Drive By Review: Birmingham, Alabama

The first major city we drove through on Sunday was Birmingham, Alabama. I have a lot of family that lives approximately 70 miles from the city, so I’ve spent a little bit of time here off and on over the years. It’s always reminded me a little bit of Columbus, actually. Big enough to be a big city, but small enough to be humble and charming.

We drove northward and exited highways 280/31 near the University of Alabama. Zig-zagged through the southern end of town. We got on 20th street headed north, which turned into a nice boulevard as we got into downtown. There seemed to be a good bit of density along most of the core downtown streets. Lots of ground-floor shops and businesses in the taller buildings. Not a whole lot of activity on the downtown streets though, which we expected on a Sunday around noon. Most of our exploration seemed to take place in a business district.

20th Street dead ends into Linn Park, a beautiful old park (huge trees!), right in the middle of downtown. We decided to get out and sit on the grass for a bit and get some fresh air. The park serves as a centerpiece for nearby city and county government buildings. There is a large fountain in the middle, and several additional water features. I never knew, but a pretty sweet sounding music festival called City Stages happens in the park every year.

After our break, we hopped back in the car and headed back to the highway. Was actually a bit hard to figure out how to get back to it. We circled the highway for probably 15 minutes without being able to find any onramps, or any signage pointing us on where to go. Perhaps they wanted us to give up and just stay in downtown Birmingham forever?

The good:

• Dense downtown.
• Urban revitalization in progress (residential development, streetcar project).
• Easy to navigate street grid.
• Great urban park.
• Lots of pedestrian-friendly streets.
• Lots of greenspace along the streets (old trees with plenty of shade).

The bad:

• Seemingly endless amounts of sprawl on the south side of the city.
• A bit too hot for me during the summer. And I like actually getting some snow from time to time.

Verdict:

I would consider living in Birmingham. Seems like it would be slightly more laid back than Columbus. Definitely will be back to visit and explore on our next trip southbound.