For the inaugural issue of Weld, we asked dozens of people from throughout the community — young and not-so-young; male and female; black, white, Hispanic and Asian; Christian, Muslim, Jewish and agnostic; students, professionals, artists and more — to each give us one idea for making Birmingham better. This is one of those ideas. You can read more here.

Joseph Baker • President, I Believe in Birmingham

Joseph Baker says we don't need fancy new buildings--we need a repurposing of history to enable new histories to be written.

Walking around the 13th Annual Sidewalk Film Festival this past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to take an extensive tour of the Lyric Theater and it served as a catalyst as I ruminated on what Birmingham really needs to improve. The Lyric, Powell School, Sloss Furnaces, the Heaviest Corner, the Thomas Jefferson Hotel and other historic structures serve as a connection to our past but can also be a road to our future.

For too long the administrations of this city have focused on building shiny new edifices to ego instead of looking to the past for guidance on what we can become. We don’t need fancy new buildings and swimming pools, we need in-fill and renovation; a repurposing of history to enable new histories to be written. We are a town filled with history and unless we take care it might just rust away and what a shame that would be. What we need is vision and true vision comes from learning from our past. If we can do that then perhaps we might just fulfill our promise.

Read more Big Ideas to Make Birmingham Better here.