Birmingham and Railroad Park to be highlighted in ‘Saving the City’ documentary series

On Wednesday, October 11, the Rotary Club of Birmingham was joined by a special guest speaker—Ron Blatman, Executive Producer/Producer of Saving the City: Remaking the American Metropolis. During his presentation, Blatman spoke on lessons Birmingham can learn from similar cities and let us in on a little secret—that Birmingham and Railroad Park will be highlighted in an upcoming episode of the documentary series.

Ron Blatman speaks on Saving the City: Remaking the American Metropolis

When it comes to studying what makes cities work, Ron Blatman has an impressive track resume. Here are just a few highlights:

• A graduate of the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania and UC Berkley
• Has worked in real estate development and finance in San Francisco and Wall Street
• Previously served as the Director of Business Development in the San Francisco mayor’s office.

In 2009, Blatman produced Saving the Bay: The Story of San Francisco Bay—a national primetime PBS TV series narrated by Robert Redford. Over the series’ four episodes, Blatman examined the origins of the San Francisco Bay to the present and highlighted three women who saved the Bay from becoming little more than a river in the 1960s. The series won four regional Emmy awards and was screened for members of Congress at the US Capitol.

Building off the success of Saving the Bay, Ron Blatman has launched a new project—Saving the City: Remaking the American Metropolis.

“Saving the City is a documentary series with related educational material highlighting successful and unsuccessful examples of urban development throughout the US and Canada so that we can learn to create better places.

With the pandemic, economic gyrations and continued concerns about equity and climate change, how do we ensure a better future for our cities?  Following decades of decline, most urban cores were celebrating almost 20 years of improvement, a transformation now at risk. How did we get here and what comes next?

After watching Saving the City, you will never look at cities the same way again!”

A summary of the Saving the City documentary series from the Saving the City website

Rather than examining urban areas one at a time, Saving the City takes a particular subject—such as downtowns, economic engines, transportation and more—and compares how different cities approach the same issue.

Highlighting Railroad Park

During his presentation to the Rotary Club of Birmingham, Ron Blatman showed a small preview for Episode 4 of Saving the City, titled “Parks and Recreation.” In this episode—which examines the latest generation of downtown parks, pathways and public squares—Saving the City studies three new green spaces: Scissortail Park in Oklahoma City, Discovery Green in Houston and Birmingham’s own Railroad Park.

The section on Railroad Park focuses on the challenges faced by its creators, how the team overcame those obstacles and the impact of the Park on the City of Birmingham.

“If the Railroad Park had not happened, I don’t think the baseball stadium—Regions Field—would have happened. Where do you want to build something? Well, you want to build something where people want to be. And we’ve created a place where people want to be. I think its a home run—no pun intended.”

Robert Simon, President and CEO of Corporate Realty, in an excerpt from an upcoming episode of Saving the City: Remaking the American Metropolis

While filming in Birmingham, Ron Blatman interviewed several experts—including locals—for their insight into the impact of Railroad Park, including:

• Tom Leader, Principal and Founder, TLS Landscape Architecture
• Katherine Billmeier, Former Executive Director, Railroad Park Foundation
• Deon Gordon, President of TechBirmingham
• Cheryl Morgan, Emerita Professor of Architecture and former Director of Auburn University’s Urban Studio in Birmingham
• Renee Kemp Rotan, Urban Designer & Activist, CEO Studio Rotan
• Robert Simon, President and CEO, Corporate Realty

Lessons Birmingham can learn from other cities

During the presentation, Ron Blatman drew parallels between Birmingham and other cities who survived an economic downtown in the later half of the 20th century, such as Pittsburgh.

“The simplest thing I’ll say is, because I have this 30,000 foot view of cities all over the continent, people always ask, ‘What should cities do?’ But there is no magic bullet. However, one doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. People know how to do housing, parks, transportation, public safety and all those kinds of things.”

Ron Blatman, Executive Producer/Producer, Saving the City: Remaking the American Metropolis

So, in addition to studying the successes of other cities, what can Birmingham do to continue its positive trajectory?

“One possibility is just to continue infilling. I see a very strong belt from the Highlands down to the north side of town, so it’s just going to be a question of how well Birmingham fills it in. The next question is—what’s the quality of that infill? Robert Simon made a really interesting comment about the ballpark in that they deliberately didn’t build a parking garage. They wanted people to park in the surrounding neighborhood to force people to walk to the stadium. The hope was that if they walked to the stadium, they’ll have to pass by places that could become brewpubs, restaurants, cafes and more. And that’s what’s happened.”

Ron Blatman, Executive Producer/Producer, Saving the City: Remaking the American Metropolis

Including Birmingham in future episodes of Saving the City

In addition to Railroad Park, Ron Blatman is interested in including several aspects of The Magic City in future episodes of Saving the City, including:

• The transformation of Birmingham’s biggest economic generator from the steel industry to the medical industry with the University of Alabama at Birmingham
• The development and implementation of City Walk Bham
• The ever-growing trail system throughout Birmingham
• The transformation of the Sloss Furnaces industrial site and its transformation into a park

Support Ron Blatman and Saving our Cities: Remaking the American Metropolis

Currently, Ron and his team are seeking completion funding for the first four 60-minute episodes of Saving the City: Remaking the American Metropolis. To date, they have filmed three stories in Atlanta and Birmingham and are planning shoots in the following cities:

• Chicago, Illinois
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Dallas, Texas
• Houston, Texas
• Portland, Oregon
• San Antonio, Texas
• Seattle, Washington
• Toronto, Canada

You can support the development of Saving the City: Remaking the American Metropolis by donating online.

Excited to see Birmingham and Railroad Park featured in Saving the City? Tag us @bhamnow to let us know your thoughts!