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I understand polling the employees, but this is a short sighted move in my opinion. The majority of Healthsouth's work force is aging and are set in their ways of anti-downtown. One Healthsouth employee that I know said she worked downtown in the 1980's and hated it so she voted against downtown. My response was what does that have to do with the present day? Blank stare.

The CEO should have stepped up and been a leader recognizing what a move downtown would mean to the community. It would have put an emphatic stamp on downtown's revival and signal to other corporations to follow suit. This move will look silly in 10 years when the aging employees retire and downtown is booming. The younger demographic wants to be downtown and a suburban office site could be a hindrance in worker recruitment in the future.

Such a huge missed opportunity for downtown. This would have really been a tremendous catalyst for even more growth.

As I stated in another thread, opposing entrenched prejudice (remembered experiences of the 1970s & 1980s) with facts (B'ham of 2015 is a much better city almost 40 years later) is a difficult task. Look at the number of times such folks still talk of the risks of attending games at Legion Field even though there has been virtually no violence there on any college game day to date.

The present and past rural/suburban anti-B'ham rhetoric is part of the culture of this state and contributes to its status as the ONLY southern sunbelt state now predicted to lose at least one seat in Congress after the 2020 census. Such a loss could affect the placement of federal programs (including NASA in Huntsville) as states with more electoral votes lobby for their state as well as the distribution of federal grants to state universities. (Remember that our present seniority in the US Senate may not still exist by then).

The reason most people voted for the Liberty Park location has nothing to with "anti-downtown predjudice" it's all about the easiest commute. It's a hell of a lot easier to go to Liberty Park via 459 or back roads from where the vast majority of HealthSouth workers live. Moving downtown would have meant fighting both morning 280 traffic and any additional downtown traffic any given morning for those that live out on 280. I prefer working downtown but if I was faced with the prospect of warming up at 4 AM in hopes of making it work on time I would vote Liberty Park too.

I agree. It was probably more about the commute than any perceived crime or other issues, not that commuting out to Liberty Park would be my idea of fun anyway.

What does bother me, though, is that all of these business leaders will say in the BBJ that transportation is an issue and that fractured regional government is an issue, but they will never band together and actively campaign and lobby for changes. They talk about all these problems holding us back and say out loud what they are, but they don't really work to change them at all.

(12-13-2015 01:11 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  I agree. It was probably more about the commute than any perceived crime or other issues, not that commuting out to Liberty Park would be my idea of fun anyway.

What does bother me, though, is that all of these business leaders will say in the BBJ that transportation is an issue and that fractured regional government is an issue, but they will never band together and actively campaign and lobby for changes. They talk about all these problems holding us back and say out loud what they are, but they don't really work to change them at all.

That's pretty much what we do as a society anymore. We ***** about stuff we don't like, but we don't take any action.

I can't tell you how many people I've met that "hate" the big chain superstores, but then go shop there every weekend.

Our country has become so divided in recent years that there is seemingly no working together or compromise to fix anything at this point. It's a sad state to be in, maybe in 20-30 years as our generation gets a little more power, things will change.

(12-13-2015 01:11 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  What does bother me, though, is that all of these business leaders will say in the BBJ that transportation is an issue and that fractured regional government is an issue, but they will never band together and actively campaign and lobby for changes. They talk about all these problems holding us back and say out loud what they are, but they don't really work to change them at all.

I agree. If there is one thing that #FreeUAB has shown us, it is that pressure by the citizens backed by big business has a lot of power. The down side is that even though we all know intellectually that a unified municipal Birmingham area, say five counties, planning and lobbying together could do great things, the various constituencies won't vote for it. Whether it is racial prejudice, petty politics, wanting to retain control, not wanting to be allied with/saddled with Birmingham, whatever, people will fight it tooth and nail. I don't know who could mobilize and lead that effort successfully.