Housing Authority purchase 4 SE apartment complexes (Huntsville, Madison: middle-class, appointed, sex offenders)

[friday13]

Originally Posted by Charles

New south Huntsville group forms to lobby over zoning, home values - Breaking News from The Huntsville Times - al.com

Where were the civic fighters back in the day when N/NE Hsv needed them?
As a matter of curiosity: has N/NE HSV ever been "better" (schools, crime, property values) than the shape it is in right now?
I mean way back in the beginning (the '50's?), 5-10 years after the new-ness wore off. Did this area ever start out as an exclusivist club that eventually gotten run down by "malefic external forces" (=social engineering?), or was it designed from the beginning to be just for regular Joe, low, middle-income, affordable place to be.
To help you understand my question: would you see Hampton Cove run down in 50 yrs from now, or becoming more like the "historic" downtown core? I'm sure most of you will say:"HC?, nah, never", but you get my point.
I mean, what takes an area/section of the city to go astray from a bright promising future that was envisioned in the beginnings (like decades back).

Wait, I know the answer: People-or, at least the quality of people. Or maybe..money...interests...? Much like S.Hsv is experiencing these days?

[David1502]

Originally Posted by friday13

Where were the civic fighters back in the day when N/NE Hsv needed them?
As a matter of curiosity: has N/NE HSV ever been "better" (schools, crime, property values) than the shape it is in right now?
I mean way back in the beginning (the '50's?), 5-10 years after the new-ness wore off. Did this area ever start out as an exclusivist club that eventually gotten run down by "malefic external forces" (=social engineering?), or was it designed from the beginning to be just for regular Joe, low, middle-income, affordable place to be.
To help you understand my question: would you see Hampton Cove run down in 50 yrs from now, or becoming more like the "historic" downtown core? I'm sure most of you will say:"HC?, nah, never", but you get my point.
I mean, what takes an area/section of the city to go astray from a bright promising future that was envisioned in the beginnings (like decades back).

Wait, I know the answer: People-or, at least the quality of people. Or maybe..money...interests...? Much like S.Hsv is experiencing these days?

Actually, the answer to your question goes back to around 1970 and a federal desegration lawsuit which was filed by residents of Calvay Hills public housing project on University Dr. who wanted their children to attend an integrated school. They won their case and the HSV City School Board chose to use only two schools to integrate the Calvary Hills students - namely Montview and University Place. This began the "white flight" out of North West Huntsville and had a ripple effect as Montview is a feeder for Ed White Middle and eventually Lee High School - so you can see it has had an impact on North East HSV as well. Back in 1970, the School Board and the City Council could have bused the Calvary Hills students throughout the city, but chose the NW schools to be the "sacrificial lambs". You have to understand that until the 1980's, the HSV City Council was not elected by districts, but citywide and as a result, the city council pretty much all lived in "Old Huntsville" - the Blossomwood neighborhood. They didn't really care about the other parts of town. "So as long as Blossomwood, Huntsville Middle and Huntsville High and Jones Valley were fine who cares about the rest of Huntsville?" was the attitude.

By the late 1990's the NW schools were pretty much 80% + minority enrollment. The City had ample land in the west which was not being developed and Mayor Spencer, at the request of several developers, proposed the Providence Schools and Columbia High School be built. (Columbia was built to facilitate BRAC because the top brass at Redstone Arsenal were unhappy with sending their kids to Butler with its poor test scores) However, because of the existing desegregation lawsuit those schools had to include many students from the NW so they began with 50%+ minority enrollment. Now, you see many resales in the Columbia district and home sales have really struggled in both Lake Forest and Providence.

In answer to your original question, yes it was social engineering and a city council and school board which took the attitude that South East Huntsville should not be involved in bussing and public housing, but North Huntsville should.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by David1502

Actually, the answer to your question goes back to around 1970 and a federal desegration lawsuit which was filed by residents of Calvay Hills public housing project on University Dr. who wanted their children to attend an integrated school. They won their case and the HSV City School Board chose to use only two schools to integrate the Calvary Hills students - namely Montview and University Place. This began the "white flight" out of North West Huntsville and had a ripple effect as Montview is a feeder for Ed White Middle and eventually Lee High School - so you can see it has had an impact on North East HSV as well. Back in 1970, the School Board and the City Council could have bused the Calvary Hills students throughout the city, but chose the NW schools to be the "sacrificial lambs". You have to understand that until the 1980's, the HSV City Council was not elected by districts, but citywide and as a result, the city council pretty much all lived in "Old Huntsville" - the Blossomwood neighborhood. They didn't really care about the other parts of town. "So as long as Blossomwood, Huntsville Middle and Huntsville High and Jones Valley were fine who cares about the rest of Huntsville?" was the attitude.

By the late 1990's the NW schools were pretty much 80% + minority enrollment. The City had ample land in the west which was not being developed and Mayor Spencer, at the request of several developers, proposed the Providence Schools and Columbia High School be built. (Columbia was built to facilitate BRAC because the top brass at Redstone Arsenal were unhappy with sending their kids to Butler with its poor test scores) However, because of the existing desegregation lawsuit those schools had to include many students from the NW so they began with 50%+ minority enrollment. Now, you see many resales in the Columbia district and home sales have really struggled in both Lake Forest and Providence.

In answer to your original question, yes it was social engineering and a city council and school board which took the attitude that South East Huntsville should not be involved in bussing and public housing, but North Huntsville should.

This was a great post, very interesting.

[Charles]

Huntsville Housing Authority Meetings - WAAYTV.com - Huntsville, Alabama - News Weather, Sports |

[friday13]

we might need to start a new thread on C-D to follow the news on Council Courts "out and in" move

What do you think of the development that could replace part of Councill Courts? - Breaking News from The Huntsville Times - al.com

What's confusing me, as headline suggested, the revitalisation would only apply to "part" of the said dwelling complex. So brand-new condo owners/renters living happily in close quarters with the rest of the HHA recipients. Sweet, integration is possible after all, then why are Stone Manor neighbors opposing?

[james_hsv]

^The development ("Resonant Point(e)")will probably be built after all the Councill Courts residents are relocated and the projects torn down. I don't think the fact that there are still 15 acres to be sold is stopping the HHA from moving everybody out.

[Reactionary]

The entire Councill Court area will be redeveloped - the HHA is keeping some of it to build a new state-of-the-art senior center (44 to 88 residents - lots of numbers floating around). The rest is to be sold and redeveloped.

I think anything named Pointe is silly - there ain't no geographical feature resembling a point and the only pointe I see is on the developer's heads...

BTW, I attended the South Huntsville Civic Association meeting at Grissom last night - write up:

Let’s remind our politicians exactly who they work for | flashpoint

[friday13]

Originally Posted by Reactionary

Let’s remind our politicians exactly who they work for | flashpoint

Don't miss this other read from Flashpoint (link from Reactionary's blog). Great stuff.
As you will read there, the "deconcentration study" (that is the basis of this movement) yield "positive" results because the Section8 recipients that were spread out into their new neighborhoods were handpicked, so only the very willing and able to break the circle would move out. So the premise of the whole experiment was biased. However, the proponents of the deconcentration idea keep marching to their own drumbeat.


American Murder Mystery

American Murder Mystery - The Atlantic (July/August 2008)

[macwell]

Noticed in todays legal section of paper.
130 moving now? Thought only partial housing torn down (60) and 70 later?


Legal
HUNTSVILLE HOUSING AUTHORITY INVITATION FOR BIDS (IFB) IFB NO. 2009-09
PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENT MOVING SERVICES In compliance with 24 CFR
§ 85.36, Huntsville Housing Authority (HHA), is issuing Invitation
for Bids (IFB) to interested qualified companies to relocate
approximately 130 resident families and their household effects
in accordance with the bid specifications.
- classifieds - Al.com&

[friday13]

Huntsville Housing Authority looking to use stimulus money to replace old public housing - Breaking News from The Huntsville Times - al.com