The fastest growing and shrinking cities in Alabama
Alabama’s list of largest cities is due for another shakeup. In 2016, Huntsville passed Mobile to become the state’s third-largest city. Next year the Rocket City will likely pass Montgomery to become the second-largest.If population trends hold true over the next few years, it won’t be long until Huntsville stands at the top of the list. The U.S. Census Bureau released new city population estimates Thursday. According to the estimates, Birmingham, the largest city in the state, is losing population. The Magic City’s population has been mostly stagnant – no growth or major loss – since 2010. But for the first time in nearly 100 years, its population is now below 210,000. And Montgomery continues to steadily lose people. The state’s capital started the decade with a healthy 15,000 population lead over Huntsville. Now that lead has dwindled to fewer than 1,000 people. Huntsville, meanwhile, has been adding population at a substantial rate since the start of the decade. In those eight years the city has added more than 17,000 people. If those trends continue at their current pace, Huntsville could pass Birmingham in population in just six years.Huntsville was one of only three Alabama cities to grow its population by 10,000 people or more since 2010. The other two are notably college towns. Auburn added around 12,300 people and Tuscaloosa added around 10,600 people since 2010. Auburn’s growth is impressive. The city is also in the top 10 in terms of percentage growth in the state. Among Alabama cities with at least 10,000 people, only five grew at a faster rate than Auburn. Three of those are in Baldwin County, which continues to grow like a weed. Tuscaloosa’s growth has been a bit slower than Auburn’s, but it remains a significantly larger city. According to the estimates, Tuscaloosa passed the 100,000 population mark in 2017, and had 101,113 people in 2018. Auburn sat at 65,738 people in 2018. Montgomery isn’t the only large city that’s shrinking. Mobile has lost more than 5,000 people since 2010. Birmingham, Anniston and Gadsden have all lost significant population, as have Decatur, Eufaula and Prichard. But perhaps the most alarming population loss has come from Selma, a historic civil rights town that AL.com reported last year was the fastest shrinking city in the state. That’s still true, according to the new estimates. Selma has lost nearly 14 percent of its population since 2010, the worst rate in the state over that span, according to the Census. It’s the only city in the state to lose more than 10 percent of its population over that time. By Ramsey Archibald, Al.com. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
David Ketchen: A bill to regulate franchising is a bad idea for Alabama
Having taught a university course on franchising for more than a decade, I interact regularly with franchisors and franchisees. Senate Bill 129 – a bill to regulate franchising – has the laudable goal of protecting franchisees from exploitation by their much larger franchisors. But, as the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Advocates of the bill ignore that franchisees already enjoy ample protection. Franchising’s rise in the 1950s and 1960s helped companies such as McDonald’s and Holiday Inn become household names. When money is flowing, shady people soon arrive on the scene. By the 1970s, some franchisors were collecting fees from franchisees and returning nothing but empty promises. This led the Federal Trade Commission to tightly regulate the franchise relationship starting in 1979. Today, forty years later, franchisors must provide transparency by law. Specifically, they must give potential franchisee a detailed Franchisee Disclosure Document (FDD) that lists 23 sets of information, including all fees the franchisor collects, the franchisor’s history (if any) of litigation, recent financial statements, and 20 other pertinent items. At the state level, the franchising relationship is governed by all laws pertaining to business fraud. Many problems franchisees encounter are their own creation. FDDs often run hundreds of pages and franchise contracts are complex. Franchisees should have an attorney who specializes in franchise law review these documents before buying a franchise, but some do not. Others are not aware of their rights. One franchisee lamented to me that her franchisor required her to buy bottled water from its endorsed supplier and the price was higher than what she would pay Sam’s Club for the water. She was unaware that the U.S. Supreme Court determined in 1971 that franchisees cannot be required to purchase an item from a specific supplier unless that item is central to the franchisor’s brand, such as KFC’s secret spices. A new state law regulating franchising will not address these problems. It will, however, impose costs that ultimately trickle down to consumers and make it more difficult for franchises to thrive in our state. A minority of states regulate franchising, including California, Oregon, and New York. Some franchisors avoid operating in such states because the added costs of doing business make success there less likely. Let’s not join California, Oregon, and New York in being hostile to franchisors who want to do business in Alabama. See additional articles on Senate Bill 129 by Kim McCutcheon and Grover Norquist. Dave Ketchen serves as Harbert Eminent Scholar and Professor of Management at Auburn University.
