h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i myself live in birmingham alabama USA.

it is not totally horrible, yet it does have its problems.

many buildings are falling apart.

the mass transit is very sloppy.

i am sitting in the public library downtown right now where the librarian is talking so loud i can hear him clean across the building.

many many complaints about him have made no dfference.

busses run slow, or worse yet, early.

no busses at all on sundays.

few busses on saturday.

everyone here knows the problems.

they do little to repair them.

homeless people sleep in churches where members drive up in mercedes, bmw's even rolls royces.

i'd love to leave.

on my small retirement check i can't.

50 years here is too long.

don't want to die here.

will include photos later.

[email protected]

Birmingham has its problems but so does everywhere else if you look for them.
I live just outside Birmingham in Gardendale. A beautiful community where people still smile, say hello and go out of their way to help others.
I drive through Birmingham everyday on my way to work in Irondale. I have business that I do in Birmingham on a regular basis for my company and do admit that I wish a lot of changes could be made...better streets, better parking, public transportation that actually worked and so on but at the same time through the 14 years that I have been doing business downtown I have noticed a lot of changes...those old buildings that are falling down---a lot of them are being refurbished (note the old theatre downtown)or brought down and the land used for other purposes (note the run down housing projects down from the courthouse). The streets are cleaner, the air doesn't smell nearly as bad as it did years ago. They are working on doing more with plants/trees and so on to make it look more appealing to visitors. Yes, more needs done but so much is being done as I type.
Birmingham isn't my favourite spot at all but it could be so much worse....
Monsy