Illustration by Melanie Veiring
ask the candidate
Mountain Brook residents will vote on two city council seats on Aug. 26. Candidates Gerald Garner and David Silverstein are running to represent Place 2.
The candidates shared why they’re running with Village Living.
Q: What are your priorities for managing stormwater and mitigating flooding concerns in the city?
Garner: That’s always a big concern. We’ve seen 100-year-plus floods in the past couple of years, and those things happen. We’ve tried to work through it. We’ve done a lot of improvements, especially by the junior high school, because that’s where those big floods hit — and they really affected the church. But sometimes you need cooperation, and you don’t always get it. Our engineers are constantly looking for ways we can improve. But sometimes there’s no clear-cut way to mitigate it. And a lot of the solutions are so incredibly expensive that they could cause problems elsewhere.
Silverstein: When we developed Cahaba Village, managing stormwater and mitigating flooding concerns was a huge priority. I brought together leading landscape architects, traffic engineers, Birmingham Water Works Board, and private capital to turn a dirt pile alongside Hwy. 280 into a thriving development that generates nearly $1.6 million in sales tax revenue for Mountain Brook every year and approximately $400,000 in support for our Mountain Brook schools through ad valorem tax. We need to invest in smart, resilient infrastructure that protects homes and public spaces from increasing stormwater risks. That includes maintaining and upgrading drainage systems and taking a long-range approach to land use and planning. As someone who’s navigated zoning, landscaping, and infrastructure planning at a high level, I’ll bring the attention to detail and strategic thinking this issue requires.
To read Garner's full Q&A, click here. See Silverstein's full Q&A here.
