2008 State of the City address

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Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford's 2008 State of the City address was delivered to the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham at noon on Tuesday January 15, 2008, at the beginning of Langford's 1st year in office.

Langford, walking with crutches after a recent hip surgery, highlighted some of the initiatives he has announced during his first 90 days in office. He thanked the Birmingham City Council for approving his Birmingham Economic and Community Revitalization Ordinance to fund several of those initiatives,

Regarding the most costly proposal, to construct a domed stadium, Langford said that he would ask business leaders to sponsor an independent evaluation of four sites for the dome. He did take the time to say that the downtown site adjacent to the BJCC lacked space for adequate parking.

Langford also announced plans to hire 50 additional police officers and to lobby the Alabama legislature for tougher gun laws. "I'm going to put everybody in jail who acts the fool," he told the crowd, adding that the entire community would have to pull together to solve the crime problem.

He also announced that he would be striking a deal with former Auburn Tigers tailback Bo Jackson and other investors to develop a downtown supermarket. And last, he announced that he was putting together a revitalization plan for Five Points West, to be unveiled in 3 to 4 weeks, explaining that "We can't just revitalize downtown, we have to revitalize the whole city."

Transcript

As you can see, the state of the city is good. Many new initiatives are on the right track, and...a complete new transit system. all new buses, 100+. Streetcars and trolleys for downtown. A new intermodal system that will house Amtrak ...and our system. Shops and all where people can come and enjoy the city. Finally, a real groundbreaking is gonna be held and the Railroad Park is gonna become a real reality. Finally. No more games. No more false groundbreaking. When we break ground this time, we're gonna build it.

On Friday, if I'm out of the hospital. A friend of mine, Bo Jackson, is coming to town and is bringing with him a group of investors - who now want to build a supermarket downtown. <applause>

In the next three to four weeks we're going to announce a new renovation program for Five Points West. Much needed, and long overdue. We can't just revitalize downtown. We have to revitalize the whole city. It's much needed, it's long overdue, and I think you're gonna like it.

Let me turn my attention now to crime. Yesterday the chief... Chief, stand up. Welcome our new chief. <applause> Yesterday the chief and I talked. And we're gonna make every available resource in the city available to the Birmingham Police Department. Beginning immediately, 50 new officers are going on the street.

Let me make something clear. We can hire a thousand cops. It won't stop this. We're putting officers out there to try to shore up the community and make the community people feel a bit more at ease. But until you and I and the churches and this community come together, and work to change people's hearts, no amount of cops will stop the murders taking place in this city.

It took the City of New York fifteen years to impact the murder rate in it's city. It won't take us fifteen years, because I'm gonna put everybody in jail who act a fool. <applause> So, if you wanna lose your mind, go right ahead and do it, and we're gonna address it.

I can't do anything; the City Council can do nothing. It's going to take all of us in this community working together to stop these problems. We can no longer be so sensitive about things that we do not speak to issues head on. The murder rate taking place in this community... the black community has to step up. I remember in this city when blacks, whites, all of us got together, and finally stopped the Ku Klux Klan from driving through our neighborhoods under the cover of darkness destroying property and taking lives. We did it. But we didn't do that so black folks can murder black folks in the broad open daylight. It's time we all collectively speak on one voice about this. It's not racial to say, 'How do we help this community rise above this senseless murders and killings taking place?' We gotta do it. We ain't have no choice. If we don't do it, it's gonna spread to other communities.

Now the crime rate is moving from the western part of town to the eastern part of town. I am sick and tired of every time I turn on the television, someone else is dead, senselessly.

I have a gun on me. I like to shoot skeet, trap and I like to hunt. But guns in the hands of people, illegally obtained in most cases, who indiscriminately take the lives of another human being, must be stopped. And, so I'm gonna get with the Alabama legislature - the only body in the state that controls guns in the State of Alabama. We need to raise the fine, the penalties and the jail time on anyone who possesses a gun illegally in our community. If you use a gun in the commission of a crime, we ought to put your butt in jail, put the key around a jackrabbit's neck, and turn 'im loose. <applause>

For those in the community who use weapons the right way, I'm all for it. But we've got to say to people enough of this is enough. And it's high time we all come together and do it.

I could stand up here for a long time because I am so enthused about where this community is going. I want to focus now on the domed stadium. For twelve years we tried to find funding for the stadium. This City Council had the guts and the nerve to stand up, and put the funding in place. So now its not a dream anymore. We've got the money to do it.

I simply said, having visited the site, I have concerns about the site. I have a right to have concerns about the site. This Council has a right to have concerns about the site. You OUGHT to have concerns about the site. If two venues are going on at the Civic Center right now, you have ALL KINDS of difficulties trying to just park there now. We're gonna add almost a 60,000-seat arena in the midst of that? We only got one chance to get this right. All of us ought to be concerned enough to come to the table and say 'Do it right the first time.' The money's on the table. But if we can't overcome the problems putting the stadium downtown, why create another mess so people won't come?

So Friday morning, I have a monthly meeting with the business community - the steering committee of this city. I will ask for an independent evaluation of that site - of the three sites we've identified. I didn't say another study. We study stuff to death in this community. I don't need it studied anymore. I want an evaluation of the site by an outside party, that's not loyal to the Mayor, nor to the BJCC. Because in my heart, I know we all want to the same thing. We can't make a mess out of this one. Because we have enough people in THIS community, that's exactly what they want. And so all I'm asking is for an outside body to look at it. Then come back and I will call a meeting of the BJCC, the Birmingham City Council, the business community in my office, and we're gonna sit down and objectively look at it. Because we've only got one chance - one chance only - to do this right. And that's not askin' too much.

I've read reports in the past "The Mayor preferred this site." No he didn't. The mayor said he preferred and favored the domed stadium. Because, like you, I didn't know where the site was. If your lives depended on it RIGHT NOW, and each of you had to go down and physically stand on the site, ninety-plus percent of us in here don't know where it is.

But the time for the games are over now. We've got the money. "It's about control". WHAT? I don't care who controls it. But since WE put the financing together, we're gonna have direct input into not only where it goes, but how it's operated. We would be absolutely insane to do otherwise. There isn't a businessperson in this room would invest almost 500 million dollars and then simply turn it over to someone and say "now take the ball and run with it."

Every business client who locates in the city limits of Birmingham, when they come here, have one resounding song for us, 'location, location, LOCATION'. It DOES matter where it goes. And all I'm asking you to do is to be patient enough - you've waited twelve years, when nobody put up the funding. Now that the funding is on the table, isn't it worth 60 to 90 days to evaluate the site, and do it right? We're gonna do it right.

I read all of this stuff. "This authority, that authority." These authorities were put in place for specific reasons. The City of Birmingham cannot afford to float any more than $130 million worth of bonds. That was before the city got the money it has today to build a facility. Bonded capacity is all based on revenue. This is a revenue-generating issue. We don't believe in ourselves in this community. One party after another spent all of its time trying to CRITICIZE AND CONDEMN. They bring nothing to the table, but want to tell everybody how to set it. This is one time. All of us are gonna make this decision. Because after all it is your money that's financing it. I hope when you leave here today you take with us a new attitude. That we can work together, that we must work together, and that we will.

The easiest thing I have gotten done in the first 45 to 60 days in this city was to get the funding put in place for the stadium, to hire a young man who was gonna prove out to be the best police chief we have ever hired. I have, with God's help, put together a staff of people who are smarter than me. Of course it didn't take much to do that <laughter>. But any man who thinks he's smart hires smarter people, and surround himself with smart people.

This DVD you saw here today [1], I got out of the hospital Friday -- thought I was feeling better Friday night, so I called the staff over Saturday. Had scripted what I wanted, and said to them, "Have this DVD put together and brought to my home. Put it in my hands by two o'clock on Monday." At two o'clock, our staff, did what you saw -- We can do anything we want to. Somebody's just got to lead, that's all.

I couldn't feel happier about this city, than I was when I got that dog, Judge Cupp. I have since instructed that dog not to speak to strangers, because you never know who you're talkin' to. The future for Birmingham, Alabama couldn't be brighter. We can do anything we want to if we come together and work together.

I'm gonna close my remarks with a poem that I live by, and then I'll take your questions. The 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, wrote a poem called 'The Critic'. He says:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. [2]

If you're scared to take a chance, you're already dead. If you're worried about criticism, you'll never get out of the blocks. We must change the attitude of our city. And together we can do that. I don't care what your political party affiliations are. It doesn't matter to me. I don't care what church you go to or what foods you eat. But Dr King made it clear before he died. He said we would either all learn to live together as brothers, or we would perish together as fools. It is time we stand up, come together, work together, and change this community. I can take the criticism. Go ahead. I can take the praise. Go ahead. But I will not settle for second best. We're no longer gonna patch this community; we're gonna fix this community.

Out of all we have been through in this city, we ought to be that beacon of light on the hill that the world looks to. As I struggled with what to say to you here today, there's a passage in the Bible that says, as I was thinking about the domed stadium. No man lights a candle and put it under a desk. We ought to be that city sitting on the top of the hill so that when our light shines the city can see. We have come too far; we have endured too much, to get caught up in this stream of negativism that has killed this community.

I love that old saying: "You either lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way!" Its time we move Birmingham forward. The train's leaving. Get on board. Believe in Birmingham.

If you ain't scared, I'll take your questions. <applause, standing ovation>

References

  • DeButts, Jimmy (January 15, 2008) "Langford gives 'state of city' address, says Bo Jackson plans downtown development." Birmingham Business Journal.
  • Bryant, Joseph D. (January 16, 2008) "In first State of City address, Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford calls for 50 more police officers." Birmingham News

External link