By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on October 18, 2024
An Editorial Opinion
Financial website WalletHub ranked Birmingham the “Worst-Run City” in Alabama and the 129th “Worst-Run City" in America (out of a list of the 148 most populated cities in 2024).
The WalletHub rankings come after Forbes Magazine ranked Birmingham as the No. 3 most dangerous city in the U.S. in 2024. Today, the city is racing to become the "Murder Capital of the U.S."
From 1979 to 1999, Birmingham was one of the five best managed cities in America, according to U.S. News and World Report Magazine. Birmingham had safe and clean neighborhoods, a quality public educational system for its children, a strong economic empowerment program for disadvantaged businesses, plenty of opportunities for financial security, a rock-solid tax base, effective public safety programs that reduced crime to a 25-year low, and strong officials within the halls of city government.
How did Birmingham go from one of the five best managed cities in America to the worst-run city in Alabama and the 129th worst-run city in the U.S.? The methodology used by WalletHub explains it all.
WalletHub’s Ranking Methodology
To compile its “Worst-Run City” ranking, a panel of experts for WalletHub compared Birmingham with 147 other "most populated cities in the U.S." using six key categories of measurement. These six service categories were:
Financial Stability – Total Points: 16.67
Moody’s City Credit Rating
Outstanding Long-Term Debt per Capita
Education – Total Points: 16.67
K–12 School-System Quality
High School Graduation Rate
Health – Total Points: 16.67
Infant Mortality Rate
Average Life Expectancy (in Years)
Hospital Beds per Capita
Quality of Public Hospital System
Safety – Total Points: 16.67
Violent Crime Rate
Property Crime Rate
Motor Vehicle Fatalities per Capita
Share of Sheltered Homeless Persons
Perception of Safety (Safety walking alone during daylight/night):
Economy – Total Points: 16.67
Unemployment Rate
Underemployment Rate
Median Annual Household Income (Adjusted for Cost of Living)
Median Annual Income Growth Rate
Annual Job Growth Rate (Adjusted for Population Growth)
Share of Population Living in Poverty
Growth in Number of Businesses
Change in Housing Prices
Zillow Home Value 1-year Forecast
Building-Permit Growth
Infrastructure & Pollution – Total Points: 16.67
Quality of Roads
Average Commute Time (in Minutes)
Transit Access Shed
Traffic Congestion
Walk Score
Bike Score
Transit Score
Recreation-Friendliness
Share of Residents with Access to Internet
Water Quality
Air Pollution
Greenhouse-Gas Emissions per Capita
Share of Parkland
To create its rankings, WalletHub used data collected as of April 30, 2024 from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Council for Community and Economic Research, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Moody's Investors Service, GreatSchools.org, County Health Rankings, Health Resources and Services Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Chmura Economics & Analytics, Zillow, The Road Information Program, Center for Neighborhood Technology, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Walk Score, The Trust for Public Land, INRIX, U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, Numbeo and WalletHub research.
Local Media Coverage of Birmingham’s Negative WalletHub Ranking
The state’s largest media organization, AL.com, placed this bad news for Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin behind a paywall. AL.com is a Newhouse family-owned media company. It receives city money that is laundered through another local media company to publish favorable news about Woodfin and suppress bad news about him. AL.com has never publicly acknowledged its shady financial payment arrangement with the city of Birmingham.
The Newhouse media companies in Alabama have a long and sordid history of shady business practices that is well-documented, including a 2004 Alabama Supreme Court case affirming a $16 million court judgment against the Birmingham News for committing egregious business fraud against six of its newspaper distributors.
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When I stopped working for Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr., in 1998, Birmingham was ranked by U.S. News and World Report in the top 5 of the best managed cities in the U.S. I simply can't believe Birmingham has fallen from that mountaintop into the abyss of the worst-run city in the worst-run state in the span of only 26 years. This is so sad.