Ask the Pack: Saraland, AL
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Stopped in there many a time, headed to the coast (and or coming back)
Smoke house, barbecue place has good food. (haven't been thru there lately)
Smoke house, barbecue place has good food. (haven't been thru there lately)
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Actually Saraland is a very nice growing community! Nice place to raise a family. If you don’t mind the drive , you should also check out the eastern shore! Daphne, Fairhope and Spanish fort are also awesome! I live in Fairhope and have no complaints! Very cool, hip place to live.
Was in Mobile recently and was impressed. My expectations were it was Jxn/Memphis/BR south, but i was wrong, it actually has a republican mayor and in spite of being larger, it has only 1/3 the murders of Jxn (yes, I know low bar). People of all races were milling around downtown all night, this would NEVER happen in Jxn. Mobile compared to an average US city of 200k is probably meh, Mobile compared to a southern city of 200k (MS/AL/GA) is in the top half.
I live in West Mobile, Saraland is nice and is growing like crazy. You really could live anywhere in the area and commute there.
I’m white and definitely used to mill around downtown Jackson in mixed race establishments. But there was always this feeling of “wander down the street a block and you might die”. Wandered anyway and fortunately I survived
You haven't milled around downtown jacktown late at night in many, many years. In Mobile you can walk hundreds of yards to dozens of bars at all hours of the night. Even in the best of times of Jxn, there wasn't much of a walkable bar scene. Even in "The Fondren," the streets are rolled up by 9pm.
Mobile is not larger than Jackson, nimrod. At least keep your hatred of Jackson rooted in some sort of reality.
Of course you are going to link to census or whatever that shows less people in the city limits. We all know that is ********. Jackson's metro is significantly larger than Mobile's and there are suburb lines drawn all over the place. Have you checked the murder rate of Prichard lately?
Using city limits is the 'factual' way the idiots in Huntsville say they are bigger than freaking Birmingham. El Oh El.
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There aren’t many safe places but martins and Hal and mals do just fine at night
Downtown Mobile is having a bit of a revival. I have friends that are buying and restoring old houses in downtown. Some they flip and some the rent and some are corporate rentals. Lot of nice bars and restaurants in the area. We’ve visited several times and walked everywhere without feeling unsafe.
Jackson metro MSA square miles- 3,795 sq mi.
Mobile metro MSA Square miles- 1, 644 sq mi.
When a metro is over double the land, even with the anchor city smaller, it isnt surprising that the metro has a larger population.
Not sure what amount of data would make this statistically significant, but I propose the following theorem about posting on SPS:
A thread about literally any city / municipality in the entire world will, eventually, somehow devolve into a thread about Jackson at some point.
Duh, which number is bigger?
Mobile -189,994 (2020 population)
Jackson - 163,778 (2020 population)
I always say we have the dumbest fans, but you people continually prove it.
Mobile 50ish murders per year. Jxn, 150ish murders per year.
Other than Canton (15ish murders per year) no other suburb around Jxn has significant crime. Madison, Flowood, Clinton, Pearl Ridgeland, etc., are certainly no longer extensions of Jxn and there is very little cooperation or interaction of the leaders of surrounding cities with the leadership of Jackson.
Absolutely no hatred of Jxn, I have worked there for 25 years and lived in Jxn at various points. I want Jxn to succeed as that would not only be good for central MS, but the entire state. Unfortunately pure lunacy runs Jxn and I don't see that ending anything soon.
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Also Fondren Public, not sure if FJC is still rocking. I would love to see Jxn section off part of a downtown street and set up a mini Beale Street. Many places that this can be done. This was the vision behind Farish Street revitalization, but unfortunately graft and corruption killed that. I still think life can be revived in that project. Obviously heavy security would have to be implemented. This could even be done at the fairgrounds (when events are not going on), but that require state and city cooperation, which is unlikely.
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If you can afford it, live in mobile or even better Fairhope. I have done significant work in Saraland and if you are a bachelor, the best choice is mobile/Fairhope. Fairhope is the "Mountain Brook" of the coast (don't mean that as a negative as some would think) and would make it worth it regardless of the 45 minute commute. Only negative of the greater mobile community is private schools being fairly mandatory and the residents being very clicky. So if you don't have school age kids, do the commute.
I knew you couldn’t resist. Came with the exact same bad stats that I figured you’d use.
Good fishing. Bayou Sara is somewhat productive and right there. You are maybe an hour from Dauphin Island, where the surf and offshore fishing is great. There is a really good BBQ place in Citronelle, which isn't far from there. Just stay out of Prichard. People from Jackson shouldn't go there.
Oh yeah, much appreciated. I love to fish, love bbq, and never been to some of the surrounding places so I’ll have to check them out.
What about the women?
Well, if he's not going into Prichard, why would he care? Jackson's crime is bad in large part because it's not avoidable. Most cities have very safe places and very dangerous places. Jackson unfortunately doesn't have very safe places in the city limits any more. It may be somewhat luck that the dangerous parts of Mobile MSA are actually an adjacent municapality, but it provides good info. You can be inside mobile city limits and feel reasonably safe (I assume there are still some parts in the city that are off limits; haven't spent much time in Mobile, but when I was there a few times around 18 years ago, downtown did not feel super safe. Felt kind of like a smaller new orleans. Ok on the main thoroughfares but never more than a block or two from somewhere you shouldn't be.).
And as far as the total MSA population, there is something to be said for population density. A lot of people in the Jackson MSA population count rarely ever go into Jackson proper so they don't help Jackson support any amenities. On the flip side, I think the Daphne Fairhope area is its own MSA, so they don't count for Mobile even though it's just as much a bedroom community to Mobile as Madison is to Jackson.
MSAs are compiled for a reason. Commuter trends and all that. There are apparently less people making than commute across the bridge than you think. Really doesn’t matter how spread out it is if the MSA links it together.
Mobile has had 2 things that have helped it - squeaked in enough votes for a good mayor, and Airbus. It doesn’t have the overall economy that Jackson does.
They are currently attempting to annex more areas in order to keep that optimism (votes). Which is a smart move.
Saraland growing as people have gotten tired of the traffic through the tunnel to access the eastern shore, ie Fairhope. I assume housing in North Mobile is also more affordable than Daphne and Fairhope. Good restaurants downtown Mobile and easy drive to Biloxi/Gulfport/Ocean Springs. If you like the job and the money I would think that you can be satisfied with the location.
Yes, MSA’s are a thing. But people aren’t getting murdered in Madison, Brandon, Daphne, or Spanish Fort. When comparing murder rates of large cities, using the city proper population makes sense for comparison. And even if you still wanted to compare the entire MSA’s, Mobile’s is 72% the size of Jackson’s with (presumably) only 1/3 the murder rate. I’m saying that based on greenbean’s post and also making an assumption that the suburbs would not greatly affect the murder rate. Might make Mobile’s a little worse to include Prichard, might make Jackson’s a little better to include Rankin / Madison counties, but overall probably not that big of an impact. At face value, that’s ~46% of Jackson’s homicide rate (give or take), which probably still isn’t super great. But in a vacuum if those were your only two options and safety was a priority, it would be an obvious choice.
And I can also guarantee you that no one in Huntsville is bragging about being “bigger than Birmingham”. Folks here are perfectly happy to have all the same amenities as Birmingham without nearly as much sprawl, traffic, political BS, etc.
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Note 98 will soon connect to Saraland providing easy access to the beach for everyone north of Dallas and west of the Mississippi. May affect your house buying plans
You, good sir, are truly an idiot. Please regal us with tales of Jackson's economy! Please at least attempt make a stronger argument than your previous efforts, so far you're 0-4.
Are you attempting to say that a metro area of 600K, which is the business and government center of the state in which it resides, does NOT have a significant economy?
How about you look up the GDP of both MSAs?
Get back with me on that one.
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