Welcome to the big small town of Huntsville. Most folks here haven't come to grips with the fact that Huntsville is a larger city now.
Problems can come anywhere in town. Few years back a kid took a hatchet to his parents and brothers and sisters in one of the nicer sections of town. There was even a TV movie about the wife who hired a handyman to kill her optometerist husband. Even had the main mall shut down one weekend a couple of years ago due to a running fight between a couple groups of kids. The real "bad" section of town is just off Governors Drive west of the parkway. Closest thing to a "red light district" you will find around here. Lost of the older sections of town that used to be problem areas are actually becoming nicer areas as home renovations occur. Five Points in the NE is an area that used to be run down, but now you can find a nicely renovated house next to a run down house. Even the old NE/NW areas that were the old areas to avoid can't really be called that as the city has spread, the outer NE/NW areas are really nice areas. So it's a real tossup.
As far as finding a place to live, alot would depend on where you work, and the local roads. The roads haven't keep pace with the growth here and rush hour is getting worse all the time. I'd check anywhere at rush to see what the traffic is like before I bought out there. Just to give you an idea, 1 year after I bought our house, they opened a new school (well moved from an old location to a new one) about 3 miles down from us. Traffic got so bad, you had to wait until someone blocking the cross road stopped to wave you out. It was only like that when school was in session. We finally had the 4 way stop causing the backup replaced with a light and things are better now. Of course our idea of rush hour is still probably laughable to most people.
Robert
