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I have you know that the Madison Police Department keeps a record of crime on a daily basis for the city and in the last couple of weeks there have around 3-4 auto burglaries in the city of Madison. Yes, citizens of Madison do do drugs and that is recorded as well! There's crime in Madison, but it just doesn't get reported and blown out of proportion like the crime in Jackson is.
I am a single female in her late twenties who is considering relocating to Jackson for a new position. I am not from MS and I have only lived in metro areas of Texas up until now (mostly Houston and Austin). I consider myself a liberal, progressive individual and one thing that I've really enjoyed about the places that I've lived up until now were how culturally and ethnically diverse they were.
I'm having some major uncertainties about moving to Jackson- almost everything I've read seems to be that Jackson is still a very conservative area that is still somewhat racially divided. I've also been searching for ways to get involved in the community if I were to move to Jackson (some sort of outdoorsy meetup for young adults or a progressive church with a large 20-something singles scene) and still seem to be coming up short. Everything I read makes it sounds like unless I'm a student or I'm married, I'm going to have a hard time fitting in.
Have I just been overlooking options or would Jackson probably not be the city for me? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!
I think that Jackson is just the place for you! Fondren abounds with opportunities for experiencing ethnic cuisines and hookahs and such-as. And there are plenty of white girls with big nonwhite boyfriends. Dowager Soybean Empress (a friend who occasionally risks driving up from the Delta in one of her Jaguars, which really function better as giant pieces of enameled jewelry than as viable transportation, "...like goin' down the road in a big, giant Faberge Egg..."), a few years back, even emailed me to report that one of those girls was actually pretty. She was a blonde with a Harrison County tag, enjoying a five-minute uber-public French-kiss with what appeared to be an almost-muscular pimp or drug dealer, but who probably was a football-standout, aspiring poet and Rap artist.
"Well there they were, thirty feet from all that traffic where Old Canton meets Lakeland, standing right there in the parking lot, as in blocking people trying to find a parking space, "sharing a kiss" in a way that pretty-much declared that they wanted to make a statement about Interracial Love and courage and Civil Rights and "aren't we special?". Had it been the seventh decade of the last century of the previous millennium, I would have been mightily impressed by their 'courageous statement' and all. But Jaguars overheat at the drop of the hat, and don't like to idle... and I just wanted to git into the damn Rainbow Co-Op and git my damn Seaweed Croquettes so I could git my hiney to Clarksdale in time to git my roots done.
"Kids were walking toward Cups (THE Coffee shop hangout for Jacktown's Urban Hipsters) and looking at those two with expressions that said "Get real..." and "Gimme a break..." and "Oh, pahleez!" I think the two were both in bluejeans and white teeshirts, which I consider to be the uniform-of-choice for Conformist-Narcissists who think they're supposed to be "rebels". I don't know if they'd seen the Miata commercial that told people of that mindset how they were supposed to dressCar Lust: Mazda Miata @20 , or if they'd been watching James Dean movies."
When I'm at a gym just outside Jackson, all the young men seem to be busy texting. Occasionally, one will pull his shirt up, and take a photo. Sometimes, those will go to their modeling agents https://www.google.com/search?q=stev...ml%3B565%3B750 , but mostly, those pics go instantly to young women who are eager to pounce upon the lads. (I've been known to hold the device taking the pic/video...) There are plenty of big fellas in all the shades of the Crayola Multicultral Crayon Rainbow. And some of them don't discriminate against hefty young ladies. There are several Black-Bodybuilder/Rubenesque-White-Girl couples at that gym, in fact. Non-discrimination is a wonderful thing. Inclusiveness is beautiful. And the best way for you to get included, around Jackson, is to go online and avail yourself of the social networking venues there.
As a non-prejudiced, diversity-loving person, you will be free to enjoy the beauties and pleasures of the entire city of Jackson. - things which less open-minded souls have deemed "off-limits". Your freedom from prejudice will keep you safe, as you shop beautiful MetroCenter, take a leisurely stroll down historic Farish Street, and take in the sights along the verdant streets of West Jackson - on the way to the Jackson Zoo and beautiful Mynelle Gardens. And since you, appreciative of Diversity, will be free to choose from the housing stock of the entire city, I'm sure you will quickly find a wonderful home at a wonderful price!
People moved to the suburbs because they allowed themselves to be deluded by perceptions of crime in Jackson. Obviously, it was the wrong thing to do. Because, one need only to remember that seminal scene in Peter Pan, when Tinkerbell was dying, and it was explained that if everybody got together and just believed in Fairies, then Tinkerbell would be heeee-yuhlll-ed-ah!!! (I seem to be have been channeling Jimmy Swaggart for a second, there, for some reason. Maybe because I was thinking about the glories of Magical Thinking.)
Well, Jackson could have been like Tinkerbell. If only people had gotten-together and believed, then things would have gotten better and better. Instead, they moved into pseudo-Cajunesque 'fine brick dream homes', with granite countertops... out in the suburbs, where they only perceive that they are happy and free from the threat of crime.
I think that taking the messianic approach to life in Jackson is the right way to go about it. When confronted with a new opportunity, just ask yourself, "WWABD?" (What would Amy Biehl do?) - with that attitude, you can't go wrong!
Last edited by GrandviewGloria; 08-23-2014 at 06:06 PM..
I think that Jackson is just the place for you! Fondren abounds with opportunities for experiencing ethnic cuisines and hookahs and such-as. And there are plenty of white girls with big nonwhite boyfriends.
You're not funny and you don't live in or near Mississippi. Please stop trolling this forum with this nonsense.
"There's crime in Madison, but it just doesn't get reported and blown out of proportion like the crime in Jackson is."
Compared to Jackson, Madison is crime free, of course it has 1/10 the population 10 times the wealth of Jackson.
As far as the reporting of crime, i would bet the the reporting in Madison is more accurate than Jackson. I know people who have experienced auto burgeries in Jxn and, if 5-0 even showed up, it was written up as vandalism rather than burgerly. I have also personally experienced very good police work by JPD.
I think coming from Austin or Houston, Jackson may be a bit of a culture shock for you. We're not exactly a progressive City, so based on your self description, it might be a tough fit. I wish you luck with your decision. I moved to Jackson (actually Clinton) in 1975 as a teenager from out of state. Even then, our realtor steered us toward Clinton or Brandon, because of the schools. My first job was at Westland Plaza in south Jackson waiting on all the little gray haired ladies in the area. I lived in southwest Jackson after college and was never afraid to travel in most any part of City. It was safe back then except for a few pockets downtown. The City actually had a pretty cool vibe about it with a good music scene around town. Jackson even attracted good concerts from top bands of the day and had some pretty good festivals (Jubilee Jam, Red Beans & Rice, St. Patty's). Slowly all that changed and while I think Jackson has coined the name The City with Soul, to me somewhere in the 80's or 90's the soul got sucked out of this City. These days, everyone lives, shops and dines in Madison or Rankin County and tries to avoid Jackson whenever possible. Heck, there's not even a movie theater in Jackson anymore. Hopefully the District can breathe some new life into the area, but to be honest, it depresses me to drive around the pot hole filled streets of Jackson and see the decline almost everywhere you look. OP, I hate to be so negative, but just calling it like I see it. I hope to retire in a few years and don't see us sticking around. Some will see that attitude as part of the problem, and maybe it is, but I want a better quality of life than what can be found around here...
I think coming from Austin or Houston, Jackson may be a bit of a culture shock for you. We're not exactly a progressive City, so based on your self description, it might be a tough fit. I wish you luck with your decision. I moved to Jackson (actually Clinton) in 1975 as a teenager from out of state. Even then, our realtor steered us toward Clinton or Brandon, because of the schools. My first job was at Westland Plaza in south Jackson waiting on all the little gray haired ladies in the area. I lived in southwest Jackson after college and was never afraid to travel in most any part of City. It was safe back then except for a few pockets downtown. The City actually had a pretty cool vibe about it with a good music scene around town. Jackson even attracted good concerts from top bands of the day and had some pretty good festivals (Jubilee Jam, Red Beans & Rice, St. Patty's). Slowly all that changed and while I think Jackson has coined the name The City with Soul, to me somewhere in the 80's or 90's the soul got sucked out of this City. These days, everyone lives, shops and dines in Madison or Rankin County and tries to avoid Jackson whenever possible. Heck, there's not even a movie theater in Jackson anymore. Hopefully the District can breathe some new life into the area, but to be honest, it depresses me to drive around the pot hole filled streets of Jackson and see the decline almost everywhere you look. OP, I hate to be so negative, but just calling it like I see it. I hope to retire in a few years and don't see us sticking around. Some will see that attitude as part of the problem, and maybe it is, but I want a better quality of life than what can be found around here...
Well we still have the St. Patty's Day Parade and it's one of the largest in the Deep South. Yes the District at Eastover WILL have a movie theater, and downtown has actually become one of the top residential areas in the city, and it's become a real safe part of town. Not only is the District at Eastover on the way, the Meridian at Fondren is, a Westin Hotel is, Capitol & West which is another upscale condo development on Capitol Street is, then there's the Capitol City Art Lofts located across from the historic King Edward Hotel. We have a lot of positive things going in JXN, and I think we should focus on the positive.
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Fondren and Belhaven are unquestionably more open to liberal influences than the rest of Mississippi in general - with the possible exception of some parts of the Gulf Coast. While there may be some question as to just how liberal these area are relative to the USA as a whole, a brief look at voting statistics - precinct-by-precinct - in this century unmistakably reveals these areas of Jackson must be called quite liberal compared to most of the rest of the state. Even by national standards, Fondren and Belhaven are moderate to weakly conservative (I think, but not sure, Obama took this area in 2008, and this area is at least 85% white).
Justice would be done if Mississippi on the whole were labeled liberal unfriendly, while Fondren and Belhaven...plus Bay St Louis and (probably) the City of Biloxi were labeled 'liberal ameable', if not totally 'friendly' areas within Mississippi. These areas are certainly not liberal Unfriendly. The same story goes for practically any metro area of 1/3 million residents or more: the closer a middle-class area is to downtown, the more liberal it's going to be. In the end, it depends on where you are, where you go, and who you hang out with.
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