Hoover State of the City Address

Earlier this month Hoover mayor Gary Ivey gave his State of the City address at the Hoover Library. I wasn’t able to attend and I have not seen any recaps online or in news outlets (please share if you know of one). But the mayor’s office says that Mayor Ivey is on the calendar to give the Address again two more times. So if you are interested, maybe you can catch one of these:

January 24, 2012 – at the Hoover Senior Centerat 11:00 a.m. This is a luncheon so you need to call ahead to snag a seat.

February 13, 2012 – at the Egg & I at 11:00 a.m. This is a “Friends of Hoover” meeting which is being held at the restaurant.

Hoover Police Ticket Talley

There is an article today talking about the number of tickets Hoover PD wrote back in November. Ready for this? During a nine day period (November 14-22) they wrote 400+ tickets between Alford Avenue and Valleydale exits. Amazing! That’s more than 45 tickets a day. Now that section of I-65 is the part in and around all of the crazy construction. It’s a place where lots of commuters get tired and stressed out and start speeding. I think that’s the cause of the massive increase in accidents. A 45% increase from the year before, according to that article.

One good thing about Bluff Park is that you hardly ever have to get on I-65. You can cut through and get to downtown or the Galleria and never have to deal with interstate traffic. But then that is also the downside. That means everyone who knows this will often see our neighborhood streets as nothing more than a cut-through on their commute, causing the speeding and stop-sign-running that is prevalent at certain intersections.

So maybe they key is get some road construction up here so the Hoover PD will be forced to patrol more? Not sure that’s a good idea either. I know there are parts of Hoover that require more police attention. I’m lucky to have my family up here on the Bluff where things aren’t so unsafe. There just has to be a way to get folks to slow down while passing through our neighborhoods. Speed bumps? Cameras? Crossing guards? Toll booths? I’m open to any idea these days. . . maybe I’m just getting to be an old curmudgeon.

Hoover State of the City Address

It’s a new year and the new Hoover Mayor Gary Ivey is set to give the State of the City address this Monday, January 9th at 10 a.m. The event is at the Hoover Library. Their site says that refreshments will be served at 9:45 a.m. with the meeting kicking off at 10 a.m. Wish I could go. Please let us know if you see any “better than average” coverage.

Tree Recycling in Bluff Park and Hoover

It’s time to take the tinsel down and start vacuuming up the pine needles. I just swapped some emails with the Hoover Trash & Recycle folks. They said that we have two choices for tree disposal this year:

1. 1. we can place our tree out by the curb on our normal trash day, or
2. 2. starting Thursday, December 29th we can drive it over to Municipal Lane (across from the Lake House) and drop it off. They said that the banners marking off the drop off area will be up by Thursday.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and found some time to enjoy the season. It was a fun one for us. We’re very thankful this year for good friends and a healthy family.

Now, time to start looking to 2012 . . .

Von Maur is coming to Galleria

I can’t tell you how nice it is to see some new life and planning happening over at the Galleria. The Birmingham Business Journal is reporting that plans are moving forward for a Von Maur to take over the old Macy’s space and for the Wynfrey hotel to become a Hyatt.

I had never heard of a Von Maur, but looking over their site, they seem to offer similar brands and price points to what Parisian did “back in the day”. It will be great to get some new life and energy to that corner of the mall. Here is to hoping for smooth sailing and minimal red tape.

Bluff Park Gets a Mention…

over on the MagicCityPost.com! It’s about the new “art stuff” up at the old Bluff Park School. The post has some history in there, that’s new to me and some photos of the new interiors that I had not seen. Go Bluff Park!

Netflix Kills the Value for Customers

Are we the only Netflix subscribers seeing this?

I called Netflix a few weeks ago and apparently, since February, they have been restricting the number of simultaneous streams allowed per account. That wasn’t the case in December when we were still paying $8.99. So we learned to live with paying more (they did already increase the price, of our plan, to $9.99 this year) for less service. But then yesterday’s announcement came and now this is how we see Netflix:

This is what scares me: I am 100% confident they are fully aware of this, but either

1. don’t see the need in helping current customers along Netflix’s growth or
2. they do care, but the movie folks have Netflix over a barrel and Netflix is looking for a path to survival (i.e. Sony has already pulled all of its movies once)

Either way, more rate increases and cutting of services are bound to happen.

Our house is a cable-free one. We only get our news and entertainment over the internet, so streaming services are very important to us. So now we’re looking at using Hulu Plus (hoping RedBox can make something happen). Maybe we’ll look at iTunes or Amazon OnDemand.

I mean, why wouldn’t you bail on an entertainment expense that increases 77.75% in 8 months, while decreasing the services? Especially one that’s going to be having ongoing contract issues with all of the movie folks.

Perhaps I’d feel differently if I still saw Netflix as struggling against the industry and helping shake it up, as they once pitched themselves. But now they’re acting just like any other big spoke in the entertainment industry. And maybe they have to. Maybe they don’t. It’s a shame, either way.

(h/t s.enriquez for RedBox tip)

Shopping Local

I’ve been reading Carrie Rollwagen’s Shop Small blog for a while. I am by no means a militant localvoare type guy, but I do believe that there are benefits to buying from locally-owned businesses. I’ve always wondered about where Rollwagen falls… is she a militant type? a buy-local snob?

Well, The Magic City Post has posted a quick video interview with Rollwagen and it answered all of these questions and more. She’s entered into the “life experiment” with a very honest and even approach. She seems to be giving both national chains and local shops the same fair consideration as she goes through 2011. She makes create points about Starbucks being able to offer insurance for a 20-hours-a-week employee. That’s a serious point that needs to be addressed, by all businesses.

But, as I have found too, there are many pluses to shopping locally.

So check out the video and think about thinking about shopping local. Maybe next time you are in need of something you can find a place closer to home.

Mr. P’s Butcher Shop Owner in the Bham News

Charles Pilleteri, owner of Mr. P’s butcher and sandwich shop, was quoted in a recent Birmingham News article. The piece focuses on the rising costs of food at the grocery stores. Scary stuff, if you think about it. Pilleteri rightly includes rising feed costs for growers as well as rising gas prices. It’s nice to hear from someone at the center of it all. And from one, like Pilleteri, who understands what real business is all about.

I wonder if we wouldn’t all be better off is small business owners and the experiences were included in some of the government and big business policy making…

maybe we should all meet at Mr. P’s for an Italian Sausage sandwich and talk about it.