What Can You Do to Improve Huntsville? (Birmingham, Madison: sales, real estate)

[A&M Bulldawg]

Every city in the world has its pros and cons, meaning that every city isn't perfect, and they can stand alot of improvement. On this forum and in person, we've all seen the things that Huntsville lacks as a growing city. If you could change or improve Huntsville, what would you do?

[hsvkr]

The city of Huntsville has not and will not grow if the school do not get better!!! All the growth for the area has been in the county areas and the city of Madison!

Sorry for the honest reply!!!

[zenjenn]

I wish I could get the two small synagogues in Huntsville to merge under a community or reconstructionist banner, in a facility large enough to fit the community's needs, attract a dynamic rabbi that enjoys working with families, and get more Jews involved.

I know that sounds selfish and that it only affects a small segment of the area's population, but honestly that would be the one thing I'd like to change if I could.

[madisonmamma]

Infrastructure...plain and simple. And, yes, I have to agree somewhat about the HSV schools. They need to keep to zoning and stop bussing kids across the city.

[madisonmamma]

can't wait to hear what they are planning!

Gov. Bob Riley to announce major road projects for Madison, Huntsville today - Breaking News from The Huntsville Times - al.com

[hsvkr]

zoning and busing kids all over the city. When kids can look out their window and see schools well within walking distance; but we send buses to pick them up and drive them miles away to another school SOMETHING IS WRONG!!!!! That is why MANY families in Huntsville send their children to private schools!

[HB2HSV]

Bring Trader Joe into town!

[hsvkr]

the horrible city of Huntsville school system?

[HB2HSV]

The topic of this thread is not about the City of HSV school system only.

[Charles]

There's a thread sort of like this already.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/hunts...untsville.html

(This is a good way to kill your lunch break.)

I won't bother listing expensive things (burying power lines, widening heavily used two lane roads, etc)....maybe later...but the economy is too depressed. With that, I wouldn't mind paying more in taxes and fees (or even a Mello Roos) if it meant more amenities (parks, school facilities, highway landscaping, etc).

Here are a few which probably wouldn't cost too much money:

More road signs indicating what street is up coming as you are driving. It is hard to know when to make a turn if the only sign is that street's sign.

A couple outdoor basketball hoops in local parks.

More ethnic restaurants (realize this is demand driven so if the demand isn't there then it isn't there)

More secular preschools (again, demand driven)

Modernization and more autonomy (more localized) of the Huntsville Times. Only certain type stories (Breaking News, Ask Us) can be commented. The letters to the editor need font adjustments - hard to discern between letters. Seems like it is a satellite of the Birmingham news. The online version doesn't seem complete compared to the hardcopy. The online version seems to have update/persistence problems. Too many dead URLs. The forums are not user friendly.

More landscaping in common/public areas. More evergreen trees and shrubs along roadways, medians, boundaries, etc. Make the roads cheerful looking and eye pleasing.

Provide an 800 number or web interface to report smoking (polluting) vehicles, abandoned or junk vehicles.

More roundabouts in residential neighborhoods (in future planning). This forces people to slow down.

Enforce leash laws and pet waste laws. Enact a three strikes law with a third strike of pet euthanasia and three days community service (cleaning up dog poo for example).

Drop the Bermuda lawn standard in subdivisions. Go fescue. That's what HOAs are doing in common areas and it looks better all year round.

Increase the use of inmate jail labor. Right now I see men and women inmates picking up trash. How far can we take this? (Special note: If they can eat 50 eggs in an hour then they get released. How about a Lucille Car Wash?)

Less renaming of streets. Try to keep the street names consistent.

No air blown hand dryers in restrooms. I want to use a paper towel to touch the icky bathroom faucets and door handles.

Make laws which strictly limit billboards and other commercial signs. I know it goes against commercial interests. I know the owners have a right to make a buck. But they are ugly and they seem to be placed on streets that we all travel on every day: 72/University and Memorial Parkway for example. These are the backbones of Madison and Huntsville; they should be the most pleasant looking. In contrast 565 near the Space Center is eye pleasing, landscaped, and well illuminated. Maybe this is because it is newer or something or because a lot of visitors use it and we want to make a good impression.

Do what it takes to get the Desegregation Order lifted (probably not cheap to do though).

If not done so already, pass the costs of law enforcement services for special events (traffic control at the churches on Old Highway 431 and Whitesburg on Sundays around 11AM for examples) on to the host organizations.

Need more masterplanning. Stricter zoning in the future. Consistent architecture in retail blocks and mini malls (Valley Bend at Jones Farm is an example of how it should be done). Make it a goal to make consistent the types of land use in zoned areas. Probably not much can be done for existing but for future for example, keep junk yards or auto repair or gravel and building material shops off the main roads or away from preschools and retail/restaurants. Always zone in open space/greenbelts/greenways; maybe a 15% minimum should be zoned open space.

Repeal any blue laws if they exist.

Add capability to perform online requests and routing for Huntsville Library materials. This is the only library I have ever patronized (I have at least seven different library cards) that doesn't have this capability.

If not done so already, tax all religious organizations and property owned by religious institutions the same way as businesses.

Add online traffic cameras (at least two exist, maybe more?) and online highway speed maps. Include on the maps traffic incidents (like traffic accidents) so a web savvy person can be aware of traffic problems and plan accordingly. These can be integrated real time from law enforcement databases.

NAMLS should provide square footage and addresses in its database. Also, recent real estate sales data should be available.

Some things that don't need too much changing:

Huntsville Airport (all airports should have free wireless like HSV has),
Huntsville Library (except the routing thing mentioned above),
Huntsville National Weather Service office (for weather nerds like me: it is nice that it is local and they are very good about updating the forecast discussion),
Huntsville Hospital (it gives the impression that it is truly world class),
City of Huntsville web pages (they are pretty good though some of the things mentioned above like traffic speeds would be good additions),
Huntsville City School Buses: Strobes, shiny, and modern, and clean