Quote:
Originally Posted by Randallg223
Please excuse me in advance, this post may be all over the place before I finish. I've been doing a lot of traveling in the southeast this summer and the one thing that jumps out in traveling to other cities similar in size to Mobile, is that our infrusture is way below par to those cities. Jackson, MS., Knoxville, TN., Little Rock, AR., and soon Baton Rouge, LA., all have interstate loops around there cities. The loop helps drive through traffic move faster and it opens the spur through town to be less crowded for local traffic. I've talked to tons of travelers and they all say the same thing, Interstate 10 (Wallace Tunnels) is one of the worst if not the worst bottle necks on there trip to Flordia. (That's a major problem in itself, passing through and not stopping) Nearly everyone who lives in Dallas, Memphis, St. Louis, Houston, Kansas City, Shreveport, etc.....have driven through Mobile on the way to Orlando. We in Mobile need to realize the interstate system was built for the purpose of moving people long distance's and as quickly as possible. We have to less selfish and realize a downtown I-10 bridge must be built. No more excuses. Many cities have high bridges in there downtown and it can be made to work, even enhance the area.
Now on Mobile's population decline, who cares. Most large MSA's have a very small city population. Atlanta, GA......city of Atlanta around 450,000, Atlanta MSA....... 8th largest in the Untied States. It's the region that matters. What hurts Mobile is the fact we are sandwich between two other fairly large MSA area's Pensacola and Gulfport/Biloxi. I often wonder how large Mobile would be if those two area's didn't exist.
Now for Downtown, we've got to get another larger cruise ship and then make is easy for those people to explore downtown. Also once there in downtown, there has to be things for them to do that is only unique to Mobile. For example, the Riverwalk in New Orleans. Seems like most of the stores have a Nawlin's flavor. Mobile needs to capture it's own style, and make Mobile the destination and not just the stop over on the way to Disney World or cruise to Mexico.
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Three of the cities that you tried to compare Mobile to from an infrastructure perspective are state capitals. I think that pretty much clears up why they have better infrastructure. Montgomery has a loop (although not a closed access loop) and is planning a second loop. Also two of those cities have a large SEC school, which helps boost the white collar jobs, mean income, population, etc (all of which lead to better infrastructure, stores, etc). I think those cities have advantages Mobile dose not have, so I'm not sure it is comparing apples to apples.
Can someone explain to me why a new bridge is needed so badly? I have heard lots of people say that the wallace tunnel is the worst bottleneck on I-10, but how will a bridge alleviate that? Regardless of how many people use the tunnel or a new bridge they all have to get back onto two lanes of bayway in each direction. I see no point in building a bridge unless you expand the bayway to 4 lanes each way also (and while they are at it, they should raise the baywya up a few feet so it isn't washed away by the next big direct hit from a storm.).
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