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Just ate another solid meal in Fondren and drove all over downtown Jackson just now looking around. Downtown could be so ridiculously awesome with the right investment. Mississippians really need to get more comfortable with the urban environment. We are all truly missing out on what could be a great city.
Just ate another solid meal in Fondren and drove all over downtown Jackson just now looking around. Downtown could be so ridiculously awesome with the right investment. Mississippians really need to get more comfortable with the urban environment. We are all truly missing out on what could be a great city.
If the demand was there... the investment would be too.
I don't live in one of the most rural states in the U.S. to live in a po dump urban area that everyone just wishes and hopes will be revitalized someday when the "right" rich folks come in with money.
I'm sure there are many folks that share this same sentiment.
If the demand was there... the investment would be too.
I don't live in one of the most rural states in the U.S. to live in a po dump urban area that everyone just wishes and hopes will be revitalized someday when the "right" rich folks come in with money.
I'm sure there are many folks that share this same sentiment.
Nobody said you had to live there. I personally would not live there.
You need to get your bitterness under control, pal. I made a statement. You cannot handle anyone talking good about Jackson or Mississippi. Just let it go.
I'd love to see them do with State Street exactly what they've done with Capitol Street, i.e. reducing it down to three lanes with brick pavers down the middle, landscaping, historic street lamps, and roundabouts...from say Fortification St. down almost to where it nears I-20 where the old car dealerships used to be.
If they were to do something like that, plus maybe building a really nice park around that area, I could see that area evolving into a great urban living area. And especially if they finish converting the river into a nice lake and riverfront.
I did read that they are now upgrading the upper end of Capitol Street with those same improvements, and really that's the prettier end of Capitol Street anyway, between say the governors mansion and the old capitol.
I agree that it's got great bones. Tons of people are living in downtown Memphis and Jackson's market is about 40% of the size of Memphis, so that should be a good benchmark for downtown Jackson's potential once the city government starts taking its job seriously, one day. In the meantime Fondren is awesome and Belhaven's town center area is under construction.
I'd love to see them do with State Street exactly what they've done with Capitol Street, i.e. reducing it down to three lanes with brick pavers down the middle, landscaping, historic street lamps, and roundabouts...from say Fortification St. down almost to where it nears I-20 where the old car dealerships used to be.
If they were to do something like that, plus maybe building a really nice park around that area, I could see that area evolving into a great urban living area. And especially if they finish converting the river into a nice lake and riverfront.
I did read that they are now upgrading the upper end of Capitol Street with those same improvements, and really that's the prettier end of Capitol Street anyway, between say the governors mansion and the old capitol.
I agree that it's got great bones. Tons of people are living in downtown Memphis and Jackson's market is about 40% of the size of Memphis, so that should be a good benchmark for downtown Jackson's potential once the city government starts taking its job seriously, one day. In the meantime Fondren is awesome and Belhaven's town center area is under construction.
As a longtime downtown worker, I'd love it if DT was developed and more people lived, dined and shopped there. If we could just get back to where we were in the mid-90s it would be a huge improvement. The amount of vacant office space is frightening. I don't know if anything can be done to get any of the jobs that left for Ridgeland (Hanging Colony Parkway), Madison and Flowood back. There is a new crop of state employees downtown, but generally, they are lower-wage and don't eat out much.
If the demand was there... the investment would be too.
Good insight. When Farish Street failed after spending $20+ million of taxpayer money to get it to 75% completion, I asked a buddy, who deals in big property investments, why it failed. His response was simple, "private investment dollars follow need and demand, public dollars follow unrealistic dreams of idiot politicians." That's why so many Jxn municipal developments fail (Convention Center and Farish St) if there was a demand, private investment would have filled the need.
The city has done very little to develop Fondren, most of the growth is through private dollars.
I think the demand is probably there though because Jackson and Memphis have nearly identical demographics other than Jackson being about 40% of the size of Memphis. But Memphis started investing way back in the late 1980s, with some successes and many failures, but eventually it reached some kind of critical mass and the tide began to turn.
It's so true that Fondren did this on its own, but it's better located than downtown Jackson is and it never did really empty out, being right next to UMMC, Millsaps, Woodland Hills and nearby Eastover. If the national economy can keep growing, Mississippi's will follow as it's finally doing now. I'm thinking that if Capitol Street from one end to the other can be completed and filled up, then they'll have at least one complete and nice space to build on and can grow from there.. I guess we'll find out though..
Nobody said you had to live there. I personally would not live there.
You need to get your bitterness under control, pal. I made a statement. You cannot handle anyone talking good about Jackson or Mississippi. Just let it go.
It's hard to get a community to grow if almost everyone is commuting in from somewhere else to visit it.
I spend tons of time and money in the Belhaven/Fondren area of Jackson (a few of the only areas currently worth spending much time in), but I also understand that if everyone is just like you and me, the good, positive change both you and I want will happen much slower.
Of course, the formula changes dramatically when you have large tourist draws for concerts or other events. Unfortunately, I do not see Jackson as much of a tourist city right now other than periodic small, yearly events at scattered venues across town that don't have much hotel/restaurant access.
Jackson also needs to take advantage of the large amounts of possible green space around the city. While not everyone loves to go to a hot, urban heat island and mill around at the end of the day, green spaces with trees mixed in would help out tremendously (sort of what The District has done, just on larger scales with more fitness-oriented trails, etc.)
I'm on the same team as you -- unfortunately, I am a realist. Posting positive things on an internet forum doesn't make you a "Jackson activist" any more than someone shopping and eating in Fondren occasionally.
I was born and raised in Jackson and moved away when I was twenty-one. I've lived all over the country, from New England to the Northwest and the Southwest, so I have a pretty good perspective on Jackson and Mississippi as a whole. I recently moved back Jackson to help my elderly parents. After 30 years away, I've found that many things have changed in here, and sadly many things are the same. There is slightly more cultural diversity here, a trend happening all over the country, but much needed in a state that tends to be wary of differences. The growing health care industry brings professionals from all over the world and for the most part Jackson residents seem to be nonplussed by the occasional turban-wearing Sikh gentleman or the Muslim woman in her head scarf at Kroger. How welcome they feel I can't say, but I've never witnessed outright aggression.
If you have children (which I do not) and if you go to church (which I do not), if you love college sports (nada), shopping and watching television (whatever), and if your interest is in living in a relatively safe suburb where you have to drive everywhere, where there are no commuter bike paths or even sidewalks (save for the few blocks in Fondren -- but few walk or ride bikes there), and if you want an arts scene that entertains but rarely challenges your perspective, then you may love Jackson. It's a family friendly city and most activities are geared specifically to the traditional nuclear family.
What Jackson sorely lacks -- besides a twenty-first century infrastructure in middle-class neighborhoods and twentieth century infrastructure in working class and poor neighborhoods -- is a visible youth culture that brings energy and ideas to a town infatuated with the status quo and Southern cliches. Much of Jackson is blighted, but you'll probably never see or experience the worst blight because most middle class white folks live in the more pleasant neighborhoods in central and northeast Jackson. Want to visit a third world country in the good ole US of A? Check out south and west Jackson! Lack of clean running water is not uncommon there. As for culture, Jackson prefers art that's pretty, music that's familiar (blues/rock/blues/blues), and attitudes that are safe. If that's what you're looking for, good on you. But many Millennials from elsewhere want to live in progressive, green, pedestrian-friendly cities that support healthy lifestyles and new ideas. That is NOT Jackson.
There are very few options for easily accessible outdoor activities. There is a small but relatively active biking community and a lovely bike path north of Jackson. Sometimes I hear of people canoeing or paddling along rivers but hiking is virtually non-existent. Hiking trails are well outside the city limits and, for the most part, over-grown and under-marked because so few people have any interest in hiking on a beautiful weekend day. Instead, they're in church or watching the game or tailgating in Oxford or Starkville.
The food scene on first glance seems plentiful but once you start exploring quickly becomes routine. (How much fried catfish, shrimp and grits,greens or barbecue can one have in a lifetime? Never enough, apparently.) If that sounds snotty, it probably is. I've lived in some of the best food cities in the country (Portland, Maine, NYC, Boston, New Orleans). Only in the last five years or so have "farm to table" restaurants really popped up -- and thank goodness for that. The downtown farmer's market is active in the high season and offers a great variety of fresh produce. Cultivation Food Hall just opened in the contrived new neighborhood called "The District" -- an area filled with condos and corporate offices and dotted with franchise restaurants -- but unlike St. Roche's in New Orleans, from which the food hall was modeled on, not all vendors represent local chefs. While it's a solid move in the right direction and will satisfy the newcomer for a time, Jackson has a long way to go to compete on the food frontier with other equally populous Southern cities like Birmingham, Chattanooga or Knoxville.
Lemuria bookstore, Jackson's oldest and only independent bookstore, is an anchor for the literary arts and a haven for me on a quiet rainy afternoon. What's appalling is that in a state that boasts such a strong literary heritage has such a down-trodden public library, a converted old Sears building in desperate need of updating. Kudos to the library for what it does do, but the city should pump all the money it can to create a jewel of a library that inspires the general public and serves as tourist attraction as much as any museum, especially in the home state of some of the country's literary giants. Speaking of museums, Jackson has recently opened a new Civil Rights Museum that has become a real a source of pride and will likely become a cornerstone for black history in the city.
Among other things, such as institutional racism, Jackson suffers from poor city planning dating back to the late fifties and early sixties, when downtown expanded north and eastward. Without a mix of commercial and residential zoning, without the infrastructure that supports a variety of modes of transportation, Jackson was doomed to become a series of suburbs bounded by shopping center sprawl. It never was and never will be anything but. The heart of Fondren, which fills about four city blocks, is the only thing that comes close to the kind of neighborhoods you find in the dozens in other metropolitan cities of equal size. Missing are other "Fondrens" in other areas of town.
What Jackson does have are some lush green neighborhoods that are relatively affordable and, if you stay long enough, a small-town feel. People are by and large friendly. For outsiders, Jackson's culture may seem quaint and novel at first: rarely do folks complain of food allergies, talk of politics is politely avoided, and true artisan anything is a rare find. In many ways, this can be refreshing. Behind the strip malls and box stores, beneath the Brazilian blowouts and spray tans that so many women in Northeast Jackson sport, you can find a deep caring here. Jackson has a particular nuanced social construct that is hard to explain and best experienced. The humor here is unlike any other anywhere. No one can give you a put down while making you laugh in quite the same way than someone from Mississippi.
On the plus side, if you're from "away" or you're from the area and have lived elsewhere and are entrepreneurial, there are plenty of empty storefronts begging to be brought to life and a close-knit community who will largely support your endeavors. How successful you are depends on how much you appeal to a general audience rather than a more esoteric one.
Others may have a wildly different take on Jackson. Fair enough. Mine is that of a middle-aged, adventurous, open-minded rule-breaker who left Jackson like a lion out of a cage when I was twenty-one. Once my family responsibilities are over, I plan to hit the road with my husband in search of that city or town that offers more than to be lulled by the status quo. I'll defend Jackson to any outsider who criticizes it, but I'm sad to report that the place where I was born and raised can never be my chosen home. Yet it still holds my heart in ways I can't fully express.
If you've never visited Mississippi or Jackson, I recommend you do. Stay a while to get to know it on a deeper level. Even if you never choose to live here, it's important to understand it's unique place in history and in the country.
I was born and raised in Jackson and moved away when I was twenty-one. I've lived all over the country, from New England to the Northwest and the Southwest, so I have a pretty good perspective on Jackson and Mississippi as a whole. I recently moved back Jackson to help my elderly parents. After 30 years away, I've found that many things have changed in here, and sadly many things are the same. There is slightly more cultural diversity here, a trend happening all over the country, but much needed in a state that tends to be wary of differences. The growing health care industry brings professionals from all over the world and for the most part Jackson residents seem to be nonplussed by the occasional turban-wearing Sikh gentleman or the Muslim woman in her head scarf at Kroger. How welcome they feel I can't say, but I've never witnessed outright aggression.
If you have children (which I do not) and if you go to church (which I do not), if you love college sports (nada), shopping and watching television (whatever), and if your interest is in living in a relatively safe suburb where you have to drive everywhere, where there are no commuter bike paths or even sidewalks (save for the few blocks in Fondren -- but few walk or ride bikes there), and if you want an arts scene that entertains but rarely challenges your perspective, then you may love Jackson. It's a family friendly city and most activities are geared specifically to the traditional nuclear family.
What Jackson sorely lacks -- besides a twenty-first century infrastructure in middle-class neighborhoods and twentieth century infrastructure in working class and poor neighborhoods -- is a visible youth culture that brings energy and ideas to a town infatuated with the status quo and Southern cliches. Much of Jackson is blighted, but you'll probably never see or experience the worst blight because most middle class white folks live in the more pleasant neighborhoods in central and northeast Jackson. Want to visit a third world country in the good ole US of A? Check out south and west Jackson! Lack of clean running water is not uncommon there. As for culture, Jackson prefers art that's pretty, music that's familiar (blues/rock/blues/blues), and attitudes that are safe. If that's what you're looking for, good on you. But many Millennials from elsewhere want to live in progressive, green, pedestrian-friendly cities that support healthy lifestyles and new ideas. That is NOT Jackson.
There are very few options for easily accessible outdoor activities. There is a small but relatively active biking community and a lovely bike path north of Jackson. Sometimes I hear of people canoeing or paddling along rivers but hiking is virtually non-existent. Hiking trails are well outside the city limits and, for the most part, over-grown and under-marked because so few people have any interest in hiking on a beautiful weekend day. Instead, they're in church or watching the game or tailgating in Oxford or Starkville.
The food scene on first glance seems plentiful but once you start exploring quickly becomes routine. (How much fried catfish, shrimp and grits,greens or barbecue can one have in a lifetime? Never enough, apparently.) If that sounds snotty, it probably is. I've lived in some of the best food cities in the country (Portland, Maine, NYC, Boston, New Orleans). Only in the last five years or so have "farm to table" restaurants really popped up -- and thank goodness for that. The downtown farmer's market is active in the high season and offers a great variety of fresh produce. Cultivation Food Hall just opened in the contrived new neighborhood called "The District" -- an area filled with condos and corporate offices and dotted with franchise restaurants -- but unlike St. Roche's in New Orleans, from which the food hall was modeled on, not all vendors represent local chefs. While it's a solid move in the right direction and will satisfy the newcomer for a time, Jackson has a long way to go to compete on the food frontier with other equally populous Southern cities like Birmingham, Chattanooga or Knoxville.
Lemuria bookstore, Jackson's oldest and only independent bookstore, is an anchor for the literary arts and a haven for me on a quiet rainy afternoon. What's appalling is that in a state that boasts such a strong literary heritage has such a down-trodden public library, a converted old Sears building in desperate need of updating. Kudos to the library for what it does do, but the city should pump all the money it can to create a jewel of a library that inspires the general public and serves as tourist attraction as much as any museum, especially in the home state of some of the country's literary giants. Speaking of museums, Jackson has recently opened a new Civil Rights Museum that has become a real a source of pride and will likely become a cornerstone for black history in the city.
Among other things, such as institutional racism, Jackson suffers from poor city planning dating back to the late fifties and early sixties, when downtown expanded north and eastward. Without a mix of commercial and residential zoning, without the infrastructure that supports a variety of modes of transportation, Jackson was doomed to become a series of suburbs bounded by shopping center sprawl. It never was and never will be anything but. The heart of Fondren, which fills about four city blocks, is the only thing that comes close to the kind of neighborhoods you find in the dozens in other metropolitan cities of equal size. Missing are other "Fondrens" in other areas of town.
What Jackson does have are some lush green neighborhoods that are relatively affordable and, if you stay long enough, a small-town feel. People are by and large friendly. For outsiders, Jackson's culture may seem quaint and novel at first: rarely do folks complain of food allergies, talk of politics is politely avoided, and true artisan anything is a rare find. In many ways, this can be refreshing. Behind the strip malls and box stores, beneath the Brazilian blowouts and spray tans that so many women in Northeast Jackson sport, you can find a deep caring here. Jackson has a particular nuanced social construct that is hard to explain and best experienced. The humor here is unlike any other anywhere. No one can give you a put down while making you laugh in quite the same way than someone from Mississippi.
On the plus side, if you're from "away" or you're from the area and have lived elsewhere and are entrepreneurial, there are plenty of empty storefronts begging to be brought to life and a close-knit community who will largely support your endeavors. How successful you are depends on how much you appeal to a general audience rather than a more esoteric one.
Others may have a wildly different take on Jackson. Fair enough. Mine is that of a middle-aged, adventurous, open-minded rule-breaker who left Jackson like a lion out of a cage when I was twenty-one. Once my family responsibilities are over, I plan to hit the road with my husband in search of that city or town that offers more than to be lulled by the status quo. I'll defend Jackson to any outsider who criticizes it, but I'm sad to report that the place where I was born and raised can never be my chosen home. Yet it still holds my heart in ways I can't fully express.
If you've never visited Mississippi or Jackson, I recommend you do. Stay a while to get to know it on a deeper level. Even if you never choose to live here, it's important to understand it's unique place in history and in the country.
Good for you for caring for your parents! Good for you for seeing the rest of the country.
You're post is an interesting one. Mississippi is on my bucket list. I want to stay a while and get to know folks. I think I'd keep politics out of it, and search for common ground. I'd like to see the Civil Rights Museum and where Elvis lived in Tupelo. Also, Mussel Sholes (sp) to hear some music.
Any travel recommendations would be welcome. Safe to say, I don't really enjoy resorts.
Got a question? So many places in the US are named "Jackson". I'm a Johnny Cash fan. His rendition with his wife June Carter Cash, is a favorite of mine.
Is it about THIS Jackson? Curious.
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