[IdahoGal84]

My husband and I will be relocating to Alabama from Idaho within the year. He currently works for Walmart and is seeking an upper management position, and was told it would be no problem to find. We are trying to get as much information as we can.

The areas we are looking at are Tuscaloosa/Birmingham/Huntsville. We want the small town living, low crime, nice people. We want to enjoy life at a slower pace and build our family. We want to know the people we live near and have a social life. We have an 8 year old son to think about as well. Public or Private schools?

I'd like to find some part time work and have only worked in retail. I read about minimum wage, do most jobs in these areas typically start you at minimum wage?

Any other information you'd like to share, please feel free.

[Southlander]

Originally Posted by IdahoGal84

My husband and I will be relocating to Alabama from Idaho within the year. He currently works for Walmart and is seeking an upper management position, and was told it would be no problem to find. We are trying to get as much information as we can.

The areas we are looking at are Tuscaloosa/Birmingham/Huntsville. We want the small town living, low crime, nice people. We want to enjoy life at a slower pace and build our family. We want to know the people we live near and have a social life. We have an 8 year old son to think about as well. Public or Private schools?

I'd like to find some part time work and have only worked in retail. I read about minimum wage, do most jobs in these areas typically start you at minimum wage?

Any other information you'd like to share, please feel free.

There's a huge variation among these three places so we would need to know more exactly where you're looking.
Huntsville - most public schools are good, many private schools are church related.
Birmingham - if you are in the city limits of Birmingham, stay away from most public schools. If you're in the suburbs, public schools are good.
Tuscaloosa - many choose private schools here. Northport public schools are good.

All 3 towns are surrounded by smaller towns - suburbs. For a close neighbor feel, look to the neighborhood, not to the city.

Minimum wage - yes, most retail jobs will start at minimum wage, unless there's some reason to pay you more. Remember, Alabama has one of the lowest costs of living in the country.

[edwar050]

I like Tuscaloosa the best of the 3. Next would be Huntsville then Birmingham. Tuscaloosa has a lot to offer with a new outdoor mall, new rebuilding after the tornado, the university sports, many restaurants geared towards college, and low commute times. Huntsville is a very nice area as well and you can find a nice home in the country there. I like Hoover and really like mountain brook but find it is a little overpriced and you have to deal with lenght commutes.

During football season Tuscaloosa can be a pain, but then again there is tailgaiting, free slides/things for the kids to do on the quad, tons of food, etc. Huntsville is nice because of the commute to Nashville if you like country music and proximity to Birmingham and ATL. Tuscaloosa is only 4 hours away from gulf shores and Orange beach and only an hour from Birmingham. You should probably also check out Baldwin county, specifically Spanish fort, Fairhope, Foley, and Orange Beach. Your from Idaho so your the kind of yankee we prefer in the south

[Keeper]

Birmingham has a lot of traffic and smog. I know we have some folks who live in Bham area. Tuscaloosa is a University town. I haven't been there since the tornado but it seemed like a nice place. Huntsville is a very high tech city mainly due to Redstone Arsenal and NASA being located there. Traffic is not too bad and there are a lot of different areas to live. It is in a valley surrounded by what we call mountains here. You are 6 hours (MOL) from the Gulf. The people are nice here. You are in the bible belt and you will be invited to church by just about everyone you meet. Just say 'Thank you' unless you are interested.

People still pull over when they see a funeral procession, men tip their hats to women and just about everyone will say 'Hi'.

[EscAlaMike]

You think Birmingham will provide a slower pace of life than Idaho? If you want a slower pace, you need a smaller town. Huntsville is sprawl and busy, and Tuscaloosa is slower paced but gets busy when school is in, especially football season.

[Shalako]

I dunno why anyone would move from Idaho to Alabama, but anyway.B'ham is the largest of the three and the least deserible. Some of the suburbs on the southside are nice though. Tuscaloosa is ok, has a more laid back attitude than some areas. Huntsville is primarily all about the Army--missiles,Army aviation, hi tech. The southside part of town is a good place to live as are most of the surrounding areas. School quality generaslly follows accordingly.

[edwar050]

Shalako was pretty much wrong on Birmingham. The east side of town, hoover and mountain brook are nice. Birmingham has grown a lot in the mountain brook area in the last 10 years and traffic can be a pain.

As to why anybody would move from Idaho to Alabama... well for one the weather is very opposite of Idaho. You can forget the freezing winters, the only area that gets an annual snow is usually the north east side up near Georgia. I think you might like Huntsville the best and be more accustomed to the weather there. Also, there are tons of cities within a days drive of the 3 cities you listed in Alabama, like Nashville, Charleston, Savannah, Atlanta, New Orleans, Orlando "disney" 8 Hours from Tuscloosa / Birmingham, Jacksonville, Panama City... Top notch beaches "atlantic and gulf, history, kids activities, and mardi gras" what does Idaho have within a days car drive other than Oregon? Orlando>Portland....

Alabama is one of the better states in the country. The people are still nice in this state, are more educated than a vast majority of the country gives them credit for, have some of the best produce in the country "good if your a foodie", have some of the nicest beaches and close access to Florida without the translocated Yankees flipping waitresses off. There is also Bonaroo in Tennessee and the Hangout Music fest in Gulf shores, two of the nations top 5 largest music festivals both within a days drive and both opposite one being mountainish the other beach.

[CoreLysium]

Long time Huntsvillian opinion:

Huntsville is great if you know which areas not to live in. But this is true of most places. The best places in HSV are the SE, Hamton Cove, or Madison (a separate city inside Huntsville. (Inside, because we surrounded it entirely about 12 years ago.)

Huntsville is one of the strange cities that naturally segregated itself. It's quite odd when you first notice this.

The schools range from abismal to best in the state. You will pay for your school district. The govt is pretty quick on the services and Huntsville Utilities is top notch in service as long as you're talking people in the feild, the customer service people are fairly clueless (I suspect high turnover rate.) Energy is cheap due to TVA.

We have a state park within the city limits and adjoining it is a "land trust" that is about as large and has about half as many trails in it. We rarely get the "good" concerts here. Traffic is great (no sarcasm.) There are the usual amount of Walmarts you'd expect from a metro of 320k, but we also have a Target distribution center on I-565 about halfway to I-65 from the city. Or, actually, it's in the city, but the population density is still low out there. And HSV is one of the fastest growing cities and due to our heavy defense and communication tech base have been relatively untouched by the current bad economy. But if they ever stop the war, that might change.

I'd pick Nashville as a second option before the other cities in Alabama. And you were wise to leave Montgomery off your list. I am embarrassed by the condition of our state capital.

As for climate, for Huntsville, take Boise weather and add 10 degrees. (Obviously not for the few days that Boise gets into the high 80s or even 90s.) Double or triple the humidity. We are a sub-tropical zone (all of Alabama) so expect a rainy season rather than a real winter. And we get snow so rarely, if it's in the low 30s and it rains they close school. Seriously.

Climate comparison: http://goo.gl/M0Y0VU

[mythreesonsb]

I just moved to Idaho from Alabama (Huntsville in particular).

If one of the things you are looking for is small friendly towns, stay in Idaho. I was born and raised in Alabama (49 years old) and when we moved to Idaho in June of this year, this town put Alabama to shame.

The south has some nice things, but there is a great racial divide there....that has worsened in the last 5 years. The person above who shared that Hampton Cove was nice is absolutely correct.....and VERY expensive to live there. Madison, just outside of Huntsville has a wonderful High School...Bob Jones, but also very expensive to live there.

I would not back to Alabama for anything! Idaho is so much better!

[Lone Star Rooster]

Not sure if you've already made the move (thread started a couple months ago), but if not you might also look into the Auburn area of Alabama. I've always thought of it as a nice, typical university-centered town, with an added bonus of closer proximity to the Gulf beaches and close (but not too close) proximity to the Atlanta area.