Huntsville projected to be largest city in Alabama in less than 10 years (Birmingham: 2015, houses)

[spidac]

Huntsville projected to be largest city in Alabama in less than 10 years | AL.com

[Tourian]

Hmmm. Huntsville area business leaders commission a study using old data that gives an answer they want to hear. Shocking.

Even still, metro area size is more important in today's world and Birmingham is in no danger of losing the #1 spot.

[TimCity2000]

not to mention, Birmingham is finally growing again. will be interesting to see the next set of estimates after all these new units come online. even still, the gap is 25,000 so it won't be overnight.

[Justin Scott]

Speaking of Huntsville, it's unfortunate that Birmingham doesn't get even half of the attention from the state that Huntsville does. Like Tourian said, the metro is much more important. Remember, Memphis, a city with a metro roughly the size of Birmingham's, has a higher population than Atlanta.....however, when 6 to 7 million people are in the metro, it doesn't mean much.

[rnc2mbfl]

It's very interesting how close in municipal population the four largest cities in the state are.

[jero23]

This is the problem for Huntsville, it lacks a large historical urban core with an large established housing stock. Huntsville denser areas are almost 75% suburban in design. These are the main attractions for the Millennials and young professionals that would like to live in a city that feels like a city. Unfortunately, Huntsville lacks that feel or design.

Birmingham has a large established urban core. Also there are multiple historical areas and established residential neighborhoods with a wide variety of housing types from rowhouses to traditional bungalows. This is why so many area determined to move into these areas like Avondale, Woodlawn, and Glen Iris. This is also why the City of Birmingham is so ambitious with the REV Birmingham these multiple initiatives. As another poster said, Birmingham as ended its population decline, so don't be surprised if it goes back towards the 215,000 range in the next 5 years.

[NoleFanHSV]

Originally Posted by jero23

This is the problem for Huntsville, it lacks a large historical urban core with an large established housing stock. Huntsville denser areas are almost 75% suburban in design. These are the main attractions for the Millennials and young professionals that would like to live in a city that feels like a city. Unfortunately, Huntsville lacks that feel or design.

The design really wasn't designed, it just happened. Part of Huntsville's problem is that many who live here aren't from here. Those that aren't from here have come from large cities trying to get away from the large city vibe or those who come from suburbia outside of larger cities relocated due to BRAC and want to maintain the suburban lifestyle. There are some who want to make downtown more urban, but most think its wasted tax money.

[TimCity2000]

Huntsville's small downtown, IMO, has everything to do with how the city "grew up". Remember, it was nothing until the 1940s/1950s when NASA and the Arsenal spurred heavy growth. Coincidentally, that was the start of the age of the automobile, so Huntsville become a very suburban city. Not to mention its largest employers (NASA, Redstone, Cummings) all require large amounts of land and don't suit themselves easily to dense downtown-type of development.


In contrast, Birmingham's core was already well established by that time... in fact, most of our oldest tall buildings were built in the early 1900s.

[TN2HSV]

Originally Posted by TimCity2000

Huntsville's small downtown, IMO, has everything to do with how the city "grew up". Remember, it was nothing until the 1940s/1950s when NASA and the Arsenal spurred heavy growth. Coincidentally, that was the start of the age of the automobile, so Huntsville become a very suburban city. Not to mention its largest employers (NASA, Redstone, Cummings) all require large amounts of land and don't suit themselves easily to dense downtown-type of development.


In contrast, Birmingham's core was already well established by that time... in fact, most of our oldest tall buildings were built in the early 1900s.

Exactly. By the time HSV boomed, everyone had cars so no need for a dense urban core. Obviously, that hasn't stunted the city's growth.

[harry chickpea]

The figures are meaningless in the greater scope. Take two arbitrary historical divisions into municipalities, ignore the commerce and industrial, and focus on the number of residents, and than make that a talking point. Ignore annexations or lack thereof, and show a nice graph. Legislative divisions haven't been real measurements and haven't been real measures of wealth or robustness since the electric trolley made suburbs practical. Fluff and fill article.