Birmingham, Ala.WBRC) – Birmingham’s Budget and Finance Committee recommends an additional $4.5 million for the new amphitheater project.
The committee spent about an hour discussing the proposal Monday afternoon.
Mayor Randall Woodfin and other project partners will provide $4.5 million in infrastructure improvements around the old Carraway Hospital, such as sidewalks and ramps, along with street repaving and new lighting on 24th and 25th streets.
This is publicly available around the new amphitheater clean and well lit.
But there are concerns about pouring more money into an economic development project while Birmingham residents are still struggling with infrastructure in their neighborhoods.
“We’ve done a lot where we want to make Birmingham a destination and we want to invest in it, so I know it’s going to happen – you have to spend money to make money,” said councilor Wardeen Alexander. “I don’t have a problem with that. I just have to think about the people I represent.”
“You know I’ve spent 23 years as a city council member saying, ‘We’re going to do these big economic development projects and it’s going to provide funding for these neighborhoods,'” said Councilwoman Valerie Abbott. “But you know what? We can never go to the neighbors.”
Abbott said they had to vote in favor of it because they committed to the project years ago.
“I voted for it because it was the right thing to do, but what’s even better is to focus on the areas where we have infrastructure that is in really bad shape,” Abbott said.
Now that the Budget and Finance Committee has voted on the additional funding, the item will go before the full City Council for final approval.
Developers anticipate completion of the amphitheater project in May 2025, with their first show scheduled for June 2025.
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