Bad for Allergies and Asthma, really bad.
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11/3/2014
I am really floored that no one has commented on the fact that Huntsville is the worst place for allergies and asthma. I've been here 10 years. The air quality is horrific. Pollen gets so thick in the air here you can see it in the Spring. It piles up on the cars. I have had to use my windshield wipers to scrape the pollen off in the morning before. But the worst air quality arrives in the Fall. Every Fall I end up in the hospital with some respiratory complication. And the medical staff always say the same thing, "It's this area. Everyone is sick". Apparently the Native American name for this valley translates to "Valley of the Sick". Huntsville will shorten your life for this reason. DON'T bring your asthmatic or allergy prone child here, they will suffer terribly. I have been so sick that I haven't had the ability to move... but I am about to crawl out of this place... looking 30 years older than when I arrived here from Seattle. (Oh, and I have lived in 17 places, never sicker than here in the Fall.) You can live on Monte Sano, pollution issue is better there because of the elevation.
Other factors to consider: Its hot and muggy in the summer. No breezes. Huntsville sprawl is really not pretty. Just the plain truth. Lots of missionaries coming to the door. Half the people here are very religious. But there IS an underground current of secular folks here. You can find many of them in secular homeschooling facebook groups for north Alabama. They live in the historic district, usually. The less religious people here tend to be very friendly. The more religious ones seem to be less so. Great city for job hunting. 8 hours to the beach.
N | Huntsville, AL