tell me about Mobile... (spring break, apartments, condos)

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by cloudface

The crime rate is a factor in Mobile. People who live in Mobile and have not been directly affected by it often gloss over it. The fact is, there is a large population of uneducated people which live in poor conditions under government housing..a welfare state, if you will. There are many broken families with no positive male role models to speak of in these communities. The public schools are dismal. Private schools are your only option, but they are expensive. Midtown is sandwiched between two ghettos, Pritchard and DIP. White flight has been going on for atleast ten years over to Baldwin county. I know this sounds a bit depressing, but someone has to say it. On the positive side, the economy in Mobile is improving and downtown is trying to come back. A shining star in Mobile is the University of South Alabama, which is growing by leaps and bounds. Hopefully, some new blood and better crime fighting will improve Mobile some more. But for now, it's still a crapshoot. I would not move here if I could avoid it.

Much of that is the truth.

[oscottscotto]

There is truth to that post ...

But his post still says what has been said all along in this forum - if you are not living in Prichard or DIP (and I'd add Creighton) crime will not be an issue at all. And not all areas of DIP are crime ridden, although alot are. But still, it is what most say, the safest living in Mobile is either in the historic government st. area, midtown, or west of I-65 (where most live). So the post didn't exactly shed light on anything new. And even at that, if anyone can show me any mid to large city in the US that does not have harder areas sandwhiching good ones (referring to any city's downtown or midtown areas) ... I'm all ears.

And not ALL public schools are bad. I would send my kid to Davidson or Murphy in a heartbeat, that is if I had a kid . Heck, I even taught for a long time at what most consider to be the "roughest" school in Mobile and I'm living to tell the stories lol.

And yes, South Alabama and the area around it is great. I just wish they had the brand new cool-looking Jaguar logo when I went there.

[luksky]

What was posted by cloudface is the utter truth. I lived in Mobile for 43 years and saw Mobile go from a nice city to a ghetto dump. There is no pride and it shows. The negativity in the city is encompassing. I couldn't take it anymore and moved to Texas.

I would send my kid to Davidson or Murphy in a heartbeat

My son graduated from Davidson High and I know first hand that it was not a good school.....or should I say maybe by Mobile's public school standards it's the best they can do.

Do your homework on Mobile before you waste your time and money moving there.

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by luksky

What was posted by cloudface is the utter truth. I lived in Mobile for 43 years and saw Mobile go from a nice city to a ghetto dump. There is no pride and it shows. The negativity in the city is encompassing. I couldn't take it anymore and moved to Texas.

I would send my kid to Davidson or Murphy in a heartbeat

My son graduated from Davidson High and I know first hand that it was not a good school.....or should I say maybe by Mobile's public school standards it's the best they can do.

Do your homework on Mobile before you waste your time and money moving there.

To be fair, many parts of Texas aren't any better.

[oscottscotto]

I'm curious as to where in Texas. Surely it is not being implied that Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, El Paso (although I do love El Paso), or Amarillo is "less ghetto" than Mobile? I'd have to call you on that claim .

Maybe you moved to a very small town that is too small to have "city problems" yet? Or maybe you moved to Austin?

[luksky]

Or maybe you moved to Austin?

You got it oscottscotto! I did my homework before I moved. :-) Austin is like a slice of heaven. But, you are right about other cities in Texas being ghetto....like I said I did my homework....

[oscottscotto]

Originally Posted by luksky

Or maybe you moved to Austin?

You got it oscottscotto! I did my homework before I moved. :-) Austin is like a slice of heaven. But, you are right about other cities in Texas being ghetto....like I said I did my homework....

lol alright, I'll lay off then. Austin is a very cool city.

I still contend that while Mobile has its share of "rough areas", Mobile itself is not ghetto overall by any means. But that's why we all have opinions. And for what it's worth, anyone who thinks there are uncomfortable areas in Mobile - please come visit areas of Chicago, Detroit, or visit me here in STL. You will never be uncomfortable anywhere in Mobile afterwards ever again .

[downtowndoll]

Originally Posted by luksky

What was posted by cloudface is the utter truth. I lived in Mobile for 43 years and saw Mobile go from a nice city to a ghetto dump. There is no pride and it shows. The negativity in the city is encompassing. I couldn't take it anymore and moved to Texas.

I would send my kid to Davidson or Murphy in a heartbeat

My son graduated from Davidson High and I know first hand that it was not a good school.....or should I say maybe by Mobile's public school standards it's the best they can do.

Do your homework on Mobile before you waste your time and money moving there.

As far as the schools, if your children are taking simply basic classes and not Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate (a curriculum most American students are too lazy to attempt), then your child wouldn't be getting a good education. It is certainly possible to get an excellent education at the area public high schools, but it involves taking difficult classes- that's not something that every child can do.
Davidson is a good high school; they began the IB program this past year. It's not easy to be selected to be an IB school.

My son who went to Murphy has 5 years of French he took there; then he had 2 years of French at Phillips Prep, a public magnet middle school. Murphy has a foundation called the Edith Murphy Foundation that many of the alumni support; it supports programs at the school that would not be funded otherwise. A nice bonus is my son never touched alcohol or drugs while he was there. Yay!

Now my younger ones go to private, but it's not because it's "better", it's because I don't want to drive them to different schools because they are 3 years apart. And it's nice to know if things don't work out at private, there are some great, even better options.

Now about the negativity:
When we lived outside the city, it seemed I heard more negative plus flat out wrong stuff than i do now that I live in Midtown. One reason is that I believe most people who live out there aren't up to date on what's happening in Mobile. It's amazing the people i've met living in Midtown......the movers and the shakers tend to live in Midtown so I'm pretty up on what's happening here. Good things are happening in Mobile.

I moved from west Mobile about 6 years ago, but I do remember when we first moved here 15 years ago, it seemed pretty depressed. So I could see if someone was here 8 years ago thinking it was terrible. But things have changed so dramatically! There are a lot of ill-informed people who think it's still bad because they don't ever come into town.

I mean, look at Baldwin Cty, the housing market is depressed and had a big decrease this year. Mobile County had a huge increase!

The good area sandwiched between the bad area? Its area is increasing all the time. It's pretty amazing how quickly this has been!!!!For one thing, property values are increasing so many of them are renters who eventually buy or rents get too high, and they can't afford the area anymore so they actually move out west to the aging suburban neighborhoods which have decreased in value(unless it's Spring Hill area).

[TN-rox]

If you havent moved yet, I would recomend chattanooga. Much nicer place, well from passing through Mobile, growing rapidly and its in the mountains. Tons of outdoorsy stuff. Its always ranked in one of the top cities to live in. Not very big either, like 200-300,000? Sure is warmer in Mobile and dunno if youd rather have mountains than beaches

[oscottscotto]

Originally Posted by TN-rox

dunno if youd rather have mountains than beaches

That prettymuch sums up the choice for someone who has no hometown ties to either. Both are good cities. I prefer to live by a coast and vacation in the mountains, but can completely understand someone wanting to live in the mountains and vacation on the coast.

... not that I do either right now. Just speaking out of my arse.