Revisiting a Spring Topic: Starkville Improvements

[pDigital32Dawg]

What would you change/add in Starkville to make it more attractive to you. It can be anything, improved housing, roads, attractions, etc...

One thing I would like is to have hwy 182 redone and make it a nice pipeline for businesses and restaurants instead of so much being crammed down hwy 12. Staying on that note I would like to see more sidewalks to make the city more pedestrian friendly as a whole.

 

[pDigital32Dawg]

What would you change/add in Starkville to make it more attractive to you. It can be anything, improved housing, roads, attractions, etc...

One thing I would like is to have hwy 182 redone and make it a nice pipeline for businesses and restaurants instead of so much being crammed down hwy 12. Staying on that note I would like to see more sidewalks to make the city more pedestrian friendly as a whole.

 

[pDigital32Dawg]

What would you change/add in Starkville to make it more attractive to you. It can be anything, improved housing, roads, attractions, etc...

One thing I would like is to have hwy 182 redone and make it a nice pipeline for businesses and restaurants instead of so much being crammed down hwy 12. Staying on that note I would like to see more sidewalks to make the city more pedestrian friendly as a whole.

 

[aTotal360]

[No message]

 

[mjh94]

but anything 3-phase and up is big money (hwy 12). they could however make any single-phase and service lines mandatory underground. i agree.

 

[RobbieRandolph]

.

 

[AssEndDawg]

Starkville will never have that kind of money.

 

[aTotal360]

[No message]

 

[boomboommsu]

and loses quite a bit of money in the long-term too.

Underground for new construction though saves money in the long-term.

just what i've heard.

 

[pDigital32Dawg]

The power lines look rough, and the traffic lights need to be replaced

 

[aTotal360]

That all I'm saying.

 

[Hoo22]

Main street would be a great place to have several bars in one spot like most college towns do, but we only have a few there and others spread around. Also, the Cotton District has gotten much better in this regard in recent years.<div>
</div><div>Also, I'd like to see more bars catering to alumni. Really all we have is the Veranda. Everywhere else is packed with the college crowd.</div>

 

[57stratdawg]

Bars stay open 1 extra hour to 1am and 2am respectively.

Then bars and shops lining University from the Cotton District to Mugshots. No big deal. Just a more centralized entertainment area - ala Cotton Mills.

 

[EAVdog]

You can bury the mainlines and daylight it to central overhead poles to feed the buildings from the rear/mid of the lots and save money. And this cost usually falls on the utility provider. Georgia Power will fight like hell not to bury lines but they will work with you.

It certainly would be a major help along with making that portion of Veterans Memorial a true Boulevard and a good sign ordinance. Replacing some of the crappy outdated strip malls would also be a major positive.

 

[Mullenation]

so we can openly bar hop among the different cotton district bars, close a section off between bulldog deli and coconuts between 10-1 on fri and saturday. Which would allow bands to play music around the fountain and people to walk around casually without getting raped by the SPD for trivial drinking offenses.

 

[o_fredgarvin]

Especially a better breakfast than Starkville Cafe or City Bagel.

 

[codeDawg]

East Memphis Poplar Ave. needs this in a huge way, but I know the city is broke. What kind of money are we talking?

 

[spacecataz]

I'd like to see more development next to the campus -like expanding the Cotton District and having bars and restaurants within walking distance of the campus. Like, you know, Cotton Mills. Man, I hate that fell through.There doesn't seem to be any real connection between Starville and MSU. It just feels like a town with a college campus shoved off to one side.

I was driving downS Montgomery the other day and noticed, no joke, light poles in the middle of the sidewalk just past Central Station Grill. How do you 17 something like that up?

ETA: I second the underground powerlines.

 

[The Peeper]

bagel! I'm spoiled by Beagle Bagel I guess. By the time you pay for it they hand it to you. The City Bagel one was almost not edible either, way too chewy and crusty. Yes, I know its not a biscuit

 

[lowddawg]

That is a very great idea for not much cost or restructuring! FSU does that every home game Friday night, close off downtown and have a smaller band setup.
Called downtown getdowns.

Also more bars would open if they could stay open one hour later. I had a guy in Columbus tell me that he made 40-50% of his money for the whole day the last hour his bar was open late.
I can't remember if Columbus was 1am or 2am?

I think Main St down to Cotton district needs to be all restaurants and bars. So you could walk that mile and it be full of stuff. Is it a mile?

 

[pDigital32Dawg]

nm

 

[Tds &amp; Beer]

Many people come down this road but the city doesn't treat it that way. It's one of the ugliest parts of the entire city. People come in and get off the exit over by the highlands and go all the way down this road to enter campus. Others come from campus and travel down this road to go west from campus. It's a highly travelled area and I just feel like if that area was a lot more pleasing to the eyes, it would go a long way in people's perception of the town. When starkville had the town hall meeting on twitter, I suggested this and like five strangers retweeted that they agreed with me.

 

[DAWGWOOD34]

1) People not littering and picking up their damn trash (not as bad in Starkville, but get out and about in the county and ..17! It looks like a 3rd world country). For Christs' sake, have some pride in where you live.
2) A--holes not acting like it's their first beer and breaking bottles on the sidewalks, streets, etc. and breaking street lamps along Univ. Drive. For Christs' sake, have some pride in your university and university town.
3) No additional fried chicken joints.
4) Improve 182 and 25; infrastructure, aesthetics, the whole 9 yards and then some.
5) Leadership - both city and university - should be embarrassed that Starkville City Schools did not make the top ten list someone posted the other day.
6) Continue to develop and renovate around downtown and next to campus.
7) Better partnership with MSU - If you've ever been to Athens, GA, you've probably noticed all of the different colored and patterned bulldog statues around businesses in downtown area and close to campus. We could do something similar with the cowbell here in Starkville.
8) Annex Clayton Village and clean that pile of **** up.
9) Require owners of abandoned properties to keep it clean and manicured - fine their asses if they don't comply. Nothing like an old building with signs hanging half off and knee high weeds grown up around it.
10) Straighten up that lopsided stone marker at the corner of 12 and 25 (Louisville Street).
Bonus: Keep the damn roadkill opossums, raccoons, deer, armadillos and domestic animals picked up off the streets in town.

 

[spacecataz]

That's nothing official though. Just grapevine stuff I've heard.</p>

 

[MadDawg.sixpack]

.

 

[MrHooch]

You can't close off all the way down to Coconuts, nor would you want to when there's nothing worth walking to past Bin 612 anyway, but close off to the street just before Maxwell and to the parking lot of Bulldog Deli. You're basically closing a half a block to a block, and allowing open container ala Beale or Bourbon street. <div>
</div><div>Do the same thing on Main Street from Jackson Street (where Hotel Chester is) to Mugshots.</div><div>
</div><div>Do this on Friday and Saturday nights only, any only during Fall and Spring semesters (at least for starters).</div>

 

[lxadawg]

I see not much has changed there in the last 35-40 years!

 

[studleyroy]

...from developers

 

[YellowFeverDawg]

1. Agree
2. Agree wholeheartedly.
3. Agree
4. Problem here is that both of those right of ways belong to MDOT. Any change to those will have to made by them. This includes the stretch of 182 between the Highlands and main entrance to Campus that is in the county.
5. Leadership is working on the school system. Understand that the new superintendent has been here less than a month. He is however making a number of changes that given time should right the ship.
6. Agree
7. Agree. To really look at this though, you need to understand how bad town and gown relations were as recently as 10 years ago. This has improved dramatically with the current administrations, and there is no reason that this should not continue.
8. Agree, but very challenging. The University makes is geographically challenging to find a contiguous means of getting Clayton Village and the Highlands. Believe me there is enough tax revenue in play here that the City would have annexed this years ago if there was a way to get it.
9. The Board of Alderman are in the process of dealing with this now. Two public hearings have been held on the ordinance change that would dramatically improve this.
10. Haven't noticed the marker. So, tentatively agree.

 

[Hail State]

Starkville's leadership has to wake up and stop shooting itself in the foot. For example, lose the "Retirement City" status. Can someone please tell me what we possibly stand to gain from that? Is it a tax break or something I'm missing because last I checked, college towns and retirement cities are on other ends of the spectrum. Another dumbass thing we have is this psuedo dry county crap. Prohibition ended 79 years ago, and its not even like they're following the dry county protocol. You can buy cold beer inside city limits but can't legally possess it out in the county. It's absolutely ridiculous and counterintuitive. When they end the dumbass dry county law, bars can stay open until 2 a.m. or whenever they decide to close. Embrace the bar scene, instead of working against. I've heard several times that in Starkville, and perhaps all over the state, that if you own an establishment that serves alcohol you must make 60% of your income on food. Is this true? If so I know they have to be cooking the books in some of these places. But they shouldn't have to because laws like that just hurt the town, especially a college town.

But most importantly Starkville has to learn to embrace the Cotton District. The Cotton District is Starkville's charm and what sets it apart from all the other SEC college towns. I say set covenants from at Jarnigan Streetto campus, from Russell Street to 1-82 that makes all new buildings look like Dan Camp's buildings, the New Orleans Fench Quarteresque architecture. And open bars all throughout it, not just on University Drive. Set plans in place to make it like a mini French Quarter in X amount of years. Main Street needs to focus on restaurants andalumni/classy bars. Give restaurants a tax break downtown and bars a tax break in the Cotton District to encourage their development in those areas. But then again this will never happen because we like to live like its 1933 and arrest people for carrying a beer around like it's dope or something.</p>

 

[boomboommsu]

Millions.

Well, if i was hiring a contractor to do that for my lot, i would fully expect the estimate to be AT LEAST $5- 10K. Multiply that by 1000 lots or so, then divide by 4 for bulk. And that's not counting that the city will have to buy the poles from the utilities, because the utilities get tax depreciation breaks on them every year, nor is it accounting for the inevitable headaches that would pop up from such a project. Totally pulling those numbers from my arse, fwiw, but i am totally confident in saying millions of $. The city has enough trouble financing a new police station, this is a non-starter.

 

[wbc40]

City Bagel is head and shoulders above Beagle Bagel.

 

[EAVdog]

First things first Starkville wouldneed to create an overlay district on Veteran's Memorial. Let's say Brewski's to Woody's. Then approve some ordinances, signage restrictions, set backs, human scale lighting, boulevard median, etc... One of them would be to say any new development would be required to follow x,y,z, and one of those items would be to have buried power from the Right of way to x-feet from R.O.W. The costs would then be shared between the power companies (who own the lines/poles/transformers) and the City. But the City portion would be funded by 'impact fees' assocaited with the new development. Those fees also help fund sewer, sidewalks, curb cuts and stuff associated with the new development.

It might take 10 years but if Starkville started now the effects would greatly improve the city character.

 

[Spanky.sixpack]

or now, the Renaissance like Ross Bridge. I know this is a pipe dream, but one thing Alabama got right was the RTJ golf trail and the little resorts that popped up around them. I like the one in Muscle Shoals the best. Grand National at Auburn is great too. I want to mirror that. <div>
</div><div>I don't really want to get into specifics, like where it would go, but I just wish we had something successful like that around there. Probably will never happen, seeing what happened out there by Cowbells, whatever that terrible development was.</div>

 

[Johnson85]

I'd rather them pay for it out of the general revenues or just not worry about it.

Or forget about burying them, and start relocating them to behind businesses on 12 and 182. Also expensive, but at least then you can landscape 12, and add some greenery in the huge *** parkinglots and the effect not be totally negated by all the power lines.

 

[RocketDawg]

I know I like it, and it draws very well from around the country, particularly the midwest. And it's been a very successful investment for the Retirement System of Alabama.

 

[Johnson85]

one thing Alabama got right was the RTJ golf trail and the little resorts that popped up around them.
<div>
</div><div>Probably will never happen, seeing what happened out there by Cowbells, whatever that terrible development was.</div>

Generally it's going to be a terrible idea to invest state funds in golf courses, and unless Alabama bids out the management of the RTJ courses, I suspect that you'll see them be mismanaged over the next two decades. Just too tempting to sit on your laurels if you're not held accountable, and it's too difficult to hold profit making entities accountable over long periods when a gov't is the owner.

 

[Spanky.sixpack]

Having lived in Alabama, there's not many things in that state I'm envious of, but the mountains and the Trail are two of them.

 

[Spanky.sixpack]

but maybe some non-government backed deal where it is the main attraction or something, not a whole system of teacher's retirement generators. Play up the A&M theme. It's what we are, embrace it.<div>
</div><div>Whatever it is, I love what the Trail is right now. Hands down my favorite courses to play. <div>
</div><div>
</div></div>

 

[RocketDawg]

but I don't think the manager of the RSA (and the golf trail) is a state employee.