Welcome to the neighborhood. We still have people asking where to find us since we moved into new digs in Avondale.

And we are happy to be here in our changing environs.

We are just down the street from the Avondale Park, currently undergoing $3 million in renovations. I have always liked the park with its rose gardens and its Civilian Conservation Corps construction. It gives it a very old Birmingham feel.

In the other direction we have railroad tracks, scrapyards and warehouses. So we also have a taste of Birmingham’s industrial steel.

In between we have some lofts and artist studios, and the Spring Street Fire House, an all-ages music venue trying to “build a community open to expression and creativity.”

Hey, that’s what we are trying to do, too. We are doing what we are supposed to do at the Birmingham Weekly, living out at the edge and rising along with a transitional neighborhood. Even folks in Greystone want to know what it is like down here closer to where some of their low-income customers and starving artists live.

But we are just ten blocks down 2nd Avenue South from Pepper Place where Birmingham warehouses have already undergone some hip gentrification, and social networkers sport the latest hairstyles and hang out with their lattes.

We are even closer to Crestwood and Forest Park. If I get on 5th and one jaunt up the hill on 39th and I crash head on into Silvertron ( see anonymous review in this issue, as we welcome ourselves to the landscape) on Clairmont within just a few blocks. So we’re a little late for their 25th birthday. I still have some wedding presents I am still planning to give outside the one-year window, too.

Parkside has forged a bar beachhead nearer to where we are. And one of the city’s premiere music and vegetarian venues, Bottletree, is just around the corner.

We are also discovering hidden treasures in our territory we will reveal to you. Just be patient. Of course you have heard of Silvertron but may not know its latest incarnation. And last week you read about a new blue collar BBQ place, Lolo’s. bhamweekly#2 011/10/06/?article=1407075. And there is a lot more where that came from--in fact, some of the best places to eat in the city. So stay tuned.

I was happy to see some readers are already catching on. I was in Lolo’s this morning for a late breakfast of bacon and eggs when some customers came in saying they had read about the new place in the Weekly. So happy to be of service.

We intend to be part of Avondale’s renaissance, to make it a cultural center of Birmingham like Stratford on our neighborhood’s namesake Avon. What’s next--Woodlawn? You may ask as you sit in 280 traffic, but don’t laugh.

And speaking of namesakes, one of Birmingham’s most slapdash, fearless heroes--easily the equal of any Confederate cavalry commander- -preached the remainder of his career in the Avondale neighborhood--of Cincinnati. I am talking about Fred Shuttlesworth, and you can read in this issue about his inspiring example.

On a lighter note, one of the biggest draws in our new neighborhood will undoubtedly be the Avondale Brewery, right across the street form us, where they working feverishly to open asap. But I have already been over for a preview of some of the new beers and no one will be disappointed.

With all this happening on our street, we may just creep back into your comfort zone. We can also edge out onto the ledge. One thing about our new place, it also doubles as a gallery space. So while we put out the Weekly by day, we will be inviting you soon to come on down for art receptions and concerts. We will have some great new sponsors and partners for our projects, which we look forward to telling you more about soon.

Avondale is going to be Birmingham’s next great open creative community. One thing’s for sure, with ready brewery access, we will always be drunk on something!