As WBRC reported in May, Birmingham City Councilor Darrell O'Quinn said, "I have talked to people all over the country who have the opportunity to visit Birmingham, and when they get here, maybe they're staying at the Sheraton, they're just amazed, astounded that there's so much going on there." He was describing City Walk BHAM, the ten-block stretch of park under the I-59/20 bridges where a good share of downtown plays pickleball, walks a dog off leash, or drops into a 57,000-square-foot skate bowl on a random Tuesday night.
He's not wrong about any of that. He's also describing a park that, on paper, doesn't belong to anyone.
A Park With No Line Item
City Walk runs about a mile and a half from 15th Street North to 25th Street North, ten blocks holding a dog park, ten free pickleball courts, a skate park, a roller rink, a beer and wine garden, and a walking path stitching the whole thing together. General park hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, though the pickleball courts stay open until 9 p.m. and the skate park, operated day to day by Action Park Alliance, runs noon to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends according to the park's own visitor page.
None of that costs a resident much to use. Pickleball memberships are free, and the ten courts are split across two ends of the park, eight along 24th Street North and two more at 9th Avenue and 15th Street, with a rotating community play format on the first two courts Monday through Thursday afternoons so newcomers can mix in. The Barkery, City Walk's off-leash dog park, requires proof of current vaccinations and a spay or neuter record, but membership itself doesn't cost anything to set up.
The reason so much of this is free isn't generosity. It's geography. Because City Walk sits under a federal highway, it can never be designated an official city park, a distinction a ComebackTown column on the park's funding structure lays out clearly. That single fact means City Walk has no dedicated funding stream the way a conventional city park does. Every dollar that keeps the lights on, the water features running, and security patrolling the ten blocks has to be re-approved, year after year, by whichever government body agrees to write the check that cycle.
What It Actually Costs to Keep Open
Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex CEO Tad Snider has put a number on it: City Walk costs roughly $2 million a year to operate. Against that, the park brings in only about $400,000 a year from memberships, event rentals, and parking fees, according to WBRC's reporting this spring.
That gap has persisted. When the Alabama Department of Transportation built City Walk ahead of the 2022 World Games, it structured the deal so the park could open at all: a commitment to give the BJCC up to $4 million to subsidize operating costs while the space found its financial footing. That agreement expired in 2024. Since then, operating support has come through separate funding measures.
Three Funding Measures in Twenty Months
Here's what those funding measures have looked like on paper:
| When | Who Stepped In | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| January 2025 | Birmingham City Council, one-time appropriation from a state grant | $250,000 |
| May 2026 | Birmingham City Council, second grant through the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs | $250,000 |
| September 2026 | Jefferson County Commission, added to the FY2027 budget in its final days | $250,000 |
Two governing bodies took three funding actions of $250,000 each over about twenty months. These measures do not establish a permanent funding stream; each applies to a single budget year.
Jefferson County's FY2027 Contribution
The most interesting shift here isn't the dollar figure repeating itself. It's who's paying it. For most of 2025, Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens made the county's position plain: the county had no obligation to fund a park sitting entirely inside the city of Birmingham. That was a defensible stance. City Walk is on Birmingham soil and benefits Birmingham businesses first.
By September 10, 2026, though, the county's own $997.3 million budget for the next fiscal year, itself trimmed by roughly $266,000 from the prior year, was rewritten in its final days to include $250,000 for City Walk, after Commissioner Joe Knight pushed to get it added, as BirminghamWatch reported.
The county's FY2027 appropriation does not establish a recurring funding source. Future support will depend on decisions in later budget cycles.
What This Means If You Actually Use the Park
None of this changes what you can do at City Walk this week. The pickleball courts are still free and open seven days a week. The Barkery still takes memberships. The skate park still opens at noon on weekdays and 9 in the morning on weekends. City leaders have said this year's funding is specifically meant to carry the park through a heavier fall events calendar, so anything you've already got planned there should proceed as expected.
The version of City Walk you use today reflects at least three separate appropriations; future funding decisions will determine whether that pattern continues.
It also means the park's future depends, in a fairly literal sense, on people showing up. Every membership, every rented pickleball court block, every beer garden purchase is revenue the BJCC can point to the next time it asks a city council or county commission for the next $250,000. The residents playing pickleball on a Tuesday evening aren't just using an amenity. They're part of the only ongoing case anyone has for keeping it funded.
I follow stories like this one for the same reason I track school rezoning maps and infrastructure bond votes: the small civic decisions, who pays for a park and who changes their mind, tend to say more about where a neighborhood is headed than any single headline does. If you're weighing a move in or around Birmingham and want a grounded read on how a specific block, building, or neighborhood is actually holding up, not just what a listing says, request a Free Home Valuation & Consultation with Jake Callahan.
