Anything negative?? (Birmingham, Huntsville, Madison: crime rate, hotels, house)

[ihatefonddulac]

We are thinking of relocating to the Huntsville area in a year or two, and I've been reading the posts on this website, as well as looking at other information. Wow! This place seems to be the Garden of Eden. Nobody has anything negative to say about this area. Is it that great, or are there some negatives at all about it? The company my husband works for has a division there, so thinking about trying to transfer. Are there actually any negatives about this area?

[Southlander]

Sure!
But why dwell on it?

[tammie2]

The negatives that I see....

1) You will constantly have people saying negative things to you when you tell them you live in AL

2) You will be constantly invited to church. It doesn't tend to bother me too much, but some are not happy about it.

3) You will be surrounded by engineers

4) Not too much to read about in the paper. One day I called to tell my mom the front page headlines, she got such a kick out of it(she is in Chicago), the headlines that day were along the lines of Christmas events, finding forgiveness at Christmas, and one car theft. Rather funny for a city girl, but a great place to raise a family!!!

Can't think of much else....will post if I can think of more

[gsp4ever]

Yeah, there are negatives. There are negatives everywhere. It sort of depends on what your interests are as to what and how the negatives might impact you. I wouldn't call the Huntsville area a Garden of Eden but there are worse places you could live and overall, there are few day-to-day hassles of living in this area.

[Maya Blue]

In regards to Tammie's #1 point, Huntsville is very much in a glass bubble in the state of Alabama. It is nothing like any other city in the state.

Because there is so many people from different areas of the country and world here, it makes it sort of a melting pot.

There really isn't a finer place to live and raise a family.

[Charles]

A lot depends on where you are moving from. I moved from Colorado/California. So, I was (am) disturbed by fire ants, especially since I have four small kids.

Lack of diverse restaurants. Not a lot of people other than blacks and whites. Again, it's something I noticed having moved from a very diverse place.

It's colder than I thought from October to April. No snow, but long pants are almost always needed. There are maybe two months were it is pretty hot but it's not that bad and everyone is swimming. It's a lot colder in winter than it is hot in summer.

Some parts of Huntsville and (especially) Madison need upgraded roads to accommodate new subdivisions. There's a lot of much needed construction on the main north south artery, Memorial Parkway. Bridges are being built on the outer south and outer north sides of this Parkway to eliminate the stoplights. This construction is progressing and it is solving problems (like at Weatherly and soon at Sparkman??).

You have to be careful about schools (but you'd have to do that anywhere). Schools seem to be either very good or pretty bad.

I'm really reaching to find negatives. Huntsville isn' the garden of eden but because it has been practically immune from the Great Recession, it stands out favorably.

There aren't too many "cool" or "hip", "artsy", "trendy" places - at least I don't hear too much about them - but I tend to gravitate towards family places.

The school year starts in early August, when people are enjoying summer things, like pools and vacations. A lot of people don't like this early start. However, the schools around here have a Fall Break around early October which allows people to take vacations with off season rates (cruises, hotels, resorts) and off season crowds (Disney World).

By the way, there is an existing thread on this topic:

What Don't You Like About Huntsville?

[harry chickpea]

Off the top of my head:

The area does have meth use and people making meth, which means there is also property crime. That happens in the rural areas in general, but it is a problem.

There are times when the religion aspect gets SO over-the-top that you begin to think there is a mass psychosis in the area. Example: The evening news had a story on an organization that donated bulletproof vests to cops. It was part of an outreach for evangelizing the police forces. I've no problem with that, and I think the idea is a pretty good one. But when the representative started saying "God will guide every vest," in an obvious literal sense, my bile started to rise. Because of the risk of being ostracized, and injunctions against speaking out against a "brother," no one ever calls the more outlandish Christians to task - even when they act like certifiable fruit-loops. It wouldn't upset me as much as it does, except that I've seen what extremists have done to another faith, and I've seen how it already takes retired military escorts to protect the grieving families of war dead from one supposedly "Christian" cult. It seems like any outrageous behavior is acceptable here as long as it hides under the cloak of religion. That denigrates the awesomely good work that many religious organizations do, and I am amazed that those organizations just let the bad actors slide by without comment.

Traffic around Huntsville - insane. Traffic in Birmingham - crowded and insane.

Lots of ticky-tacky house construction.

Lots of pollen some seasons.

A few throwbacks that make you just shake your head. I recently heard one pharmacist assistant who was bent on deriding "Yankees" and struggled to say that "If they want something to eat they ask for a frank and a pop." It was sad and hilarious at the same time, as it was said with some vitriol. The conversation that led up to it was between two people discussing trying to get on disability, which is amazingly common around here.

Every area has a dark side. As far as dark sides go, the one here is a little better than most.

[deesonic]

Nothing negative here. It's all rainbows and unicorns all the time.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

Traffic around Huntsville - insane.

Not sure what you're writing here.

Does anybody else agree with this?

Now this traffic is insane:

[marmac]

Although Hunstsville's crime rate may be lower than other cities of its size it could be better.

Huntsville's crime index rate is---------529
the US average is--------------------320.9