Huntsville Replaces Mobile as Second Largest Metro on Pace to Challenge Birmingham (Tuscaloosa: transplants, high income)

[Reactionary]

bluebeard - IMO there is one thing upon which we can all agree - the WHNT headline writer is an idiot.

happybuddha - much of the hoopla is generated by local government / Chamber of Commerce / real estate types.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by Reactionary

bluebeard - IMO there is one thing upon which we can all agree - the WHNT headline writer is an idiot.

happybuddha - much of the hoopla is generated by local government / Chamber of Commerce / real estate types.

Essentially.

Again, I'm not taking anything away from Huntsville. But the GDP of the Birmingham metro is greater than those of Huntsville, Montgomery, Mobile, Dothan, and Tuscaloosa and Anniston/Gadsden combined.

What's more, while Huntsville has prospered over the past decade due to the Afghanistan/Iraq wars and TARP, it remains almost exclusively a government town. Unless fresh wars break out or the government decides to get behind the space program, I just don't see that growth trend continuing indefinitely. If anything, I think that Huntsville has a very fragile economy, dependent entirely on the whims of politicians. I'm not sure I would want to be vested in something like that.

[Tourian]

Ha. That's about the only way people from that area will even mention Birmingham or any other part of the state is when they can something negative and paint themselves in a superior way in the process. I mean, they are in the Tennesee Valley after all, suprised they weren't comparing themselves to Nashville, Charlotte or Atlanta instead.

[annie_himself]

Is this mainly because of Huntsville's growth and not because of Mobile's shortcomings? Just curious because I'm a fan of Mobile.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by annie_himself

Is this mainly because of Huntsville's growth and not because of Mobile's shortcomings? Just curious because I'm a fan of Mobile.

Mobile's a cool place, but the culture there was ossified for so long, as if it were a civic case of hardening of the arteries. There was a blueblood leadership that was change-averse and still is today. I think that's changing little by little. But while Birmingham began transforming itself in 1979 by necessity after the steel industry shut down for a while, Mobile is only now beginning the process.

[annie_himself]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

Mobile's a cool place, but the culture there was ossified for so long, as if it were a civic case of hardening of the arteries. There was a blueblood leadership that was change-averse and still is today. I think that's changing little by little. But while Birmingham began transforming itself in 1979 by necessity after the steel industry shut down for a while, Mobile is only now beginning the process.

It seems they are just starting the process. But I won't turn this into a Mobile thread. Good for Huntsville, not so much for the others.

[bluebeard]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

Essentially.

What's more, while Huntsville has prospered over the past decade due to the Afghanistan/Iraq wars and TARP, it remains almost exclusively a government town. Unless fresh wars break out or the government decides to get behind the space program, I just don't see that growth trend continuing indefinitely. If anything, I think that Huntsville has a very fragile economy, dependent entirely on the whims of politicians. I'm not sure I would want to be vested in something like that.

Maybe... but sometimes its about the fact that the capital (human and otherwise) has already found itself there. The silicon valley largely got started because of a confluence the confluence of strong government (military and otherwise) and university presences (despite that everyone wants to imagine it was solely due to whiz-kids in garages). Now it is no longer as nearly dependent only on these factors.
Not saying Huntsville's anywhere near the silicon valley, but it already has some things going for it, there could still be some momentum.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by bluebeard

Maybe... but sometimes its about the fact that the capital (human and otherwise) has already found itself there. The silicon valley largely got started because of a confluence the confluence of strong government (military and otherwise) and university presences (despite that everyone wants to imagine it was solely due to whiz-kids in garages). Now it is no longer as nearly dependent only on these factors.
Not saying Huntsville's anywhere near the silicon valley, but it already has some things going for it, there could still be some momentum.

Absolutely. Without question. To me, the issue is that if there is a sudden cutback to defense and space budgets, a lot of those workers will migrate elsewhere. And, to be sure, while there is a large presence of those people in Huntsville at the moment, there doesn't appear to have been a large entrepreneurial upswell the way there was in Silicon Valley. Way too many people sucking at the teats of the military/industrial complex, I suppose. The money is way too good.

If I were the economic development authorities in the Tennessee Valley area, I would be putting a lot of money into entrepreneurial development the way Birmingham has done steadily for the past twenty years. Any number of large and thriving companies have emerged from those efforts, and it is a strong reason why the economy has diversified so much from the steelmaking days.

[Reactionary]

HSV is making headway in developing a diversified economy: Toyota is expanding their plant and will soon build engines for all makes of Toyota in the US, biotech is growing, and commercial space programs are a promising sector. HSV is poised to be a player if there is another round of BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure - the incoming jobs from the recent BRAC balanced out jobs lost over the past few years). HSV has available a TVA megasite that we hope gets considered for an Audi plant. So, there are some bright spots.

cpg - the nightmare (to us) scenario you describe happened in the 1970s after Apollo - many people left town and there were several abandoned office / mfg buildings, some of which are still un(der)used. The textiles / shoe industry here crashed not long after that. The downtown Twickenham Historic District, with all the fine antebellum homes, was full of hippies living in subdivided mansions.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by Reactionary

HSV is making headway in developing a diversified economy: Toyota is expanding their plant and will soon build engines for all makes of Toyota in the US, biotech is growing, and commercial space programs are a promising sector. HSV is poised to be a player if there is another round of BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure - the incoming jobs from the recent BRAC balanced out jobs lost over the past few years). HSV has available a TVA megasite that we hope gets considered for an Audi plant. So, there are some bright spots.

cpg - the nightmare (to us) scenario you describe happened in the 1970s after Apollo - many people left town and there were several abandoned office / mfg buildings. The textiles / shoe industry here crashed not long after that. The downtown Twickenham Historic District, with all the fine antebellum homes, was full of hippies living in subdivided mansions.

I do indeed see that. All I'm doing is pointing out the looming issues. I think Huntsville does indeed have a great deal of potential for growth. I just don't think it's going to be the steady upward trajectory of the past decade.