[Surge0001]

So I started looking Montgomery on Google Earth and couldn't but notice just how uninhabited Montgomery County is outside of Montgomery proper. Montgomery and Pike Road make up over 90% of Montgomery County. Only About 10,000 people live South of the city limits, which is a massive area. If you look at the infrastructure, its pretty surprising.

Two four lane highways run through the county South of Montgomery as well as I-65 that runs halfway through the county. ALDOT also has clear plans with the areas, looks like 2-3 expansions of current roads, a new highway, as well as a new freeway judging by the unfinished interchanges and roads. With such infrastructure and possible plans why does this area only have 10,000 people?
Also noticed that all but one of Montgomery's 9 or so suburbs are not directly connected to the city, but instead are located directly across the Alabama River and the Tallapoosa River to the North and Northeast and are located in other counties, so what is up?

[BamaDave]

Hmmm, I'm not entirely sure. More than half of the entire population of the Montgomery metro lives within the city limits, so maybe Montgomery annexes most developments south of the Alabama and Tallapoosa Rivers. I think most of the suburban towns north of the rivers are old towns themselves, and so maybe it was easier for them to grow into established 'burbs. The terrain north of the river is hillier and maybe more attractive to some people, although in checking out Google Maps Street View, rural Montgomery County has some nice countryside as well (just flatter).

[MinivanDriver]

A lot of Montgomery County, especially between the city and Prattville, lies along the river delta and is prone to flooding.



Truthfully, Montgomery has a lot of work to do on itself as a city. When a substantial portion of its workforce is willing to commute from Auburn every day, that tells you a lot.



I had a client contract once that required two days a week in Montgomery, which meant spending a night. One of the partners, a guy who was kind of an idiot, kept hounding me to move there. First, no. Second, my wife is an executive for a prominent Birmingham company. But he persisted.



Imagine, if you will, a gentleman planter kind of drawl.



"Minivan, what would it take to move you to Montgomery?"



"A gun to my head. Even then I'd make a break for it at Prattville."



As he begins to splutter, his partner chimes in.


"Don. Minivan doesn't want to move to Montgomery. Hell, I don't want to live here."

[TimCity2000]

there used to be a handful of montgomery forumers on here. i guess it was never enough (or maybe enough posts weren't created) to warrant a subforum, which is likely why they didn't hang around.

[Mississippi Alabama Line]

Bottom line, I think there are just better places to live than Montgomery. So for the most part, Montgomery's population is made of people who are 'from' there, or absolutely have to be there (Air Force or state government).

Like another guy said, Auburn is an hour up the road, and is within the realm of a commute, although I would hate that. Air Force folks live on base, or in the few suburbs around. Also, most of the best and brightest opt for Atlanta or Birmingham. Birmingham is more of the 'center' of the state.

I often compare Jackson, MS to Montgomery. Downtown Montgomery is not bad, and a nice place to have a conference and hang out. There's nothing really there besides that. Jackson has the same terrain, but more jobs and also has that state center deal going on. So basically what I'm saying is that Birmingham likely pulls people from Montgomery.

[k7baixo]

When I was stationed at Maxwell in 1977, Montgomery was a vibrant town. I really enjoyed my nine months there esp. since “home” was over towards Tuscaloosa. Now, we’re over in the Auburn/Opelika area, lured back to a good friend who fled Montgomery about 4 years ago for the Oak Bowery area just north of Opelika.

In fact, another friend, a guy I’ve known since I was 15, who moved to Auburn some 25 years ago. He worked for the feds, his wife worked for the state and they commuted to Montgomery for many, many years.

I remember ending up on capital steps one Saturday night around 0200. My buddy and I were simply riding around town on our motorcycles. He had a first gen Goldwing and I had a CB-400F. Anyway, the security guard came out to talk to us and gave us a middle of the night tour of the Wallace’s office. I thought that was pretty cool.

[BamaDave]

Originally Posted by minivandriver

imagine, if you will, a gentleman planter kind of drawl.

lol

[johnsonkk]

Originally Posted by TimCity2000

there used to be a handful of montgomery forumers on here. i guess it was never enough (or maybe enough posts weren't created) to warrant a subforum, which is likely why they didn't hang around.

It’s surprising to what does and doesn’t get forum pages. Cookeville, TN has its own forum page and there are only 30,000 in the area. https://www.city-data.com/forum/cookeville/

[noamiRi]

A really useful post, I didn't know much...

[Southern man]

A few years back, some friends and us decided to spend the weekend in Montgomery. We had a good time. We are Hank Williams fans, so we toured the Hank Williams museum , toured his grave site, ate lunch at a restaurant he ate at and had an excellent meal at Wintzell’s.