Trip to Birmingham for Urbanite (Auburn, Taylor: for sale, real estate, apartment)

[Socal2Bham]

Originally Posted by mp33

Socal2bham...

We ate at Rojo's today -- shrimp salad, delish! Took the kids to the little park down the hill. Loved the historic houses on Highland. Since you are from the Santa Barbara area in Ca...have you visited any areas of Birmingham perhaps similar to downtown San Luis Obispo -- or even like State Street in Santa Barbara?? We drove around over near Mellow Mushroom Pizza...where is Forrest Park in relation to that? We also walked around Pepper Place.

If anyone has "hot spot" info -- do tell!!!!

Rojo has THE best fish tacos in Birmingham (at least of all the ones I've tried so far)! I love that place because it reminds me of the type of hangout you would find in Santa Barbara.

It has been a looong time since I have been to San Luis Obispo so I can't compare the downtown there to anything in Birmingham and because Santa Barbara is a Spanish town I haven't found anything here that looks like Santa Barbara or State St. Maybe the English Village area some, but like Eeyore said, there isn't really any one main area where everyone goes.

I used to be 2.5 miles from Mellow Mushroom when I lived in Forest Park. I was a straight shot down University Blvd/8th Ave./Clairmont then a little jog over to 5 Points South. You seem to be doing a good job of finding the cool places to check out so far, you already found Rojo! I have told many natives about it and they didn't even know it was there.

I miss living downtown.

[urbups]

I live in Norwood currently and the nieghborhood is on a major comeback. People are not being shot or mugged here on a regular basis, though if you're going to fix up a home here I'd invest in a security system b/c people are breaking into empty houses for copper and tools. I'm involved with the block watch here and have seen the crime stats plus my own experience has been pleasant for over 4 years: Norwood is safe for visitors and residents.
We're still early in our renaissance however and we don't have any quaint shops or cool restaurants. We do have greek revival, craftman and four square style mansions and bungalows for less than 100,000 that professional people are starting to fix up and move into and a park designed by the person who designed NY's Central Park along Norwood Blvd. People enjoy driving through here and imagining living in these old houses. What throws people off is the men they see walking the streets that look "dangerous" (read not middle class) . There are 13 half way rooming houses among these old mansions and that puts some marginal looking folks on the streets but I can confidently say that I am safe here and welcome you to take a drive through.

In terms of pedestrian friendly things to do and a pleasant walking experience
1 Highland ave near 5 Points South

2.downtown Homewood has shop after shop that are almost all quaint,

3.Highland park (take highland avenue up from 5 points south) will give you Rojo and a nice view of historic architecture and a great park (these too were designed by Fredrick Olmstead).

4.Visit Vulcan Park which has the statue of the Roman god of the same name atop Red (?) Mountain and looks over the city from there....I think that is a signature Birmingham thing to do as most older southern cities will have beautiful older neighborhoods to go into but nowhere else has Vulcan.

5. English Village, Crestwood Village are small shop laden, designed for walking (even though the traffic is high most times I go there) feasts for the eyes. However their location in Mountain Brook, Bhams old money enclave, removes some of the hip factor from the experience.

[urbups]

I live in Norwood currently and the nieghborhood is on a major comeback. People are not being shot or mugged here on a regular basis, though if you're going to fix up a home here I'd invest in a security system b/c people are breaking into empty houses for copper and tools. I'm involved with the block watch here and have seen the crime stats plus my own experience has been pleasant for over 4 years: Norwood is safe for visitors and most residents.
What throws people off is the men they see walking the streets that look "dangerous" (read not middle class) . There are 13 half way rooming houses among these old mansions and that puts some marginal looking folks on the streets but I can confidently say that I am safe here and welcome you to take a drive through.

[AQUEMINI331]

Originally Posted by urbups

I live in Norwood currently and the nieghborhood is on a major comeback. People are not being shot or mugged here on a regular basis, though if you're going to fix up a home here I'd invest in a security system b/c people are breaking into empty houses for copper and tools. I'm involved with the block watch here and have seen the crime stats plus my own experience has been pleasant for over 4 years: Norwood is safe for visitors and most residents.
What throws people off is the men they see walking the streets that look "dangerous" (read not middle class) . There are 13 half way rooming houses among these old mansions and that puts some marginal looking folks on the streets but I can confidently say that I am safe here and welcome you to take a drive through.

Norwood's making a comeback? Brother that has to be seen to be believed. Don't get me wrong - I'd love to see it happen. But I have oh so little faith. I really would have to see that to believe it. As I said before, I did see two people get killed there one time and I know that was not out of the ordinary for that community. Now granted this wasn't on the boulevard where those big nice historic homes are located, this was in some housing projects known locally as "the bottom" over on 17th Avenue North (I know you know what I'm talking about). I was in high school then, and certainly it was no place for a teenager to be. But then again, over there you see 11 and 12 year old kids smoking blunts and carrying pistols. When I lived in Birmingham, I lived in Collegeville before moving to West End, I know all about the hood, and last time I was in Norwood two years ago it was still just as "hood" as any neighborhood up here in Chicago.

[urbups]

The bottoms, aka "Dodge City", are the biggest problem in the area in terms of a source of crime and I know where you're coming from in your impressions. I live on the other side of Norwood Blvd on Norwood Circle in a custom designed 3/2.5 home built in 1933 that I was able to get for about 65k four years ago! I've mistakingly left my front door open for over an hour and my back door unlocked for days and not had any problems.
I have only recently started considering the bottoms part of norwood b/c I rarely go over there and never met any neighbors who lived over there until recently. 70% or more of the neighborhood is not in the bottoms so one can live in Norwood and rarely if ever go back there. Professionals and others are moving into the single family homes here, we've got one of the most active neighborhood assns in the city, a 10 year development plan that very nice and a lot of momentum for city investment. Someone driving through here now might still have to know what their looking for to really see the changes b/c the first thing you're going to see are poor-looking black males walking some of the streets, some abandoned housing, etc. but there are a lot of changes happening.

[Socal2Bham]

Maybe is was mentioned somewhere and I missed it, but where is Norwood?

[urbups]

Going east on 20/59 get off at the 31st street exit, which is the first one off the highway past downtown. T/ left over the overpass puts you onto 31st street. To get to Norwood Blvd quickest go to 12th ave (first street once you're over the overpass). T/ right on 12th and go up 1 block to 32nd street and T left. Take that straight to Norwood blvd, which is the center of the neighborhood and is where the linear park designed by the son of the designer of Central Park in NY as well as Highland Park here and Bush Blvd over near Ensley. From there you can circle around the park similar to how you can go around the parks on Highland Avenue, only here it's one continuous park.
You can also visit two websites that have info on the neighborhood:
A WebsiteBuilder Website - Home (broken link) and Historic Norwood in Birmingham: Home for some background and history.

[Socal2Bham]

ahh, the North side. I've been expressly forbidden from going there, so I've never been.

Just asked my boyfriend about the area, he said it would be a great place to live if you're willing to take a few bullets.

[urbups]

This is why Birmingham needs more outsiders moving here....I moved here from Atlanta and immediately saw the value of living over here b/c I didn't have 20 year old bagage to process. Most of the fold moving here have lived in other cities and can see opportunity.
Again, 4 years and no problems.

[Socal2Bham]

I agree, it takes a few brave souls to move into an "ify" area to turn it around and I give huge props to those that do.

Shortly after I moved here we looked at homes near Bush Blvd. and some parts of Ensley, in the hopes of getting in cheap, hoping the neighborhood would become more poplular and then watch the property value go up. You just can't do that in the already well established areas. In fact I fell in love with a beautiful old 1920's house over there. It had the spanish tile roof that I love. The owner was in the process of updating the kitchen and was only asking 74K! The other houses on the street were all adorable old homes that were in need of some serious TLC. The street seemed pretty quiet. We went back 3 times, once at night to get an idea of the night 'activity'. I would probably have purchased the place if it had been my decision alone but was eventually talked out of it because others thought it wasn't worth the risk.

I know it can happen. Crestwood and Forest Park are prime examples. Even Avondale seems to be coming around. If they could just get rid of all the crackhead apartments.