Why didn't Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana boom along with the Sunbelt?

[Anonymous]

I lived in Alabama for several years as an adult.

The cost of living is amazing. I would have stayed but the work opportunities weren’t great, and I can’t stand the evangelical-Trump
Cult and general racism. Social circles are still very closed because there just aren’t a lot of people living there who didn’t grow up there and while they’ll be very nice to you, you are never really included and trusted to be more than surface level friendship. Their lives very much revolve around church, relatives, and friends from college. Who you are related to and where you go to church matters more than anything . It does not even matter if you’re rich or NE Blueblood. It will be harder to make deep friendships because you are not “from there”. The need to conform was extremely hard for me to understand, impossible for me to embrace, and made assimilation difficult.

The racism is awful and the crime was bad. It’s the only place I’ve lived where in a UMC neighborhood, we had stray bullets hit a house. The gorgeous, historic neighborhoods are dying because people are tired of being burglarized and robbed. We narrowly avoided an attempted robbery ourselves in our neighborhood of homes that would be the equivalent of $1.8 million in the DC suburbs.

It was hard to find doctors who either took your insurance or were taking new patients.

I understand why people who have always lived there love it. But I can see why people who grew up elsewhere don’t like it. While I was there, I heard of some couples who moved there with high hopes for retirement since it seemed like a nice city with a great cost of living. They left in less than two years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The correct answer to this is that post ww2 there was massive defense spending in certain sunbelt states (CA and AZ specifically) also TX. The massive infusion of government spending led to defense contractors growth and spinoffs into aerospace startups. I’m an urban planner so I have read a lot about why certain places do/did better than others.

NASA is in Alabama

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The correct answer to this is that post ww2 there was massive defense spending in certain sunbelt states (CA and AZ specifically) also TX. The massive infusion of government spending led to defense contractors growth and spinoffs into aerospace startups. I’m an urban planner so I have read a lot about why certain places do/did better than others.

NASA is in Alabama

Trump just announced Space Force is moving to Huntsville, a town that is already booming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived in Alabama for several years as an adult.

The cost of living is amazing. I would have stayed but the work opportunities weren’t great, and I can’t stand the evangelical-Trump
Cult and general racism. Social circles are still very closed because there just aren’t a lot of people living there who didn’t grow up there and while they’ll be very nice to you, you are never really included and trusted to be more than surface level friendship. Their lives very much revolve around church, relatives, and friends from college. Who you are related to and where you go to church matters more than anything . It does not even matter if you’re rich or NE Blueblood. It will be harder to make deep friendships because you are not “from there”. The need to conform was extremely hard for me to understand, impossible for me to embrace, and made assimilation difficult.

The racism is awful and the crime was bad. It’s the only place I’ve lived where in a UMC neighborhood, we had stray bullets hit a house. The gorgeous, historic neighborhoods are dying because people are tired of being burglarized and robbed. We narrowly avoided an attempted robbery ourselves in our neighborhood of homes that would be the equivalent of $1.8 million in the DC suburbs.

It was hard to find doctors who either took your insurance or were taking new patients.

I understand why people who have always lived there love it. But I can see why people who grew up elsewhere don’t like it. While I was there, I heard of some couples who moved there with high hopes for retirement since it seemed like a nice city with a great cost of living. They left in less than two years.

All if this is accurate, but things can and will change if/when jobs come…because new people will follow. You need urban areas to become more transient in order for new ideas to fuel progress. It’s happening in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, and it can happen elsewhere (albeit on a smaller scale).

[Anonymous]

Mississippi is a different beast than Alabama or even Louisiana.

[Anonymous]

Terrible education----ALWAYS at the bottom of state educational rankings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Terrible education----ALWAYS at the bottom of state educational rankings.

I don't know how accurate this site is but it seems like AL and MS are ranked decently: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?sfj=NP&chort=1&sub=MAT&sj=&st=MN&year=2024R3

I believe Mississippi made news recently for substantial improvements in education outcomes/scores.

There's abysmal schools and abysmal test scores by schools aplenty in places like Baltimore and DC and Philadelphia and NYC so I doubt pointing your fingers at any low scores in a particular area is going to be the reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mississippi is a different beast than Alabama or even Louisiana.

True.

Mississippi and Arkansas don’t seem to have areas that can attract employers and businesses.

But wouldn’t it be great if someone strategically invested there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mississippi is a different beast than Alabama or even Louisiana.

True.

Mississippi and Arkansas don’t seem to have areas that can attract employers and businesses.

But wouldn’t it be great if someone strategically invested there?

I would argue that Arkansas has more, they have Walmart headquarters and I believe there are some trucking companies based out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terrible education----ALWAYS at the bottom of state educational rankings.

I don't know how accurate this site is but it seems like AL and MS are ranked decently: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?sfj=NP&chort=1&sub=MAT&sj=&st=MN&year=2024R3

I believe Mississippi made news recently for substantial improvements in education outcomes/scores.

There's abysmal schools and abysmal test scores by schools aplenty in places like Baltimore and DC and Philadelphia and NYC so I doubt pointing your fingers at any low scores in a particular area is going to be the reason.

You sound like a MAGA apologist. But, but, what about...

[Anonymous]

Rural, no large cities, no big federal government presence post-WW2, so nothing much to attract people. The only exception is northern Alabama (Huntsville), which has a lot of federal spending and, as a result, is booming lately.

[Anonymous]

During the 50s and 60s, MS, AL, and parts of LA were the center of violence around the civil rights movement. Even if you weren't Black or actively involved in fighting for civil rights, I can't imagine why you'd want to move to a place where there was so much lawlessness and violence. So these areas experienced less growth than others.

MS in particular never invested in modern infrastructure. There are large parts of the state today that don't have access to clean water or really any modern water treatment system. Just a few years ago Jackson's entire water system failed, even worse than Flint. And Jackson is the capital!

[Anonymous]

The race riots really, really hurt those states. Especially Birmingham, which has some really great aspects. I believe it will continue to improve over the next 20 years. It's actually a spot of blue in a very red state.

UAB has done a ton for the city, and is a wonderful university and medical school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Terrible education----ALWAYS at the bottom of state educational rankings.

I don't know how accurate this site is but it seems like AL and MS are ranked decently: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?sfj=NP&chort=1&sub=MAT&sj=&st=MN&year=2024R3

I believe Mississippi made news recently for substantial improvements in education outcomes/scores.

There's abysmal schools and abysmal test scores by schools aplenty in places like Baltimore and DC and Philadelphia and NYC so I doubt pointing your fingers at any low scores in a particular area is going to be the reason.

You sound like a MAGA apologist. But, but, what about...

As apposed to a left progressive apologist? Baltimore public schools? DC public schools? But what about Alabama public schools?

According to the link, which seems to be based on provided state scores, Alabama and Mississippi have average scores. So you're just deflecting.

[Anonymous]

Alabama is getting 1600 NASA jobs. Just announced. Alabama beat out 4 other states seeking the expansion.