What's going on in the East Metro?

[bhamguy]

I-20 is part of the Piedmont Atlantic Megapolis where Birmingham is an endpoint. We are now starting to see the Alabama start to really show signs of growth along this corridor as I-20 grow towards Atlanta. There is already a lot of growth approaching us from Atlanta. Anniston/Oxford are contributing. St.Clair and Jefferson Counties is contributing with Grand River, developments in Pell City and potential future developments(The Gateway Towncenter) in Moody. Now Irondale and Birmingham should really invest in this corridor. I can see Tuscaloosa being the endpoint before too long if development occurs on their end.

It's funny to see the growth patterns of our area. From McCalla(along 459) to Trussville, growth is inevitable, and will push towards Atlanta. I-20/Eastern Metro is going to soon be the new area to watch. Growth is continuing to push down I-65 through Shelby County, and I think it will continue to grow. I can see extreme SE Jefferson and extreme NE Shelby Counties investing heavily because of their proximity to the I-20 growth. I guess we shall see.

[bhamguy]

Piedmont Atlantic - America 2050

Piedmont Atlantic MegaRegion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Georgia Institute of Technology :: CQGRD : Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion (PAM) (http://www.cqgrd.gatech.edu/program_areas/megaregions/pam.php - broken link)

[Tourian]

Interesting, I'd never heard that term. I was just getting used to trying to explain 'combined statistical areas' to people and now this.

I hope Birmingham gets its butt in gear soon or we won't be able to hold up our end of the bargain, so to speak as a hub for this PAM. It sounds more like a recipe for extreme suburban sprawl and although some sprawl is okay IMO, we need to have a strong city core first.

If I were somehow controlling this from above with a big Simcity program I would go ahead and lay a highspeed rail right through the all the major cities of this PAM.