Photo courtesy of Karl Julian
Karl Julian
Karl Julian said he is hoping to bring a different perspective to the Vestavia Hills City Council if elected on Aug. 26.
Julian, a Cahaba Heights resident who owns World Oyama Karate in Homewood, said he’d like to give representation to other voices in the community.
“I’m a very empowering type of person,” Julian said. “I’m not a professional corporate world type of person. I think a good majority of people on different boards and council members have a background in that kind of world. … I’m not really, really well-off or anything. I’m just a hard worker, small business owner.”
When asked what distinguishes him from his opponent for Vestavia Hills Council Place 2 — incumbent Kimberly Cook — Julian said he doesn’t want to disparage anyone, but he believes he is more open to differing perspectives and viewpoints.
“I know we all as people have our own biases, but I really am somebody in my daily life who deals with people of all backgrounds, and we work for common goals. I’m somebody who can really do that and does that very well.”Julian said he is a warm, compassionate person (not to say that his opponent isn’t). “I just care about people,” he said. “That’s the whole reason I’m running. That’s it.”
While Julian said there’s not any particular issue that drove him to run for office, he believes one of the biggest issues Vestavia Hills is facing is infrastructure planning.
He knows stormwater flooding has been a problem for a long time, and he has talked to many people whose property has been damaged by stormwater due to development that took place on other property near their homes, he said. In some cases, it has cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair their property, he said.
He believes the city could be more proactive to deal with stormwater issues before they become problems by doing more cleaning out and dredging of drainage channels instead of waiting for something bad to happen, he said.
He knows U.S. Sen. Katie Britt had $3 million allocated in 2023 to deal with stormwater issues along U.S. 31 in Vestavia Hills, but the entire project was estimated to cost $8 million, and the rest of the money needed apparently wasn’t found, so the project hasn’t been done, Julian said.
He doesn’t fault the city so much, “but surely there’s got to be ways to maybe pick up the pace a little bit” to address the issues, he said. He doesn’t know the answer, but he would like to work to find it, he said.
Another important issue is finding a way to balance the city’s rate of growth with the city’s ability to accommodate that growth, especially in the Liberty Park area, Julian said.
“We want to make sure we’re not growing faster than we can accommodate it, as far as the stormwater infrastructure or school capacity, those kinds of things,” he said. “It’s good to grow, but it’s not good to grow if it creates a lot of problems down the road, so we want to be smart about how we approach those kinds of things.”
Julian also said he’d like to see more progress on sidewalks in Vestavia Hills. He knows there is a master sidewalk plan, “but I would just like to keep that front of mind because I think connectivity and walkability, where it makes sense, … would be really important.”
A great example is the Town Village assisted living facility on Dolly Ridge Road, he said. Residents there have been asking for a sidewalk from their facility to the nearby CVS pharmacy and told him they were promised one by city officials, but it has never happened, he said.
“Small things like that don’t seem like big game changers for a city, but it could make a big difference,” he said.
Julian said he also would like to see more programs for senior citizens and for teenagers in Vestavia Hills. There are a lot of activities in Vestavia Hills for children and adults, but not so much for teens, he said. They need a place where they can have fun safely, he said. Also, he would like to see the city explore having something similar to an adult day care at the Vestavia Hills Civic Center for elderly residents.
Julian, 46, has lived in Vestavia Hills for 40 years and graduated from Vestavia Hills High School in 1997. He previously served as a youth soccer coach and currently is the team manager for the Football Club of Birmingham U13 team, he said.
He has organized karate tournaments that donated a portion of their proceeds to nonprofits, served as a volunteer instructor for self-defense classes for the Pathways women’s shelter and worked with the Vestavia Hills Partners in Education program.
Julian said running for a City Council seat has been a great experience for him because he has enjoyed meeting new people and talking to them about issues facing the city.
“At the end of the day, we all live in Vestavia,” he said. “We all want the best for this city, so whatever the best is going to be, I’m going to get on board with that.”
