Alabama mayors join Jr League Birmingham to fight human trafficking
Mayors all over Alabama are stepping up to fight human trafficking. Julia Meyers, Junior League Birmingham (JLB) chairwoman of the Anti-human Trafficking Committee, has been working tirelessly with the state legislative Human Trafficking Task Force in order to get regional government officials to proclaim January human trafficking awareness month. Mayors of Mountain Brook, Homewood, Vestavia Hills, and Hoover have all signed proclamations. “I reached out to 18 mayors in Jefferson County and immediately Over the Mountain mayors responded,” Meyers told the Over the Mountain Journal. “That, for me, was very exciting. In the areas where we think this problem isn’t going on, they are actually taking action.” “I’d like our city to know that Vestavia Hills Police Department actively participates in a task force with some of my old colleagues from my FBI days in addressing this issue,” said Vestavia Hills mayor, Ashley Curry. “We’re doing what we can and just ask that everybody look out for certain signs … if you see something that you don’t think is right, give us a call.” The city of Cullman, Ala. has also stepped up to the task with Mayor Woody Jacobs not only proclaiming January as human trafficking awareness month, but establishing January 11 as a Human Trafficking Awareness Day. “Human trafficking is a problem everywhere, even here in our community. I greatly respect the work that the Task Force has done and continues to do to help prevent this terrible crime in Cullman and Cullman County.” Newly elected Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin also joined Meyers in declaring January as human trafficking awareness month, as evidenced in this tweet by the Junior League of Birmingham: Junior League of Birmingham(JLB) President, Katy Roe Eldridge, and JLB Anti-Human Trafficking Chair, Julia Meyers, join Mayor Randall Woodfin as he and City Council proclaim January as “Human Trafficking Awareness Month”. Thank you for supporting JLB in this effort! pic.twitter.com/bBRq1GvkG2 — Jr. League of Bham (@JLBirmingham) January 10, 2018 “Junior League of Birmingham(JLB) President, Katy Roe Eldridge, and JLB Anti-Human Trafficking Chair, Julia Meyers, join Mayor Randall Woodfin as he and City Council proclaim January as “Human Trafficking Awareness Month”. Thank you for supporting JLB in this effort!” Birmingham is an important participant in human trafficking awareness month because of it’s closeness to the issue. Interstate I-20 between Atlanta and Birmingham is known as the Sex Trafficking Superhighway. “It cuts right there through downtown Birmingham, and what we’re finding, unfortunately with the interstate system that you and I use to get from Birmingham to Montgomery — is that people are using it to bring in girls, for example, for a short period of time. Buyers are available, and then they leave,” said David Pinkleton, fundraising chair for the Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force. Other Alabama officials have responded to the Task Force’s urges. Sen. Cam Ward introduced SB179 on Tuesday to increase the criminal punishment for those found guilty of obstruction or enforcement of current human trafficking laws. Gov. Kay Ivey is also expected to sign a proclamation later this month in observance of National Human Trafficking Awareness Month. In addition to the proclamations, Meyers is promoting the Rescue Innocence Project Gala, a fundraiser for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. The event features guest speaker Ed Smart whose daughter was abducted in 2002 and miraculously returned to her family after nine grueling months. Smart and his daughter Elizabeth are now active voices in the fight against sexual exploitation. Although Alabama has it’s own human trafficking task force, new laws to punish those who would sexually exploit children, and lawmakers who are willing to step up and make a difference; Alabama only scores an 83.5 on the Shared Hope International report card. According to the report; “A juvenile sex trafficking victim will be identified as dependent or as a child in need of supervision rather than as delinquent, but Alabama law does not provide a statutory avenue to specialized services.” Under the Safe Harbor law, which passed in Alabama in 2016, minors who are arrested for prostitution are not sent to juvenile detention centers or convicted of prostitution. But therein lies the problem; the state of Alabama has no where else to put them. Minors are currently sent back into the situations that sent them there in the first place, or turned over to DHR. “They were denied education and have no skills. They don’t even have family to turn to.” Meyers told the Over the Mountain Journal. This is a problem Meyers and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation hopes to solve. By providing training, specialized staff, and intake facilities for minors who are victims of human trafficking; Alabama would finally have somewhere to send victims in desperate need of care. Funds collected from the Gala will go towards providing these facilities in Alabama and states around the nation.
The top 10 safest cities in Alabama
Every state has its fair share of crime, but when it comes to pinpointing the safest city in the Yellowhammer State — Helena, Ala. takes the top spot. That’s according to a new report by the National Council for Home Safety and Security (NCHSS) of the Safest Cities in Alabama for 2018. The small Birmingham suburb finds itself in good company of nearby neighbors as Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook and Alabaster, following in the no. 2, 3 and 4 spots respectively The top ten safest cities in Alabama are: 1. Helena Vestavia Hills Mountain Brook Alabaster Daphne Moody Auburn Pleasant Grove Pelham Hartselle To identify the safest cities, NCHSS reviewed the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics along with their own population data and internal research. They eliminated any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI and removed cities with populations under 10,000. Then, the cities were ranked based on the number of reported violent crimes (aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery) and property crimes (burglary, arson, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft) per 1,000 people. These variables were then weighted, with violent crimes assigned a value 1.5 times (due to their severity) that of property crimes.
Mountain Brook restaurants come together for hurricane relief
They say it takes a village, and various Mountain Brook restaurants clearly believe the old proverb. In a community collaboration organized by Leah Harrigan of La Paz Restaurant & Catering, several Mountain Brook restaurants are coming together to raise money for hurricane relief. Operating under the name of “It Takes A Village,” participating restaurants, in conjunction with the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce, will be cross-promoting one another in an effort to drive crowds to their restaurants and thus drive proceeds to a relief fund. The following restaurants are participating: Mountain Brook Creamery: 50 percent of Sales Monday, Oct. 9 Newk’s Eatery: 10 percent of Dinner Sales Tuesday, Oct. 10 Mafiaoza’s: 50 percent of Dinner Sales Thursday, Oct. 12 Taco Mama: 10 percent of Sales Monday-Wednesday, Oct. 9-11 Otey’s Tavern: 10 percent of Sales Monday-Wednesday, Oct. 9-11 La Paz: 10 percent of Sales Monday-Saturday, Oct. 9-14 and 50 percent of Sales Sunday, Oct. 15. In addition, La Paz will also be on-site for Mountain Brook’s Jazz in the Park event on Sunday evening, Oct. 15 and 50 percent of those sales will go to hurricane relief as well. Jazz in the Park is a free community event from 5-8 p.m. in front of Emmet O’Neal Library, and all are invited to attend. Dram: Donating $2 (20percent) of each Moscow Mule and Bloody Mary featuring Tito’s Handmade Vodka – with Tito’s matching the donation. This will continue through Halloween. “It Takes A Village” t-shirts will also be sold to fundraise. For more information, visit mtnbrookchamber.org or contact Molly Wallace of the Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce at molly@mtnbrookchamber.org or (205) 871-3779.
Mountain Brook sets limit to short-term rentals like Airbnb, VRBO
In the absence of a statewide strategy to regulate short-term housing rentals, the Mountain Brook City Council approved an ordinance last week to set the minimum time period for short-term rentals. The ordinance, which amended Chapter 129 of the City Code, makes it unlawful to advertise or rent out a Mountain Brook residence for less than 30 consecutive days. Under the new ordinance, people would still be able to rent out a room or home on sites such as Airbnb or VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner), but only if it’s for 30 or more days at a time. According to the ordinance, it aims to protect the public health, safety and welfare while upholding the city’s standards in regard to residentially zoned property. It’s passage comes in the wake of neighborhood residents feeling unsafe as rentals frequently change guests, and residents are unfamiliar with who’s staying nearby.
Safest cities in Alabama: 50 safest spots in the Yellowhammer State
Safety has always been an important factor when searching for a new place to call home, but a contentious national political system combined with an increase in violent crime across the country, has made safety the number one priority for many Americans. Since navigating through crime statistics can be a difficult and time-consuming process, Alarms.org, part of the National Council for Home Safety and Security, took it upon themselves to crunch the numbers and rank the safest places to live in Alabama. Their experts analyzed FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics in conjunction with their own population data and internal research to find which communities across the Yellowhammer State are the most secure, eliminating any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI and removing cities with populations under 5,000. Taking home the top spot is Helena. Made up of 17 square miles, 18,109 residents, the city has the lowest crime rates in the state with the average violent crime rate five times lower than the state average. And the average property crime rate is 4.7 times lower than the state average. “Helena residents enjoy movies in the park, citywide softball competitions, an annual Christmas parade, and everything else that pairs nicely with a white picket fence,” reads the report. As the city motto suggests, “it’s where you want to be.” Following Helena, three of the remaining top five cities also come from affluent Birmingham suburbs. With Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook and Fultondale taking the second, third and fourth spots on the list. Here’s a look at the 50 safest cities in Alabama:
Jeff Sessions joins fellow conservatives to push back against new federal housing rules
U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions joined with five fellow members of the Republican Senate majority in co-sponsoring a bill by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah designed to stop President Barack Obama‘s “assault on the suburbs,” as proponents of the measure have called new federal housing regulations. The move comes as new provisions of a Department of Housing & Urban Development initiative called Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) would create a National Zoning Board and seek to increase Section 8 public housing in affluent cities to forward its stated goals of “promoting fair housing and equal opportunity.” Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar sponsored the original House version back in April. He characterizes the new program differently. “The AFFH rule, soon to be implemented by HUD … is another top-down, social engineering experiment concocted by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., that attempts to federalize local zoning decisions,” Gosar said in a prepared statement. “Similar to other big government policies from this administration, the flawed AFFH regulation will result in more harm than good by way of increased taxes, depressed property values and further harm to impoverished communities. This is extortion and the Obama Administration should not be mandating that millions of dollars in grant money for local communities be dependent on turning over local zoning decisions to the federal government.” The new regulatory scheme would effect Alabama neighborhoods such as Mountain Brook in Jefferson County, which is more than 90 percent white. Federal authorities would almost certainly move resources from places that are already heavily poor and African-American, such as parts of urban Birmingham to suburban locales, arguing it is in the national interest to encourage urban housing dwellers to share the same resources and environs. Opponents of the plan — including many local suburban zoning boards and residents — for their part, argue it is their prerogative to live where they want without federal intervention to decide who their neighbors will be. Toward that end, the bill would dismantle the program by legislatively forcing the rule to be withdrawn, as well as nixing the Assessment Tool HUD plans to use to implement it. Beyond the negative un-doing mechanisms, it also includes what Gosar called a “federalism provision” which would require HUD to consult with local governments for the purposes of furthering the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which created the department. Sessions was joined by Sens. Marco Rubio, David Vitter, Tom Cotton and Mike Enzi in co-sponsoring the measure. The original House bill — still circulating as the 114th Congress went into summer recess Thursday — had 23 co-sponsors within the majority GOP caucus.
National best/worst rankings a mixed bag for Alabama
As the state makes legislative changes to gear up to be more relevant in the national political scene ahead of 2016 elections, a recent spate of national reports point to uneven progress in Alabama’s public affairs. To begin on a positive note, the inveterate rankers at Niche have given a nod of recognition to 11 of Alabama’s suburbs. Jefferson County in particular looked good in the recent rankings, as both Vestivia Hills — the No. 1 Alabama suburb overall — and Mountain Brook took home top honors. Madison, Pelham and Taylor rounded out the top five in terms of livability and quality nearby schools, the study’s top critera. Speaking of schools, Alabama’s voluntary pre-kindergarten programs continue to score highly in national efficacy models. For the ninth time in the study’s history, the National Institute for Early Education Research named Alabama’s system No. 1 in the country, citing rigorous standards and delivery in its appraisal. On the other hand, a recent study conducted by the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index ranked the Yellowhammer State No. 6 in the nation in obesity rates, with only West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Mississippi rating more obese. Alabama’s rate of obesity — 32.1 percent of the population, according to the survey — is significantly greater than the national rate of 27.7 percent, indicating that the condition is a lingering public health problem in the state. In terms of its political profile, Alabama is commonly thought to be a bastion of Tea Party activism, wherein hard-right tendencies often carry the day. But according to an analysis by the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, 21 other states, including neighboring Florida, rank higher than Alabama, which rings in at 22nd on the list overall. Mega-states like Texas and the aforementioned Sunshine State far outpaced Alabama according to the study, which said about 7,153 Tea Partiers in 14 active chapters make up the state’s “Taxed Enough Already” constituency, good for just better than middle of the pack nationally, despite the conventional wisdom. As Alabama continues to grow in national muscle, expect a good deal more comparing and contrasting to come.
“Jersey Belle” and Salon article don’t tell full Mountain Brook story
Before I moved to Birmingham, I came through several times to visit my best friend. Each time the restaurants and shops of Mountain Brook blended into our schedule, along with visits to downtown Birmingham and other areas of the region. Whiskey at Dram, a nail appointment at Richard Joseph, dinner at Chez Lulu and always a stop by Church Street Coffee & Books: These were among my first experiences of Mountain Brook. As much as she tried, my dear friend couldn’t really describe the city of Mountain Brook to me as an outsider. She could describe its (unfavorable) reputation, the census data on wealth and race and the general tone of the city. None of those quite prepared me for living on its outskirts, as I do today. I came prepared to dislike everything about the city, from the lack of diversity to the perception outsiders are not only unwelcome, but shunned. I’ve watched with interest as the storyline of the new (dare I say “hit”) reality show “Jersey Belle” unfolds. The show and the immediate negative reaction to it wasn’t a surprise to many. The floodgates have opened and it appears Mountain Brook is public enemy No. 1 for anyone offered a platform for their opinion. The first blow was a Salon article by Kristen Lloyd, who grew up here. To say it included an unflattering depiction of the worst cultural accusations made against Mountain Brook would be an understatement. Hers is one perspective based on a negative personal experience. She painted a city I have come to appreciate as if the most negative parts of it define it. I do not think they do. Old money, new money, expensive cars and big houses neither define a person or a place. I don’t claim to know all of the ins and outs of Mountain Brook but I do spend a lot of time there. My gym, salon and daughter’s daycare are there so I’ve come to sort through the fact and fiction as much as an outsider can. At 33, and after more than a decade in the not-so-gentle world of state and federal politics I’m not as easily shaken as others might be by the rough edges of Mountain Brook that come disguised as housewives with expensive taste and judgmental attitudes. Don’t get me wrong; I have met some incredibly mean women, but they don’t define Mountain Brook. I’ve traveled the nation and have lived on both coasts in south Florida, and let me tell you Mountain Brook doesn’t have a monopoly on adult mean girls. The fact is, their judgment only has the value that those being judged place on it. I will teach my daughter that her self-worth shouldn’t be determined by those who have more than her no more than it should be determined by looking down at those who have less. The author of the Salon piece emphasized her difficulty fitting in during high school. Although I went to a small-town high school, we faced the same issues Lloyd described. Again, I’d say the problems she described aren’t unique to Mountain Brook. To believe the hype of Mountain Brook is to believe that nothing good can come out of there, and that is just false. I met my primary babysitters, ES and MNR, through their parents. Both families contribute their time and talents not just to Mountain Brook but also to making the Birmingham region better. Both girls go to or went to Mountain Brook High School and are polite, well-rounded and responsible. When I think of Mountain Brook, I think of the positives. The school system is among the best. Academic and extracurricular activities are emphasized in most homes. The crime rates are low. Many residents give generously to charities and civic causes that benefit the area. These characteristics draw people into the city and surrounding areas. The show “Jersey Belle” is meant to be a comedy and shows a snippet of Mountain Brook’s people and places; it too does not represent all that the city has to offer. It may not be perfect, but Mountain Brook has lived up to the high expectations I had for the positives and, thanks to Southern hospitality and the friendships I’ve found, I have dismissed many of the negative perceptions I had. This column appeared first on AL.com. Apryl Marie Fogel is a new Alabama resident who works as a conservative political activist.
