Zoning
Downtown Redevelopment and Dexter
April 16 will mark the one decade anniversary of the first-ever pitch at Riverwalk Stadium. The baseball field is more than the home to the Montgomery Biscuits. It’s also a symbol of downtown Montgomery’s rebirth. Many Montgomery residents don’t even remember a time before the stadium was completed in 2004. They can’t imagine the downtown […]
I Live in Cloverdale…or Do I?
When the phone rang, I was sitting at my desk working on getting a home sold. The memory is as vivid as if it were yesterday. “I want to speak to that woman in the hat,” barked the voice at the other end. “This is she,” I replied (and drew in a breath, as I […]
Idea Factory
In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote that inhabitants of our new nation were living in “times that try men’s souls.” For those interested in the future of our city, we’re living in times that try our consciences. It’s hard not to look at the city’s ever-unfolding ambitious plans and wonder if they aren’t part of some […]
Not “Oh, Rats!” but “Glory, Hallelujah!”
Five years ago this spring, Historic Southview Inc. kicked off its second design charrette. Its focus was to improve the look, feel and function of Cloverdale Village, the mixed use area that runs east on Cloverdale Road from Decatur Street. This event followed the similar design process devoted to Cloverdale Five Points (East Fairview and […]
Coming Cloverdale Construction
There has been a lot of talk in recent years about the federal stimulus funds. Some see them as a money-wasting intervention into the free market. Others see them as valuable attempts to save the economy and create jobs. But for most people, the conversation remains an abstraction — something to be sorted out on […]
Eleven New Year’s Wishes
Sure, it’s a little late for New Year’s Resolutions, but these are really more “wishes” than resolutions. And besides, the new year doesn’t really start until college football is finished anyway, right? As such, we were reflecting on the coming year and what we want for our beloved Montgomery during 2011. Because you can’t accomplish […]
Condemnation Confabulation
The City of Montgomery made national headlines recently — and not in a good way. The kerfuffle involves city actions that some pundits are framing as “eminent domain through the back door.” The phrase “eminent domain” sets off alarm bells in large numbers of people, particularly after the United States Supreme Court’s controversial 2005 decision […]
Lowder Property Rezoning
Regular MML readers know that we’re closely following the debates over re-zoning in Cloverdale Five Points (the part of town with Sinclair’s and The Capri). For those not as geeked out about zoning as we are, the story so far is basically that the City wants to switch over to SmartCode in this part of […]
Cloverdale SmartCode Update
Last Thursday and Friday the City of Montgomery’s Planning Department held public meetings in the basement of the Cloverdale Playhouse. The meetings were open-ended, come-when-you-can affairs, designed to share information about the Planning Department’s proposal for implementing SmartCode in the Five Points business district. Like many folks from all over Midtown, we wandered down to […]
SmartCode for Cloverdale? Community Meetings Invite Input
Odds are that many MML readers were in receipt of an email circulated last month rallying folks to protest against what were described as immediate plans to build a big box pharmacy store on the corner of Boultier and East Fairview. Garish lighting? Impermeable cover? Parking lots? Hopefully by now most people know this was […]
Recent Comments