By Prioleau Alexander
Editor’s note: This column appeared recently in the Huntsville Real-Time News coordinated by Doug Martinson. I think it’s important for people in Birmingham to know what ‘s going on with our Alabama neighbor to the North.
Residents of Huntsville, Alabama don’t understand how much they have—and as a result, how much they have to lose.
As a native of Charleston, SC, I grew up in a city far more like Huntsville today than the place I call home.
While travel magazines conduct polls every year to declare Charleston the number one tourist destination in the world (yes, I said “world”), one should note the importance of the world “visitors.” To natives, the city is an unrecognizable disgrace.
Charleston was “discovered” in 1989 after Hurricane Hugo crushed it… oddly enough, because insurance money came into the economy. Those magnificent homes in the historic district weren’t trophy homes then—they were much closer to an inherited family curse. No one had the money to maintain them, and the city was the world’s greatest example of blue-blood locals “too poor to paint, but too proud to white-wash.”
Once the homes were spruced up a bit, they became desirable to out-of-town money. You could sell a small condo in Manhattan, and buy a trophy home in Charleston. All the locals said, “You’ll pay me how much? Sold!”
No one said ever thought, “Where will I go now?”
Today? The historic district is a place of wall-to-wall tourists, restaurants, bars, fudge shops, t-shirt stores, parking meters, traffic jams, and recently arrived multi-millionaires from the Northeast—who move to Charleston with far more than money. They bring their politics and big-city attitudes, with “wonderful” ideas of how to improve the lives of us uneducated Southerners. You know—like they did it in New York.
Outside Charleston, you’ll find a region that defines urban sprawl hell. Strip malls run for 10 miles in every direction. Hundreds of thousands of people fill soulless developments, where they’ve never met their neighbor. The areas most people consider to be “Charleston”—the Peninsula, West Ashely, James Island, Mt. Pleasant and the islands offer a total of zero livable homes under $700,000.
Not downtown. Not swanky. A two-bedroom/two bath home ranch. To put it in Huntsville perspective, image standing downtown… and envision the cheapest home within 20 minutes selling for $700,000.
Don’t cry for me—us native Charlestonians have no one to blame but ourselves. We opened Pandora’s Box of quick money, and got what we deserve.
On the other hand, there’s Huntsville.
Huntsville today is in what I would consider the sweetest of sweet spots. Big enough. Prosperous enough. Beautiful sporting facilities. A proper downtown with a vibrant and fun culture. Gorgeous parks. Traffic flows. People speak on the street. Untold numbers of real neighborhoods alive with friendships. Access to water and raw nature. Sidewalk cafes. Breweries. The Rocket City Trash Pandas. Von Braun Civic Center. Museums. A reasonably sized airport. A city that takes pride in itself.
Huntsville should have a raucous celebration every year where residents gather to simply thank the current and pasts Mayors and City Council members for the miracles they’ve worked. You simply don’t understand what they’ve done here—and hopefully never will.
What now for Huntsville?
Stop. For the love of everything holy, stop before it’s too late.
You need to be rabid in your protection of what you have. Be obnoxiously disruptive when the developers arrive with their bulldozers. Fund an organization to file endless lawsuits. Force relocating business behemoths to build least 20 miles away. Become curmudgeons who hate change.
Consider this: The Charleston region is now home to Volvo, Mercedes, and Boeing. What? Who thought, “You know what Charleston needs? To be the new Detroit.”
The same tired lies were used by Charleston politicians every step of the way, chief among them being, “Think about how many good well-paying jobs it will create!”
Here’s how many existing residents got those jobs: Zero.
Do you think Boeing thought, “We need a guy with a PhD in aeronautical wing design. But he has to be from Charleston!”
Of course not. All of those jobs were filled by experienced professionals who moved here. The two-decade building boom has been worked by craftsmen who moved here. The hospitality industry is staffed by people who moved here. Sure, the booming growth has been good for the tax base, and allowed politicians to build monuments to themselves, but the growth itself has been a massive net negative. Nothing gets better for residents when economic grow equals nothing more than population growth.
What does a conservative guy like me have to say about land owners property rights? That’s a tough one—but if there’s a political body that can get ahead of it legally, it’s yours. Zone the living hell out of everything. Prohibit new construction above three stories within 10 miles of downtown. Get your lawyers to crafted scaled impact fees, allowing you to make your city financially prohibitive to the industries you don’t want.
The only thing standing between Huntsville residents and this coming quality of life apocalypse is your mayor and city council—believe me, concerned citizens can’t stop venture-capitalist-funded developers who want to pave the Big Spring International Park and put up an Obama Presidential Library knock off. The only people who can do that is your elected representatives, who need to start their zoning blitzkrieg today.
Y’all have an amazing, beautiful city. I’d say priceless, but priceless is a word only you can define for yourself.
If Charleston wasn’t the home of my entire family, and friends I’ve known since kindergarten, I’d move here. Yesterday.
But, dear reader, what will you do when someone knocks on your door and offers you double what your home is currently appraised for? Triple?
I can tell you what we said in Charleston. I can tell you what every single one of us wishes we’d said.
Because in the end, the question shouldn’t be phrased as, “Should I sell?”
The question should always be, “If I sell, where will I go?”
Prioleau Alexander is a non-fiction humorist and the author of four books. More of his writings can be explored at TypingForBeerMoney.com.
David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).
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Invite David to speak for free to your group about how we can have a more prosperous metro Birmingham. dsher@comebacktown.com
Well said Mr. Alexander- we have seen the many ways authentic destinations can damage their own souls including social media (particularly instagram) and remote work. Popular destinations have gone from being a “Happy Place” during COVID to now being unaffordable. Southern Living and Garden & Gun camping out in Charleston each month also contributed yet I doubt any one of them realized what they created. High taxes and declining quality of life issues in northern cities created the desire and these beautiful places are an easy target.
Thank you, Steve. A lot of comments have been about “it’s too late.” It’s not “too late” for Huntsville. Y’all have an amazing city. Many who think it’s “too late are angry at your current government, but your government over the past 20 years has been brilliant. I have no dog in that fight– but believe me, I know what it look like when a municipal goverment rubber-stamps every building permit. Y’all are a long way from that. Hang in there!
Thursday, August 20, 2026
Prioleau Alexander,
…I commensurate and identify with your ambivalence about abandoning your family town.
My own family got stuck & displaced here in “early Huntsville”, (the 50s), then “got stuck” again in the early 60s, both times by the great migration of aerospace engineers.
Many of us hated being here…or in any part of Alabama…or in any part of the South, for that matter.
Were it not for “going to-the-moon-and-back”, none of us “foreigners” would be here in Huntspatch (that’s what we called it back in the 50s & 60s)
Well…today…Huntsville is no longer a fly spec on the map…no longer “Huntspatch”…And in spite of your expectations of dire future possibilities, Huntsville is never turning back.
I’m 78. I’ve spent over half my life here. Myself and my family, from the North, was displaced here by the relentless forces of Science and Engineering. And now that Huntsville has gained such amazing and incredible growth, it’s become a town from which you really don’t want to escape…
Escape to what ?…Like you asked, when speculating about selling your own home.
And as I’ve been here so long, I can tell you, at least with a modicum of assurance, barring any national economic catastrophe, that Huntsville will keep growing. And Huntsville will keep growing. With impunity.
The long-term accumulated forces of progress will preclude Huntsville from collapsing into a series of “strip malls”…That just ain’t gonna happen.
If you have any doubts about how aggressive/predatory/greedy (pic-a-word) little Huntspatch can be, I’ll give you the history of the “little land-grab”…the famous 1967 “Coup de Grâce”…when the Divine City Fathers managed to squeeze/maneuver/manipulate/acquire (pic-a-word) a narrow strip of land that effectively surrounded the so-called “Huntsville/Decatur International Airport”…
In October, 1967, Huntsville citizens woke up to see they exclusively owned the “International Airport”…and no longer shared the dubious privilege with Decatur !
When a new map of Huntsville was published, and we all saw that funny little strip of land that literally surrounded the Airport…How did they do that ??…everyone wondered …
Well, it was funny, seeing that new map with such a weird extension of Huntsville “city limits” !… City limits ?…Hah !…A new and narrow land strip…some 13 miles from downtown Huntsville…oh yeah…gee whiz… I see…It “just happens” to surround the Airport !
Just how did they do that ??!!…
But of course, Decatur was not amused.
What ? Huntsville asked, how can such a tiny town like Decatur claim “International” status anyway ?…Decatur ? “International” ? …Don’t think so.
That’s just one small sample of how Huntsville grows…And continues to grow.
I know. Call it Bad Karma if you want. But it’s all academic today.
Huntsville does relish looking back on it’s history, but there are no intentions of regressing.
~ Ballard from Huntsville
I don’t have much of an opinion on Huntsville here, but I really want to point out that Charleston and Hville are in vastly different situations than Birmingham and that we would and should be ecstatic to see the level of development and money pouring into those cities. We have lost almost 50% of our population in the past decades and we have a poverty rate over 20%. I would have for people here in Birmingham to start becoming focused on slowing growth and protecting the character of our city when we just really need Growth at this point still. We can be laser focused on growth and prosperity while being mindful of maintaining a sense of authenticity and character and figuring our how to everyone in our city and metro how to share in that growth and prosperity. We have to do both….unlike those cities.
Yes, pretty disappointing to see such an anti-growth piece on Comeback Town. Yeah, let’s make it more difficult for people to prosper.
I understand people not wanting to grow too fast, but when making the case, accuracy is important. Regarding the statement: “The Charleston region is now home to Volvo, Mercedes, and Boeing…Here’s how many existing residents got those jobs: Zero.” This is certainly not true for Mercedes in Alabama, and I doubt it’s true for Charleston. Adequacy of labor supply is most always an important site criterion.
Prioleau, as an 86 yr old charlestonian born and raised there, I agree with all you have said except that Chas was discovered in the late 60’s. I have owned property there for years and the appreciation has been phenomenal!
I remember Chas post wwII when it was in shambles and you could hardly give property away. I am so proud of the city and former mayor Joe Riley who ignited Chas.
By the way, I am on my way to Chas as I write for a family event.
Nothwithdtanding, bham is now home for 61 yrs and it was the best decision I have made.
I like your old Chas first name!
Used to go to Charleston all the time starting in the 1980s. It was such a great place. Last time I went was fall of 2026. Will NEVER go there again. You forgot the new Four Seasons Hotel and $5million plus condo development by Bill Gates coming in 2028. Place is a total disaster. It is just one of so many great places that have been totally ruined. Really not many places left to go. Welcome to America. Might as well just enjoy home. Not annoying and way cheaper.