Is the Fix In?
Is the Fix In? « South Hsv Civic Association Blog
By southhsv
The Huntsville Housing Authority has a problem. It would like to tear down and rebuild the Searcy Homes project (southeast corner of I-565 and Memorial Parkway, off of Holmes Avenue), and has applied for a grant
from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to do just that. Unfortunately for the HHA, HUD is disinclined to approve grant requests for large-scale public housing developments in high-poverty areas. And unlike the Councill Courts property, Searcy Homes is not in a prime location for commercial redevelopment, so selling it is problematic. What to do?
Enter the great American pastime.
A couple of weeks ago, an official from the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team voiced public concern over the lackluster attendance for their local minor league affiliate, the Huntsville Stars, and strongly hinted the Brewers were considering ending their affiliation. Shortly thereafter, a Who’s Who group of Huntsville power brokers traveled to Chattanooga to discuss that city’s successful downtown redevelopment. Among the Chattanooga attractions cited as integral to the city’s revival
was its downtown baseball stadium.
Then just last week, Stars owner Miles Prentice flew down from New York to meet with Mayor Tommy Battle to discuss — you got it — the need for a new stadium. While Prentice said that a new stadium near the current one would be fine, he no doubt would be thrilled to get an even better stadium downtown. And just by chance, the site most often mentioned as ideal is currently occupied by Searcy Homes.
Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.
It’s no secret that the Huntsville business interests behind the downtown redevelopment push would dearly love to have a boutique baseball stadium, and building it at the Searcy Homes location would be a winning proposal all around. Downtown Huntsville loses yet another unsightly public housing project with all its associated social ills and gains a downtown attraction conveniently located on an otherwise undesirable piece of property in the shadow of the interstate. The HHA, meanwhile, rids itself of a property it doesn’t want and can’t get grant money to renovate. The three HHA board members representing “elite Huntsville” get to shift more public housing southward, out of their neighborhood and
away from their investments. And the idealists like HHA Executive Director Michael Lundy get to pursue their social engineering pipedream of “deconcentrating poverty.”
The only loser is South Huntsville.
Is this really what is going on? It’s hard to tell for sure, but it certainly bears keeping an eye on.
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Tear Down Searcy Homes project & new stadium site
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