M2M2M Trip (13)

THIRTEEN

LITTLE ATLANTA?:

My dad said that he has heard B’Ham called “Little Atlanta.” Must have been by an Atlantan. We think of all other Southern cities as wannabes and ourselves as a fusion of New York and LA with Southern charm. I like B’Ham because it is so different. It is more old world, rust belt industry town than it is New South flash. The people here are from here mostly. And you can get a meeting with the Chief of Police (as I once did) and a good pork sandwich in the same afternoon with minimal effort. Rent is cheap; property is cheap. Not many earn very much – it is the Old South. I like how UAB has gobbled up the whole top end of downtown. I like the Five Points area. I like the houses on hills that remind me of California towns. I love the old statue, Vulcan. He perches atop the surprisingly urban-looking city as a tribute to industry and is the world’s largest cast iron statue. And Legion Field is as historic of an in-town stadium as you will find in America. Bama still plays a few games a season here, but the history of the stadium is the Iron Bowl, Auburn vs. Alabama. And Paul “Bear” Bryant had the Tide rolling in that old slab of a stadium. Much like the BAMA program, the town is more historic than it is currently relevant. Birmingham matters…in Alabama.