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With all the talk about the decline of Jackson and the rise of the suburbs, people need to take a second look.
Fondren seems to have more interesting restaurants than ever and is scheduled for a facelift in terms of the streets and sidewalks. The University medical center area up to Millsaps and on to Baptist medical center seems to be expanding nicely. The new children's hospital is visually impressive and the new addition to Baptist, where Keifers was before it moved across the street, is also visually interesting.
Fortification Street is being completely redone and will be a festive downtown area for Belhaven, also serving as an entrance for the north downtown music and cultural district (Farish St and neighboring places like George Street Grocery and 930 Blues).
And Capitol Street is under reconstruction, with nice finishing touches to compliment the renovated King Edward district. Also, art museum is delightful and very active and approachable, with the new arts green in front.
Lastly, the Pearl River is set to be turned into a lake with 12 miles of shoreline, which will undoubtedly be a showplace.
Overall, I felt hopeful...thinking, hey, this area is kind of....well....cool, and it has definite buzz.
I'm glad you posted this, BP. Jackson has been the target of thrown rocks for many years, and recognizing that things are changing is hard unless someone speaks up. Without your voice, many of us would just keep on throwing rocks.
I have been to Jackson several times. Downtown Jackson seems to be doing okay, a little on the dead side most days, but it's in good shape, modern, older buildings are well preserved, etc.
The neighborhoods of inner city Jackson are what's tearing this city down. Jackson is an oversized ghetto, full of hood rats and thugs who deter many people from wanting to live within the city limits. Jackson has been shrinking for three decades now, where the metro area continues to grow steadily, that's a tell tale sign that people are leaving the city and moving to the suburbs.
Now, Ridgeland, Flowood, and Madison are all VERY nice suburban towns that I love to shop at, with very nice restaurants, and a lot of shops, boutiques, and stores you won't find just anywhere.
Jackson isn't some "large" ghetto if you think about it. West Jackson and South Jackson are the only places you need to avoid, and that's the neighborhoods. Places like the Jackson Zoo which are in West Jackson are wonderful places to go with a family! And to say people are moving away from the city, yes; in the 1950s! Suburbs may be booming, but behind all that families are moving BACK to the city. Families of today are tired of the cookie cutter subdivisions suburbs have been feeding us for nearly 70 years.
Give Jackson 20-30 more years, and the suburbs will be your ghettos, while the city will be booming like it did so many decades ago.
Jackson isn't some "large" ghetto if you think about it. West Jackson and South Jackson are the only places you need to avoid, and that's the neighborhoods.
Give Jackson 20-30 more years, and the suburbs will be your ghettos, while the city will be booming like it did so many decades ago.
Yes, but considering that West Jackson (for all intents and purposes) is everything West of State Street (51), and that South Jackson is (in reality) everything South of Fortification, then you're left with maybe a fifth of the city that's The Good Part.
And really, most parts of The Good Part of Town are acquiring a Zombie Movie sort of vibe (and inhabitants). Thanks to the big apartment communities, you have to cope with badly-driven hoopties, even on Ridgewood and Old Canton Road, now. (this, in addition to drunken socialites speeding between Eastover and the CCofJ: Karen I's deadly driving was actually rather TYPICAL of a certain rich and hard-partying group, who choose to remain in Jacktown, because they'd be ARRESTED for speeding-while-drunk in Madison).
Lots of subdivisions in the Flood Plain off Old Canton Road never recovered from the Big Flood of '79, and have become dicey. And even desirable places like Leftover (left of Eastover, on the map) are seeing properties sitting unsold for disturbingly long periods of time (even ones without foundation problems).
I think you have to acknowledge that there are a good many cities in the world that do not really have good areas at all. Considering the demographics of the state, the Collective IQ of the state, and the fact that these are getting worse by the minute (both locally and nationally) - it is not unreasonable to foresee Jackson's becoming a vast sea of hopelessly deficient people, mired in the dysfunction typical of such populations in such places.
It would be nice to think that Jackson will be like Paris and NYC, with the city's core being for the affluent and educated, and the outer arrondissements and boroughs being for the increasingly more dysfunctional and dangerous others. You have to remember, though, that the stock of superior buildings inside Jackson is rather limited. So much has been torn down. It's not like there are many wonderful structures left, to re-inhabit. It’s not like the avenues of Paris, lined end-to-end with seven-storey limestone buildings of immense beauty.
Too, the number of bright movers and shakers in Mississippi (who, presumably, would inhabit the City Core) is becoming SMALLER with every class of high school seniors, whose brightest tend to go off to college in places like Minnesota or Colorado, having told their parents they will NEVER move back to the South. (DH & I are not the only parents who have chosen to follow their children to better places)
Urban Planning is based on models in the Western World. The Western World is DYING - its traditional populations being quite deliberately replaced with others. Those others have neither the capacity nor the desire to maintain the norms of Modern Western Civilization. Much of Urban Planning Ideology is based on models from a world that is soon to disappear. I think the course material you are being taught is behind the times, by maybe four decades.
I think that instead of looking at what is happening in Paris and Manhattan, you should look at places like Bogota, Mexico City, Nuevo Laredo, Sao Paolo and Port au Prince.
Start by typing-into GoogleMap 'Sao Paolo Alphaville'. Alphaville communities (there's more than one) are heavily fortified, and have their own private ARMIES. They are refuges for the affluent and intelligent, surrounded by dangerous oceans of the poor and ineducable. You'll notice the community has a 'ring road': that's so its army can incessantly patrol, or rush to whatever part of the perimeter has been breached. You can't, however, zoom in very close, via Google. And there's no 'street view' option. That is not by accident. Kidnappers could still infiltrate, and shouldn’t be allowed aerial views of target houses.
Here's the sanitized Alphaville spin, in Wikipedia (and I’d imagine that it is unstated-but-understood that the ‘Alpha’ in the name is of Orwellian derivation: Alphaville, São Paulo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . Here's the official spiel. Notice the phrases, "Quality of life" (It's safe to go outdoors!), and "Quality Construction" (not hastily thrown-together out of desperation, like so many 'flight destinations'). The pictures (and whatever Portuguese one can understand) imply that the selling points include the miracle of being able to have one's children play outside, without fear of kidnapping, and the fact that it's safe to have abundant greenery, again. (that link seems to have been lost. And I can't find the vid again: but here's one from the suicidally altruistic White viewpoint, in German, calling the inhabitants 'Prisoners of Luxury' - basically, that's the gist: I can't do much more than shop and bank in German - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U8ZrZAaw-w - considering that these people can't eat with dignity or use exercise equipment properly - eve with a trainer present - I'm now doubly proud that there is not one pair of bluejeans in our home. Did you see that guy with the shiny black square-toed Business Bluchers worn with the too-short JEANS? Yeccccch!) And here's a vid made by some badly-dressed American yahoos, to assure their wives that it's safe to move to Brazil (or, at least, to Alphaville): Driving through Alphaville, Sao Paulo, Brazil - YouTube Anyway, those videos are pictures of the future in America - and only for the 'lucky few'.
Among the fortified enclaves within Mexico City is one for the Jewish Community (I've never seen so many blonds and redheads in my life – particularly at a JCC.). But they are hardly the only Alphas in that city who have good reason to live within fortified and guarded safe zones. Just watch a few of Amandititita's videos, and you'll notice that behind the fun songs is strong, violent, anti-White ideology. (I am not amused by seeing videos from someone who looks like me - if she worked out, scrubbed off the makeup, and got better jewelry - implying how glorious the mutilation murders of Whites will be.)Amandititita - La Muy Muy - YouTube
I'm sure Bogota has some safe places. But I haven't heard of them. Even its gargantuan Country Club - once, an absolute paradise - has had problems.
In thirty years, Jackson's demographics will resemble those of Port-au-Prince (with maybe a bit of Nuevo Laredo thrown into the mix). Here's, Petionville, the rich part of that metropolitan area, and the richest part of the whole nation: A view of Petionville, Port au Prince, Haiti - YouTube. Here's the rest of the metro:Haiti: The Disaster Before the Earthquake - YouTube. (yes, Jackson's vast areas of empty land are very green, NOW. But Haiti is naturally green, too.It's all about WHO lives there...) So, if you're imagining a resurgence of Jackson's 'Core', then I think the images of Petionville come pretty close to the best you can expect.
Last edited by GrandviewGloria; 09-11-2013 at 02:46 PM..
Jackson isn't some "large" ghetto if you think about it. West Jackson and South Jackson are the only places you need to avoid, and that's the neighborhoods. Places like the Jackson Zoo which are in West Jackson are wonderful places to go with a family! And to say people are moving away from the city, yes; in the 1950s! Suburbs may be booming, but behind all that families are moving BACK to the city. Families of today are tired of the cookie cutter subdivisions suburbs have been feeding us for nearly 70 years.
Give Jackson 20-30 more years, and the suburbs will be your ghettos, while the city will be booming like it did so many decades ago.
I like how you say West Jackson and South Jackson are the only places you need to avoid, then you mention that the Jackson Zoo is in West Jackson, a place you should avoid.
Even North Jackson along I-55, doesn't impress me much. There isn't a single movie theater inside the city of Jackson, they just lost their only Sam's Club to Madison, the only Rock station in Jackson shut down 2 years ago. Not that losing a radio station in a city is a sign of its demise, but it does show Jackson's uneven demographics. 80% black where cities like Madison and Ridgeland are 90% white.
Visiting Jackson and its suburbs it looks like some things over the past 150 years still haven't changed! The wealthy class is still dominated by whites, while most of the poorer people working in the service industry, i.e. retail, food, etc, are black working minimum wage or poverty level jobs.
This thread is supposed to be about Jackson moving forward, making strides, renovating buildings, expanding certain facilities, which is all good if it weren't for the fact that Jackson is still decades behind other cities. All of this "catch up" Jackson is playing is just that, catch up, and they still are progressing more slowly than any other major American city. The mentality of people in most of the Mississippi area creates a kind of cage that so many people voluntarily stay in. Drink beer, eat terribly, invest money in your mud-truck, neglect exercise, go to church, rinse and repeat. This mentality keeps them behind the rest of the country, and sadly it's why many southern stereotypes still ring true.
Of course this isn't true for all people. I know many southern people who are fitness oriented, who are well educated, who don't let their diet spoil their bodies, who have been beyond the state line and understand that there are 49 other unique states in the country. This faction though is the minority, I'm not sure the masses of this state will ever be able to see beyond themselves.
I like how you say West Jackson and South Jackson are the only places you need to avoid, then you mention that the Jackson Zoo is in West Jackson, a place you should avoid.
Even North Jackson along I-55, doesn't impress me much. There isn't a single movie theater inside the city of Jackson, they just lost their only Sam's Club to Madison, the only Rock station in Jackson shut down 2 years ago. Not that losing a radio station in a city is a sign of its demise, but it does show Jackson's uneven demographics. 80% black where cities like Madison and Ridgeland are 90% white.
Visiting Jackson and its suburbs it looks like some things over the past 150 years still haven't changed! The wealthy class is still dominated by whites, while most of the poorer people working in the service industry, i.e. retail, food, etc, are black working minimum wage or poverty level jobs.
This thread is supposed to be about Jackson moving forward, making strides, renovating buildings, expanding certain facilities, which is all good if it weren't for the fact that Jackson is still decades behind other cities. All of this "catch up" Jackson is playing is just that, catch up, and they still are progressing more slowly than any other major American city. The mentality of people in most of the Mississippi area creates a kind of cage that so many people voluntarily stay in. Drink beer, eat terribly, invest money in your mud-truck, neglect exercise, go to church, rinse and repeat. This mentality keeps them behind the rest of the country, and sadly it's why many southern stereotypes still ring true.
Of course this isn't true for all people. I know many southern people who are fitness oriented, who are well educated, who don't let their diet spoil their bodies, who have been beyond the state line and understand that there are 49 other unique states in the country. This faction though is the minority, I'm not sure the masses of this state will ever be able to see beyond themselves.
If you don't like the culture, why do you stick around?
I visited on a day trip from Yazoo City, came up on the train, this on a Thursday, the new train and greyhound station - great - then a building site and boarded up shops. Virtually no-one out on the street, no shops, no cafes, no signs directing visitors to the museums and attractions, made it to the Old Capitol Museum, great, then struggled to find anywhere to eat. It's great they're doing up East Capitol Street, let's hope they get some shops, cafes and restaurants moving in but as a tourist my first impressions were not good - maybe I just went the wrong way - so where is this bustling bit - it ain't downtown that's for sure - I will go back as I've not yet visited the Museums on Pascagoula Street, but it would be nice to know where the bustling areas are, and if you can get there walking or by bus from the train.
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