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  #21  
Old Posted May 15, 2009, 3:44 AM
atlanta68 atlanta68 is offline
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Druid City,

I agree with you. The state leaders are acting like the UA is a private school with Harvard like financial resources. I think the UA's financial resources are greatly exagerrated by many. The state of Alabama would be smart to invest more in UA, to help UA become a top notch institution that is a magnet for new industry and prosperity.
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  #22  
Old Posted May 18, 2009, 4:47 PM
ttownfeen ttownfeen is offline
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I think the state's just trying to do what in its best interest. They might be overestimating the amount they need since they know UA will probably negotiate down the selling price.
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  #23  
Old Posted May 22, 2009, 8:40 AM
Bogue Bogue is offline
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badrock, what are they doing with Foster? I must've missed that. I was in Burke my freshman year and walked by it daily.

Druid, I'd like to see a museum there. I'm curious as to whether the university could convert the structure internally to adequately exhibit their other collections as an old structure like that has certain limitations, I'm sure. I will agree that the UA's collections (which are actually really cool) need to be centralized. I think a portion of the building being used as a museum w/ the rest as offices is probably the direction they'll take from what everyone says.

The rest of that area is an interesting question, though. There aren't any other buildings of real significance there and I'd hope they would all be torn down and new structures complimentary to the old main building would be erected, but we'll see. Anyone know what the UA would have in mind for the rest of that property going forward?

I think simply expanding other mental health facilities around the state would help take the load as the total # of patients at Bryce has dwindled over the years. There's a large mental health hospital in Mt. Vernon, AL (north of Mobile on US43) that probably would have room to be expanded. I'm sure other places exist around the state. That would at least bandage the wound until a new facility could be built... if one were still necessary in Tuscaloosa.
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  #24  
Old Posted May 22, 2009, 6:09 PM
ttownfeen ttownfeen is offline
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Bogue, the athletics administration announced a plan a month ago to renovate Foster Auditorium and move women's basketball and volleyball from Coleman Coliseum to Foster.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/articl...NEWS/904219911
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  #25  
Old Posted May 22, 2009, 9:35 PM
nimsjus nimsjus is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bogue View Post
I think simply expanding other mental health facilities around the state would help take the load as the total # of patients at Bryce has dwindled over the years. There's a large mental health hospital in Mt. Vernon, AL (north of Mobile on US43) that probably would have room to be expanded. I'm sure other places exist around the state. That would at least bandage the wound until a new facility could be built... if one were still necessary in Tuscaloosa.
They have actually been in discussions about shutting Searcy (Mt. Vernon) down, and moving the patients to other facilities (potentially in Mobile or potentiallyelsewhere in the state). Search actually just shifted a couple of hundred patients to Bryce and another facility.
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  #26  
Old Posted May 27, 2009, 7:31 PM
ttownfeen ttownfeen is offline
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Mayor wants to develop a new economic incentive policy to help lure more stores to Tuscaloosa.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/articl...NEWS/905269907
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  #27  
Old Posted May 28, 2009, 1:04 AM
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DruidCity DruidCity is offline
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Thanks for keeping up the links. I just got back this afternoon from 2 weeks in Texas.

I do think Tuscaloosa is well-positioned right now. Because we never saw the retail boom that the rest of the country did, our retail sector has nowhere to go but up. I also give us props for the fact that our main retail area is still centrally located, rather than moving ever-farther out (Birmingham and Montgomery have had some problems with that).

Now, for the fun part, where is the best location for these "missing link" national chains, and what if any incentives should there be for existing stores and/or local start-ups ?
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  #28  
Old Posted May 28, 2009, 3:18 PM
ttownfeen ttownfeen is offline
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Originally Posted by DruidCity View Post
Now, for the fun part, where is the best location for these "missing link" national chains, and what if any incentives should there be for existing stores and/or local start-ups ?
Two locations come to mind immediately: McFarland Plaza, which fought back from being left for dead only to get gutted once again by Midtown, and the recent Pate Holdings aquisition - McFarland Mall, which is pretty much dead.

The western half of Tuscaloosa needs a better shopping options. I also think the Woodland Forrest area is ripe for commercial development. There is interstate-front property in that area that is completely undeveloped.
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  #29  
Old Posted May 28, 2009, 3:43 PM
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Quote:
Two locations come to mind immediately: McFarland Plaza, which fought back from being left for dead only to get gutted once again by Midtown, and the recent Pate Holdings aquisition - McFarland Mall, which is pretty much dead.

The western half of Tuscaloosa needs a better shopping options. I also think the Woodland Forrest area is ripe for commercial development. There is interstate-front property in that area that is completely undeveloped
My main concern with both McFarland Mall and Woodland Forest is that, while they're right along the interstate, stuff on that end of town isn't going to be as convenient for the university area and north of the river as the existing retail cluster around Midtown/University Mall is. I think they could make it work, anyway, but only if they offer stores that people can't find closer in and/or if they offer something interesting enough to pull visitors in off the interstate.

I definitely agree with McFarland Plaza filling in, since it's so close to the Midtown/Meadowbrook/University Mall stuff.

One area I've wondered about is the current site of Tuscaloosa Middle School.
If UA does acquire Bryce, that would be extremely convenient and visible, and a middle school doesn't really need to be in such a high-traffic location, anyway.

As for the western part of town, I think even (God forbid) a Wal-Mart would be welcome there. Pate owns some junky-looking industrial site along the I-359 spur into downtown that would be convenient for a whole lot of people.
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  #30  
Old Posted May 29, 2009, 1:39 AM
ttownfeen ttownfeen is offline
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Yeah, I had not though about McFarland between University Blvd and Jack Warner Pkwy since it's basically like a freeway. That area would be perfect for retail development. They really need to expand McFarland to 6 six lanes.
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  #31  
Old Posted Jun 2, 2009, 3:36 PM
ttownfeen ttownfeen is offline
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Here are pictures from the hot air balloon races that were held in Tuscaloosa this past weekend. (These photos are not mine.) I'll update if I can find some more.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Hannaban...74099057017106

More info, the races moved from Miami to Tuscaloosa (a somewhat random move, but an appreciated one nonetheless).

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/articl...city-s-growth-
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  #32  
Old Posted Jun 2, 2009, 4:18 PM
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I'm glad to see what the balloon race looked like. I had planned to go, but some other stuff came up. I did hear on WVUA7 TV that they do plan to return to Tuscaloosa next year.

For any of the city's faults, it has stepped up in a pretty big way with events recently : Delta Queen riverboat a year or two back, the big triathlon deal,
the Blue Angels (which I did go to see), and the state high school football championship this fall. Hopefully, the city will be just as successful attracting regional events to the amphitheater when it opens next year.
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  #33  
Old Posted Jun 2, 2009, 5:30 PM
ttownfeen ttownfeen is offline
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Another thing you can add to the list is Boy's State, which moved from Montevallo (or Troy, can't remember which) to Tuscaloosa a couple of years ago (though it was probably more UA's doing than Tuscaloosa).

I'm sure having a bunch of future leaders in Tuscaloosa for a week doing community service can only help gain exposure for the city.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/articl...scaloosa-parks
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  #34  
Old Posted Jun 8, 2009, 4:47 PM
ttownfeen ttownfeen is offline
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Editorial about the need for improving Moores Bridge Road north of Tuscaloosa.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/articl...f-improvements
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  #35  
Old Posted Jun 22, 2009, 7:40 PM
ttownfeen ttownfeen is offline
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A broad-looking article on the future of downtown Tuscaloosa.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/articl...EWS/906209988/
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  #36  
Old Posted Jun 27, 2009, 6:53 PM
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Gah... this article is pretty startling.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/articl...news/906269881

It seems that now Tuscaloosa is having a problem with it's classroom numbers. It's getting harder and harder to ignore the growth that is going on around town. Eventually, the state is going to have to help out, this is getting ridiculous. I can't wait to see what the new city population estimates are for Alabama
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  #37  
Old Posted Jun 29, 2009, 12:58 AM
ttownfeen ttownfeen is offline
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I am interested in seeing what the numbers are for Tuscaloosa and the surrounding areas, especially the Taylorville area mentioned in the article.
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  #38  
Old Posted Jul 15, 2009, 10:26 PM
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Ttown News Article

An article saying that the city lost 14,000 dollars with the air show. Though, I don't think you can truly say that the city didn't regain that money in some other way, maybe via sales tax.

There were surely over 100,000 people there on that Saturday.
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  #39  
Old Posted Jul 23, 2009, 2:36 AM
ttownfeen ttownfeen is offline
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So, qualifying for municipal elections ended yesterday. Nobody entered the race to run against Walt Maddox for mayor, so he unofficially gets another four years. Only 3 councilors out of 7 total will face opposition on August 25th.

I think that speaks well for the job the city government has done these past four years.
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  #40  
Old Posted Jul 28, 2009, 6:19 AM
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The Tuscaloosa News reported that the University of Alabama is no longer in the Top 20 party schools. I think this is definitely a good thing. It means that the school is turning into a better institution in my opinion, and more students are spending more time studying.

While the school has dropped from the Top 20, party opportunities in Ttown have continued to grow, so it's obvious that students are still having fun. I just hope that this is a sign that students are doing it more responsibly.
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