Rotary Trail Opens in Downtown “Magic City”
Hundreds of people gathered Wednesday evening to celebrate the opening ceremonies of Rotary Trail along 1st Avenue South in downtown Birmingham. While sipping free champagne and eating popsicles, residents took pictures in front of the new “Magic City” sign – a throwback to an old sign that welcomed visitors to Birmingham more than 60 years ago.
Rotary Trail is currently only two blocks along 1st Avenue South, but it will eventually run half a mile from 20th to 24th streets. The trial is a link in a greenway that will stretch from the Birmingham CrossPlex in Five Points West to Sloss Furnaces.
“I live a block from the trail,” says Jonathan Meadows, an architect who works and lives downtown. “This is going to now be my commute from home to work.”
Danielle Williamson and Tiffany Whitmore slowly walk their bikes down the path Wednesday evening.
“I feel like Birmingham is experiencing a renaissance, and we are right in the middle of it,” says Williamson.
Whitmore agrees. She thinks this trail is a mark of some real change in the city.
Ashley Cleek,WBHM
Residents walk along Rotary Trail.
“This is like all of the hard work that people have been doing,” Whitmore explains. “This is action and product and moving forward.”
The trail is built on top of an old rail line that laid vacant for decades. Now, there’s a path with benches, picnic tables, and solar-powered charging stations for cell phones.
The Birmingham Rotary Club helped finance the trail as gift to the city and a celebration of the club’s centennial.
Stacey Lawler Taylor walks down the trail with her father, Stanley Lawler. Both are members of the Rotary Club and lifelong residents of Birmingham.
Ashley Cleek,WBHM
The second part of the trail, between 22nd and 24th streets, will soon open to foot traffic.
“It’s connecting so many different parts of Birmingham that we have tried to do for years. This is a good starting point,” Taylor says. She says she’s anxious and excited to see how the city continues to grow.
Her father says this trial makes him really proud of the Rotary and his city.
“I think it is going to bring a lot of people together,” says Lawler. “We have overcome not so many great years, but that’s in the past. This is the present and future of what Birmingham really is and can be, and I am just so proud to be here.”
Derek Young stands under one of the overpasses. He works for Sanguard Security and is a supervisor of the trail. Young’s new to Birmingham, originally from Houston, but he can see how special this is for the city.
“I think its going to bring back what the Magic City sign had here in the first place,” Young says, looking west toward the sign. “Bringing back the magic.”
Ashley Cleek,WBHM
The new ‘Magic City’ sign marks the entrance to the Rotary Trail.
Tinted sunscreen does something regular sun protection can’t
Most sunscreens protect skin from UV light but the tinted variety also block visible light. And that can be important for people with hyperpigmentation or melasma, especially those with darker skin.
Squelch squerch! Stumble trip! Tiptoe! — ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’
Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury revisit their classic story of a family going on a bear hunt (encountering many obstacles along the way) — and preview their new one, Oh Dear, Look What I Got!
Photos: The perilous lives of ‘artisanal coal miners’
'Artisanal miners' is the phrase used for South Africans who salvage coal from abandoned mines. It's a grueling and risky life. "Bit by bit it's killing something inside me," says one such miner.
Trump makes over the Rose Garden, Mar-a-Lago style
Trump has swapped out the grass in the Rose Garden with stone, turning what had been a lawn into a patio that bears a striking resemblance to one at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.
Judge blocks Trump from cutting funding over ‘sanctuary’ policies
A judge ruled the Trump administration cannot deny funding to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and 30 other cities and counties because of policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration efforts.
As Trump touts D.C. arrests, experts caution they’re not the best indicator of public safety
The Trump administration says it has arrested more than 700 people in Washington, D.C., in its mission to crack down on crime. Experts say it's difficult to draw conclusions from that about public safety.
