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Yes, avoid the entire Mississippi Delta and the Alabama Black Belt areas. It's best to not even transit through these places-not safe in some areas. The Delta has progressively retrogressed for many Years now and it's not going to get better. Few Companies are going to locate meaningful businesses there-the decay is endemic. No amount of "Government Aid" will help, just prolong the inevitable. This is a prime example of the Welfare State on Steroids. Some locales are so poor that even the dope pushers can't make a living. Don't worry about taking the easy way out-only the fastest.
is that why we have huge car plants and such opening up here in MS. they just dont know better HUH, i doubt anyone is keeping you here, sometimes the door knob hurts when you get with it on your way out !!
is that why we have huge car plants and such opening up here in MS. they just dont know better HUH, i doubt anyone is keeping you here, sometimes the door knob hurts when you get with it on your way out !!
The Toyota plant is nowhere near the Delta. Completely besides the point
On another note that makes more sense: Since Chuck Jordan has stepped down the town is done. I was born there and my family had lots of social/family ties there(still have a grand total of one)even after we left. But Jordan was one of the last people left that had brains enough and desire enough to revitalize the town. Most of it will now become even more of a Delta ghetto and further into a total wasteland; like a much smaller Deep South verison of Detroit. Better to let it drop thru the grate than let it stagger on in misery.
I was there about 4 years ago and the decay was obvious then. The street my grandmother used to live on was in an embarrassing shambles. The street itself may as well have been paved in the Third World.
Since much of this is caused by some people wanting their form of payback; let the town die and let them wallow in a dump of their own making. If you don't believe that is true then you're lying to yourself.
Greenville has 1 chance left, albeit a slight one. if the citizens elect John Cox then Chuck's vision will continue on. But if one of the others get it then we will be in no better(and probably worse) shape than when Heather was mayor.If John Cox get elected, the city will get cleaned up. HOPEFULLY the locals will not trash it again, but look at who we are talking about. In all reality this city would fit in perfectly if it was picked up and dropped off in some inner city slum in a major city.
Greenville's undoing goes back decades. First the upper crust did not want Delta State here because of the mindset of college students. Next the city never wanted interstates nearby as it would draw away from river traffic, and the river boat industry was the heart and soul of the town. When the boating industry dried up, the town might could have weathered it but at the same most all the land based industry that was not directly affiliated with the river also left. With those went the citizens that were willing and capable of holding decent jobs. What we have left is too small of a trainable workforce to make it worth anyone bringing industry back. NAFTA cost Greenville those jobs, but Greenville being such a dependant citizenship cost itself the opportunity to bring new ones in .
You cannot send your kids to public schools here, unless you don't mind risking their lives for a crappy education. So you have to shell out hundreds of dollars a month just to send them to a safe private school to get a decent education. Private schools are no longer "white only", even the better off black families send their kids to them as they know full well the public school systems are just daytime juvenille detention centers. Why else would a city of this small size REQUIRE a full time police force for the schools?
I'm astonished that someone of John Cox's caliber would run for Mayor. I just now googled around and found out who he is. One hopes the people of Greenville will grab this chance and elect him. Do they know how lucky they are, to have the chance to have a Mayor like that?
Having lived in Madison (and having fled crook-ruled Jackson), I can attest to the fact that a really good Mayor (Mary) makes all the difference in the world. Mayor Mary turned a tired little bump in the road into the nicest place between Mountain Brook, Alabama and Highland Park, Texas. My guess is that Mr. Cox could come pretty close to that with Greenville.
Greenville's geographic position could make it the nucleus of the tri-state Delta area, in the same way that Lafayette is the nucleus of Acadiana. A competent administration could do that.
It's about building a 'brand', building consensus, and making the place appealing to a certain demographic. That demographic is the large number of extremely sophisticated people (both black and white) living in the Delta, who need a place reflecting their world view (and their own insular and subtle forms of sophistication). Currently, they're spending their money elsewhere, moving elsewhere, renovating fine old houses elsewhere...
Greenville has a huge stock of really fine old houses: probably the biggest stock in the state. And the streets are blessedly flat, and laid out on a grid. So neat. So rational. So organized. The rest of the towns in the state have streets that seem to follow a bunch of pig trails, up and down a bunch of hills. Then, there's the Greenville Microclimate, which maybe has something to do with the River. Look at a detailed climate chart, and you'll see. Greenville's winters are a bit milder.
And then there are all the Delta authors. Still. Even today. Greenville once had more authors-per-capita than Paris. Little has changed. If there were an intensified collective consciousness of Deltaness, as Acadiana has of its Cajunness, then the outward spending and outward migration would reverse. The Delta (if you include the diaspora of Deltans) is a cultural exporter. Someone as savvy as John Cox could harness and intensify the region's existing strengths.
The Delta is different. Delta people are special. And the Delta needs to have its Queen City, again.
Last edited by GrandviewGloria; 10-22-2012 at 11:37 PM..
John cox did win it, though for some reason teh swearing in did not happen this morning. They said they had 500 something affidavit ballots to count, which will not be enough to change the outcome, so i guess they had to wait on that.
There are still quite a number of old homes here, but many have been abandoned and/or fallen into such states of disrepair that i don't know if they are even worth making habitable again. Greenville can do all it wants to curb crime, but until the people having children start being real parents the crime rate will never go down. Along those same lines, Greenville will never be able to house a trainable workforce of sufficient numbers to support more industry. Why move here to have your things taken and then have to pay as much as a house note a month for private school?
John Cox has his hands full just as Chuck did, and he cannot do it alone. Hopefully he can keep the momentum up and eventually the "parents" in the community will start to take care of their own homes and children.
Being an old History teacher, I can tell you that down through History, whenever the wealthy elite suddenly find themselves in direct contact with the dirt-poor, Revolution has been the outcome. Unfortunately, such dramatic changes only occur when the people come to believe that they actually deserve better and will not settle for less. From what I am getting from many of these posts, the population in the Ms. Delta has not reached that place. Rather, they have come to accept what they have, or what they are given as the total measure of what they deserve. AFAIK the people in the Delta are not watching their children die of polluted drinking water and water-borne disease. AFAIK the people are not in a famine state or prostituting their children for cash flow. Now... I have been to places on this planet where things have gotten to be as bad as I describe and I would hope that folks in this Delta area you are talking about don't have to reach that point before they decide that they deserve better. Just sayin'........
Being an old History teacher, I can tell you that down through History, whenever the wealthy elite suddenly find themselves in direct contact with the dirt-poor, Revolution has been the outcome. Unfortunately, such dramatic changes only occur when the people come to believe that they actually deserve better and will not settle for less. From what I am getting from many of these posts, the population in the Ms. Delta has not reached that place. Rather, they have come to accept what they have, or what they are given as the total measure of what they deserve. AFAIK the people in the Delta are not watching their children die of polluted drinking water and water-borne disease. AFAIK the people are not in a famine state or prostituting their children for cash flow. Now... I have been to places on this planet where things have gotten to be as bad as I describe and I would hope that folks in this Delta area you are talking about don't have to reach that point before they decide that they deserve better. Just sayin'........
FWIW.
You are so right! Unlimited entitlement for everybody! Everybody should be able to whelp out babies ad infinitum, and expect every single baby to be given everything! Rent vouchers and EBT cards are not enough! Free coats in the winter? Utilities vouchers? Free health care? Free daycare? Free computer access at free public libraries? Free Cell Phones? Pish Posh! Not enough, I say!!! The Dirt Poor of the Delta should be given summer houses on Cape Cod! Somebody owes it to them (not me, though: I'm just a little Indian Grrrl...somebody else... somebody else's money... Indians didn't own slaves...OK, they did, but anyway... The Scots Irish! We'll tax them! Oh, wait! I remember they were brought to these shores as slaves... Well...it's gotta be somebody's fault there are all these poor babies being born... I just can't figure out whose fault...)
Just as soon as I'm Bill Gates rich, I'm gonna set up an entitlement program (not a charity, mind you, because these people are OWED mansions in Hyannisport), which gives deserving poor families from the Mississippi Delta free mansions in the best and most liberal neighborhoods up North. Right next door to the Kennedys, where they'll be truly appreciated, and taken-care-of real good. Just imagine the beneficent joy on the faces of Arnold and Maria, when they open the door, to hear, "Hi! We're your new neighbors from Mississippi, and we just stopped by to borrow a cup of Ranch Dressing and a quart of Tropicana Orange Juice."
And I bet there's townhouses for sale within spittin' distance of Mayor Bloomberg and Judge Garaufis, up in NYC, too. They can get the Dirt Poor Delta Folk good-payin' jobs as firemen, now that they've fixed that entrance exam hurdle thingie.
And furthermore, for any deserving (and lonely) Dirt Poor menfolk of the Mississippi Delta who feel entitled to even MORE, and wish to partake, I shall proclaim, "Free Show Hogs for everybody! Call now! Show Hogs are standing bi!" Greenwood, MS man arrested for Unnatural Intercourse with an Animal. (Show Hogs to be exact.) - YouTube(the newscaster is trying to say 'Hogs', here, not 'Hawks' or 'Hacks'... it's so hard, sounding educated)
Or, for a solution nobody's tried, how about a system of free public schools, open to everybody... with free school buses to take the kids to school! The schools can have lunch rooms, with free lunches for poor kids! And this will go on from preschool years, up until the kids are eighteen or twenty two, or thereabouts. There can be nurses at the schools, and free immunizations... free this, free that... lots of sports, even dances they'll call 'Proms'.... yeah... And rooms full of books the kids can read. We'll call them 'Libraries'.
And if the kids haven't picked up enough skills to get jobs in those twelve or sixteen or so years, the really smart ones who are poor enough, and the really pitiful ones from oppressed groups, and the ones who can play band instruments, and the ones who can run around on a field and throw a ball, can get more free schooling at places we'll call 'Community Colleges' and 'Vo-tech Centers'!!! Others can get free schooling via mechanisms we'll call 'Scholarships', at places we'll call 'Colleges' and 'Universities'. Those who, for whatever reason, cannot leave home, can enroll for 'Correspondence Courses' and 'Online Degree Programs'. Through all these avenues, the young people (and even old people) will get things called 'Degrees', which will entitle some of them to good-paying jobs. And all of this will be available even to the Dirt Poor of the Mississippi Delta.
And on top of that, there would be these things called 'Televisions' and 'Radios', with dedicated frequencies called 'Educational Channels'. So, when the kids are not at school, they can listen to programming designed to teach them about a wider world than their own.
Can't imagine why nobody ever thought of that. I mean, if all that free schooling had been available to me, I sure would have made the most of it. Would have crawled out of that mudhole I grew up in, and gone to college and...
Oh, wait...
Last edited by GrandviewGloria; 11-19-2012 at 12:46 AM..
if all that free schooling had been available to me, I sure would have made the most of it. Would have crawled out of that mudhole I grew up in, and gone to college and...
Oh, wait...
Even though you grew up in the same conditions that many of the poor Delta residents did, the difference is that you didn't ask for free handouts, and got off your butt and made things happen for yourself... interesting concept, putting effort into your well-being and education instead of expecting someone to hand it to you on a silver platter. Not all of the delta residents mind you, but too many.
Many people believe and know this is a way of life in the Delta since the information/way of life is being handed down from generation to generation. The ironic item is when you work the soup kitchens there and people come in with nails done and better jeans then what the workers have on. I remember also being in a line to check out with groceries and not having junk food because we did not have it in our budget but in front of me was a person with 10 bags of chip and 5 boxes of cereal paying with her government card. This is what entitlement programs have done. We are making a generations of people believing that no matter if they work or not they will always have food on the table and a roof over their heads.
To quote the founder of Jamestown (Captain James Smith) and the bible: "If a man does not work, let him also not eat".
Several owners in the Delta I know and cannot keep good work since people know how to work the system. If people earn more than what the government will allow for them to keep their benefits they quit right before the benefits get cut off. I also know that this is not only the mentality of people in the Delta but other regions of the US do this also.
I have gone through some tough times myself but I would rather scrape by and survive on my own rather than take handouts from the government. Maybe it's a pride thing, but if I make it through this world, and I will... it will be because I am strong and I worked to do it. More people need to have that attitude.
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The Toyota plant is nowhere near the Delta. Completely besides the point
