Part of the reason of my blog absence has been a cruise to Mexico. We drove to Huntsville, Alabama to visit some family and proceeded to drive to Mobile to catch the cruise ship. Meanwhile, we passed through Birmingham and Montgomery. Some observations…

Huntsville – they are government spending, space industry conglomerate… many high-tech jobs, not too many cultural amenities… it will be interesting to see if this city attracts the creative class without the quality of life amenities that did not seem to noticeable…as our relative said, there are not too many people from Huntsville…

Birmingham – probably the most vivacious and diverse city in Alabama, it appeared to have a good mix of both jobs and things to do and was nicely and centrally located to other southern cities…

Montgomery – the state’s capitol and that is about it…nothing stood out…

Mobile – it’s all about the port…although we did not go downtown, I have been once before and it is quaint, an Alabam version of the French Quarter…

Based on cluster, geography and state government dollars, I do not see any of those standing out any better than the Roanoke and New River Valleys (RNR). Of course, this is jsut on the surface, but feelings and perceptions of cities are often times formed this way.