Met my parents in Selma today to check on a house they still have there. I was saddened by the state of the parts of town I drove through. Came in on US Hwy 80 West from Prattville, then down Broad Street south into Old Town. I saw multiple closed businesses. Abandoned properties, some boarded up and some not. Burned properties. Junk cars on the street and in yards, and I mean JUNK cars, not fixer-uppers. Trash everywhere. Streets in bad shape. If the banners and billboards hadn't been advertising in the English, it looked like some parts of Somalia. I left by going down Jeff Davis Avenue (at least that's what it used to be named) by Bush Hog Manufacturing and then east, and it wasn't any better.

Of course, Selma is in the 7th Congressional District, the only democrat-controlled district in AL. Shame on Terri Sewell, who grew up in Selma, for neglecting her constituents. Like many, she appears to covet and enjoy the title, but not the responsibility, of Congress. I realize that the Selma citizens can't be "spoon fed" by the government (though some practically are) and turn that town into a model city, but sadly they vote for the "D" candidate every time, and the place is falling down around them.

I lived there from 1979 to 1990, and it definitely wasn't like this back then, even though it was predominantly and politically democrat.

Oh well, rant over.

Why haven't they sold it?

Selma is a pit of despair on a good day.  Very dangerous some days.

Have you tried to sell in Selma?? If it was in "Valley Grande" it might help, but you will literally only get pennies on the dollar for it now a days..lived there, still have family there.

But hey, they at least stopped all those evil Civil War re-enactors from coming every year and spending all that money in town.

A few years back they had to move all of their home high school football games to Thursday nights because of the shootings that would crank up on Fridays for the weekend.

Proof that Liberalism doesn't work. You can give money to people but that won't necessarily improve their lives. People have to do things to improve their lives and Liberalism teaches people to wait for the Government to take care of you.

And the Selma government has tried for Years to shut it down. The Bridge crossing day draws Thousands but makes very little money.

They did shut it down.  It is no more.  Some cock and bull story about how it consumed too many city resources....

Aside from the leadership problems, geography really hinders development in that area. It’s a decent sized city that isn’t easy to get to. Most modern site location decisions for industry involve proximity to interstate and skilled workforce. Things Selma doesn’t have. It will keep dying in the vine unless something significant happens to change direction.

Selma has been dying slowly since the AF closed Craig AFB in the late 1970s.



I was a Civil War Reenactor for most of the 1990s.  Selma was the reenactment that my group cohosted with another local reenactment group and the Kiwanis.  We used to spend a lot of our time on Saturdays fixing up the site each year, and we would all take off from work to help with the Thursday and Friday school days before the reenactment.  The Kiwanis would work their tails off every weekend getting the site ready.  It was good times and good memories.  I hate that the city finally killed it off.  Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Local "community leaders" did try to kill off the reenactment early on, until they realized how much revenue it brought in to the city and local businesses.  Then they never said another word for years.  Until they finally killed it.

As far as "city resources" go, I remember they had one fire medic ambulance and its crew there and one city officer walking around.  The city would open up the field house at Block Park for showers for the reenactors, bush hog the park where the reenactment was held in the months leading up to the reenactment and provide small school buses as shuttles between Sturdivant Hall and the park during the battle.  Maybe directing traffic during the times the reenactment battle was going on, but that was all the "city resources" that I remember seeing.  The Kiwanis did all the work at the site and ran it for the city.    The city made it sound like the reenactment stretched resources to the limit, but that was not the case.  IMHO, they got to the point where they didn't want anything "confederate" around, even though it made them a lot of money.

My wife and I went to Selma back in September to pick up a chest freezer from a Sears appliance store.  The last times I went to Selma before then were in 2007 and 2001, and I was really surprised at how much it has gone downhill since then.

OP here.

I remember the reenactments; I went to the first one in 1987 IIRC. Well done. Had a cousin Tommy Hooks (now deceased) and a friend David Edelen who used to do those reenactments as well. I loosely knew Bill Rambo, one of the cavalry guys. During that time, my parents (privately) opened their house as a pseudo Bed & Breakfast to a few select reenactors they knew. I lived in the apartment above the Sturdivant Hall kitchen (it had the address 713-1/2 Mabry St) for about 9 months and helped set up Sturdivant Hall one year.

As others said, it was a good tourist event that brought $$ into Selma every year. I went to the reenactment with my kids on a school field trip one year, and a lot of other out-of-town schools participated as well. But alas, like the fable of "The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg", the reenactment was killed when the demographics of the city leadership (pun intended) changed, urged by some local race-baiter activists IMHO.

Saw a video on local news last night about an aerospace contractor (City Jet & Turbine Worx) coming out to Craig, so maybe they'll put some $$ into the economy. They aren't the first; Beech Aircraft was there for several years, but eventually left, as have others.

https://www.selmatimesjournal.com/2021/02/15/more-good-things-at-craig-field-eda-announces-arrival-of-aircraft-maintenance-operation-in-selma/

Grew up down in that part of the world and still go through there for work. It's bad and has gotten worse in the last 4-5 years. I lived in the area for most of my young life till I left in the summer of 1991 and haven't looked back except to see my family up in Sprott.

That's what happens when you have Welfare that promotes bad behavior.