If I learned one thing from Wednesday night's "What Works: Regionalism" forum at AL.com's downtown hub, it's that people here have no shortage of good ideas if you give them a chance to talk about them.

More than 100 people showed up and weren't afraid to throw out their ideas for making North Alabama a better place, without worrying about what might stand in the way. Take that "but that won't work, because" factor away, and it's pretty freeing.

Some examples from the group I led, which brainstormed ideas for developing the local riverfront: A revolving restaurant; regional water sports competitions; a zip-line/ropes course; a farmers/fish market, food truck events at Ditto Landing; paddleboats; a resort hotel, a triathalon; a riverfront ballpark.

For transportation: A railway from downtown to Ditto Landing; public transportation inside Redstone Arsenal; Smartphone apps that tell you the best traffic routes; providing incentives for taking public transit; service shuttles dedicated to the medical district

There were great ideas too about improving fire protection, from creating a metro fire department with paid firefighters, to using "predictive analytics" technology to analyze the areas that need the most resources. To quote Jason Scully-Clemons, who reported out for the fire protection group, "It tells you something about our town when our 'exciting' idea starts with the term 'predictive analytics.'

Boring terms or not, the ideas were exciting. Building out the entire area with high-speed broadband Internet; creating an "emerald necklace" of greenways surrounding and connecting Madison County and surrounding areas; building a major planetarium/science center that could draw tourists and highlight our area's specialties in space science and technology; link Huntsville's local tourist attractions around the "hub" of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, providing ways for people visiting one to easily get to the next.

We asked our participants to vote on the ideas they found most exciting, and the ones they thought would be most achievable. Consider these two lists in the polls embedded in this post, then vote for the project you think is most exciting for North Alabama, and the project you think is most achievable.

We'll tally the votes and come back soon with a report on the projects you chose to be the most exciting and the most achievable. Then we'll move forward, deciding what regional priority Alabama Media Group will champion.