Very well put. I’ve traveled all over the world quite extensively and was born and raised in Birmingham. I can think of many places worse than Birmingham to have grown up, but if you want to make it far in this world you have to leave this city. It’s nothing special and offers a lot less in comparison to what other cities, and some developing countries, have to offer. Just because Birmingham gets a few good restaurants and a music festival doesn’t make it some grand city. There’s good food all over - better food even. None of our restaurants even have a Michelin Star - as far as I’m aware, and I keep up with this stuff. Birmingham offers no reason for people to visit it as a tourist destination. The main reason people come to this city is for work or medical procedures and if one day the health systems decided they had enough of Birmingham and decided to move - they wouldn’t - it would mark the end of Birmingham as the other industries can’t hold this city up.

Can you make a decent life for yourself in this city? Yes. Are the restaurants, music festivals, too golf etc. a bad thing? No not at all. It’s great for people who live here, but there’s nothing special about any of them.

The problem with the south is just as you said. The outer cities refuse to work together to pursue a greater good/better future (both economically and in regards to quality of life) for all. I’ve always thought the problem lies in the culture of the south and how southerns tend to have problems working together towards long term goals - though I could be wrong. My advice to anyone looking to make a solid future for themselves is to get out of dodge. Once settled in a career feel free to come back, but it’s hard to make career leaps here because it doesn’t have much to offer.