Moving to Vicksburg, MS area

[Alipi]

Vicksburg would be a no on public schools, the schools are more of a daycare then anything most of the kids are going because they have to be there and fights are common, the schools are big minority majorities. There are a bunch of car break ins in Vicksburg even in the better parts. Downtown is nice but it’s going down quick the population is leaving Vburg. It has its nice parts but they are small and there is spillovers. I wouldn’t recommend living ANY town on the Mississippi River in MS they are all in a worse position than Vicksburg. Clinton would be the next closest town I would recommend, a lot of people live in Clinton and commute to Vicksburg to work the schools there are nice because Clinton has it’s own school district, if you move there make sure to be in Clinton school district and not in Hinds county schools... There is some spillover in eastern parts of Clinton close to the Walmart from West Jackson which is the bad part of Jackson. Besides that though not much else unless you want to commute 1:30 each day to Rankin or Madison County which is the best place to live in the Jackson metro, if you want good schools and plenty of amenities, Clinton is on the smaller side.

[Melchisedec]

casino profits benefit Vicksburg much ?

[sammyreynolds1977]

Originally Posted by Melchisedec

casino profits benefit Vicksburg much ?

Not really

[Mississippi Alabama Line]

Originally Posted by Listener2307

Vicksburg falls in the same category as some other river towns. Greenville and Natchez also suffer from declining populations and for similar reasons.

Originally Posted by Alipi

Downtown is nice but it’s going down quick the population is leaving Vburg.

You guys act as if this is a new phenomena. It's been happening for 20 years and at this point, anybody still living in most of these downtowns in Mississippi (and all over the south) are people who truly want to be there, whether they are mainstays or gentrifiers.

If anything, the downtown touristy areas are starting to get better, while the surrounding neighborhoods are still bad. And if you wonder what the future of Vicksburg and Natchez will be, well it will likely have to be tourism. I'd probably start investing in the recreational end of it - outdoor state park type things, bike trails, hiking trails, etc. to go along with the historical aspect. Hotels, bars, restaurants are already there.

[Melchisedec]

Too bad there isn't a way Vicksburg could benefit more from casinos.

Are there local taxes from casino profits that stay with the city or does all state tax on casino profits go to the state ?

[sammyreynolds1977]

Originally Posted by Melchisedec

Too bad there isn't a way Vicksburg could benefit more from casinos.

Are there local taxes from casino profits that stay with the city or does all state tax on casino profits go to the state ?

Some of the tax dollars go to cities. Just because they get taxes from the profits doesn't mean that money goes to the right things.

[GrandviewGloria]

People have been fixated on tourism, as a solution for Mississippi's problems, since the 1960s (or before).

In Hollandale, the 1960s 'plan' for saving the town, was to (since the town was flat, and named for a breathtakingly-beautiful blond family named 'Holland') "go with a Dutch theme!".

There were going to be window boxes, downtown, full of tulips, and there would WINDMILLS! (run by electric motors, of course...) "People will come from everywhere, to see it!"

Previously, there had (inevitably) been the idea of "making Hollandale into THE CITY OF FOUNTAINS" (There's always some visionary who wants to make her town into 'The City of Fountains'). So, the Fountain Initiative melded into the Dutch-themed Initiative, so that the envisioned fountains' dancing colored lights would be in 'Tulip Colors' (It was the 60s. Of course there were going to be dancing colored lights in the dancing fountains.)

This brilliant "Holland-themed Initiative" was hatched shortly after the opening of the wildly-successful DUTCH GARDENS, across the river, in the Louisiana Delta. It was 'wildly successful', in that it somehow stayed open for nearly a decade. Dutch Gardens didn't have anybody or anything named 'Holland'. But the land was flat, like in Holland, and, like the Netherlands, it had been regularly imperiled by floods. Too, it DID have one important element Hollandale did not: a rich retired investor from Florida.

https://goo.gl/images/VyhzTo Problem with a "Dutch Theme", is that tulips bloom for about a week. After that, you probably learn quick, that people will not "come from everywhere", to see your petunias. I'm sorry, but the only Dutch thing that train-ride pic reminds me of, is Westerbork.

The photo DOES illustrate, however, the tedium resulting from traveling very long distances, to experience very little. Nobody without a geranium in their cranium is going to drive for half-a-day, to see some historic marker at the edge of a former cotton-field (that's now a corn field). Nor are they going to journey to sit, bored-out-of-their-minds, in some morgue of a "Blues Club", listening to music which appeals to nobody but moribund alcoholic pseudo-intellectuals. And they're certainly not going to "make a weekend" of traveling to a dying river town, to be in some badly-decorated venue, surrounded by the various sad types you find in those places. Anybody remember GREENVILLE?

Casinos produce nothing (except gambling addicts, and an expansion of criminal enterprises). The destabilization of society that they cause, more than offsets any material gains. The people who are going to "come from everywhere" to your casinos, are going to be people who have problems, and who ARE problems. And, as another poster has said, the tax revenues generated by gambling, seem not to do any good. Those revenues are just more money to be frittered-away and stolen.

What improves quality-of-life for actual individuals, is to be in places where there is hope and opportunity. Currently, the underclass in Mississippi, is stifling hope and opportunity for everybody else: and there is NO hope, and NO opportunity for the chronically poor, in Mississippi. Evacuating the poor to regions where they can be better served, is a far better investment, than is development of "tourist attractions" which are certain to fail.

To thrive in Mississippi, a person needs to be smart, diligent, and prudent. It is a very demanding place, and always will be. Life is easier, in other places, and the less capable need to be helped to reestablish themselves in those places.

[Mississippi Alabama Line]

Originally Posted by GrandviewGloria

People have been fixated on tourism, as a solution for Mississippi's problems, since the 1960s (or before).

In Hollandale, the 1960s 'plan' for saving the town, was to (since the town was flat, and named for a breathtakingly-beautiful blond family named 'Holland') "go with a Dutch theme!".

There were going to be window boxes, downtown, full of tulips, and there would WINDMILLS! (run by electric motors, of course...) "People will come from everywhere, to see it!"

Previously, there had (inevitably) been the idea of "making Hollandale into THE CITY OF FOUNTAINS" (There's always some visionary who wants to make her town into 'The City of Fountains'). So, the Fountain Initiative melded into the Dutch-themed Initiative, so that the envisioned fountains' dancing colored lights would be in 'Tulip Colors' (It was the 60s. Of course there were going to be dancing colored lights in the dancing fountains.)

This brilliant "Holland-themed Initiative" was hatched shortly after the opening of the wildly-successful DUTCH GARDENS, across the river, in the Louisiana Delta. It was 'wildly successful', in that it somehow stayed open for nearly a decade. Dutch Gardens didn't have anybody or anything named 'Holland'. But the land was flat, like in Holland, and, like the Netherlands, it had been regularly imperiled by floods. Too, it DID have one important element Hollandale did not: a rich retired investor from Florida.

https://goo.gl/images/VyhzTo Problem with a "Dutch Theme", is that tulips bloom for about a week. After that, you probably learn quick, that people will not "come from everywhere", to see your petunias. I'm sorry, but the only Dutch thing that train-ride pic reminds me of, is Westerbork.

The photo DOES illustrate, however, the tedium resulting from traveling very long distances, to experience very little. Nobody without a geranium in their cranium is going to drive for half-a-day, to see some historic marker at the edge of a former cotton-field (that's now a corn field). Nor are they going to journey to sit, bored-out-of-their-minds, in some morgue of a "Blues Club", listening to music which appeals to nobody but moribund alcoholic pseudo-intellectuals. And they're certainly not going to "make a weekend" of traveling to a dying river town, to be in some badly-decorated venue, surrounded by the various sad types you find in those places. Anybody remember GREENVILLE?

Casinos produce nothing (except gambling addicts, and an expansion of criminal enterprises). The destabilization of society that they cause, more than offsets any material gains. The people who are going to "come from everywhere" to your casinos, are going to be people who have problems, and who ARE problems. And, as another poster has said, the tax revenues generated by gambling, seem not to do any good. Those revenues are just more money to be frittered-away and stolen.

What improves quality-of-life for actual individuals, is to be in places where there is hope and opportunity. Currently, the underclass in Mississippi, is stifling hope and opportunity for everybody else: and there is NO hope, and NO opportunity for the chronically poor, in Mississippi. Evacuating the poor to regions where they can be better served, is a far better investment, than is development of "tourist attractions" which are certain to fail.

To thrive in Mississippi, a person needs to be smart, diligent, and prudent. It is a very demanding place, and always will be. Life is easier, in other places, and the less capable need to be helped to reestablish themselves in those places.

My ideas for tourism are more historical. Fattening food, historical landmarks and museums (where others come to look down their nose at MS while paying money to do it), and recreation (golf, hiking, biking, etc.). It can be done.

I agree with your opinions in general, though. I know the reality. However, I look at South Carolina, similar demographics to Mississippi and yet it is thriving and growing.

All it takes is a spark. Once the growth gets going, it'll cascade.

As far as evacuation of the poor, well, it's not going to happen, so why even discuss it?