Thinking of moving to Huntsville - What is it like - Really

[33458]

Originally Posted by caution

People here can't merge. Keep that in mind if you visit to check the place out. :-)

And the "mountains" here are just what's left of a plateau that has been eroded. All the land was once that elevation.

That aside, they are nice.

And they drive 5 miles under the speed limit in the left hand lane, on the surface streets. That's in the manual here, I'm sure of it. 4-way stops are interesting, too, if more than two cars. Just shake off where-ever you are from and re-adjust. Slow down. Laugh. Deep breath, not so bad...

Mountains? These are hills, but I'll take 'em, gladly.

Last year the humidity did not seem quite as oppressive, but I still had Palm Beach County in my blood. This year, my husband and I are both cursing the moisture as being just like that from which we moved.
He's going to snap the next time I say, "It's not so much the heat..."

[Southlander]

Originally Posted by 33458

Last year the humidity did not seem quite as oppressive...

Last summer (2008) and the one before (2007) were unusual. That was a drought situation, and there was FAR less humidity than normal.

This summer is more like normal, with high temps and high humidity. Except the temps have been a little higher than usual for late June. It's more like July and August.

[Charles]

Huntsville ranks eighth on Milken Insitute top performing cities list | Breaking News from The Huntsville Times - al.com

2009 Best Performing Cities - 200 Largest Metros, Huntsville #8 (#5 in 2008)

Birmingham slips, Huntsville shines in Milken ranking - Birmingham Business Journal:

[NovMystic]

Originally Posted by curtstein

My wife, 2 kids and I are thinking about moving to the Hunstville area, and we would like to hear from people that live there. She is from the Northeast, and I am from Colorado, and we had some culture shock when we moved to Temple, GA (50 miles west of Atlanta, GA) last year, and we aren't very happy. We don't care for the busy Atlanta traffic/city, but we don't care for the "hee-haw" lifestyle where out house is (for example, one of our neighbors has never been seen wearing a shirt, always has a can of beer in his hand, and the first time we met him he told us that he had recently blown himself up while burning something in his back yard!)... it's the worst of both worlds!

My wife doesn't think Huntsville, AL would be much of an upgrade. I think it would be much different within the Huntsville area. I have read all the standard online reviews, but I would love to hear from people that actually live in the area. What is it like living there? We are looking to likely live and work in the south Huntsville area around South Memorial Pkwy. It looks like there is a lot of housing on the east side of Redstone Arsenal. Does anyone live and work in that area? I would love to hear from you! What are the schools like (High school), what are daycares like? (newborn), what is shopping like?, what are neighbors like?, what is the traffic like?, what is downtown Huntsville like? Thanks for your help!

Hey Curtstein,

I've lived in this area on and off for most of my life.

If you move to southeast Huntsville and/or most anywhere in Madison, you will find it to be populated with mostly the upper-class, engineer and Redstone Arsenal types, along with their professional spouses, who really give Huntsville its brains and "culture". In my experience, the people who rave about Huntsville the most are the ones who live and work in these areas.

A lot of the housing on the edge of the Arsenal, and most everywhere else in Huntsville (esp north Huntsville), is mostly non-White, high-crime areas. However, I don't think these areas are quite as bad as they used to be. Still, I try to avoid them when possible.

You don't have to go terribly far past the city limits to encounter a lot of the lower-class White "hee-haw" culture that you describe. Again, a lot of this is not as bad or extreme as it used to be, although the further you go into the county, the deeper you get into it.

There's a mall called Madison Square Mall that used to be kind of a happening place about 20 years ago, but has since gradually become overrun by young thugs and scummy types who loiter outside the entrances. In order to deal with this problem, the city built a new, outdoor mall about a year and a half ago called Bridge Street Town Centre. It has a small lake with gondola-style boat rides (although it seems like every other time I go there the boats are all out of order and/or the lake is being drained for maintainence.)

The city seems to be counting on more engineers and engineer-friendly careers locating here, so there is more and more "expansion" and "growth". The one thing I enjoy about living out in the county is that despite the redneck culture, it is mostly nice and quiet out here. However, every day it seems like another cookie-cutter subdivision is being built nearby, and this seems to be crowding up the area a bit much for my tastes.

From what little I gather about the schools (I don't have kids myself), the city seems to be constantly re-zoning as much as possible in order to try to "diversify" the schools. (ie, Get more black kids zoned to white schools, and vice versa).

Recently, there has been an issue in which the city is trying to "de-concentrate" public housing by bringing more public housing residents into the upper-crust area of southeast Huntsville. Earlier this year the Huntsville Housing Authority went as far as to purchase an apartment complex, force its current residents to move out, and then moved a lot of public-housing recipients in. I guess this is supposed to be a good thing, but personally I wouldn't be too thrilled about it if I lived in that area myself. Just my own opinion.

Hope this helps!

[prden]

Huntsville is a great place to live and raise a family. Fairly good schools; fair roads; good local government; lots of cultural activities. The downtown is under development and will someday be something worth bragging about (but we've got a long way to go on that one). The "mountains" are truly beautiful (if we can keep development off them).

Huntsville is not your typical Alabama area. I wouldn't dream of living outside Huntsville. But this city is really special in many ways. I would put Huntsville above any metro area in the country. I love it.

I've lived here 5 years. I have lived in 20-some other places, and love this place most of all.