BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) -- Concrete barriers limiting entry and exit points to Birmingham’s East Lake neighborhood will remain indefinitely.
The Birmingham City Council voted unanimously to extend the safe streets initiative following a public hearing Tuesday morning. A majority of the East Lake residents who spoke at Tuesday's hearing were in support of keeping the barriers in place. However, there are people who are worried about the barriers restricting access to their neighborhoods, and would like to see the city tackle crime in the area in other ways.
“Whether or not we get to a point where the barriers become permanent street closures, is yet to be determined, todays action was to allow the project to continue,” said Birmingham City Council President Darrell O’quinn.
East Lake residents are divided on the barriers Bianca Young wants to see them removed. She would rather the city invest into job creation programs for residents of East Lake.
“You don’t wire your jaw shut when you need to lose weight, you change the behavior, you follow the standards that are already in place, you look at what's working for other cities, and then you say here's what I am going to try with an educated guess, I don’t feel like that’s what was done here,” said Young.
In a presentation to the council, Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin showed statistics that police and fire calls to the neighborhood decreased in 2024 compared to 2023. Shot spotter also detected nearly 300 less bullets fired. Those numbers are one of the reason Rachel Reed supports keeping the barriers in her neighborhood.
“Just a safer environment, less cars coming through,” Reed went on to say “walkability in the neighborhood is a huge benefit.”
A concern of both residents and city councilors was the impact the barriers have on emergency response times. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Chief Cory Moon says the barriers have not impacted his department’s ability to serve the East Lake community.
“The response time for that area actually went down. For 2023 the response time for that area was 7:53, for 2024 the entire year the response time for that area was 6:52 seconds,” added Moon.
The Birmingham City Council says for now the concrete barriers will remain in place. It is possible that in the future the road closures could become permanent and different barriers will put into place.