Any recommendations on hotels, restaurants, neighborhoods, etc?

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

I'm sorry, but every time I go through Providence I immediately think of "Stepford Wives." McDonald's for the upper middles - neat and controlled, but as fake as a three dollar bill and about as nourishing. If Huntsville was a pit, I might stay in a place like that, but I see it as staying in Scarsdale when going to the city for Broadway plays. YMMV

Really? I love Providence and think it's a beautiful place. If I were to move in the city, that's where it would be. The school there is suffering from busing though.

[Southlander]

My in-laws live in Providence. They love it; they were looking for a close-knit community with activities.
I do like the look of it, and I like the floor plans, but it's awfully expensive and the houses are REALLY close together. Of course, that means you have very little yard work to do.
I found a place in Madison that was similar but not as big and the yards had more space. Old Cobblestone is the name.

[David1502]

Originally Posted by Southlander

My in-laws live in Providence. They love it; they were looking for a close-knit community with activities.
I do like the look of it, and I like the floor plans, but it's awfully expensive and the houses are REALLY close together. Of course, that means you have very little yard work to do.
I found a place in Madison that was similar but not as big and the yards had more space. Old Cobblestone is the name.

Old Cobblestone, located off of Segers Rd. north of Old Highway 20, is in the City of Huntsville. It has a Madison mailing address because years ago, before the City of Huntsville annexed the land where it sits, the Madison Post Office was closest to it, so it still has a Madison address. If you look at the street signs on Old Cobblestone, you will see a NW in the corner signifying it is in the Northwest quadrant of the City of Huntsville - meaning north of Clinton Ave./Governors Dr. and west of Meridian St

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

Really? I love Providence and think it's a beautiful place. If I were to move in the city, that's where it would be. The school there is suffering from busing though.

Really. I fully understand that many people like the idea of a new, planned, "safe", and restricted space. The ideas of Shangri-La, Xanadu, Brazilia, and so on are regular occurrences.

I happen to like history, quirky and non-uniform construction, and creative use of space. Character is not a Mickey Mouse theme park for me. Character is such things as being shown a small basement door in a big old bank building and being told "that is where the slaves were held when the bank foreclosed on their owners." It makes me stop and think and reflect. It doesn't deny the flaws of humans or paint a picture of happy residents doing pilates and feasting on micro-greens.

Places like the sparkling city of Singapore are lauded for their cleanliness and restrictions on bad behavior... while they depend upon surrounding ghettos for cheap support and construction labor. How many non-resident maids live in Providence? How about landscape crews? Auto mechanics?

I've got no problem with people wanting safe and pretty, however your post points to part of my distaste. The SCHOOL is not suffering - that is a poetic fallacy. The kids who grow up without access to a good education and community that supports good parenting are suffering. Communities that complain that they want isolation from the "problem" are by default defining and exacerbating the "problem" and working to avoid rather than have positive influence that would reduce the problems they wanted to avoid.

I've also seen how planned architecture on such scales can fail. I've seen the projects of NYC. I've seen beautiful neighborhoods abandoned and left to decay. To me, Providence is as solid as cardboard, sitting next to a city with a past and a spectacular future. In 50 years, once the new has worn off, once the construction materials age out, once people tire of the fad of living there or die off, Providence may end up like the old Cadillac, rusted out, repainted a few times, and propped up on blocks.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by Southlander

My in-laws live in Providence. They love it; they were looking for a close-knit community with activities.
I do like the look of it, and I like the floor plans, but it's awfully expensive and the houses are REALLY close together. Of course, that means you have very little yard work to do.
I found a place in Madison that was similar but not as big and the yards had more space. Old Cobblestone is the name.

I think Providence is supposed to emulate Seaside on the coast in Florida, between Destin and Panama City.

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by David1502

Old Cobblestone, located off of Segers Rd. north of Old Highway 20, is in the City of Huntsville. It has a Madison mailing address because years ago, before the City of Huntsville annexed the land where it sits, the Madison Post Office was closest to it, so it still has a Madison address. If you look at the street signs on Old Cobblestone, you will see a NW in the corner signifying it is in the Northwest quadrant of the City of Huntsville - meaning north of Clinton Ave./Governors Dr. and west of Meridian St

I wasn't familiar with that neighborhood, so I googled it, and it does indeed look a lot like Providence, apparently without the businesses. There's one in SE Huntsville, called Linwood (or something similar) that seems to have stalled. And I believe the new Hays development near Grissom HS is supposed to be along those lines. I like the houses ... kind of a 1940s design in Providence and Olde Cobblestone (note that it's "Olde", with an "e". That gives it more character ... I suppose).

I'm guessing that's one of the places that have been discussed here before, meaning people might think they're buying in the Madison school district, when in fact the kids would go to Huntsville schools.

[needtosellmyhome]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

There's one in SE Huntsville, called Linwood (or something similar)

Lendon Lendon of Huntsville | Lendon of Huntsville

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by needtosellmyhome

Lendon Lendon of Huntsville | Lendon of Huntsville

Well, I was close. It starts with an "L" ....

[LCTMadison]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

I'm guessing that's one of the places that have been discussed here before, meaning people might think they're buying in the Madison school district, when in fact the kids would go to Huntsville schools.

Yep, and DR Horton is putting up another new neighborhood right by it that is HSV city....surrounded by neighborhoods that are Madison city.

Not confusing at all!