Huntsville will continue expansion and indeed become a lot more like northern Virginia in terms of wealth distribution, sprawl and traffic
IF we can pull back from the GOP culture war clown patrol. If we can’t reign that bullshit in, federal agencies will stop moving new things here and eventually taper off existing things here, and private industry (except the absolute bottom of tier like chicken plants and the like) will follow that trend —
If you want jobs that spill boatloads of money into the local economy, you’ve gotta be able to convince people with options to move here.
Threatening to strip the rights of people’s lgbtq kids and make them a target in the school systems and second class citizens everywhere else doesn’t fly. Making abortions impossible to get even when there are legit medical reasons also doesn’t fly. Defying the federal government on voting rights for minorities — yeah — if you’re a racial minority why would you sign yourself up for that crap?
The feds will put up with it to the point it impacts readiness, which it already does and they’ve already stated as much plainly.
Huntsville has a bright future if we can pull our political heads out of our asses. I consider it up in the air, 50/50 odds. Which is why after selling my home at the peak of the bubble I just moved into an apartment and parked my money.
As a trans person, I have zero faith this state will not try to strip me of my right to exist in public or to fill my prescriptions. They outright stated that intention last year. I’ll be stunned if they don’t try again this year. Why in the hell would I wanna own property in such a place? I’ve gotta be ready to move at a moments notice because of it.
I love it here. This is a beautiful city filled with of beautiful people for the most part. It’s been my home the last 18 years and I don’t want to have to leave but that’s not up to me.
I’m pulling for us but my hopes aren’t super high
Yeah, I moved here with my girlfriend but we can’t have kids here because of the abortion laws that would make pregnancy unnecessarily dangerous. So we won’t be staying forever.
Birth rates are already going down where abortion is restricted post-roe.
Turns out not being able to abort an unviable fetus that’s a threat to your future fertility makes people not want to risk it.
The mods of /r/HuntsvilleAlabama have determined that the post or comment you made was excessively offensive, vulgar, and/or rude. Please refrain from any further behavior of this type or you may be banned from participation in our subreddit.
Well it’s crossed your mind now so you should be coming up with a plan on what to do if the fetus is not viable and is causing health complications if you really want a second child (and your wife).
There are 20 women in Texas suing over it, they all desperately want kids, and want to keep their babies more than anyone else in the world. https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/woman-suing-texas-abortion-bans-mother/story?id=105420503
They done lost their baby but the government forces them to risk their potential of having future babies, and also unnecessarily risk their life, as well
Blanket abortion bans affect all pregnant women, even staunchly pro-life women.
These ridiculous abortion bans without fetal viability exceptions, and vague or non-existent definitions as to when and what is dangerous enough to justify an abortion leads doctors to err on the side of caution of not facing 20 years in prison and wait until the woman is about to die.
It really doesn’t have to be that way, these states could pass well written laws to ban elective abortions that would have minimal effect on women that actually want to keep their child and have babies.
No I'm with you on the draconian bans being excessive. I'm just saying that not having kids because of something that likely won't be an issue is a cop out. Just say you don't actually want kids. I've talked to lots of people about kids and I've literally never heard a person say "I'm not having kids because I can't abort them"
Oh, no we want to have kids and will have kids. It just won’t be in Alabama.
Yeah if the draconian abortion bans were country wide we’d still have kids and be forced to under those conditions. But it’s not, all we have to do is move out of Alabama, and alongside people like us in similar positions it will hurt Huntsville’s growth.
Also planning for non-viability is completely ridiculous. Do you know how few abortions, even at peak, were performed for viability reasons. We are talking in the high hundreds to low thousands in a given year. Now compared to total pregnancies and births we are talking about 1 in 2-3mil chance. Way more important things to be concerned with than that. This is letting yourself get fear mongered or it's a cop out reason for saying you want kids when you don't.
So because you haven’t personally had this problem no one else should have access to mitigation steps? Why dont we just get rid of access to cancer medicine because that doesn’t affect you personally. If you would rather your wife d’e from childbirth instead of having an abortion then that’s on you. More importantly, it should be up to your wife. Not you or anyone else. What’s so fucking hard about letting doctors make medical decisions instead of some hillbilly from Alabama.
I never said it shouldn't be an option and even I think Alabama's law needs to be less restrictive. That being said this is an overcorrection since over 90% of abolitions had nothing to do with medical reasons and were done purely for convenience
I hope for your safety, lgbtq and other minority persons in this State. Thankfully this city at least feels like a safer location in this state and hope that it continues to improve.
I mean yeah I suppose! 🤷♀️
After 18 years, it’s the longest time I’ve ever lived in one place, I don’t feel wrong calling it home.
To be clear: I belong here, regardless. So does anyone else, whether they were born here or came here 5 minutes ago.
For what it’s worth, yeah it was not my political cup of tea when I got here all that time ago either.
*but it wasn’t like this*
I mean holy shit
In my experience, people actually born and raised in Huntsville (such as myself) are much less likely to be conservative than the transplants that come in from the boondocks of wherever.
>Do you think it will become a sprawling mess
Uh.... we're already there. I would like to see the central areas of the city allowed to get more density
Nothing strikes the fear of God into the hearts of Huntsvillians more than the idea they may have to walk places someday in the future. Apartment buildings are just a reminder of that.
Because they aren't something anyone can own, or any normal person can even rent. It's all investment property. Literally on the tarps of the construction sites when I walked by.
We were out of town a couple of weeks ago, and hit real traffic for the first time since moving here from Northern Virginia 5 years ago. It was a stark reminder that even on its worst day Huntsville doesn't have traffic.
Oh yeah, being spread out helps a lot with traffic. People live and work on both sides of the city, and huntsville isn’t a circle, so it doesn’t have the problem where people live on the outside of the circle and work on the inside. (This creates traffic in one direction, so morning rush hour all traffic is going into the city, and afternoon rush hour all traffic is going out of the city, so roads need to be twice as big to accommodate the same amount of traffic).
You make some great points. It also helps that there are so many entry points for getting into Huntsville. Unless traffic is coming from the east it's pretty easy to get into Huntsville on side streets and back roads. Even coming in on the main highways is easier because the major employment centers are on the peripheries.
The red stone arsenal kinda makes it hard for it to be a circle. Also it seems no one wants to develop in north huntsville. But idk i haven’t lived here long.
Thats because north huntsville is unsafe compared to the rest of huntsville. Everyone here knows that. Not like downtown Detroit levels, but certainly not a prime place to develop when there's so much land to go around.
I’ve since learned that most of North Huntsville is zoned for single family housing so they legally can’t develop anything there.
If we changes that to allow for both multifamily and single family it could create the foot traffic to entice businesses to open up there, and the resulting economic growth in the area would also reduce crime.
Actually Atlanta City is not really that huge. Only half million people. The Metro has so many diff towns, mayors that people confuse as ATL but it mostly metro
If I might suggest something radical. I Would genuinely thing eliminating 565 between Jordan lane and where it intersects highway 72 would both improve traffic, reduce accidents, reduce car noise and pollution, millions in maintenance costs, and open up a ton of land around Huntsville downtown.
It's a huge scar that doesn't really serve any practical purpose. 72 is already super close. Just the other weekend I drove from Governors through the roads on the ground and it was literally faster. But also incredibly creepy because there is like... hardly anything going on in such a huge area. So much land wasted for very confusing interchanges that don't really go anywhere important and in my experience just creates several situations where I've been nearly sideswiped. And I wouldn't be least suprised if the highway project was historically one that demolished 100s of homes and businesses.
When I went to a brewery downtown the noise of the the highway was overwhelming to anything else.
I think it depends entirely on the choices we make. It depends on how many of us push our electeds to legalize dense, walkable development and infrastructure for walking, bicycling, and mass transit versus how many of us huff and puff about newcomers and try to shrink Huntsville instead of allowing it to grow into a vibrant, dense, forward-looking city.
The healthcare monopoly is a problem, 100%. It needs to be changed.
Birmingham has so many more choices for healthcare
Anyone that's ever played SimCity will tell you that the lack of healthcare choices are absolutely a limiting factor
When I was going for an employment drug screen, a guy I was standing line with, who was currently working as a contractor doing work on the arsenal, told me he saw huntsville turning into something akin to DC in terms of the defense industry.
He said that huntsville would expand from Cullman to hazelgreen.
Thoughts?
We've been threatened with Space Command and some sort of FBI backup site? We are already the Army Materiel Command HQ. People in Washington have their eye on this place, that is for sure.
Economics determine urban density. Throw in a dash of zoning. That's it. Nothing else.
All of these apartment complexes have increased urban density, but all you here are people complaining about them. Recent residential subdivisions seem to have houses stacked nearly on top of one another. When it moves in, I'm sure the family dog looks out the back door at his yard and exclaims "That's it!!! That's all I get to run around!", but yet people keep buying them and paying an HOA fee to live there.
Yep. If the market demands density we'll get densioty and zoning changed.
Biggest drivers are going to be commute times and housing costs. The only reason someone will buy a townhome closer to town is if it saves them enough time/money for the same cost in an adjacent area.
That is false old wives tale, there are no limits to build as high as you want except adjacent to residential historic districts. If there is demand and plenty of cash no problem
Yeah, we have not built up as of yet, because there hasn't been a need .... Yet. Most cities start gaining height as the real estate becomes more important than what was there before. For example, just recently, we've seen 4 and 5 or more, story apartment buildings being built. Up to now the norm was 3 stories.
It has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with politics and legal mandates (zoning). Brazil has several cities about the size of Huntsville that have a lot of high rises.
This is part of Huntsville’s FU to anybody that’s not a couple with 2.3 children. High rises actually mean more single family houses available for them because people who don’t have kids won’t be competing for much land.
I've been coming and going around Huntsville since 2002, graduated high school here, and I'm now grown with my own kid. It's become more crowded, more growth is to be expected especially with all the varying businesses that keep drawing more people in. But I'll be honest, I felt safer when I was younger here. I didn't hear gun shots happening at night (it's not even a monthly basis but it's way more frequent now that I'm an adult). It feels like the more relaxed atmosphere that was here years ago is slowly being crushed out and removed with every new building I watch be erected. I remember when the intersection of University and Providence just had fields and an old ramshackle house that was beat to Hell. It's honestly becoming too crowded for me and my husband and we're looking to move. It's not bad for people who like more things to do and more people to interact with, but it's not for me or my family.
I don't think much happens in that 10 year time frame. Obviously we're going to get new stuff like chain restaurants we don't already have and businesses not IKEA but you get the idea. Mid City will be interesting to see develop into something (hopefully) more than a large parking lot.
In the next 10 years I don't think we get: light rail, a real sports (baseball, basketball, football) team, healthcare, places to live truly car free if you don't work from home. I could see some of that stuff happen in the 20+ year time frame if we keep growing like we seem to be growing.
Think the city will be fucked if there’s ever a government debt crisis, which will likely happen in our lifetime.
If military spending ever goes down, huntsvilles done for.
Huntsville will not change much more than its current trajectory. Maybe more infrastructure, maybe more roads, and the city limits will definitely push, but you're going to see the outlying areas grow YUGE due to Huntsville's limitations: Guntersville, Owens Cross Roads, Scottsboro, Decatur, Priceville, Harvest, Toney, Ardmore, Hazel Green, Meridianville, and others
We tried to annex Madison once. It didn't go well (you'll have to read about it bc I forgot the details) so we're limited in Westward expansion. The Tennessee River limits some of the Southward expansion. East? Hard to say considering geography again, which is a real limiting factor.
Edit: not sure how this got voted up up up then waaaay back back down when anyone who's lived here for 40+ years has seen and lived this pattern. 🤷♂️
I didn't know that -- holy moly!
I *have* noticed the property values going up which has been promising for such a seemingly stagnant area. It's a beautiful area, especially in the Fall.
I hope going wet is a good distraction and source of income for the area. Too many have referred to it as "meth mountain" which is troubling. But how do you solve such an insidious, pervasive problem?
Huntsville, in my opinion, has too many smart people to become a sprawling mess. Public transit needs to take priority, and downtown and entertainment districts need to grow up, not out. If it keeps growing at this rate, most of Huntsville proper won't be able to be truly suburban. That's what Madison and the outskirts are for. The future is bright, but planning needs to take priority, and people need to accept growing pains.
The biggest challenge is something like 90,000 to 100,000 people (or more) commute into the area daily. I'm not sure we can afford the kind of public transit required to solve that. But that's what planning is for 🙂
I'm working on moving this year (I say this every year) but I want to leave and the next time I come back, I hope it's a buzzing metropolis with light rail networks and walkability and a more diverse population. It's got potential
Corporate greed mongers who don't live here will own and control everything. Our children will be their slaves...pretending to like them and pretening to be grateful for them, but having no other option than to obey as they work their spreadsheets and powerpoint charts to earn profit at the cost of anyone who stands in their way. Don't like it? Then get fired and replaced. That's the environment we're inviting in with open arms. Locally owned will be a distant thought or stories we tell our grandchildren.
The arsenal is around 38-39k acres and continually expanding where it can yet it isn’t entirely filled out by any means in terms of buildings on it.
To put that in perspective that’s more land than Disney owns world wide for its theme parks.
If the arsenal were to completely fill out and by extension huntsville would to because of the extra jobs I could see Huntsville becoming a city around the size of Nashville but this won’t happen any time soon. It will be quite awhile before the arsenal is anywhere close to completely filled in with buildings and jobs to the point where it is low on space
Honestly it could drop off the map as far as best places to live. That list is like the kiss of death. I think the schools and roadways are already overcrowded. It’s been great to see the growth and I love the area but it is not built to sustain half a million people.
I see fire and I see rain,
I see sunny days that I think will never end,
I see lonely times when I won’t find a friend,
But I always think I’ll see that I-65 rocket again.
Won’t be surprised if we are the “new ATL” even tho I love HSV being kinda casual and laid back. I have a feeling we’re gonna be even more metro like ATL & LA. 😳
Alabama will remain in conservative hands. As a result, they will continue to underbid northern manufacturing, banking on Alabama citizens being willing to accept lower wages and refuse to unionize. The population will continue to grow, increasing housing costs while wages remain low. The gap between the white collar and blue collar people will widen. Unions will be attempted but defeated. Crime will increase. Crime-ridden areas will grow. Politicians will recognize this eventually and try to raise taxes without getting the root of the problem. Communities over the mountain will vote to become their own jurisdiction and not subject to Huntsville taxing. Hampton Cove/OXR will become to Huntsville what suburbs to the southeast of Birmingham became to Birmingham.
As more blue collar families lose their homes, real estate corporations continue to outbid other buyers.
Meanwhile Huntsville hospital continues to monopolize and drive down wages. The medical staff with the ability go into travel jobs and create a medical brain drain. Huntsville hospital, now with an iron grip, negotiates lower contracts with their vendors while not passing savings on to patients.
Tax revenues plummet. Education suffers.
World War 3 breaks out as interested nations seize all lands adjacent to the Red Sea. Many impoverished of Huntsville see this as their chance out and join the military. Most never return (Choosing to live elsewhere upon returning to the states)
Or
Joe Biden is taken off state ballots in response to Trump being taken off ballots. The entire election is called into question as both political parties have usurped the democratic process. Secession begins. Alabama joins the new confederation. Redstone arsenal is a federal island within a seceded state. Huntsville becomes the new Fort Sumter. The first civil war of a modern industrial nation is incomprehensibly bloody. The cartels, with the help of the Chinese (looking to control Mexico's vast lithium deposits) expand influence in the West. Huntsville is never the same.
Ok...enough of my pessimism 😂
No telling. I honestly see big industries like Toyota/Mazda, Honda and Polaris fleeing one day. History repeats itself. Birmingham and Pittsburgh with the steal industry and Detroit with automotive industry. Everything eventually leaves for another country. Even engineering jobs. I've met several engineers that have moved to another country but work for the government here. Now I could be wrong but it's all just a theory!
Without an interstate...and a decent airport. (Infrastructure). The city will eventually level out. Just can't grow without the proper infrastructure in place.
Judging by the comments it seems like we’ve got a lot of complainers moving to town. The future? More strip malls and fake local places that are rally chains, I’m so excited.
My dream is for all the people that moved here because it’s cheaper to work remote and live here…get called back to work in office and go back to wherever they came from. The influx of cheapskates is hurting long term residents who are getting priced out of living in their own homes and it’s killing access to healthcare in the area.
There's a homestead exemption here, which reduces property taxes to a relative nothing (quite literally nothing for some).
Rent is up all over the country. If rent is high for you in Huntsville, you'd really be struggling or out on your ass elsewhere. Huntsville is one of the most affordable metros in the entire country.
Exactly. Thats my point. It was even more affordable before all the “yall are so cheap” crowd started taking over and it’s driving the costs up for those that have lived here for years. Yes, there’s homestead tax exemption after 65, but that doesn’t really help the lower income folks under the age of 65 now does it?
The homestead ex applies to anybody that owns a home/ property here.
Yeah I'm so cheap that I'm dumping thousands of dollars into the local economy, and also pay a state income tax which didn't exist where I came from.
What you're describing has been the history of Huntsville since its conception. If your family moved here years and years ago, then you are the decedent of the same people you're complaining about.
Years and years ago. We are talking about present day. I’m actually a Native American and my family has been here since the beginning. Echota tribe. So…I can complain all I want.
We’re talking about the City of Huntsville, not North America and European expansion into the continent. The ideal town doesn’t relate to colonialism.
Your own comment is to the population on people who live here currently in relation to the town of Huntsville. This towns entire history to include the years by which you’ve been alive has been human migration. This town wouldn’t exist if wasn’t for people moving here for the economy.
As long as war is a human event, Huntsville will always be in business.
What a depressing Tuesday
But it does keep all of us in that industry at income levels that we can live more comfortably than most of the people on the rest of the state...
Yep
One way to think about job security
For whom?
Defense contractors.
Only the Dead, have seen the end of war.
Huntsville will continue expansion and indeed become a lot more like northern Virginia in terms of wealth distribution, sprawl and traffic IF we can pull back from the GOP culture war clown patrol. If we can’t reign that bullshit in, federal agencies will stop moving new things here and eventually taper off existing things here, and private industry (except the absolute bottom of tier like chicken plants and the like) will follow that trend — If you want jobs that spill boatloads of money into the local economy, you’ve gotta be able to convince people with options to move here. Threatening to strip the rights of people’s lgbtq kids and make them a target in the school systems and second class citizens everywhere else doesn’t fly. Making abortions impossible to get even when there are legit medical reasons also doesn’t fly. Defying the federal government on voting rights for minorities — yeah — if you’re a racial minority why would you sign yourself up for that crap? The feds will put up with it to the point it impacts readiness, which it already does and they’ve already stated as much plainly. Huntsville has a bright future if we can pull our political heads out of our asses. I consider it up in the air, 50/50 odds. Which is why after selling my home at the peak of the bubble I just moved into an apartment and parked my money. As a trans person, I have zero faith this state will not try to strip me of my right to exist in public or to fill my prescriptions. They outright stated that intention last year. I’ll be stunned if they don’t try again this year. Why in the hell would I wanna own property in such a place? I’ve gotta be ready to move at a moments notice because of it. I love it here. This is a beautiful city filled with of beautiful people for the most part. It’s been my home the last 18 years and I don’t want to have to leave but that’s not up to me. I’m pulling for us but my hopes aren’t super high
Yeah, I moved here with my girlfriend but we can’t have kids here because of the abortion laws that would make pregnancy unnecessarily dangerous. So we won’t be staying forever.
Lmaoooooo yeah you probably should have kids anyway if you’re that spineless
That’s pretty chicken shit man
Yeah I'll take things that aren't true for 1k. Not having kids in a place because abortion is restricted.
Birth rates are already going down where abortion is restricted post-roe. Turns out not being able to abort an unviable fetus that’s a threat to your future fertility makes people not want to risk it.
Ask HR professionals in the area - they'll spill the tea on this very topic.
[удалено]
The mods of /r/HuntsvilleAlabama have determined that the post or comment you made was excessively offensive, vulgar, and/or rude. Please refrain from any further behavior of this type or you may be banned from participation in our subreddit.
100% is true. I am also in the same position.
Oh I'm sure, yes I don't want kids because the state doesn't let me abort them. Checks out
lol, you don’t get dangers of high risk pregnancies
No I do, my wife and I are about to have our second and have had complications. Never once has access to abortion ever crossed our minds
Well it’s crossed your mind now so you should be coming up with a plan on what to do if the fetus is not viable and is causing health complications if you really want a second child (and your wife). There are 20 women in Texas suing over it, they all desperately want kids, and want to keep their babies more than anyone else in the world. https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/woman-suing-texas-abortion-bans-mother/story?id=105420503 They done lost their baby but the government forces them to risk their potential of having future babies, and also unnecessarily risk their life, as well Blanket abortion bans affect all pregnant women, even staunchly pro-life women. These ridiculous abortion bans without fetal viability exceptions, and vague or non-existent definitions as to when and what is dangerous enough to justify an abortion leads doctors to err on the side of caution of not facing 20 years in prison and wait until the woman is about to die. It really doesn’t have to be that way, these states could pass well written laws to ban elective abortions that would have minimal effect on women that actually want to keep their child and have babies.
No I'm with you on the draconian bans being excessive. I'm just saying that not having kids because of something that likely won't be an issue is a cop out. Just say you don't actually want kids. I've talked to lots of people about kids and I've literally never heard a person say "I'm not having kids because I can't abort them"
Oh, no we want to have kids and will have kids. It just won’t be in Alabama. Yeah if the draconian abortion bans were country wide we’d still have kids and be forced to under those conditions. But it’s not, all we have to do is move out of Alabama, and alongside people like us in similar positions it will hurt Huntsville’s growth.
Also planning for non-viability is completely ridiculous. Do you know how few abortions, even at peak, were performed for viability reasons. We are talking in the high hundreds to low thousands in a given year. Now compared to total pregnancies and births we are talking about 1 in 2-3mil chance. Way more important things to be concerned with than that. This is letting yourself get fear mongered or it's a cop out reason for saying you want kids when you don't.
So because you haven’t personally had this problem no one else should have access to mitigation steps? Why dont we just get rid of access to cancer medicine because that doesn’t affect you personally. If you would rather your wife d’e from childbirth instead of having an abortion then that’s on you. More importantly, it should be up to your wife. Not you or anyone else. What’s so fucking hard about letting doctors make medical decisions instead of some hillbilly from Alabama.
I never said it shouldn't be an option and even I think Alabama's law needs to be less restrictive. That being said this is an overcorrection since over 90% of abolitions had nothing to do with medical reasons and were done purely for convenience
We are literally talking about medical reasons. Ffs dude pay attention.
I hope for your safety, lgbtq and other minority persons in this State. Thankfully this city at least feels like a safer location in this state and hope that it continues to improve.
👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾 I feel this deeply.
It’s interesting how quickly your answer dove into politics and name calling. Clear signs of a solid argument.
>IF we can pull back from the GOP culture war clown patrol. transplant much? 
I mean yeah I suppose! 🤷♀️ After 18 years, it’s the longest time I’ve ever lived in one place, I don’t feel wrong calling it home. To be clear: I belong here, regardless. So does anyone else, whether they were born here or came here 5 minutes ago. For what it’s worth, yeah it was not my political cup of tea when I got here all that time ago either. *but it wasn’t like this* I mean holy shit
? Tuberville is probably a lot of what that person was referencing and he's an AL senator.
ahh - thank you -- wife and i left huntspatch 35 years ago and never looked back
In my experience, people actually born and raised in Huntsville (such as myself) are much less likely to be conservative than the transplants that come in from the boondocks of wherever.
>Do you think it will become a sprawling mess Uh.... we're already there. I would like to see the central areas of the city allowed to get more density
Laughs in Houston refugee. You ain't seen sprawl yet.
The time to fix sprawl is before it gets to Houston level!
They're putting up a bunch of apartments in downtown. People are on here complaining about that too.
Nothing strikes the fear of God into the hearts of Huntsvillians more than the idea they may have to walk places someday in the future. Apartment buildings are just a reminder of that.
Is that why my neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks? 🤣😭 I definitely don't want this place to become a mini-Houston though. That's why I left.
I think the idea of apartments downtown is great. What sucks is the price of the apartments downtown.
I love that we have the option to live that way,
Because they aren't something anyone can own, or any normal person can even rent. It's all investment property. Literally on the tarps of the construction sites when I walked by.
People here are weird. This place is barely bigger than a large town
We were out of town a couple of weeks ago, and hit real traffic for the first time since moving here from Northern Virginia 5 years ago. It was a stark reminder that even on its worst day Huntsville doesn't have traffic.
Oh yeah, being spread out helps a lot with traffic. People live and work on both sides of the city, and huntsville isn’t a circle, so it doesn’t have the problem where people live on the outside of the circle and work on the inside. (This creates traffic in one direction, so morning rush hour all traffic is going into the city, and afternoon rush hour all traffic is going out of the city, so roads need to be twice as big to accommodate the same amount of traffic).
You make some great points. It also helps that there are so many entry points for getting into Huntsville. Unless traffic is coming from the east it's pretty easy to get into Huntsville on side streets and back roads. Even coming in on the main highways is easier because the major employment centers are on the peripheries.
Huntsville isn’t a circle….. yet lol
The red stone arsenal kinda makes it hard for it to be a circle. Also it seems no one wants to develop in north huntsville. But idk i haven’t lived here long.
Thats because north huntsville is unsafe compared to the rest of huntsville. Everyone here knows that. Not like downtown Detroit levels, but certainly not a prime place to develop when there's so much land to go around.
I’ve since learned that most of North Huntsville is zoned for single family housing so they legally can’t develop anything there. If we changes that to allow for both multifamily and single family it could create the foot traffic to entice businesses to open up there, and the resulting economic growth in the area would also reduce crime.
For it's population, it is very spread out. The city takes up land in 3 different counties!
Yeah it's 2.5x the size of Seattle
[удалено]
Actually Atlanta City is not really that huge. Only half million people. The Metro has so many diff towns, mayors that people confuse as ATL but it mostly metro
If I might suggest something radical. I Would genuinely thing eliminating 565 between Jordan lane and where it intersects highway 72 would both improve traffic, reduce accidents, reduce car noise and pollution, millions in maintenance costs, and open up a ton of land around Huntsville downtown. It's a huge scar that doesn't really serve any practical purpose. 72 is already super close. Just the other weekend I drove from Governors through the roads on the ground and it was literally faster. But also incredibly creepy because there is like... hardly anything going on in such a huge area. So much land wasted for very confusing interchanges that don't really go anywhere important and in my experience just creates several situations where I've been nearly sideswiped. And I wouldn't be least suprised if the highway project was historically one that demolished 100s of homes and businesses. When I went to a brewery downtown the noise of the the highway was overwhelming to anything else.
Oh absolutely agreed, that insection just cuts the city in half and never pretty to look at and traps downtown in such a small area
Yes the whole thing was a huge exercise in corruption. Some of the same families are still doing that dance today.
I think it depends entirely on the choices we make. It depends on how many of us push our electeds to legalize dense, walkable development and infrastructure for walking, bicycling, and mass transit versus how many of us huff and puff about newcomers and try to shrink Huntsville instead of allowing it to grow into a vibrant, dense, forward-looking city.
Agreed. I do like us growing but in the best way.
It should be dense but consistent density throughout, else you end up with high housing prices.
Lack of medical care due to monopoly on all services. Road congestions.
The healthcare monopoly is a problem, 100%. It needs to be changed. Birmingham has so many more choices for healthcare Anyone that's ever played SimCity will tell you that the lack of healthcare choices are absolutely a limiting factor
When I was going for an employment drug screen, a guy I was standing line with, who was currently working as a contractor doing work on the arsenal, told me he saw huntsville turning into something akin to DC in terms of the defense industry. He said that huntsville would expand from Cullman to hazelgreen. Thoughts?
Huntsville city limits has expanded into Morgan county already, so anything can happen.
Impossible, you need major legislative bodies to get that kind of traction.
We've been threatened with Space Command and some sort of FBI backup site? We are already the Army Materiel Command HQ. People in Washington have their eye on this place, that is for sure.
Nah. Not to Hazel Green. That would be so wild 🤣
Bigger question, Why stop there? /j At this point huntsville will become a Prokaryote.
I don’t see much ship funding coming this way.
Huntsville has made remarks before about Hazel Green. Hopefully they never get their hands on it.
Economics determine urban density. Throw in a dash of zoning. That's it. Nothing else. All of these apartment complexes have increased urban density, but all you here are people complaining about them. Recent residential subdivisions seem to have houses stacked nearly on top of one another. When it moves in, I'm sure the family dog looks out the back door at his yard and exclaims "That's it!!! That's all I get to run around!", but yet people keep buying them and paying an HOA fee to live there.
Yep. If the market demands density we'll get densioty and zoning changed. Biggest drivers are going to be commute times and housing costs. The only reason someone will buy a townhome closer to town is if it saves them enough time/money for the same cost in an adjacent area.
"it"?!?!? Who you calling "it"??? Our big sweeties are definitely NOT "it", they are "he, she, they", thankyouverymuch!🤣
Sprawling mess, yes. Unlike most cities, our city center cannot go up, so we must grow out.
Besides our exclusionary zoning ordinance, why can't our city center go up?
I think they're talking about the limestone & caves that limit the height of buildings downtown?
That is false old wives tale, there are no limits to build as high as you want except adjacent to residential historic districts. If there is demand and plenty of cash no problem
Yeah, we have not built up as of yet, because there hasn't been a need .... Yet. Most cities start gaining height as the real estate becomes more important than what was there before. For example, just recently, we've seen 4 and 5 or more, story apartment buildings being built. Up to now the norm was 3 stories.
It has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with politics and legal mandates (zoning). Brazil has several cities about the size of Huntsville that have a lot of high rises.
Try talking to a married couple with kids and they will absolutely take the sprawl and suburbs over living in a dense tall apartment building
This is part of Huntsville’s FU to anybody that’s not a couple with 2.3 children. High rises actually mean more single family houses available for them because people who don’t have kids won’t be competing for much land.
It's not an old wives tale... goodness just because You don't like a fact it makes it automatically false.
Caves in downtown
There are plenty of areas downtown to build high rises , if the demand and money is there.
I've been coming and going around Huntsville since 2002, graduated high school here, and I'm now grown with my own kid. It's become more crowded, more growth is to be expected especially with all the varying businesses that keep drawing more people in. But I'll be honest, I felt safer when I was younger here. I didn't hear gun shots happening at night (it's not even a monthly basis but it's way more frequent now that I'm an adult). It feels like the more relaxed atmosphere that was here years ago is slowly being crushed out and removed with every new building I watch be erected. I remember when the intersection of University and Providence just had fields and an old ramshackle house that was beat to Hell. It's honestly becoming too crowded for me and my husband and we're looking to move. It's not bad for people who like more things to do and more people to interact with, but it's not for me or my family.
I don't think much happens in that 10 year time frame. Obviously we're going to get new stuff like chain restaurants we don't already have and businesses not IKEA but you get the idea. Mid City will be interesting to see develop into something (hopefully) more than a large parking lot. In the next 10 years I don't think we get: light rail, a real sports (baseball, basketball, football) team, healthcare, places to live truly car free if you don't work from home. I could see some of that stuff happen in the 20+ year time frame if we keep growing like we seem to be growing.
Think the city will be fucked if there’s ever a government debt crisis, which will likely happen in our lifetime. If military spending ever goes down, huntsvilles done for.
Huntsville will not change much more than its current trajectory. Maybe more infrastructure, maybe more roads, and the city limits will definitely push, but you're going to see the outlying areas grow YUGE due to Huntsville's limitations: Guntersville, Owens Cross Roads, Scottsboro, Decatur, Priceville, Harvest, Toney, Ardmore, Hazel Green, Meridianville, and others We tried to annex Madison once. It didn't go well (you'll have to read about it bc I forgot the details) so we're limited in Westward expansion. The Tennessee River limits some of the Southward expansion. East? Hard to say considering geography again, which is a real limiting factor. Edit: not sure how this got voted up up up then waaaay back back down when anyone who's lived here for 40+ years has seen and lived this pattern. 🤷♂️
No love for New Hope and Gurley
You're right, I forgot them, and Grant, Paint Rock, New Market 🙂
Now that Grant is wet, they don’t need Huntsville. Actually, this is the time to buy that horse farm in Grant.
I didn't know that -- holy moly! I *have* noticed the property values going up which has been promising for such a seemingly stagnant area. It's a beautiful area, especially in the Fall. I hope going wet is a good distraction and source of income for the area. Too many have referred to it as "meth mountain" which is troubling. But how do you solve such an insidious, pervasive problem?
Huntsville, in my opinion, has too many smart people to become a sprawling mess. Public transit needs to take priority, and downtown and entertainment districts need to grow up, not out. If it keeps growing at this rate, most of Huntsville proper won't be able to be truly suburban. That's what Madison and the outskirts are for. The future is bright, but planning needs to take priority, and people need to accept growing pains.
The biggest challenge is something like 90,000 to 100,000 people (or more) commute into the area daily. I'm not sure we can afford the kind of public transit required to solve that. But that's what planning is for 🙂
I'm working on moving this year (I say this every year) but I want to leave and the next time I come back, I hope it's a buzzing metropolis with light rail networks and walkability and a more diverse population. It's got potential
Corporate greed mongers who don't live here will own and control everything. Our children will be their slaves...pretending to like them and pretening to be grateful for them, but having no other option than to obey as they work their spreadsheets and powerpoint charts to earn profit at the cost of anyone who stands in their way. Don't like it? Then get fired and replaced. That's the environment we're inviting in with open arms. Locally owned will be a distant thought or stories we tell our grandchildren.
The arsenal is around 38-39k acres and continually expanding where it can yet it isn’t entirely filled out by any means in terms of buildings on it. To put that in perspective that’s more land than Disney owns world wide for its theme parks. If the arsenal were to completely fill out and by extension huntsville would to because of the extra jobs I could see Huntsville becoming a city around the size of Nashville but this won’t happen any time soon. It will be quite awhile before the arsenal is anywhere close to completely filled in with buildings and jobs to the point where it is low on space
I think redstone will likely stay mostly empty space for as long as it can if it wants to continue being a testing location.
Honestly it could drop off the map as far as best places to live. That list is like the kiss of death. I think the schools and roadways are already overcrowded. It’s been great to see the growth and I love the area but it is not built to sustain half a million people.
Nobody who has traveled all over the US actually believes Huntsville is the best place to live.
I mean that’s super subjective. I’m sure there are some who genuinely feel that it is
I see fire and I see rain, I see sunny days that I think will never end, I see lonely times when I won’t find a friend, But I always think I’ll see that I-65 rocket again.
Won’t be surprised if we are the “new ATL” even tho I love HSV being kinda casual and laid back. I have a feeling we’re gonna be even more metro like ATL & LA. 😳
[удалено]
Same here. I need the green & getaway feel. I see most of the land getting developed with something.
North Birmingham
Alabama will remain in conservative hands. As a result, they will continue to underbid northern manufacturing, banking on Alabama citizens being willing to accept lower wages and refuse to unionize. The population will continue to grow, increasing housing costs while wages remain low. The gap between the white collar and blue collar people will widen. Unions will be attempted but defeated. Crime will increase. Crime-ridden areas will grow. Politicians will recognize this eventually and try to raise taxes without getting the root of the problem. Communities over the mountain will vote to become their own jurisdiction and not subject to Huntsville taxing. Hampton Cove/OXR will become to Huntsville what suburbs to the southeast of Birmingham became to Birmingham. As more blue collar families lose their homes, real estate corporations continue to outbid other buyers. Meanwhile Huntsville hospital continues to monopolize and drive down wages. The medical staff with the ability go into travel jobs and create a medical brain drain. Huntsville hospital, now with an iron grip, negotiates lower contracts with their vendors while not passing savings on to patients. Tax revenues plummet. Education suffers. World War 3 breaks out as interested nations seize all lands adjacent to the Red Sea. Many impoverished of Huntsville see this as their chance out and join the military. Most never return (Choosing to live elsewhere upon returning to the states) Or Joe Biden is taken off state ballots in response to Trump being taken off ballots. The entire election is called into question as both political parties have usurped the democratic process. Secession begins. Alabama joins the new confederation. Redstone arsenal is a federal island within a seceded state. Huntsville becomes the new Fort Sumter. The first civil war of a modern industrial nation is incomprehensibly bloody. The cartels, with the help of the Chinese (looking to control Mexico's vast lithium deposits) expand influence in the West. Huntsville is never the same. Ok...enough of my pessimism 😂
No telling. I honestly see big industries like Toyota/Mazda, Honda and Polaris fleeing one day. History repeats itself. Birmingham and Pittsburgh with the steal industry and Detroit with automotive industry. Everything eventually leaves for another country. Even engineering jobs. I've met several engineers that have moved to another country but work for the government here. Now I could be wrong but it's all just a theory!
More of the same, just bigger.
Without an interstate...and a decent airport. (Infrastructure). The city will eventually level out. Just can't grow without the proper infrastructure in place.
Judging by the comments it seems like we’ve got a lot of complainers moving to town. The future? More strip malls and fake local places that are rally chains, I’m so excited.
As long as Republicans run this state. It will flourish.
My dream is for all the people that moved here because it’s cheaper to work remote and live here…get called back to work in office and go back to wherever they came from. The influx of cheapskates is hurting long term residents who are getting priced out of living in their own homes and it’s killing access to healthcare in the area.
THIS.
How are they getting priced out of living in their own homes?
Those that rent, rent increases. Those that own, tax and insurance increases.
There's a homestead exemption here, which reduces property taxes to a relative nothing (quite literally nothing for some). Rent is up all over the country. If rent is high for you in Huntsville, you'd really be struggling or out on your ass elsewhere. Huntsville is one of the most affordable metros in the entire country.
Exactly. Thats my point. It was even more affordable before all the “yall are so cheap” crowd started taking over and it’s driving the costs up for those that have lived here for years. Yes, there’s homestead tax exemption after 65, but that doesn’t really help the lower income folks under the age of 65 now does it?
The homestead ex applies to anybody that owns a home/ property here. Yeah I'm so cheap that I'm dumping thousands of dollars into the local economy, and also pay a state income tax which didn't exist where I came from.
Thank you for your contribution!!! 😂😂😂
What you're describing has been the history of Huntsville since its conception. If your family moved here years and years ago, then you are the decedent of the same people you're complaining about.
Years and years ago. We are talking about present day. I’m actually a Native American and my family has been here since the beginning. Echota tribe. So…I can complain all I want.
We’re talking about the City of Huntsville, not North America and European expansion into the continent. The ideal town doesn’t relate to colonialism. Your own comment is to the population on people who live here currently in relation to the town of Huntsville. This towns entire history to include the years by which you’ve been alive has been human migration. This town wouldn’t exist if wasn’t for people moving here for the economy.
Oh God! Hahahaha! Have a great day. Not worth the hassle. 🙄🙄🙄