Photo via (Alabama NewsCenter)

As Birmingham residents pause to reflect during this 150th year since the city’s founding, there’s been no halt to the evolution of two historic downtown neighborhoods.

In the Fourth Avenue Business District, the historic center of Black entrepreneurship and culture in the city projects large and small promises to transform the neighborhood and create new vibrancy.

A few blocks away, in the Civil Rights District – which four years ago achieved federal designation as the Birmingham National Civil Rights Monument – the restoration of a historic motel and other projects is expected to draw more tourists, businesses, and entrepreneurs to the west side of downtown.