Central City President Jay Taylor and Fountain Heights President Doris Powell sit in the middle of 19th Street North. the border of their respective neighborhoods. They are united in working for the overall Northside Community. Photo by J. Purvis.

Two Downtown neighborhoods wield considerable influence over what happens in the City Center. But changes in Downtown’s economic and social landscape could gauge just how well rich and poor, black and white, young and old, can adapt and live together in harmony.


BY VICKII HOWELL
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JONATHAN PURVIS AND PHILLIP DOOLEY

Birmingham’s Central Business District sits almost entirely in two neighborhoods that wield considerably more power than most people realize.

Take Fountain Heights residents, for instance. In a recent neighborhood meeting, they sent Birmingham Housing Authority officials back to the drawing board on four of 25 new houses it’s building as part of the neighborhood’s urban renewal plan. In another meeting, they approved a zoning variance, allowing the Social Security Administration to move ahead on its new $50 million building in their neighborhood.

Central City residents in a recent meeting torpedoed a neighborhood mart owner’s plans to open a package store, saying it could jeopardize future funding for the brand new Hope VI development. At another meeting, they sent a young entrepreneur home to rethink his proposed liquor-serving pool hall. They worried about the clientele it might attract.

Not that Doris Powell and Jay Taylor let all this go to their heads.

They’re both working to improve the quality of life for residents, using the neighborhoods’ power to approve or block projects that affect their residents.

For Fountain Heights Neighborhood Association President Powell, that means encouraging more housing developments and removing the blight, drugs and crime. It also means sitting at the table when major projects, like variances for a regional federal office building or a new loft development in her section of Downtown, come up for discussion.

For Central City Neighborhood Association President Taylor, that means ensuring that the loft dwellers – who are now the majority of residents – as well as low-income residents fully experience the benefits of revitalization in his section of Downtown.

And together, as president (she) and vice-president (he) of the five-neighborhood Northside Community, they hope to unify residents from a wide array of socio-economic backgrounds for the common good.

“Our goal is to show there is unity in Northside…” Taylor starts.

“Regardless of race,” Powell finishes. “There is no black or white in the Northside community. Simple as that.”

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