Because in this area, people who move west of Cody Road move for a variety of reasons. First, the fact that Mobile is split 50/50 between white and black unsettles them.
Secondly, stark cultural differences exist, the largest single religious denomination among Mobile whites is Roman Catholicism, which comprises about 46% of the citys white population, whereas, when you cross Cody, the percentage of Catholics among the white population drops below 20% (if not below 10)
Also, in Mobile city, people avoid the public schools like the plague, and this cuts along race and class lines. There are quite a few private schools catering to primarily blacks, there of course, are the Catholic schools, which take a majority of the city's Catholic youth population, the Southern Baptists run several schools too, as do the Episcopals, but in general, most Baptists, poorer ones anyway, go to public schools, whereas Episcopals almost never do)
west of Cody, they have different districts, different schools.
For example, MobileAl1 made a point about white kids in West Mobile going to Baker. Well, Baker High School has no territory within the Mobile city limits, except for Hillsdale, which is a black neighborhood along Cody Roads east side, and they include that area as part of busing, basically so that they can't be challenged via Birdie Mae Davis because they are heavily white.
East of Cody Road, the two high schools are Murphy, which is located in Midtown, and which really is Mobile's high school, as people from every corner of the city go there. Several kids I grew up with on D.I.P chose to choose the Murphy transfer option rather than the Theodore one when high school came around. Then there is a Davidson, which has basically the same racial composition as Murphy, with the exception that it has a Hispanic and Asian American component, and this school is located at the corner of Azalea and Pleasant Valley, in an area which in 1950, it was fair to call it suburban, but today, its seen some decay, shes showin her age. Also, there used to be Shaw, but that since has closed and all those kids on the northside are now zoned for Blount as far as next year is concerned.
Also, people who live in the city of Mobile will not be caught dead shopping on Schillingers because the traffic is atrocious, even though its the first major street to the west of Cody, whereas, people who live west of Cody, this is their Main Street.
I personally did not choose to live out here, when we moved out to Heritage Woods, my grandparents sold the house on Vaughan, and I personally wanted to stay there, we had a swimming pool and banana trees, yes banana trees, but this was during the time when shit was really bad on D.I.P
I mean, of the 55 murders in a given year which occured in city limits, at least one a month occured in the 36605 zip code, and because we lived basically next to I-10, we were very close to where all the shit basically went down. A couple of years after we moved out, a car got machine gunned in a McDonalds parking lot
Not to mention at this point, alot of people in Shady Pines were starting to sell dope out of their trailers, Basically, despite the remote location off of Old Military, the fact was, Idlewood was too close to Birdsville for comfort, far as mama was concerned, so we ended up in a variety of places, before finally coming to Heritage Woods, which she basically picked, because all the houses looked as if they were trying to emulate Espejo Street (Creoles and Victorians), and also, all the streets have historically related names
One thing about this neighborhood, it is in the far southwestern corner of the city, I mean, its off of Hillcrest, but not even the Mobile Register refers as west Mobile, The seem hung up between South and Southwest and they use the terms interchangebly, when the Circle K right down the street was held up, they used south Mobile. Basically, the environmental center shields much land from development, as does the Halls Mill creek marshland, so really, its like D.I.P in that theres that feeling of remoteness. This whole neighborhood is about 35-40% black, and we have alot of Asian and Hispanic families moving in now.
You will not find this west of Cody, also, political districts are different, be they county commission, school board, state legislature, our state Senator is the senator for South Mobile County, Gary Tanner, a Democrat and a good family friend. Most of the people who live out west of Cody are the religious right types, they won't vote for any Democrat, whereas Tyson carried where we voted (he's the D.A, only Democrat to win the white vote in a substantial way, but he only won it in Mobile and the other incorporated cities) And of course, they don't get a say in city government as they dont live in the city, and they constantly fight annexation, even though they'd benefit from the advantages that being in Alabamas most populous city would provide (if we annexed to Schillinger, all things equal, in city population would be equal to what the estimates for Birmingham proper are)
Also, by in large, people west of Cody are not as involved in certain emblamatic Mobile cultural events, like say, Mardi Gras.
And the Mobile Register, makes the deliniation, basically, everything south of Ziegler, North of Cottage Hill and west of I-65 they refer to as West Mobile. north of Ziegler, they juggle between North and Northwest, depending on how they feel. and the Southwest conundrum only begins when you get in that small slice of territory west of Knollwood. And of course, Spring Hill and Forest Hill get there own designations via the paper.
whereas, ALL territory west of Cody within the zipcodes 36695 and 36608 are referred to as West Mobile County
The paper is willing to make some distinction because they understand that there is one, but the thing is, people west of Cody refer to themselves as west Mobile, even though they dont live in Mobile, and so people in the area take it as a common intereptation, so some people who live east of 65 (I should note, the majority of Mobile city residents live west of 65), when they group us together with the west of Cody people, I get offended, because they're basically saying we're not real Mobilians, when in fact, pretty much, we're the same as people are east of 65. The only drastic changes begin when you do go west of Cody and enter white flight country
Now, scenery wise, I wont argue, other than street signs and the non-city people throwing their trash in messy piles whereas we have garbage pickup, there arent many differences scenery wise, but culturally, socially, economically and politically, theres an absolute world of difference.
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