Photo courtesy of Jennifer Andress for Mayor campaign
Councilor Jennifer Andress announced she is running for Mayor of Homewood on June 5, 2025.
The Shades Creek Greenway is one of my favorite places in all of Homewood. I have visited the trail multiple times a week for the past 20 years and have known anecdotally what the Greenway has meant for Homewood. There are so many visitors from all over the region who enjoy time on the trail, then stick around for coffee or lunch, pick up groceries or fill up their gas tank before they head home, adding to Homewood’s sales tax revenue that allows us to re-invest in our city. The amenity also adds to our own quality of life, allowing us to recreate, enjoy nature, and improve our physical and mental health.
We were thrilled to learn recently just how much the Greenway attracts usage. The city has invested in Placer.ai technology, which is software that provides location intelligence and foot traffic insights using anonymous mobile device data (similar to traffic counts that measure the number of cars on a road without identifying drivers).
We learned from Placer.ai that we have 260,000 annual users of the Greenway on foot or bicycles, the highest for any trail in Jefferson County. The Greenway, at 3.9 miles along Shades Creek, is in consistent use from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day of the week. This is a 21% year-over-year increase for the last three years, and users come from every direction in Jefferson County. Samford University students are regular users of the trail, and the income category most represented is $25,000 to $100,000 annually. Users return an average of 3.5 times a year.
And there is more good news about our trail! A study was commissioned by A Mission for Michael, a mental health treatment organization focused on wellness and behavioral health care. Researchers from Cherry Data Signals surveyed 3,025 Americans about what factors they associate with longevity and how likely they feel they will reach 100 years old, focusing on how people view their health, stress levels and environment.
The results showed that Homewood ranked 121 nationally, second in all of Alabama, and was recognized for our outdoor culture, centered around our Greenway and beautiful parks that make spending time outdoors part of our everyday life.
So the numbers are starting to show what we intuitively know: outdoor recreation is a vital asset for any community, and Homewood is one of the top destinations in all of north central Alabama!
