With the help of city officials, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin provided an update Thursday on the progress of his 92-point strategic plan to improve the city.

The plan, dubbed “The Woodfin Way,” was released a year ago and included goals in areas ranging from public safety to workforce development to social justice.

Public Safety

The city has a goal of having 1,000 officers on the street by the end of 2020, when Birmingham will host the World Games, Police Chief Patrick Smith told the crowd at the Dorothy Jemison Theatre.

To reach that goal, the city swore officers from three police academy graduations and Birmingham should have four police academies next year “so that we’re keeping up with attrition,” Smith said.

Meanwhile, 30,000 new LED streetlights are being installed in the city to eliminate dark areas and curtail crime.

The city is also working on a real-time crime center that utilizes the city’s shot spotter technology, license plate reader technology and body cameras to make policing more efficient. Half of the fourth floor of police headquarters is now dedicated to the real-time crime center.

Officers are “no longer responding without sufficient information, and once complete, we’ll be able to tell our officers not just ‘It’s the white Nissan that went westbound,” Smith said. “We can tell them ‘it’s the white Nissan with a blue door and a donut on the right-hand side. Here’s a picture, and by the way, the license plate number is XYZ.’”

Infrastructure improvements

The city is at work on several projects, ranging from street, sidewalk and drainage improvements to flood control, parks and libraries, said Edward Revell, director of the city Department of Planning and Permits.

Birmingham is projected to spend about $8 million in 2019 on street resurfacing, patching and sidewalk improvements.

“Millions of dollars are being invested, and it’s our goal to make sure that its done in a way that we add to the quality of each neighborhood and that each of the people in those neighborhoods are fully engaged, fully invested…to be good neighbors and to make sure that we deliver on the promise,” Revell said.

Birmingham also implemented coordinated code enforcement, where every major ordinance enforcement now has a dedicated contact person who will be part of public outreach.

“We are extremely committed to making sure that all of our neighborhoods are healthy, thriving and diverse,” Revell said.

Woodfin said party of that strategy is addressing food deserts in the city.

“Healthy food has to be a part of the conversation, and I presented a proposal, a food ordinance, to the council to recruit grocery stores or expand existing grocery stores,” the mayor said.

Although he said three grocery store chains rejected the city’s outreach, Woodfin said he “will wade through as many ‘nos’ as possible until I get to a ‘yes.’”

Employment, education and workforce development

Woodfin noted that Birmingham has the 16th highest unemployment rate among young people – a statistic that drove his labor and education initiatives.

Rachel Harmon, deputy director of talent and development for the city, noted the “Birmingham Can Code” initiative – a partnership with Apple, Birmingham City Schools and Lawson State Community College – was completed. The effort trained 100 students in the Swift programming language.

The partnership led to the creation of coding camps at every middle and high school in the city; the goal is to reach 400 Birmingham students this year.

Other initiatives include a program through the Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham that provides workforce training and childcare and housing assistance for women in poverty.

Birmingham has also been tapped as the first microsite of a partnership with Southern New Hampshire University and LRNG, where city residents will be able to access free online learning curricula. The microsite, to be located at a to-be-decided Birmingham library, will offer classes such as literacy, social justice and design that are structured similar to music playlists where participants will earn badges for completing lessons, Harmon said.

Woodfin said another component of his goals in this area is the Birmingham Promise Initiative, which will offer different pathways to Birmingham City Schools students, including an apprenticeship program with an employer.

“That is one of the best investments we believe we can make as a city,” the mayor said. “We’re going to continue to invest in our young people and make workforce work for this community.”

Business diversity

In a move to transform make Birmingham’s business community more reflective of demographics, the city launched a 21-member Small Business Council, noted Tene Dolphin, director of business development for the city.

“We’re designing policy for women and minority businesses with the voices of small businesses at the table,” Dolphin said.

‘Smart government’

Woodfin said running a smart government involved the basics of customer service.

“When I drill down the fundamentals, the blocking and tackling of municipal government, you got to get the basic services down right,” the mayor said. “Before you talk about the Hail Mary or the trick play or the wildcat, you got to get the tackle.”

Cedric Sparks, chief of staff for the city, said the administration instituted cultural norms to foster a positive work environment.

“We said we desired to be an administration that dealt with no mess, no junk and no drama. And if u brought it, it had to go, and you had to go with it,” Sparks said.

Among the city’s “non-negotiables” was the way in which city employees engaged with people.

“We believe in calling people back. We believe in responding to folks’ emails,” he said.

Additionally, the administration underwent national, executive-level searches to hire department and division heads and required those leaders to live in the city.

Sparks said the city also had a plan to make government more efficient.

“We instituted ‘Operation Stop Doing the Dumb Stuff’ where if you know it does not work, quit doing it,” he said.

On transparency, the city unveiled its open checkbook portal, which makes city expenditures open to the public.

“Simply put, we want you to see what we see and know what we know regarding the city’s spending,” he said.

Social justice and racial equity

The city recently launched the Office of Social Justice and Racial Equality.

The office “is ready and eager to use our collective energy and talent to advance equitable outcomes for all Birmingham residents,” said Denise Gilmore, the office’s senior director.

Among the office’s duties was to appoint a diverse group to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s advisory task force, which will advice the mayor on the management agreement the city made with the institute after the fallout from the institute revoking an award from activist Angela Davis.

The office is also working on a Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument with the National Parks Service and the Jefferson County Memorial Project’s lynching memorial.

Also on the office’s plate is the restoration of the A.G. Gaston Hotel, where civil rights leaders including Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Martin Luther King Jr. gathered in a room to plan the 1963 civil rights campaign.

The predevelopment phase, including mockups of the renovations, are underway, with Phase I of the restoration set to begin in July, Gilmore said.