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Alabama is the most underachieving state in the country. The state is beyond beautiful and is full of history (good and bad). The politicians are just corrupt.....and don't even get me started on the gerrymandering that helps elect those politicians.
I did read the article thank you!
Obviously uou know little about Alabama. it is not just Huntsville and Birmingham. Cullman is growing at a 4.88% rate, Muscle Shoals, 5.21%, Millbrook 5.28%, Enterprise, 5.5%, Troy 6.42%, Northport 7.35%, Trussville 7.47%, Alabaster 8.55%, Pell City, 8.66% Moody 9.36%, TUSCALOOSA 10.03%, Helena 11.2%, Madison 11.69%, Opelika 12.81%, Phenix City 13.13%, Athens 15.97%, Calera 16.08%, Auburn 18.24%, Gulf Shores 20%, Daphne 20.45%, Foley 20.45%, Chelsea 21.19%, and Fairhope 26.72%. Birmingham is not even in the top 25, Huntsville is number 20.
As I said, before you post in the Alabama Forum, know a little about the state. Obviously you and US News and World Report are in the same clueless boat.
Considering I lived in Alabama for more than 20 years I think I know more than a little about the state.
You're really showing how clueless you are putting out a bunch of percentages without context. First off, you're quoting city growth percentages which mean nothing, several cities you listed are part of the Birmingham metro area. Those percentages mean nothing I'm talking about metro area populations which are more representative. City growth is arbitrary and determined by a number of factors that vary from location to location, it's not an indication of how much an area is growing or how many transplants they are attracting. The Huntsville and Birmingham metro areas are seeing the majority of the economic growth in the state, Birmingham because it's the largest economic generator by far, and Huntsville because is the fastest growing metro population area in the state. There are other areas that are seeing growth as well Phenix City/Opelika/Columbus, Tuscaloosa, etc. None of those places except Huntsville and a few others are seeing growth that is typical that most of the sunbelt states (with the exception of Mississippi) are seeing, this is undeniable. I'm excluding the coastal growth in Baldwin because the draw of that area is obvious, but I assure you there aren't many people from outside of the State of Alabama moving to places like Cullman or Enterprise Alabama.
Last edited by Huntsville_secede; 05-24-2019 at 07:28 AM..
Considering I lived in Alabama for more than 20 years I think I know more than a little about the state.
You're really showing how clueless you are putting out a bunch of percentages without context.
Very true, and posting rankings from US News and World Report is it not going down the same road?
The only reason this thread exists is because of the anti abortion bill passed in the Alabama legislature and signed into law. Now because of that, certain groups have Alabama on their radar and think it is their duty to bash the state. Disclaimer: I am not defending, in my opinion, that misguided bill, Just stating the obvious.
The simple fact is, lots of us enjoy living in a low tax, primary rural location. A bunch of others must also as the state is growing, new industry is locating in Alabama, and many retired couples are moving here, not only to the coast so they can enjoy our beautiful beaches but also to many other area such as Mentone here in Dekalb County.
I did read the article thank you!
Obviously uou know little about Alabama. it is not just Huntsville and Birmingham. Cullman is growing at a 4.88% rate, Muscle Shoals, 5.21%, Millbrook 5.28%, Enterprise, 5.5%, Troy 6.42%, Northport 7.35%, Trussville 7.47%, Alabaster 8.55%, Pell City, 8.66% Moody 9.36%, TUSCALOOSA 10.03%, Helena 11.2%, Madison 11.69%, Opelika 12.81%, Phenix City 13.13%, Athens 15.97%, Calera 16.08%, Auburn 18.24%, Gulf Shores 20%, Daphne 20.45%, Foley 20.45%, Chelsea 21.19%, and Fairhope 26.72%. Birmingham is not even in the top 25, Huntsville is number 20.
As I said, before you post in the Alabama Forum, know a little about the state. Obviously you and US News and World Report are in the same clueless boat.
First of all most of that city growth you quoted is the moving of people from Alabama's rural counties to be closer to the cities. Alabama as an entire state has gained about 100,000 people from the year 2010 that's not that impressive of a growth rate. Alabama as a whole gets unfairly painted as worse than it is, but let's not act like it's some huge magnet for transplants. There's only a couple areas of the state that are really attracting transplants in significant numbers and that would be the Huntsville metro area, Birmingham metro and the beach areas of the state(Baldwin). Most of the people relocating for economic opportunities are relocating to other southern states. Furthermore if you look at the demographics in most places in Alabama, most people were born in the state of Alabama. The neighboring states(except Miss of course) see much higher amounts of domestic migration. Huntsville actually has one of the highest concentration of transplants in the state due to it's unique high tech, defense and space industry that isn't found anywhere else in Alabama. The domestic migration numbers are listed on the second website. Baldwin, Madison County, Shelby County, Limestone County, St. Clair County, and Tuscaloosa are listed as the top. Mobile county saw a big loss in domestic migration so I'd imagine some of the gain in Baldwin is as a result from this, and at one point Baldwin was included in the Mobile metropolitan area I believe. So according to those statistics that means Huntsville and Baldwin, and then Birmingham are the places where transplants are relocating the most. Obviously having one of the nicest beaches in the world is a draw for Balwdin county. Overall Birmingham metro still has the largest economy by far and it's suburbs are continuing to growth, and Huntsville has seen the largest economy/GDP increase of all areas of the state, the coastline will always be attractive and Tuscaloosa and Auburn/Opelika are doing well as well. However when it comes to economic opportunities though and people relocating to the state there are very few areas that are really going to be a huge draw to people outside the state especially professionals. You're trying to make it seem like Alabama is super attractive to people from outside the state when it's still really lagging behind a lot of other states.
"Alabama’s pace of population growth increased in 2017, but the state remains slow-growing compared to most of its Southeastern neighbors, according to the latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Two factors holding down growth: Alabama has the nation’s second-highest death rate and one of the lowest rates of immigration from other countries.
Domestic in-migration
For the first time in several years, Alabama had a positive rate of domestic in-migration — more people moving to the state than leaving for other states, according to PARCA’s analysis of the recently released data."
Very true, and posting rankings from US News and World Report is it not going down the same road?
The only reason this thread exists is because of the anti abortion bill passed in the Alabama legislature and signed into law. Now because of that, certain groups have Alabama on their radar and think it is their duty to bash the state. Disclaimer: I am not defending, in my opinion, that misguided bill, Just stating the obvious.
The simple fact is, lots of us enjoy living in a low tax, primary rural location. A bunch of others must also as the state is growing, new industry is locating in Alabama, and many retired couples are moving here, not only to the coast so they can enjoy our beautiful beaches but also to many other area such as Mentone here in Dekalb County.
No I never said I completely agree with the rankings, I just posted them to show how they came up with their conclusion, and to point out that Alabama finishing low in a state ranking is nothing new it happened before the Abortion bill passed and it will continue to happen. It had nothing to do with that bill, they do those state rankings yearly, it was just a coincidence that it came out during the abortion bill controversy, and that may have caused it to get more attention than usual. Most of the time these state rankings come out and go unnoticed. The abortion bill is an embarrassment and is bringing extra attention to Alabama, normally people who don't live in the State wouldn't care much about the affairs in Alabama but since it is affecting women who have no choice in the say, they do right now. Education and Healthcare in Alabama are lagging behind. If you don't think education and healthcare need to be improved in Alabama you are part of the problem. A lot of the other stuff in the rankings were questionable though. A lot of the states in the top 15 I would never live for various reasons. There's vast swaths of Alabama that I don't like but there are a lot of nice places in the state and it does provide a low cost of living which the ranking did not take into account. You bashed California but there's a lot of extremely nice areas there and it has one of the largest economies in the world. The problem is it's not affordable for anyone other than the very rich anymore and California actually didn't finish that high in the ranking because the quality of life there even without factoring in the cost of living has gone done a lot recently. It was actually Washington that was number one in the State rankings. Mentone is beautiful I used to drive through there a lot on my back to Huntsville I can see why an older retire would want to settle there. For a millennial or any working professional, moving to a place like that is going to be unrealistic for a number of reasons. The gulf coast beaches will always be a draw to tourists and retirees and the Alabama ones are probably more affordable than a lot of the beach areas on the Florida peninsula .
Last edited by Huntsville_secede; 05-24-2019 at 07:37 AM..
I agree so many of these aspects of life quality are personal and subjective; however, I don't think as Alabamians we should be dismissive of ranking near the bottom of so many lists. There are reasons why we are always ranked low in many categories; whereas, other nearby or neighboring states like Georgia and North Carolina are doing much better. Quality of life is pretty good in Alabama for middle to upper middle class people and higher, but huge huge segments of our population live in areas with terrible schools, very poor access to health care, etc. As a state we should value these things more than we do. Life is very different in Alabama outside the islands of Huntsville-Madison, suburban Birmingham, and other comfortable spots.
I agree so many of these aspects of life quality are personal and subjective; however, I don't think as Alabamians we should be dismissive of ranking near the bottom of so many lists. There are reasons why we are always ranked low in many categories; whereas, other nearby or neighboring states like Georgia and North Carolina are doing much better. Quality of life is pretty good in Alabama for middle to upper middle class people and higher, but huge huge segments of our population live in areas with terrible schools, very poor access to health care, etc. As a state we should value these things more than we do. Life is very different in Alabama outside the islands of Huntsville-Madison, suburban Birmingham, and other comfortable spots.
This 100 percent embodies what I was trying to say. The nice areas of the state are no different than any other American cities and in some areas the QOL is ultimately higher due to the low cost of living. But there are vast areas of the state where significant populations still live that live in conditions not experienced in most states. The black belt region of Alabama is a perfect example. I read somewhere that half of the counties in Alabama don't even have access to an OB/GYN.
Last edited by Huntsville_secede; 05-24-2019 at 08:31 AM..
Baldwin's Eastern Shore( Daphne-Fairhope-Spnaishfort) is actually the fastest growing area of Baldwin not the beaches and they also have the highest income in that county. Baldwin's beach growth is due to retirees.As for the Eastern Shore it's growth has nothing to do with retirees. The Easternshore and beach areas are just as transient as Madison if not very close to it.
This 100 percent embodies what I was trying to say. The nice areas of the state are no different than any other American cities and in some areas the QOL is ultimately higher due to the low cost of living. But there are vast areas of the state where significant populations still live that live in conditions not experienced in most states. The black belt region of Alabama is a perfect example. I read somewhere that half of the counties in Alabama don't even have access to an OB/GYN.
Yep, that's been in the news lately with the passage of the abortion restrictions. Birth control is available for free in health clinics, but in many areas the nearest health clinic can be one hour or more away. There are huge segments of the population who live this way, but they are mostly invisible if you live in Madison or Vestavia, spend almost all of your time in comfortable surroundings, and rarely venture off the interstates when traveling through other parts of the state. I teach in a community college and can attest to how woefully unprepared many students entering our school are to move on beyond 12th grade, and of course I'm not talking about kids coming out of Madison schools.
Sometimes I don't think we realize how many people live low quality lives, because most live in fairly dense urban areas or off the beaten path in rural communities. Because middle, upper middle, and upper class neighborhoods take up lots of land area and are highly visible, it can be misleading in terms of what proportion of the population lives that way. Taking a look at median household income statistics was very eye opening for me.
#46 in Healthcare
#50 in Education
#45 in Economy
#38 in Infrastructure
#45 in Opportunity
#23 in Fiscal Stability
#45 in Crime & Corrections
#35 in Natural environment
Clearly you didn't read the article because the lady that wrote the article has nothing to do with the rankings. The report was performed by the U.S. News & World Report. Most of the jobs in the state are being created in Huntsville and Birmingham with a few other random places. Outside of those two cities, nowhere in Alabama is really seeing a lot of people from outside the state move to it. There are vast swaths of Alabama filled with poverty and limited opportunity. Alabama was 49th primarily because it ranked #46 in Healthcare and #50 in education. Those two categories were weighted more. I question a lot of these rankings but Alabama finishing at the bottom of a list is nothing new, especially when education is factored in.
I always have to question these lists for several reasons. For one, Colorado is one of the higher infrastructure states and their roads and bridges make Missouri look nice and Nebraska pre-flood was no picnic either when I drove all over the state last August either. It is a well known fact that most of Colorado road budget is allocated to making sure that the more dangerous mountain routes are maintained, but outside of that the city roads in Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo aren't up to par with most of Kansas City and Wichita (more like Omaha and Topeka), and I-70 and US-50 take huge dives in quality the minute you cross the state line coming in from Kansas. I-80 and US-81 in Nebraska were even worse then US-50 in Colorado was. None were as bad as the Cimarron Turnpike in Oklahoma, but I just had to laugh that they were right below Kansas, a state with pretty nice roads despite having the transportation budget crippled by that idiot Sam Brownback.
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