Mayor sandy stimpson’s legacy (Mobile, Madison: 2013, credit, landscaping)

[MardiGras251]

What has he done since he’s taken office in 2013? He ran on economic development and public safety. How do you guys feel about the job he’s doing ?

[PortCity]

Originally Posted by MardiGras251

What has he done since he’s taken office in 2013? He ran on economic development and public safety. How do you guys feel about the job he’s doing ?

Kind of Subpar. He isn't bad but there is room for improvement.

[evlb401]

I think he has done a good job considering past mayors. The city’s finances are in awesome shape, he has really attacked blight, infrastructure is getting repaired, and tries to makes hard decisions that will benefit the city. I would like to see another term. Do I agree with everything he has done.... no. But he is the best we have had in years and much better than the current other declared candidate for The mayor’s race next year.

[Southsky]

Originally Posted by evlb401

I think he has done a good job considering past mayors. The city’s finances are in awesome shape, he has really attacked blight, infrastructure is getting repaired, and tries to makes hard decisions that will benefit the city. I would like to see another term. Do I agree with everything he has done.... no. But he is the best we have had in years and much better than the current other declared candidate for The mayor’s race next year.

Completely agree with this.

[MardiGras251]

He’s been pretty average so far. I think a lot of his main supporters and his ideas are not compatible so that has held him back a lot and made him look pretty average. He’s kinda pee’d off some of the biggest Mardi Gras organizations when he tried to remove the civic center. I am a member of an organization and I do feel like his idea was great. I feel we could’ve figured out something out instead of what is seemingly letting the idea dissolve. He also never spoke about what side he was on with the whole bridge ordeal which means he was probably for the toll. He cancelled bayfest which was a huge economic engine for the city and replaced it with ten65 which has only drawn in 100000 ppl over the last 4 years. That’s a major bust compared to bayfest. HANK AARON stadium is a bust which saddens me bc the hammer is literally the Michael Jordan of baseball. Airport Blvd is deteriorating starting with bel air mall ( which is pretty desolate inside) heading west. Most people who visit mobile think airport Blvd is the heart of the city and look at it :dubious: Ladd stadium will soon be Prichard stadium

The best thing under his tenure has been moving the airport to brookley. I think that was a big boy move. But Mike Dow brought austal (and QMS lol) and sam jones brought Airbus. And if it wasn’t for senator Shelby the port would be stagnant. I think the investment in bishop state and broad street is great. It does give me a sense of optimism for more growth in advanced manufacturing sector. The revitalization of midtown is a big plus also, as it is the true character and feel of Mobile. I feel like downtown is moving in the right direction also.

For me It’s still up in the air for Stimpson . As of now he has not made himself memorable( with the exception of maybe the movement of the airport under his tenure but it’s not done yet.). Mobile has just been maintained under mayor Stimpson. the most explosive growth in Mobile is shillinger road and it’s only in Mobile bc Sam Jones gerrymandered it lol

[evlb401]

A lot of what is in your first paragraph a mayor has no control over. The bridge is beyond the city and his position wouldn’t have mattered. However, he was for the bridge and stated that the $6 toll was too high. Bay fest was a bust man. It couldn’t support itself and Budget was starting to become dependent on city. When the festival was originally planned they wanted it to eventually be self-sustaining. Also cities in the us were moving away from city sponsored music festivals at the time. Same with hank Aaron. As a mayor he couldn’t tell a private business to stay they did what they could but they wanted to leave due to bad attendance. Airport Blvd has been that way since the 90s. Parts of it have improved. That has a lot to do with a life cycle of a neighborhood and private enterprise. However the street could have been spruced up with better landscaping. And Ladd..... he tried to do something about that. But the city Council stopped that just like the city Council stopped him from annexing a lot of West Mobile. But that was also partly his fault. he allowed confusion to surround the issue and he allowed people who didn’t support it to cause chaos.

The biggest problem with Stimpson is that he doesn’t roll out ideas very well. From annexation to the civic center to cutting trees.

Also be very careful assigning responsibility to economic development projects. The vast majority of those Happen because of a huge collaboration of other people including state county and city officials. No one person or politician can ever take credit for luring those businesses.

I could support another candidate, but they would obviously have to be better. Right now I support him because I think Fred would be a terrible choice and could potentially turn this city backwards and cause more harm then good.

[PortCity]

Judge Karlos Finley would be a good candidate.He is running against Fred.

[MardiGras251]

His position matters on the bridge bc he represents the people of Mobile and the people don’t want a toll it seems. So you’re saying that dt did not profit from bay fest? I see plenty of stuff they wasting money on such as the maritime museum. Atleast bay fest was something to look forward to and gave us something to do here. It brought in some pretty big acts. Before McGowin park, there was nothing over there but the stadium. Maybe if McGowin park was built earlier it would’ve helped out the hank ( not saying that’s mayor stimpson’s fault for not building earlier) but we saw that coming for years way before the team went to Madison, and there was NO plan. Airport Blvd has not looked like that since the 90s. Remember Springdale mall was actually a mall. Remember the festival center ,that place used to be so lively. Those are just some bigger examples. I’m not saying the deterioration of airport is his fault but work on fixing it up at any rate just don’t let it go like that, it’s the main thoroughfare to west Mobile. I can say that mayor Stimpson did cut a lot of red tape created by sam jones that sabotaged a lot of small businesses. And if it’s a cycle, how come the spring hill community never went through that cycle? They have always seemed have what they wanted. The parts of west Mobile he’s trying to annex in the most recent proposal started off as a community of people running away from the city limits (Dawes; the 13000 -14000 ppl in which the city REALLY wanted out of the three areas in the most recent proposal bc it has the highest household income outside of spring hill) . I was at the community meetings when that was going on ( the fire protection ordeal) . Why should he be able to annex out there and not fix the problems the city has right now its not taking care of sufficiently. I understand if he were able to annex the unincorporated communities that are located within 3 miles outside the city’s limits (long term plan)Mobile would be the biggest city in Alabama by far and would be in that position for a long time. (70,000 in total and 21,000 from the most recent proposed annexation)

Sandy ran on economic development. Sam Jones was solely blamed for a lot of stuff that was going on. But here’s the article how Airbus came to mobile https://www.al.com/live/2012/07/airb...darling_a.html

I agree with you on that one. I don’t know if Fred is able to handle that task but I will lend my ear when the time comes to listen to his vision but as for now it’s sandy over Fred.

[MardiGras251]

Originally Posted by PortCity

Judge Karlos Finley would be a good candidate.He is running against Fred.

I’ll give him an ear. I don’t know much about him but I’m definitely going to look into it

[MobAL251]

Sandy Stimpson has rode the wave of Sam Jones honestly. His biggest impacts might be infrastructure improvements, which is a good thing. He lacks vision and was horrible with race related issues. He really didn't change much in city government. Majority of city leaders speak of the city as a World class city, it's not. Nothing in Alabama is world class. The city is full of damn museums! No real attractions other than Mardi Gras. World class cities are at least landscaped. Alot of work needs to be done to get Mobile to reach it's potential growth. It can happen through public-private partnerships. We need a mayor to take Mobile into the future, speed up the way things happen. Growth is slow, with the amount of jobs that has came in, it could be better. The city has made stride, but we need more.