anomalous (unusual, quirky, strange, weird) musing and reporting of diverse human and non-human affairs
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Birmingham deja vu from my days wrangling with Key West city officials about affordable housing and homeless people
Vulcan on Red Mountain
overlooking Birmingham
In former US Attorney in Birmingham Joyce Vance's Civil Discourse Substack Newsletter yesterday:
Presidents are important. So are senators and members of Congress. But in terms of impact on our daily lives, our local leaders have just as much if not more importance. Tonight’s guest for “Five Questions” is my mayor, Birmingham, Alabama’s Randall Woodfin.
I should let you know up front that I’m a big fan. Both of the man and of the mayor. And I couldn’t think of anyone better to talk with about the importance of local elected officials, which of course means that it’s important for people to vote in local elections, and to do so after educating themselves about the candidates.
Having a mayor who is in touch with issues that matter, whether it’s how reliable your trash pickup is or whether a downtown park makes sense, makes an make an enormous difference in how you live your life. So, do your homework and pick your candidates carefully! Tonight, Mayor Woodfin helps us understand how important the role local elected officials play is.
Here’s an example of just how important having a good Mayor can be—a screen grab from my Instagram account this morning, where I follow Mayor Woodfin.
My reply to Joyce garnered a comment from someone whose name I did not recall, but she addressed me by my nickname and demonstrated knowledge of my younger brother Major.
Sloan Bashinsky
I live in Birmingham, and was born in Hillman hospital, now part of UAB medical center. When I practiced law in Birmingham in the 1970s and 80s, a black woman named Rosa Woodfin did housekeeping in my 2nd wife’s and my home. Rosa lived in the large city housing project on 8th Avenue South and 24th Street. 8th Avenue today is known as University Boulevard. Maybe 1000 blacks lived in that city housing project?
While Randall Woodfin was mayor, I watched all but a few buildings in that city housing project be razed to the ground. Now expensive apartment buildings are being constructed there. Where did all of those displaced black people go to live? Where was Mayor Woddfin when that happened?
Every time Woodfin ran for mayor, I got texts from him and his campaign workers, asking for my vote. I wrote back that I wanted to talk with Randall personally, before deciding if I would vote for him. I never heard from Woodfin.
Besides city politics, I wanted to know if Randal was kin to Rosa Woodfin, who was a wonderful person. As was her sister, Carrie Richardson, who worked in my first wife’s and my home and was our daughters’ beloved nanny.
Derry
Bash, you know that the razed housing will not be missed! There will be housing built where anyone can live and it will be successful just like Metro gardens. We need to all think of positive solutions instead of criticism. Maybe offer to help with good ideas?!
Sloan Bashinsky
I heard they razed most of that city project because of violent crime in it, and I heard shots fired there one day as I drove by, and several times I saw police cars there with blue lights flashing, and you tell me why Woodfin and his city not build new housing for those people somewhere else before evicting them? You tell me why Woodfin and his city co-ed with a real estate developer to build apartments going up three or four stories, which an architect told me will rent out for about three times what she and I pay for our one bedroom apartments on Highland Avenue. I detest Donald Trump and what the Republicans are about, but sometimes I wonder if Democrats have any walking around sense? I ran 6 times for mayor of Key West and three times for county commission, and I saw very well just how deep in real estate developers’ pockets city and county commissions seemed to behave.
Derry
I know the tax base is very important, but there is crime everywhere in the city and it makes us all sick. We are about 80 cops short and that is a huge problem But the crime you refer to is less around city schools thank goodness, and if these shootings keep (gangs) they will kill each other off in our lifetime. Gun control is non-existent and parenting has disappeared in many places. I don’t know the answer either, but I have confidence in Randall.
Sloan Bashinsky
What on God’s green acre has this to do with what I posted for Joyce Vance to consider about her good friend Randall Woodfin who says he will build homes for displaced people elsewhere in Birmingham? How many homes did Randall build for maybe a thousand? people who lived in that city project? Did they go live with relatives? Did they become homeless? Did they kill themselves to avoid being homeless? Have you ever been homeless? I did a 5 year stretch 2000-2005 and a 2-year stretch, 2015-2017. Try that, if you want to get woke up in ways nothing else will do :-)
Derry
Doesn’t surprise me. You and Major had lots of problems. But if you were tuned in to council meetings and mayor’s posts you might understand more of what is happening. And if you want to talk about homeless, reach out to Don Lupo, mayor’s right hand on that subject!
Sloan Bashinsky
I tried maybe half a dozen times to get mayor candidate Woodfin to give me a call, and I got nowhere. Why would I start over and speak at his city commission meetings after speaking hundreds of times at Key West city commission meetings when I was homeless and when I wasn’t?
There is nothing Woodfin or the city can do about its large homeless population but try to keep them alive with food, medical treatment, clothing, blankets in cold weather, and let them be, if they are behaving. I imagine their numbers increased considerably when the city shut down that very large housing project. If you know Lupo, tell him a boots on the ground homeless expert, who is not homeless, is living in Birmingham, and I’ll talk with him if he contacts me. 305-xxx-xxxx
If you are interested, below is a link to the “LBGTQ haters should blame God for making LBGTQ people” post at my blog, in which Major’s suicide made to look like murder, which most people in Birmingham refused to believe, gets considerable air time. I warn you ahead of time, it is not an easy read, but one fellow, who also grew up in The Tiny Kingdom ((Mountain Brook), told me it is a helluva story that should be made into a movie.
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