Continuing to Build a Fairer, More Equitable, and Inclusive Birmingham

• Expanding the scope of the City’s Pardons for Progress program so that even more Birmingham residents can have their municipal misdemeanor marijuana charges pardoned;

• Launching “Operation Second Chance,” a program for Birmingham residents to expunge misdemeanors and select felonies from their criminal records;

• Continuing the Birmingham Police Department’s policy of de-emphasizing marijuana possession cases to ensure that minor marijuana possession cases no longer go before our municipal courts

• Expanding the City’s supply of supportive units for our homeless residents

• Addressing digital equity issues, especially related to expanded access to the internet for Birmingham residents and digital literacy for job preparedness

• Vocally opposing anti-LGBTQ discriminatory measures proposed by the state legislature

• Establishing an anti-bullying policy centered around LGBTQ youth at all city-owned facilities that provide youth services

Investing in Birmingham’s Children

• Creating a Birmingham “Thrive by Five” program to connect education, health, and human resources to create better outcomes for our children’s early education and long-term future.

• The program, modeled after Washington, D.C.’s “Thrive by Five”, will focus on improving maternal and childhood health, child development, and early learning.

• Alabama has the third-highest maternal and infant morality rates in the country -- about twice the national average -- and Black women are more than twice as likely to be impacted by this disparity.

• While these staggering statistics are largely centered around rural areas with limited access to health care, especially the Black Belt, Birmingham -- as a health care hub that leads innovation and research across the South -- has an opportunity and responsibility to step up and do our part to help confront this issue.

• Thrive by Five D.C.’s work includes: providing a centralized space to bring together the city’s wide range of resources, fostering communication and collaboration between organizations to cultivate innovative solutions, and hosting a yearly Maternal and Infant Health Summit.

• Thrive by Five Birmingham aims to emulate the successes of Thrive by Five D.C. by using our home-grown talent to continue leading the way in improving Maternal and Early Childhood health, education, and development.

Investing in Birmingham's Students & Young People

• Launching “Grow Your Own,” a program to help combat “Brain Drain” by connecting Birmingham Promise students to paid internships at Birmingham businesses both large and small.

• Every young person should have the opportunity to grow to their fullest potential right here in Birmingham.

• “Grow Your Own” will encourage young talent to invest their skills, time and energy into Birmingham’s future.

Leading Birmingham's Recovery from COVID

• Expanding the number of vaccination sites -- including securing mobile vaccination units through community health partners -- throughout the City of Birmingham.

Fully Implementing Key Reforms recommended by the Public Safety Task Force and P.E.A.C.E. Policy

• Continue banning high-risk, no-knock raids like the kind that led to the killing of Breonna Taylor;

• Issuing an expedited public access policy for body and dash-camera footage;

• Creating an independent police monitor tasked with ongoing oversight of the Birmingham Police Department;

• Supporting our Civilian Review Board

• Continuing to prohibit the use of facial recognition technology that unfairly discriminates against people of color;

Getting Guns off the Street

• Further refining and implementing the City’s PEACE Strategy -- a public health-based approach to preventing gun violence in Birmingham;

• Investing in mental health infrastructure to support Birmingham residents;

• Providing support for non-law enforcement approaches to preventing gun violence;

• Seeking out new community-based solutions to preventing and responding to gun violence;

• Ensuring victims of gun violence have the support they need;

PRIORITIZING EQUITABLE PUBLIC SAFETY

• Continuing to expand the City’s advocacy efforts and long-term investments in early childhood education as a part of our comprehensive, long-term community investment strategy to reduce the root causes of violent crime through initiatives like “Thrive by Five”, childhood literacy programs, and pushing our state partners in Montgomery to continue to provide additional, publicly-funded pre-K slots for Birmingham students;

• Dramatically expanding the Office of Peace and Policy’s reentry programming to help reduce recidivism. That includes the ongoing Tuhska Lusa Initiative, programming for returning Birmingham juvenile residents, a universal basic income program and apprenticeship pipeline for returning Birmingham residents.

• Expanding BPD’s partnerships with local social services partners to help investigate and resolve human trafficking and domestic violence cases;

• Launching “Operation Second Chance,” a program for Birmingham residents to expunge misdemeanors and select felonies from their criminal records;

• Working to clear any remaining backlog of untested rape kits in Birmingham;

• As a part of the Magic City Recovery Plan, launching a special unit of non-BPD officers to respond to nonviolent calls for service;

Working Proactively to Prevent Violent Crime

• Launching a community-based peacekeepers program as part of the Magic City Recovery Plan that would allow community members to help support the City’s fight against violent crime;

• Partnering with the Housing Authority Birmingham District to develop and execute safety plans for each of the Housing Authority’s properties;

• Launching our Real Time Crime Center that would significantly enhance our ability to fight violent crime in Birmingham in real time;

Honoring and Elevating Birmingham's History

• Establishing and fully funding our Department of Innovation and Economic Opportunity’s Legacy Business Program to provide financial support to our small, legacy businesses that have been operating in Birmingham at least 25 years, operate in our historic neighborhoods, and contribute to the historic, cultural, artistic and culinary fabric of Birmingham;

• Completing the restoration of the A.G. Gaston Motel and historic Ramsay McCormack Building anchoring the revitalization of Historic Downtown Ensley;

Building On Our Progress Investing In All 99 Neighborhoods

• Expanding the City of Birmingham’s Healthy Food Fund to finance smaller, healthy food providers so that every Birmingham resident has equitable access to healthy, fresh food;

• Creating an Office of Sustainability to spearhead the City’s environmental justice, housing remediation and retrofitting, food access and food policy, and green infrastructure planning and green workforce development initiatives;

• Developing a healthy homes workforce development program to train residents in the home repair and remediation trades through existing federal programs and private philanthropy;

• Making affected North Birmingham property owners whole through targeted buyouts and relocation for citizens in the most adversely affected areas;

• Convening national and local trial lawyers to develop a justice strategy and Victims Compensation and Community Reinvestment Fund for long-term North Birmingham residents that have been victims of air pollution;

• Continuing to aggressively pursue FEMA resources to address hazard mitigation and floodplain issues;

• Establishing a tree planting program with neighborhood partners to plant 800-1,000 trees a year;

• Increasing the City’s financial commitment to housing stabilization and home repairs with a particular focus on housing repairs for our senior homeowners;

Reimagining North Birmingham

• Making affected North Birmingham property owners whole through targeted buyouts and relocation for citizens in the most adversely affected areas;

• Continuing targeted demolition efforts in North Birmingham to remove blighted properties and bank parcels with Birmingham Land Bank Authority;

• Convening national and local trial lawyers to develop a justice strategy and Victims Compensation and Community Reinvestment Fund for long-term North Birmingham residents that have been victims of air pollution

Restoring Historic Ensley

• Completing the Ramsey McCormack redevelopment by 2022;

• Working to secure a state Entertainment District designation for Downtown Ensley;

Reimagining the Smithfield and Elyton Communities

• Identifying and redeveloping Land Bank parcels in the Smithfield and Elyton communities for affordable, single-family redevelopment;

• Leveraging the City’s Healthy Food Fund and other federal programs like the New Markets Tax Credit and the Healthy Food Financing Initiative to expand healthy food options in the Smithfield and Elyton communities;

Creating a More Mobile Birmingham

• Leveraging the Magic City Recovery Plan for a significant expansion of the City’s road resurfacing, sidewalk repair, and pothole-filling operations in 2021;

• Completing the Birmingham Xpress by 2022;

• Expanding our investment in our on-demand transportation service to continue to support our residents’ ability to travel safely and affordably throughout Birmingham;

Creating More High-Quality Jobs for Birmingham Residents

• Creating a formal pipeline partnership between Alabama’s HBCUs and Birmingham’s corporate community to keep Alabama’s homegrown diverse, Black talent in Alabama;

• Developing a job retention toolkit for Birmingham businesses to incentive expansion and employment growth, particularly for returning citizens, youth, and Birmingham residents who participate in federal public assistance programs;

• Directing significant investments of federal research and development funding into Birmingham’s tech sector to firmly establish Birmingham as the Deep South’s emerging tech hub;

Making Birmingham a Destination City

• Securing a state entertainment designation for the Historic Ensley Event District to accompany the revitalization of Historic Downtown Ensley with targeted support and incentives for restaurant and entertainment venues seeking to locate in the Historic Downtown Ensley;

Supporting Birmingham's Small Businesses

• Completing our disparity study and developing the City of Birmingham’s first Diverse Business Opportunity Program that will provide the foundation for spending $100 million with minority and women-owned businesses by 2025;

• Working closely with the Economic Development Administration to develop a revolving loan fund to provide grants to our small businesses with a particular focus on minority-owned businesses;

• Through the Magic City Recovery Plan, establishing a recovery fund for Birmingham’s beauty salons and barbershops;

Securing Birmingham's Finances

• Continuing to fully fund our pension obligations through 2025;

• As fiscal circumstances allow, providing annual cost-of-living, longevity pay, and merit pay increases every year to our employees;