which paid Wallace many thousands each year - for life?), did John Harbert get the part of I-459 between U.S.31 and U.S.280 built many years ahead of the rest of that bypass (which is likely why only that section bears Harbert's name today). Harbert was said to be protecting his huge investment in the Riverchase area by doing this.

Definite political ploy to highlight the facilities need, I agree. But the even more obvious thing is that the Democrats don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning Alabama, and would be foolish to host a convention here. If there was a chance of taking a deep south state, I think they'd consider it, even in the BJCC.

Texas might be an example of a formerly solid Red state that the Democrats would think hard about if only to force the Republicans to spend money to keep it Red vs a Hispanic Democrat.

(06-07-2014 07:44 PM)GreenMississippi Wrote:  Definite political ploy to highlight the facilities need, I agree. But the even more obvious thing is that the Democrats don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning Alabama, and would be foolish to host a convention here. If there was a chance of taking a deep south state, I think they'd consider it, even in the BJCC.

Texas might be an example of a formerly solid Red state that the Democrats would think hard about if only to force the Republicans to spend money to keep it Red vs a Hispanic Democrat.

While the state's conservatives were Democrats, Republicans dared not even attempt a state primary - holding state conventions until after 1970. Once the state's conservatives had to begin to share "their" party with newly recently enfranchised Democrats, they switched to be the conservative Republican Party where their control has been absolute ever since. To borrow and paraphrase Wallace's favorite slogan, "There's not a dime's worth of difference between the "Conservative" state policies of the 1970s and the "Conservative" state policies of 2014".

This really doesn't shock me at all. The majority of the students I met at UAB were multiculturalist liberals.

Obviously, a majority of these kids, once they know how the real world works, will shift toward the center and the right as they age, but let them be young and stupid, right?

That's how it works normally, especially when they get a family & try to get a job.

(06-07-2014 08:23 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  That's how it works normally, especially when they get a family & try to get a job.

That's true of many who subsequently find that future in other states where the workers are not "sold to the lowest bidder" businesses like in our state. Like the Judson graduate in teaching told the reporter, "I want to teach, but not in Alabama where the government is openly hostile to educators".

(06-07-2014 08:35 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(06-07-2014 08:23 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  That's how it works normally, especially when they get a family & try to get a job.

That's true of many who subsequently find that future in other states where the workers are not "sold to the lowest bidder" businesses like in our state. Like the Judson graduate in teaching told the reporter, "I want to teach, but not in Alabama where the government is openly hostile to educators".

Thank goodness we have teachers in Alabama like my daughter. She wouldn't want to do anything else.