The Future of Jackson, MS (Canton, Raleigh: crimes, hotel, home)

[marighand]

Originally Posted by poptones

I don't go to movie theatres so I don't know how they smell or how their customer service is. I suspect the last decade has been pretty hard on all movie theatres - people with internet access and 50" tv sets in their homes don't really need theatres. It's especially hard when you have a family - I cannot take my nieces and nephews out without it costing me like a hundred bucks, and that's if we just do mcds or something cheap for dinner.

I've seen more violence in jackson than I did in LA, and I haven't lived in jackson since like 1980. Seems to me this is nothing new. I do know when I lived in the travellodge down off farish street my neighbors were prostitutes and drug dealers and it was not unusual to hear gunshots. That neighborhood looks nothing at all like it did when I lived there.

Internet hasn't affected movie theaters in every other city I've lived in, only difference is that they have more affluent communities and better technology than Jackson.

[poptones]

Really? Cuz I lived in freakin' Hollywood during the dot-com boom and I very definitely saw it affect theatres there. You sure can't say there's no money in Hollywood (and especially West Hollywood, where I lived at first). The internet has affected all theatres, those at the bottom fairing the worse. Run down theatres in poor neighborhoods simply aren't going to have an audience - no one can afford to go, and why should they? Remember all the dollar theatres that sprung up in the 90s? Closed now since the movies all go to cable and blockbuster and walmart in six months.

[jacksonian]

Originally Posted by marighand

how come a city the size of jackson, ms doesn't even have a single movie theater? that's just ridiculous.

Jackson did have theaters. But, new theaters were built on the outskirts of the city limits (Clinton, Ridgeland, Pearl, Flowood, and Madison) and the business went to the bigger and better screens. Because there are 5 large movie theaters now within a 10 mile radius, there is no need for a theater in Jackson.

Now, if you want to see professional live theater, then the only real venues are New Stage Theatre and Thalia Mara Hall, both of which are in Jackson.

[jacksonian]

Originally Posted by teachertype

I'm a big fan of Mississippi and Mississippians but Jackson, MS is one of the scariest, roughest looking places I've ever been in my life. Even in the daytime, IMHO, you're taking your life in your hands on Farish St, which is a desolate area. The streets of Jackson are empty of people, even in daylight, in perfect weather, because it's too dangerous to be out walking - night time, you'd have to be totally insane. I'm sure a lot of great people live there, I'm not putting them down, but it's the wild west in a lot of neighborhoods.

The people talking up Jackson must be real estate speculators or need seeing eye dogs. Very dangerous place.

You should go pick up a copy of the Fortune Small Business magazine, March 2009 issue. On page 88, you will find a 2 page article about Farish Street and how it is becoming a "culturally rich entertainment district" once again. I eat lunch on Farish Street at least twice a month. Peaches serves some of the best fried chicken and turnip greens around. Here is a picture on www.city-data.com's website of Farish Street (notice there are people sitting outside of Peache's eating lunch):


If you would rather read the short version of the article, it can be found here:
Entrepreneurs bring the blues back to Jackson's Farish St. - Mar. 24, 2009

The streets of Jackson are never empty (unlike the suburbs surrounding it). I live in a Jackson neighborhood where people are walking, walking their dogs, and/or pushing strollers from 5 am to 12 am. There is not a single house on my street that has bars on the doors or windows. We have no gates at the entrances to the neighborhood. We also love where we live! Imagine that. Living and working in Jackson, and loving every minute of it! In fact, my wife mentioned to me just yesterday that she likes where live so much that she wants me to look into adding on to the house rather than looking for a new house once our family starts growing (and my wife is quite the pessimist).

You can bash Jackson all you want, but I live and work here, and I wouldn't trade it for anything else. What you think about an issue makes it true... for you. Our perceptions are our reality, but not the only reality.

[jacksonian]

Originally Posted by joanie55

I admit the crime in Jackson has gotten much worse than it was years ago.

Actually, crime has been declining in Jackson over the past 10 or so years. There is a graph showing from 1999 to 2007 here (about midway down the page):
http://www.city-data.com/city/Jackson-Mississippi.html

[joanie55]

Originally Posted by jacksonian

Actually, crime has been declining in Jackson over the past 10 or so years. There is a graph showing from 1999 to 2007 here (about midway down the page):
http://www.city-data.com/city/Jackson-Mississippi.html

That's good to know. Actually when I said years ago I meant about 25 years ago when I lived there for a year.

[jacksonian]

Originally Posted by joanie55

That's good to know. Actually when I said years ago I meant about 25 years ago when I lived there for a year.

Oh ok. Sorry I misinterpreted.

[poptones]

Yeah, 25 years ago is when I lived there too and it was pretty bad. I remember walking home from the library one day and some fellow asked me if he could get five bucks from me to get a cab because he'd just been stabbed. And yeah, he was bleeding from his side like he'd just been stabbed.

This is not a problem only in Jackson. Thanks in large part to FOX News and others of their ilk, it seems like the majority of folks believe things are so much worse than they were 25 years ago. The reality, of course, doesn't follow the spin: violent crime overall has gone down consistently since the last days of George I, went down substantially during Clinton's second term and only started rising again a few years into the reign of king George II. Some have said it's coincidence because the average age is rising, some have said it's racist because we've essentially imprisoned a third of our black males, but no matter the cause the numbers are right there on the FBI website and have been for a decade - I know because I've cited them many times and they've not been revised.

[joanie55]

Originally Posted by poptones

Yeah, 25 years ago is when I lived there too and it was pretty bad. I remember walking home from the library one day and some fellow asked me if he could get five bucks from me to get a cab because he'd just been stabbed. And yeah, he was bleeding from his side like he'd just been stabbed.

This is not a problem only in Jackson. Thanks in large part to FOX News and others of their ilk, it seems like the majority of folks believe things are so much worse than they were 25 years ago. The reality, of course, doesn't follow the spin: violent crime overall has gone down consistently since the last days of George I, went down substantially during Clinton's second term and only started rising again a few years into the reign of king George II. Some have said it's coincidence because the average age is rising, some have said it's racist because we've essentially imprisoned a third of our black males, but no matter the cause the numbers are right there on the FBI website and have been for a decade - I know because I've cited them many times and they've not been revised.

Poptones you are too funny! Yes, many things got worse under the KIng Georges administrations, but I'm not looking to take this TOO politically - that's already been a subject of other threads. I will say, however, that in their administrations, as in nearly all Republican administrations, funds are cut for the needy. And we all know with an increase in poverty comes an increase in crime. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to make that leap. As far as the crime being bad 25 years ago, I guess I was just too young to realize it. I lived in south Jackson in the suburbs - went to Forest Hill High so you know the area. I was never aware of any crime there. I was a teenager back then so I wasn't aware of much except boyfriends as I recall.

[poptones]

Hey I'm a biparitsan hater; Clinton enacted many laws restricting liberties on regular folk that I most definitely do not agree with and which have provably had bad effect on our culture. But he also put like 50,000 new police on the job in the early days of his administration that were ultimately released under king george because he cut off the money. Funny, huh? Those "soft on crime" democrats hire a bunch of police, pass a bunch of laws restricting speech and travel and trade and then the "tough" republicans get into office and (of course) we are left saddled with the laws but those rookie police are now out looking for jobs as mall cops.