Quote Originally Posted by mark.vandorn View Post

Speaking of Birmingham, the town has lost much of the character that made it great the last 10-15 years. The foreclosure crisis put lots of rentals and cheap homes on the market. The push for nightlife made the town attractive to those that want a "scene." The newcomers are not the type of people that were moving to Birmingham in 1998. The new Birmingham is tacky, loud and ostentatious. It's very possible the housing demand is strong, but that doesn't mean the town hasn't changed, public schools aren't as great, etc.
I agree that Birmingham has a different character than 15 years ago, and that new feel could be characterized as tacky and obnoxious, but the schools haven't declined, at least not based on test scores. They've actually improved as the city got wealthier [[not implying causation, though). Test scores used to trail Bloomfield, they now usually exceed their neighbor.