Originally Posted by Chad Emerson
Okay, Mr./Mrs. Capital Heights, let's try and explain it from the opposite way this comes off as a little arrogant and Bronneresque, I would prefer that we have a conversation I do not think that I particularly need you to explain anything to me(I believe that we've discussed this in person but I'm glad to re-discuss this again on-line). I do not believe we have ever discussed anything in person.
If infill redevelopment is truly the answer, then why hasn't the Capital Heights neighborhood become revitalized. This is my point exactly, too much wealth is leaving the city for the perceived safety and homogeneaty of eastern and northern suburbs. Particularly damaging to the goose that laid the golden egg are the suburbs outside the taxing authority of the city. This wealth transfer out of the city renders the city less able to provide the needed services to an aging and more needy population. Those who remain get more frustrated and they, too, leave. It is a cycle of decline. The only hope for salvaging Montgomery is a vibrant downtown that encourages high income people to not move to the suburbs but to move near the city center. Hopefully this is beginning to happen. ALthough, there have been some damaging setbacks recently. Most notably are the merger of Regions and SouthTrust Banks and Colonial Bank moving its headquarters out to the suburbs.
After all, it has so many of the needed tools:
1. Convenient location to downtown
2. Well-designed interconnected grid layout
3. Historically very well-built and well-designed homes
4. Civic space, including a playground
And, I'm sure that I'm missing some others.
In fact, I'd say that when I first moved here, Capital Heights struck me as one of the best planned neighborhoods in the entire city.
Yet, for the 5+ years I've been here (and even for many years before that as I'm told by locals), the neighborhood has continued to lose value despite all these positive aspects. I do not believe Capital Heights has lost value.
So, when you promote infill as the solution, then my first reaction is that I agree in concept.
But, then reality hits and it becomes clear that, if your solution was the practical solution from all aspects, then this gem of a neighborhood called Capital Heights would have regained its luster by now because it is a very well-designed place. My point is that the design of the neighborhood is not what is important. It is the location of the neighborhood. If a perfectly designed neighborhood is outside the city it does very little good for the city. But, even a poorly designed neighborhood in the city can do much good.
Yet, at some point, planning concepts and ideals must become realities or, if those ideas don't play out, then other ideas must be tried because clinging to unfruitful ideas--no matter how well in concept--generally do not lead to revitalization.
In this city, we have had many of the nation's most successful planners, architects, demographers, engineers, transportation officials and the like all provide excellent advice. Yet, except for a few excellent projects like the A&P development or the Phoenix lofts, very little has actually been done on the private side of the equation (alot of this probably has to do with the fact that, even when an infill development like the A&P is proposed, the developer has to fight ridiculous municipal bureaucracy just to do the right thing).
Ultimately, I see all of these similar sized cities across the Southeast and the country as a whole realizing dramatic redevelopment (see Greeneville, S.C. or Chattanooga, TN as two examples) and simply wonder why hasn't Montgomery realized these same levels of improvement and investment? I think that Montgomery uniquely suffers from a social and civic adolescence that is far beyond my pay grade to explain. I do, however, think that forced racial integration in the 50's and 60's, while good for the nation and absolutely the right thing to do, left this city without having developed its own maturity as far as race relations are concerned. Although we have progressed, there is still a racial distrust not far under the surface. This "two Montgomeries" has allowed political, social, and business leaders to exploit the fears and prejudaces of the masses and maintain control without much of a social conscience. Futher, I imagine part of the anger at Bronner is the lingering resentment from some of Montgomery's old money families who used to rent office space to the state but lost those lucrative deals when Bronner started to build office space. Finally, for whatever reasons, for many years Montgomery's political leadership was ultra-conservative and chose to exercise very limited government. There was essentially no civic investment in downtown or anywhere else for that matter. There was no Hyundai, no Gateway Park, no riverfront, and certainly no downtown baseball. It has taken several years of progressive leadership to begin to dig out of a twenty-two year hole of stagnation.
My family and I have come to really love this city and that makes it even harder to see so much of this potential remain unrealized.
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I can't leave. I love Montgomery. I want update pics. Got it? Good. 
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