Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin on Monday unveiled “The Woodfin Way,” a comprehensive policy platform outlining his vision for Birmingham’s future. The platform details an agenda focused on building upon the progress of his administration, with strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing public safety, expanding economic opportunity, and improving the quality of life in every one of the city’s 99 neighborhoods.
“Throughout our history, Birmingham has overcome challenges with striking resiliency. By turning metal into medicine, our city has reinvented its economy,” Woodfin said. “My campaign has always been about a simple idea: a belief in the potential of our city and all of its people. This platform is our promise to Birmingham residents – a commitment to take on our toughest challenges and continue putting people first.”
“The Woodfin Way” is organized around key pillars, each containing specific, actionable policies. Highlights include:
- A Safer City for All: Building on a 50 percent year-over-year reduction in homicides, the plan proposes deeper investment in holistic violence prevention programs, such as police athletic teams and in-school mental health counseling. It also calls for empowering neighborhood watch groups to partner with the city’s Real-Time Crime Center and pledges continued support for the independent Civilian Review Board to foster police accountability and community trust.
- Connecting Talent to Opportunity and Strengthening Public Schools: The platform centers on creating a seamless cradle-to-career pipeline. Key promises include endowing the Birmingham Promise to permanently guarantee debt-free college for graduates, constructing a new state-of-the-art Career Technical Education campus, and establishing a city-run childcare center for municipal employees to address barriers to workforce participation.
- Making Home Ownership More Accessible and Reconnecting Communities: The plan commits to completing the creation of 900 new, affordable housing units in the historic Smithfield, College Hills, and Graymont neighborhoods. It also introduces a groundbreaking legal defense fund to provide no-cost legal services for renters facing eviction and streamlines the process for converting vacant lots into affordable single-family homes.
- Modernizing City Government: To increase transparency and efficiency, the platform promises the launch of a public-facing Capital Projects Dashboard, allowing residents to track the progress of major city investments in real-time. This is coupled with a continued commitment to responsible financial stewardship, which has already earned the city its highest-ever credit rating.
- Investing in Sustainability and Culture: From funding climate action projects that reduce flooding and improve air quality to bold investment in the Civil Rights District, arts programming, and neighborhood-based cultural initiatives, the plan underscores Birmingham’s commitment to building a city for future generations.
“Whether it’s as basic as making it easier to renew a business license or as challenging as ensuring each Birmingham City Schools graduate can attend college debt-free, I believe in common-sense, pragmatic policies that improve residents’ quality of life,” Woodfin said. “We have laid a strong foundation, and this plan is our blueprint for building an even fairer, more inclusive, and more prosperous Birmingham for generations to come.”
