Opportunity Zones, Land Banks Among Important Topics Discussed at NCRC Conference
This week members of the Birmingham City Council attended the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s annual conference in Washington D.C.
During the conference, the elected delegation from Birmingham took part in seminars and panel discussions on vital topics for the city, such as how to best utilize Opportunity Zone designations, best land bank practices and meetings with Alabama’s Congressional leaders.
Perhaps one the most important topics, as it relates to Birmingham’s neighborhoods, was how best utilize the city’s newly designated Opportunity Zones. On March 21, 2018, Governor Kay Ivey released a list of 158 Opportunity Zones in Alabama that her administration submitted to the U.S. Department of Treasury — 24 of which are located in Birmingham.
These zones are designed to draw long-term capital investments into poverty-stricken communities. The program provides a federal tax incentive for investors to re-invest their unrealized capital gains into Opportunity Funds, which can be dedicated for investing in designated Opportunity Zones through local legislation.
During the NCRC Conference, City Councilors learned the importance of implementing local legislation in order to make sure those capital gains stay in Birmingham’s communities.
“Birmingham is blessed to have a large portion of the city that is covered by the new Opportunity Zone legislation,” Councilor Darrell O’Quinn said. “Because of that, we are very likely to see a lot of new investment in historically underinvested communities. As a Council, we have a strong role to play in driving these investments. One of the things we learned from the sessions was that we need to be actively engaged in providing that guidance to investors. In the coming months I anticipate that we will have a lot of communication with the mayor about our vision for the city and how we should best take advantage of these Opportunity Zones.”
District 9 Councilor John Hilliard also attended meetings about Opportunity Zones, three of which are located in his district.
“A focus of ours when working with Opportunity Zone investors has to be making sure it’s done responsible way that will pay dividends to the community. We want to make sure these investments add to the culture and history of the communities,” Hilliard said. “The focus has to be about revitalization and not just about profit. That is what I will be working on with my colleagues moving forward.”
“The workshops I’ve attended really have a special meaning to me,” Councilor Wardine Alexander said following a round of afternoon seminars. “The policies and opportunities I’ve learned about here, I’ll be able to bring that back to my district. I took part in a discussion about increasing financial security for women. If we can just cut the disparity in salaries between men and women in half, we could reduce poverty all over this country. I’m going to be looking into policies and programs to address this. I also found out that women are the largest population over 85 years of age. That often puts them in a tough place financially. We need programs to offer to women to protect them financially.”
MLB Tour
While in Washington DC attending conferences this week, several Birmingham City Councilors took a site tour of the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy.
Councilors Wardine Alexander, John Hilliard, Darrell O’Quinn and William Parker attended the hour-long site tour and came away very impressed with what they saw.
The 9-acre facility houses full-sized baseball and softball fields, along with a smaller practice field that can be utilized for infield drills. The $7.2 million facility was completed five years ago and has since served as a major asset for one of Washington’s most poverty stricken communities.
The facility was brought into fruition as a public-private partnership between the local government in Washington and Major League Baseball, much like the proposed youth academy that has been discussed in Birmingham recently.
According to youth academy representatives, making sure the facility is an asset to the community is their main priority. Aside from the baseball programing that currently has 160 students aged 3rd grade to 8th grade, there are a litany of classes and workshops for everyone in the community to take part in. Roughly 85 percent of the young people who join the program have never played baseball before. The goal is to have each student complete the six-year youth program by the time they leave 8th grade so they can go on to be leaders in their respective high school classes.
The academy provides after school tutoring and mentoring classes for the students as well as STEM programing that uses the sport of baseball to teach students about science and physics. Aside from the educational opportunities that the academy provides, representatives who have seen their first round of students graduate the program, said the “attitudinal improvements” seen in the students is perhaps the most gratifying thing to see.
As a way to provide healthy food options for the community, one that is located in a food desert, the Washington Nationals Youth Academy is home to an urban garden that grows food for the community. There are also classes that are offered to teach families how to cook healthy meals. A farmer’s market is also available and give SNAP recipients a chance to take freshly grown produce home to their families for a discounted rate.
The Councilors said they would love to see these programing components included in Birmingham’s own MLB Youth Academy.
“I think we’ve had an amazing time to see what great work is being done in the facility in Washington DC,” Council President Pro Tem William Parker said as several excited children ran by on their way to one of the fields. “We’re looking forward to bringing this type of exposure to our young people in Birmingham at George Ward Park. This was a very educational trip. We understand there is still a lot of work to do but we’re excited about bringing the MLB Youth Academy to George Ward park in the near future.”
