La Quemada
- This article is about the community in Woodlawn. For the street gang, see Latino street gangs.
La Quemada is a predominantly-Hispanic community in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Birmingham, between I-20/59 and the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. On older maps, the subdivision is labeled "Eastwood", and part of the community was laid out as the Eastwood Manor subdivision, but it is not connected to Birmingham's current Eastwood neighborhood.
The community is bounded on the west by Steward Machine Company Plant 2 and Tassco Steel and on the east by Messer Airport Highway (formerly Woodlawn Road) and the Clarion Hotel. The community consists primarily of just over 150 duplex houses.
La Quemada (meaning "burnt") has attracted outreach efforts from several area churches and non-profit organizations, as well as the City of Birmingham. After the August 18, 2003 murder of resident Alfredo Nunes during a robbery, the state's first Spanish-language neighborhood watch program was implemented there. In 2009 Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church members donated materials and labor to construct a neighborhood playground on a grassy lot leased from resident Myrtis Herring.
In early 2018 the Birmingham Airport Authority announced plans to purchase all 153 properties in the community and redevelop the entire area for a Quick Turnaround Facility for automobile rental agencies operating from the airport.
References
- Wolfson, Hannah (October 22, 2003) "Latino residents take steps toward protecting their community." The Birmingham News
- Ruisi, Anne (July 9, 2009) [article title unknown]. The Birmingham News
- Coker, Angel (February 22, 2018) "BHM airport to clear subdivision for new rental car facility." Birmingham Business Journal