What is holding Mobile back? (Birmingham, Montgomery: condos, crime, new house)

[MsRiss7383]

I moved to Baldwin County a month ago and I know little to nothing about Mobile, including politics or history.

I have to say I love Mobile and it seems that it has so much potential. The downtown area is adorable, love the beautiful older homes, and the bay is so gorgeous it takes my breath away. I think Mobile has so much potential and yet...it just doesn't reach it. Please know I truly like it and mean no offense, but something is holding this city back and I don't know enough to figure out what

[BelleFontaineMan]

I considered two major problems holding Mobile back

A) The housing problem. Mobile has a major housing problem. A big portion of the housing stock is crippling. During WWII and after was when Mobile experienced an absolute boom within the city, the population triple from 60k to 200k between 1940-1960. But since a war was going on, all the resources were being put into the war effort, so all the new houses being created were cheap and small, particularly in the 40s. Now those houses are falling apart left and right, especially in Urban part of Mobile. The city has started to keep up by condemning and tearing them down.

B) Baldwin County, Baldwin County is wildly successful. The problem is that it is not an "official" part of the Mobile Metro, even though for all intents and purposes it is very much an extension of Mobile, and most everyone in the area lumps them together. Not sure why feds haven't joined them together as Baldwin County meets every metric to join the Mobile Metro.
Anyways so when outsiders are looking at Mobiles metro, they just see it as Mobile and Washington County and think that it Stagnant when in reality the area is booming because Baldwin County is an extension of Mobile



There are of course a few more problems, but these are the big two in my opinions. Mobile has an absolute ton of potential. Mobile is definitely in a transitional phase right now of becoming a nobody city to the next Charleston. The outside world has definitely been changing its opinion on the city these past few years.

I think one problem will be solved soon, Baldwin County will hopefully become a part of the Mobile Metro in the next federal metro update. The other problem I think will take a little longer, Mobile is definitely in the right direction. The city is tearing down a ton of these old houses and the HUD's are tearing down all the project homes in Urban Mobile (and it seems like they will be selling this land to private investors). I imagine there has to be a tipping point before we see a new boom in home construction in Urban Mobile

[natedoggbry]

A huge problem was the way the federal, state, and local government absolutely shafted Mobile. I’m sure it did this to every city in some way, but we aren’t any different. Historically, the city was moving south and west. The southern way got blocked when they opened Brookley Air Force base in the late 30s. That took up a massive amount of land and cut Mobile off from the bay in that area. Then you had housing built at the end of Michigan ave, just north of Brookley field for workers and airmen I believe. Then in the late 60s, the federal government forcibly shut down the base on the orders of President Lyndon Johnson because Alabama didn’t vote for him. Those now empty houses were turned into housing projects, which are about to be torn down soon. Brookley closing meant thousands were out of work, in addition to housing projects popping up there, meant everything surrounding that area has been in decline. South of Brookley field you have an area with a lot of older housing that was built for people who worked at the base. Along that route you have only 1 road(dauphin island parkway) that goes north and south, and no other roads going east-west to connect it to the rest of the city(becsuse it’s a peninsula). Deer river used to have a bridge, so everyone going to dauphin island would pass through this way. But the bridge doesn’t exist anymore and everyone goes through Tillman’s corner down rangeline road for the most part. That essentially means DIP is a dead end kinda road. You really don’t ever drive on it unless you live there or are going to see someone you know there. That’s why most of the land fronting the bay for Mobile isn’t as desirable as it is in Baldwin county.

Then you have urban renewal, which happened everyone in the nation, but it was disastrous here for us. It was essentially removing housing and commercial areas they considered undesirable and prioritized transportation projects. Broad/Beauregard street was turned into a 6 lane highway. Canal street was as well. They literally nuked commerce, front, and water streets which is why we have no warehouse district like most other port cities do. The water street they put in was 6 lanes and it formed a circle of 6 lane highways around downtown, in case you wanted to pretend it was talladega or something. The civic center, combined with shoving I-10 into downtown took hundreds of historic houses. Then in the area south of downtown, they nuked hundreds more historic houses to put ranch houses there, completely destroying the grid pattern that existed.

We’re also an active port and need space for that. It used to be at the foot of downtown, but larger ships couldn’t go past the tunnels that were put in. And the ships can’t turn around in the Mobile river. So all of that moved south to be at the mouth of the river where it hits the bay. Combine that with the fact that the state owns all of the land along the Mobile river from the convention center north, it basically gives us no ability to access the river in a large stretch.

There’s smaller things too like thinking it was a good idea to put a housing project directly north of downtown, a zoning code that makes it very difficult to build new infill houses in old neighborhoods, and they apply a suburban style stuff to urban and semi-urban areas. That’s why McDonald’s takes an entire block downtown. There used to be 10+ houses and businesses there, but someone thought it was a good idea to allow that to be wiped out for a McDonald’s. Nearly all of downtown Crichton was replaced with a suburban style Popeyes, KFC, dollar tree, strip mall, etc. Small changes which are enforced by the government here have led to disaster over the fabric of the city as much as the large scale changes like Brookley, housing projects, urban renewal

[MsRiss7383]

Thank you both for the interesting and well thought put responses.

As far as Baldwin County goes, well I think they would be resistant to being considered a part of Mobile. I love in Spanish Fort and its actually very bizarre to me how here
talk about Mobile. It's almost a bragging point to people that they never drive across the bay or go "all the way over to Mobile" What? Its 15 minutes away! And the bay is gorgeous and I love driving over it. Somehow the people of Baldwin need to be convinced that Mobile has something to offer and that seems impossible because of such closed mindedness.

Also, I know that Mobile Bay is truly industrial and needs to be a port, but is there any potential for waterfront shops, dining, high rise condos overlooking the bay??

[BelleFontaineMan]

Originally Posted by MsRiss7383

Thank you both for the interesting and well thought put responses.

As far as Baldwin County goes, well I think they would be resistant to being considered a part of Mobile. I love in Spanish Fort and its actually very bizarre to me how here
talk about Mobile. It's almost a bragging point to people that they never drive across the bay or go "all the way over to Mobile" What? Its 15 minutes away! And the bay is gorgeous and I love driving over it. Somehow the people of Baldwin need to be convinced that Mobile has something to offer and that seems impossible because of such closed mindedness.

Also, I know that Mobile Bay is truly industrial and needs to be a port, but is there any potential for waterfront shops, dining, high rise condos overlooking the bay??

My guess for that it just because of how notoriously awful the Bay Bridge is, another neglect of ALDOT. Commuting back and forth Baldwin to Mobile and visa versa is awful.

Its just like how most suburbia's are, they aren't usually gonna realize how important the city is to their suburban existence.

I doubt the city will get any waterfront shops anytime soon, the port is too important, I doubt the State would give up any more land, the best we'll have is Cooper Riverside Park. Although there is potential for waterfront developments within the city along some the rivers like Three Mile Creek which they are currently building a massive bike along it.

[southernnaturelover]

51 homicides so far this year. There's your answer.

And yes, I realize it's not everywhere in the city, but it creates a reputation and makes people not want to live there.

[BelleFontaineMan]

Originally Posted by southernnaturelover

51 homicides so far this year. There's your answer.

And yes, I realize it's not everywhere in the city, but it creates a reputation and makes people not want to live there.

Yea Crime doesn't have anything to do with it, Pheonix (184 homicides), Houston (422), DC (207), New Orleans (193) are all crime ridden cities that have not been slowed down by it, not to mention crime is statistically lower than our neighbors, crime is lower than Pensacola, Biloxi, New Orleans, Birmingham, Montgomery, Huntsville, Memphis, Atlanta, Tallahassee, etc, etc

[PortCity]

Originally Posted by southernnaturelover

51 homicides so far this year. There's your answer.

And yes, I realize it's not everywhere in the city, but it creates a reputation and makes people not want to live there.

Thats not the full answer. What about those years when there were 28, 25 and 22 homicides in the past?

I think the problem is that Mobile's leadership lacks vision and they have an it is what it is mentality. The OP mentioned high rise condos over the bay. Mobile's past leadership would say why do we need highrises over the bay ? We all know how beautiful this city is and the historical and cultural roots is crazy. Yet no one knows about the historical and cultural roots that make up the city or about Mobile period lol.


Baldwin County residents out of ignorance don't understand that Mobile is an asset to them.

[PortCity]

Originally Posted by MsRiss7383

I moved to Baldwin County a month ago and I know little to nothing about Mobile, including politics or history.

I have to say I love Mobile and it seems that it has so much potential. The downtown area is adorable, love the beautiful older homes, and the bay is so gorgeous it takes my breath away. I think Mobile has so much potential and yet...it just doesn't reach it. Please know I truly like it and mean no offense, but something is holding this city back and I don't know enough to figure out what

If you don't mind me asking what influenced your decision to choose Baldwin ?

You will be shocked to know that you may have experienced Mobile more so than some native Baldwin residents LOL.

[PortCity]

Originally Posted by BelleFontaineMan

My guess for that it just because of how notoriously awful the Bay Bridge is, another neglect of ALDOT. Commuting back and forth Baldwin to Mobile and visa versa is awful.

Its just like how most suburbia's are, they aren't usually gonna realize how important the city is to their suburban existence.

I doubt the city will get any waterfront shops anytime soon, the port is too important, I doubt the State would give up any more land, the best we'll have is Cooper Riverside Park. Although there is potential for waterfront developments within the city along some the rivers like Three Mile Creek which they are currently building a massive bike along it.

Also I think that the average resident on the Eastern Shore assume that they are apart of the Mobile's metro and vice versa.