A Couple of Days in Birmingham
I spent a couple of days in Birmingham over the weekend and decided to get out and browse the city. I don't know the area well or know what motels are safe to take a girl to (Birmingham has a bunch of small, old & crappy ones) , so I decided just to browse to see what Birmingham had to offer. I used these forums as a guide on where to look, though I realize that some of the information is probably a bit outdated.
Not surprisingly. 1st Avenue North was the most active spot, as it is where a decent number of the cheap motels are and it had at least some walkers during the daytime and at night. They weren't always out on the main street but generally there was something (albeit some were hideous) out there, including the blonde at the Relax who was definitely the best looking SW I saw while I was in town.
I did do some looking downtown, as while it had hardly been mentioned at all in recent posts, it was on the list and I decided to go poke around. Most of the time downtown was spent on the north side of downtown. With the rough boundaries being 1st Ave North on the south side to 8th Ave / Reverend Abram Woods Blvd on the north side to Carraway Boulevard & 26th Street North on the east side to I-65 on the west side. I spent a decent bit of time over two nights coming 2nd Ave N all the way up to 8th Ave N / Reverend Abram Woods Blvd but came up empty. I did see the post office on 24th, but nothing hanging around outside. Same could be said for Linn Park on 7th / 8th and pretty much all spots in between. I did see a homeless shelter over on 5th Ave N (I believe it was on 5th) but there were only a couple of guys hanging outside it. Overall, the northern part of downtown is very quiet, outside of some of the housing / apartment complexes betweent Carraway and 24th Street. I would guess the activity on the northern edge of downtown must have disappeared years back, as it was very quiet. I could see it as being a place that might have been good 10 or 15 years ago but I think it would be just pure luck to find something there now. I did drive down 20th Street S and 21 Street N, since the fountain was mentioned. This is the southern end of downtown and is clearly one of the hotspots for restaurants & bars. A lot of 20-somethings out there at all hours of the night. It was very busy all night long. I can't imagine any SW activity at the fountain today, so I'm guessing that maybe things were different in years past and that maybe whatever rebuilding effort that might have gone on downtown possibly killed anything down there. I think it is probably fair to say that downtown in general probably hasn't been active in awhile or either I simply was cruising at the wrong times.
I did cruise other areas. I spent some time on 3rd Avenue North and I would say that it was the 2nd most active spot. About the half the time that I went through, I would see a BSW on 3rd near the Town Motel. One actually looked pretty, young and madeup. She was preoccupied talking a dude though, which I figured was her pimp. I did a few runs down Graymont from Arkadelphia to I-65. I did see the projects in the area, so I can see how it would definitely have the right conditions for street business. I didn't see anything out when I drove through, though.
The areas to the south of 1st Avenue North don't get mentioned much but I would imagine that there could be something there, as 3rd Ave South. 5th Avenue South, Georgia Road, Tuscaloosa Ave and Cotton Avenue have the right conditions for business. I didn't have a ton of time to hit all these places but drove for a bit on some of them and could see that they might have a little potential.
So, in general, it was no surprise that 1st Ave north was the most active spot, as any of the posts on the forum make clear. I would guess 3rd Ave north would be the 2nd most active spot, just from my limited cruising time. One thing I wasn't able to figure out is if 1st Avenue N is truly the one active, reliable spot in the city and if the rest of the city isn't really worth bothering with or if 1st Avenue is just the most convenient spot. There haven't been many posts in recent weeks on other areas, so I kind of figure that 1st Ave is it in Birmingham and the rest is probably a waste of gas money (well, or the stuff that would be found there would be too scary to let in your vehicle).