Looking For A Good Location For Business (Hattiesburg and Jackson) Help! (Pearl: subdivision, gardens)

[dianamarie]

I spoke with someone tonight from Jackson who swore there are weight loss places all over the area. I've researched and didn't find any really. The few I did find were charging a lot. But she lives there so I guess she'd know. If it is true then I may have to look elsewhere. I hope not, because I really fell in love with the Jackson area. I'm still looking in Hattiesburg as well; I'd prefer to have two locations in Mississippi.

[brickpatio]

what did you love about Jackson??

[dianamarie]

The people were so friendly.. the buildings downtown were beautiful, the restaurants, the history...

[Tama]

Originally Posted by brickpatio

what did you love about Jackson??

I would have the same question. What's to love? Urban sprawl, cookie cutter subdivisions, and inner city grime coupled with a bit of architecture? I guess I have to take another look at the place.

[jacksonian]

Originally Posted by Tama

I would have the same question. What's to love? Urban sprawl, cookie cutter subdivisions, and inner city grime coupled with a bit of architecture? I guess I have to take another look at the place.

I think you meant "suburban" sprawl. Like the OP mentioned, the people are friendly and there are lots of great restaurants and forms of entertainment. Downtown has to be the most pleasant surprise of Jackson though, IMO. Not many people even know what it looks like until they make the trip themselves.

[dianamarie]

I liked it enough to choose it over several other areas to start a business (although I may start one in Hattiesburg eventually as well). It had a good feeling to it for me. Like I said, the locals there are awesome.

[Tama]

Originally Posted by jacksonian

I think you meant "suburban" sprawl. Like the OP mentioned, the people are friendly and there are lots of great restaurants and forms of entertainment. Downtown has to be the most pleasant surprise of Jackson though, IMO. Not many people even know what it looks like until they make the trip themselves.

'

No-I meant urban sprawl--that is the term for urban areas spreading into edge cities and beyond their limits--suburbs are beyond the sprawl--the sprawl is the bleeding of the city into its surrounding environs with an amoeba-like movement with neon and strip retail and eyesores.

[jacksonian]

Originally Posted by Tama

'

No-I meant urban sprawl--that is the term for urban areas spreading into edge cities and beyond their limits--suburbs are beyond the sprawl--the sprawl is the bleeding of the city into its surrounding environs with an amoeba-like movement with neon and strip retail and eyesores.

I'm not following your thought process. For one, strip retail knows no boundaries, especially in the South. You can find them in almost every single city and town in Mississippi, including all off the suburban towns surrounding Jackson. Sprawl is a common, yet loose-ended concept - which lacks long term intentions - which often includes auto-dependent developments on rural land where the design encourages car dependency and uses strategies that are wasteful at best, ie infrastructure costs, use of land, inadequate nearby amenities, etc. The land is there, and developers know that they can make a quick buck at the expense of our future, but money is a powerful thing and not everyone cares about the future.

You should read Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. You can find it here:
Amazon.com: Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream (9780865476066): Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Jeff Speck: Books

[Tama]

Originally Posted by jacksonian

I'm not following your thought process. For one, strip retail knows no boundaries, especially in the South. You can find them in almost every single city and town in Mississippi, including all off the suburban towns surrounding Jackson. Sprawl is a common, yet loose-ended concept - which lacks long term intentions - which often includes auto-dependent developments on rural land where the design encourages car dependency and uses strategies that are wasteful at best, ie infrastructure costs, use of land, inadequate nearby amenities, etc. The land is there, and developers know that they can make a quick buck at the expense of our future, but money is a powerful thing and not everyone cares about the future.

You should read Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. You can find it here:
Amazon.com: Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream (9780865476066): Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Jeff Speck: Books

Urban sprawl is common. It is also unappealing to many. One city that has ordinances that protect it from sprawl is Portland, Or. It is a surprise as one drives out of the city there and hits rural land and countryside--no edge cities or retail strips. No ugliness, in other words.

You are correct in that Jackson is not unique with its sprawl. It just seems to me when I am in Jackson that it is made up primarily of sprawl with little to balance it such as city parks, squares, gardens, graceful older areas or bright spanking new modern structures. It seems a gray and tired city to me. I just never liked it, but I haven't lived there, so I am not insisting that I am correct in my assessment. I am just curious about someone who likes it.

Atlanta, for example, has sprawl galore but it has a pulsating progressive youthful glow about it along with the aformentioned qualities that Jackson lacks.

[jacksonian]

Originally Posted by Tama

Urban sprawl is common. It is also unappealing to many. One city that has ordinances that protect it from sprawl is Portland, Or. It is a surprise as one drives out of the city there and hits rural land and countryside--no edge cities or retail strips. No ugliness, in other words.

You are correct in that Jackson is not unique with its sprawl. It just seems to me when I am in Jackson that it is made up primarily of sprawl with little to balance it such as city parks, squares, gardens, graceful older areas or bright spanking new modern structures. It seems a gray and tired city to me. I just never liked it, but I haven't lived there, so I am not insisting that I am correct in my assessment. I am just curious about someone who likes it.

Atlanta, for example, has sprawl galore but it has a pulsating progressive youthful glow about it along with the aformentioned qualities that Jackson lacks.

Portland is definitely a good model city and it would be great if there were more cities that use similar tactics like it in the country. Jackson suffers from the same history that many southern cities do, and that is the abundance of land. Jackson has all of what you speak - even parks, gardens, very graceful older areas and bright spanking new modern structures, yet they are all spread out across the city which can make it hard to visualize all at once, especially for someone new to the city. Jackson also has a pulsating progressive youthful glow, but with a metro population of roughly 10% of what Atlanta's metro is, you may not feel the pulse as much. Jackson may never be an Atlanta, and I would hope it never does (not saying I don't want Jackson to grow by any means) because every city should be different and they all have their good and bad qualities.