Welcome!

Comments are welcome (positive or negative), but any self-advertisements or irrelevant posts will be deleted.

No new posts are being added to this blog. For planning news and updates, check out The BIG Picture Huntsville (also on Facebook). For transportation info, check out the Huntsville Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Featured Posts

Here's a list of the most popular and memorable posts from the blog archive:

"Downtown Atlanta in 90 Minutes? Get on the Train"- A proposal for a Memphis-Huntsville-Atlanta high-speed rail line.

"Resurrecting the Huntsville Streetcar"-Should we bring back the streetcar that once ran between downtown and the mill villages?

"The Search for a Walkable Neighborhood"- An unscientific ranking of the most and least walkable communities in the region.

"Madison Square"- A proposal for a complete re-do of the 25-year-old, super-regional mall.

"Time for a new Joe?"- The post that started a city-wide discussion on the future of the city's baseball stadium.

"It's time to talk transit."- A discussion on regional transit.

"Huntsville's Bypass Network, and Other Roads That Won't Be Built"- A discussion about "pie-in-the-sky" road projects.

'Ideas' series- an ongoing discussion about several sections of the city. The more recent posts are part of my work for the City of Huntsville and their effort to draw innovative infill and redevelopment proposals to distressed commercial corridors. 

"Ideas for Downtown"- Not just my ideas, but ideas from city leaders and blog readers.

"Ideas for West Downtown"- Expanding the CBD west along Clinton.

"Ideas for University Drive/72 West"- This hotbed of sprawl needs a little order, and some mass transit.

"Ideas for South Parkway"- A proposal for revitalizing Haysland Square into a town center for South Huntsville.

"Ideas for North Parkway"- Multiple "opportunity sites," multiple solutions.

Beginning in 2012, I have collaborated with the City of Huntsville's Planning Department to come up with redevelopment concepts for various opportunity sites throughout the city. Here's a sample: 

"For the 'Signature Tower' site, a Signature Development"- With a "Signature Tower" off the table for now, here's a more feasible mixed-use concept for the proposed site at the corner of Holmes and Jefferson downtown.

"North Parkway Wellness Hub"- A blighted strip of commercial buildings should be revitalized into a development where everything promotes health and fitness. Also, introducing the Food Truck Park!