austin356

Regarding the cruise terminal and about a 2nd ship.............. No new facilities have to be built to accomodate additional ships, only additional parking and prudent scheduling of dock days.

Let the Food World and Winn Dixie die, they suck ass. With Mobile's coming 5 years do you guys really think another Walmart (this one prob is not a grocer since is only 130k) will be the very reason these other guys go out of business? Even regardless of the fact that I dont care about the Food World or Winn Dixie, I am much more optimistic about about them in Mobile(albeit only for a short time) and with the influx of people. If they cannot coexist with Walmart when Mobile is about to undergo such a massive influx of newbies, then they should die.

You know that would be the tallest river bridge in the world right? The largest in the US is the VZ Narrows in NY at 228ft.

my goodness they are considering a 160 foot bridge? That is absurdly low and show never be built. Regardless of downtown (just imagining this bridge was going up next to nothing) I could never support anything less than 190-200 feet. That would devastate the area, and it should not even be up for consideration. They should whine, not about the bridge, but about its proposed height, if the proposal really is 160ft. Maybe they know the 165 route is a no go, and are just trying to position themselves for a compromise which is a more expensive higher bridge. And I agree the location really should not matter. It should only be the the overall effects (turn basin and clearance) And I also agree, those changes will cost alot more than 462m. Aldot cannot do anything effective for that cheap.

Well ultimately I think the whole system can and should be tolled. Those of us who use it pay for it, those of us who stay in Midtown and off the highways dont. Thats about as fair as it gets. I am tired of subsidizing sprawl.

If it is done, I think it should be like this: -Make it a privately owned/leased and operated toll bridge (I am a large proponent of this for a variety of reasons, one must only look to GDOT and TXDOT for our future and that is what they are doing). (tax money is better spent on surface streets or transit, not commuters/tourist/truckers) -toll collection site is positioned in the way where nobody going into downtown is tolled (from either bay side) but everyone passing through is. -leave causeway and old tunnel and northern bridge as free alternative -Use to existing tunnels as only Baldwin-Water St access. -assess the feasibility of putting a transit line on the bridge (for future connection MOB BDW) -at least 210 ft high clearance (about that of the golden gate) (NO ship higher than that ever will be going up the river past downtown, especially since the docks are basically now at Choctaw point) -going ahead and widening the bayway to 4 lanes each way. We must face it, it will happen, its just a matter of when and how. -Architectural design competition to be selected by downtown residents/businesses. Use any state monies already allocated for project for downtown investment to help offset any negative ramifications associated with bridge and purchase of ferries.

Mobile will look similar to Charlotte just after BOA was complete. RSA will still be the tallest, but some decent sized 3-4 hundred foot condo towers are likely, and will add density fast. Mobile really does not have to complete to many buildings to have a dense skyline because it has such small street blocks that buildings are inherently close together, thus giving the illusion of higher density than a large block grid similar to say Atl if both had the same number and size of buildings. Houston will add 150 new buildings downtown in the next 25 years, mostly in the 3-5 hundred foot condo range. And overall will have the most affordable new construction skyrise units in the developed world. That will really make it not really comparable to anyone, except maybe Chi town. Atlanta will add 150 new buildings in the "intown 3". Most will be luxury office and luxury condos. That will make the Midtown/Dtown combo similar to Chi-town pre-current boom. Miami is flat out unpredictable because it has soo many variables. It could boom out of control to where it is comparable to any city in the world, or it could fall flat on its ass after this current build out. Of course I like everyone else has really no damn clue what will happen, but I could provide reasons why I believe what I wrote some basic estimations as to what the future might look like (most of which is speculation based on policy/demographic/trend analysis)

One question I have for people in the know about T-town........ What is with the taxes? I am hard pressed to find a similar sized city in the deep south with such high taxes (outside of the uppity suburbs of the Ham or Atl)...... I have never paid anything more than 7% sales tax before and here it is 9%, and the property taxes are not low either. So my question is, is there a temporary tax that is being used for a special purpose (I would guess a 1% sales tax for school capital improvements) that expires some time, or are the taxes at the current rate permanently?

^Damn..... Just after Midtown Village? My goodness, I hope the supply is justified by real demand. But with Tuscaloosa having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world (top couple of %) I would not be surprised. I think Alabama will add 75k new residents this year and a decent fraction of that will be in the T-town area. And combine that with 5% GDP growth and 3-4% real wage growth and you do equal additional demand; but how much I do not know.

I have become gradually less and less impressed by the Trump branded, Woods project. It could easily be a landmark complex, but instead will be lost eventually in Midtown. Hopefully within the next 5-10 years Trump will do something himself and produce something at least the caliber of the Mandarin.

Does anyone know if the GSU dorms are finished yet? I havent been in the neighborhood in a while but was still wondering since it will have such a large impact on D-town (having 2k students just off the CBD)