I'm not sure it's possible to draw a good comparison. Hoover sprawls all over the place, spanning a very wide variety of demographics, retail areas, etc., the result of some uncontrolled growth over its 50-year history. This means that Hoover really doesn't have much of a nucleus. It's essentially a gigantic shopping center in search of an identity.

Meanwhile, because Franklin is much older, dating back to before the Civil War, it has a more traditional core downtown area.

So in terms of walkability, Franklin isn't bad, while Hoover is pretty much a zero. If you walk in Hoover, people assume that your car has been repossessed.

Vibrancy? That's impossible to define. The hum of traffic? Hoover has that in spades.

Lots of shopping in Hoover with zillions of retail stores of all descriptions. After all, that was its raison d'être for the first thirty years of its existence.

Growth? Hoover continues to metastasize all over the southern weald of Birmingham.

Culture? Hoover's is pretty much non-existent, unless you count the decent arts series put on at the library. Otherwise, that's what Birmingham is for. I wouldn't put Birmingham on the same level as Nashville, but it does have a good arts scene.

Nightlife? Again, there are a smattering of places in Hoover, but it's almost entirely chain dining land. The good places are in Birmingham, Mountain Brook, and Homewood. Again, Birmingham punches far above its weight in this regard.

Safety/Crime. It really depends on where you are in Hoover. The apartment communities in Hoover are places where there's crime, but it's not on par with any major city.

Education. I can't speak to schools in Franklin, but Hoover has excellent public schools.

Affordability. Hoover is all over the map, physically and figuratively. From million-dollar homes in gated communities to starter communities to apartment complexes. Even the apartments range from nice apartments to veritable rabbit warrens. So I'm sure you'd find an affordable place somewhere.

All this reads as if I'm dissing Hoover. I'm really not. If you want to raise your kids in an affordable, safe, neighborhood and send them to quality schools, you could do a great deal worse. But it's not the kind of place where you're going to find locally-owned restaurants and cultural attractions by the boxcar. The town just lacks any real center to it, both geographically and in terms of soul.

While Homewood and Mountain Brook have those, the result of good city planning in the early 20th century, Hoover was, in truth, an object lesson in what happens when real estate developers drive things. So in terms of comparing Franklin and a Birmingham suburb, you might do better with either Mountain Brook or Hoover. Those are all the same kind of place.