J. Hunter

Mayor Bernard Kincaid at the Helm Again

After winning re-election in November 2003, Kincaid seems born again. He’s not the cantankerous mayor who tangled horns with two groups of City Council colleagues: one that opposed him at every turn in his first two years, and the other that grew increasingly frustrated at their inability to work with him. In fact, four council members ran against him in last year’s mayoral election.

But Kincaid emerged victorious. And (almost) contrite. On election night, he vowed to work cooperatively with the current City Council to move Birmingham forward. He’s since met with them all to discuss concerns for their districts and goals for the city. Economic and community development is now one of the “new” Kincaid administration’s top goals. Kincaid envisions what Birmingham could look like 10 years from today. “I see our civic center being expanded, with a domed stadium,” he says. “I see our having a regional transportation system,” he says, one with park-and-ride lots, high-occupancy vehicle lanes and a City Center circulator or street cars to move people around Downtown.

The mayor envisions the second phase of the intermodal facility completed. There, passengers from MAX and Greyhound buses, Amtrak, and taxi services would converge. At least $2.75 million of the amount needed for the second phase is already in hand, Kincaid says. Just south of that facility, Kincaid sees the Railroad Reservation Park completed in 10 years. The major piece of inner-city green space would allow walkers and cyclists to go from First Avenue South and 14th Street as far as Sloss Furnaces. “Ten years from now, I see the Sears property developed, which would anchor our Entrepreneurial District,” he says. The southwestern corner of Downtown has been designated an incubation district for high-tech and biomedical industries.

If new businesses grow or expand to support biomedical research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and other institutions, “then all of that spells nothing but economic development for us,” Kincaid says. In the coming decade, the mayor sees an expanded international airport built to carry cargo for more industries attracted to the region. And in that decade, these and other projects will generate tax revenues to help fund one of the city’s most crucial redevelopment pieces – housing for people of all incomes.

“It’s absolutely vital that we develop new housing, redevelop existing housing, stop this demolition by neglect,” Kincaid says. Creating upscale neighborhoods “is the only way we’re going to compete with the suburban areas. Safe, clean streets, living closer to work, protecting the environment – it’s a winning formula.” Kincaid is counting on his administration, as well as the City Council, to set the course for Birmingham’s future (see “Policy Matters,” page 33).


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