Transit Chief Points Out What Made Her Fall in Love With Birmingham

Charlotte Shaw during a visit to the BJCTA’s CrossPlex Transit Center in Five Points West. (Amarr Croskey, For The Birmingham Times)
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By Sym Posey | The Birmingham Times

Like many outsiders who don’t know much about Birmingham, Charlotte Shaw fought coming to the Magic City. And like many who came, the executive director and CEO of the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority (BJCTA) fell in love.

“I fought coming here because I didn’t know much about it other than the dogs [during the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement police incurred widespread anger after unleashing dogs on child marchers). That is what was in my mind,” she told the Birmingham Times in an interview, “but when I came here and interviewed with the mayor [Randall Woodfin in 2021], and they took me around I fell in love with the city. I love the city of Birmingham. It reminds me of old Atlanta, but it is changing. It’s going to happened whether Birmingham likes it or not, for the better.”

BJCTA’s Charlotte Shaw says her favorite part about downtown is the Pizitz Food Hall that houses multiple eateries. (File)

A self-proclaimed “downtown girl,” Shaw said, her favorite part about downtown is the Pizitz Food Hall, which is the renovated old Pizitz Building that now has dozens of eateries.

“All the restaurants know me,” she said with her favorite being EastWest. “I normally get their short rib dish. I’ve gained some Birmingham pounds since I’ve been here. I was thin when I came here but I this Birmingham weight and I am okay with it,” she said jokingly.

For Shaw, balancing work and her personal life can be a challenge that she is learning to overcome. “I’m always working, “she said.

When she’s not busy, she likes to travel with her wife, Wanda Shaw, to see family and read. The couple has been married for two years, together for 12.

“I’m a big reader. I read a lot. I like books that revolve around the caste system because it helps motivate me to break free from it and to help others break free from it,” she said. “I’m reading this book,’ The Color of Law,’ which talks about how they segregated America. There’s a lot of historical institutional racism that has created the position in where we are today and that’s why people in my role have to understand where history took us so that we can change it,” said Shaw.

A member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, Shaw said, “we’re (line sisters) very close. Forty years later, we still go on trips together once a year, saw everyone’s kids being born, saw the process of careers, parents passing, we’ve done life together. It’s nice to have that support. I have a good support system. You need that being in this role [as CEO] because you get so much coming at you at one time. People really do find ways to try to talk about you and smear your name in a bad way. You just must overlook it and rise above it and realize that not everybody is going to be happy for what you are doing. Not everybody is happy that we’re changing this system.”

At age 64, Shaw said “this is not my end. I’m probably [going] to start looking at what is next in the coming two-three years. I’m just getting started and this was definitely my steppingstone that helped me recognize that I could do it. … I think I have a book in me, some level of speaking engagements to help people grow and develop. I just want to give back in some way and I know that I want to do something in economic development I just don’t know what that is yet. My next is something that is for me and that I have a passion in doing.”

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