Jefferson County Bankruptcy a Blow to Long-Suffering Birmingham
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Birmingham, Alabama, the most prominent industrial center in the Southeast before the civil-rights era, has been on a long losing streak that just got longer.
In 1997, Daimler AG opened a Mercedes-Benz factory in Vance, one county west of the state’s biggest city. Honda Motor Co. put a plant to the east, Toyota Motor Corp. to the north and Hyundai Motor Co. to the south. Birmingham lost its minor-league baseball team to a suburb in 1987, and the Iron Bowl football game in 2000. Plans for an entertainment district foundered. The city’s population plummeted almost 13 percent since 2000, even as the state grew.