I don't think it's either, I think it's just stating a preference. If you are talking about major cities, I would agree with the addendum: "Mississippi is a place to live. Cities are a place to visit or live if it's the only place you can find work or if you are wealthy."
How to fix Mississippi
- Thread starter AttalaDawg72
- Start date
You are going to need a coup to fix Jackson and the Delta had a chance to become a positive economic booster but both Jackson and the Delta keep electing the same party and specifically a Congressman that has kept the entire Region from Woodville to Tunica and including Jackson in absolute poverty! And now Jackson wants a casino to finish off what poor people there actually work a little bit. I have witnessed poor people walk into a casino with $5 worth of Pennie's and exchange them for quarters and play every last one of them in a quarter machine betting 1 credit at a time trying to hit it rich!
I posted a follow up but you either didn't read it or chose to ignore it. And for the record I have found 90% of your posts "absurd". Touché ?
If you saw some of the things I see when showing and viewing homes to clients and/or rental property investors, you might rethink those "good bones". The living situations I see sometimes just breaks my heart. But, they do find a ride do n to the polls on voting day to keep electing the clowns that keep them living in poverty and voting themselves more despair!
I was at an economic development meeting in my town a few years back. Our town had created some momentum with a few projects so confidence in the room was high. After the meeting several were hanging around talking, including three of our supervisors and a couple of local aldermen. One of the supervisors crossed his arms, leaned back, and in his best country come to town voice said “my constituents don’t want to be Madison”. One of the aldermen shot back “that’s where you are wrong. I’m here because I don’t want to be DeKalb”. Supe said “we don’t want all this hustle and bustle”. Aldermen said “then keep your country *** in the country”. “We’ve done it y’all’s country *** way for years and it doesn’t work”. Get out of the way and let us continue to progress”.
I thought this was well put and probably like most of Mississippi. We just seem to have a love affair with being 50th. Glad to see some others want better for themselves and their children.
I thought this was well put and probably like most of Mississippi. We just seem to have a love affair with being 50th. Glad to see some others want better for themselves and their children.
I was more talking about downtown and the immediately surrounding areas.
Makes sense. If you’re Louisville or something, I kinda get it. If you’re on the edge of an urban area, it’s time to get serious.
I'm shocked by the number of people I've met in Aberdeen MS from Oregon, Florida, California and Ohio. They retired there because old antebellum homes are dirt cheap and they have the money to fix them up with the sale of their out of state homes.
Definitely agree with #1. I despise litter with a burning passion. It’s absolutely an eyesore and taints perception.
as Goat said, no i can't say that right now. There is an agreement between the company that brought them to MS, MDA, The Governor's office, and the company not to speak publicly about it until they're ready to announce. I am on the BOS in one of the counties, though. Should come out in the next 8-9 months. One of them sooner than that. That one is just having the i's dotted and t's crossed right now. The other county will be about 8-9 months out before announcement. Tater will want that honor, so no, I'm not going to release the name of the company or what it is. And no, it's not Stark Aerospace, and it's not in any of the counties you mentioned
I left Mississippi in 2007 when I moved to Texas. I grew up and lived in North Mississippi for over 40 years. I have my own opinions on why Mississippi has not grown, but a big part of me wishes it had. I like Mississippi, but I live here now and have seen so much growth in the Austin area. Until the entire state is serious, Mississippi will always have difficulty getting past the good old boy network.
I've already said that in my first post. Extremely monumental. Say what you want about him, but Tate has been working his *** off to bring in huge projects to the state
I have a friend who moved to Mississippi who was born and raised on his family's farm in the Waco area and came here in the 80's. He still wears his Wranglers, a western style shirt and cowboy boots and belt everyday. He's been very successful but is very low profile. He's one of the best men I know. He is absolutely heart broken by what has happened (population and commercial growth) to Texas and told me the other day he wouldn't move back for any amount of money because it was too "crowded and crazy".
I love saying I’m from Mississippi. Im from Flowood but I always say I’m from Jackson or the Jackson area to people from outside of the state. I love where I grew up. With that said I do live out of state in Colorado. I work in the ski industry. A new guy that I work with is from Biloxi,MS and we talk up some Mississippi. I’m a single guy in my 20s and unfortunately living in the suburbs of Flowood, MS would do nothing for me. If I move back down south, it would be like Savana or Charleston. I wish Mississippi had something like that.
Also moving out has nothing to do with hating Mississippi or anything like that. It’s more the fact that I wanted to explore some places before I settle down.
This is a real problem, if it happens. This one is completely controllable, and the state agencies need to keep their asses downtown.
It is already happening. I am in sales and am assigned to all the state agency accounts.
Dept of Rehab Services is in Madison
Dept of Revenue is in Clinton
Dept of Employment Security is in Jackson but on the Madison county line.
Dept of Public Safety is moving to Pearl in 2025
There are more making plans to move to Madison County
It'd be nice to see things consolidated and building off each other. But not gonna turn away anything.
Yes he has. He gets it.
People complaining about Jackson or delta voters….why don’t you build relationships and work to convince them to change their mind?
Yep, so again, this does not bode well at all for Jackson, thus, the state likely will not have an attractive major city for the rest of our lifetimes.
At this point these are my hopes for the future of this state:
- Starkville and the GT can keep racking up economic wins;
- South Memphis Metro to Tupelo corridor continues to grow and keep the companies it has;
- Coast doesn't get another major hurricane anytime soon;
- All the Duff offspring stay in the state and keep their companies going.
That's another thing.....we have WAY too many homegrown companies that end up moving or selling out due to labor or family transitions, over the years. Viking, McRae's, Steinmart, Backyard Burger, Sanderson, etc.
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Okay, yeah Rehab and DOR have been out for a while now, I had written those off. I had forgotten about public safety moving out to Pearl. Man that's all really bad for Jackson. These are large offices with hundreds of people walking around, eating lunch, buying daily necessities, etc. -- just breathing life into the city -- that are not going to be in town but instead will be dragging all that money out to the suburbs, paying taxes to those cities and counties. All that business, tax revenue, daily visitors, etc. 100% controlled by the state, and they are apparently taking it out willingly. It will doom what restaurants are still there fighting it out (and there are some good ones), kill any hope of a grocery store and shops coming down (which believe it or not was possible at one time), and not to mention strip business from the ONE hotel downtown that cared to be down there, the Westin.
I get why the state officials may not care, and why their employees would prefer to be out somewhere else closer to home... but when the state gives up on Jackson, it really will be finished. That's pretty depressing.
They need to rethink that.
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Cities all over the South, and country, have found ways to at least create a small, decent area of their urban grid. Only Jackson is so shltty, in many ways, that they were never able to do the same.
The lack of infrastructure maintenance, plus outsiders unwillingness to come to town, all contributed. Sometimes I think the state cares, sometimes I don’t. The CCID was good, but then these offices are leaving. Can’t win for losing.
We can’t move the capital and develop elsewhere because the same problems will follow to whatever town in which they move. So until all MS decide to work together, it’s going backwards.
Yep, the CCID should help. Helping the city clear court cases would help. The state inserting themselves into the water system fix apparently helped. The state does care at some level. I know Tate does.
But then we go backwards on things like this that are well within our own control. Frustrating to watch.
The problem here is that remaining the same isn't an option.
You're either falling behind or moving up. Those are the only two options.
What drives growth? Businesses, education, infrastructure, medical
What causes regression? Lack of new businesses, lack of tax base for infrastructure, of tax base to pay teachers, & lack of population due to educated people leaving because there is no market for their business.
Staying the same isn't an option. That's what these people don't get.
not that I think we should move the capital, but why would Jackson’s problems follow? Being the seat of the state government is generally going to help, not hurt, a town.
Correct. It's the only reason Jackson is a city. So wherever the capital goes, that city will grow, and all the citizens who generally end up in urban areas will end up in the new urban area.
So, if the state capital were to be moved to, say, Tupelo…..all the poor, uneducated, destitute citizens of Jackson are somehow going to come up with the means to move 180 miles….to a new location where they won’t be able to afford housing, etc.? Not buying it.
With the possible exception of homeless migrants, larger cities don’t just inherently attract poor people. Jackson’s problems aren’t that its a city that attracted poor / uneducated folks, they were caused because they always had a much larger percentage of those people than other similarly sized cities, due to local demographics, then the money left. So now that’s all there is.
Moving the state capital would, in the short term, be very expensive and complicated. But there are arguments to be made that it could, long term, be the right move for the state. It’s certainly a radical idea, but its going to take nothing short of radical ideas to solve the Jackson problem.
Of course, Mississippi doesn’t have - and will never have - elected officials at any level that are intelligent enough to weigh the pros / cons argue either side of such a radical proposition. So, it will never happen. But its an interesting thought experiment nonetheless.
Tupelo may be far enough away to keep it from happening. I must say I'm actually intrigued by that idea. 100% guarantee that all the South MS lawmakers would start bltching about the drive. But it may be the only town that could pull it off.
There are no "ideas" that will solve Jackson's problems, except maybe if the state took over the city and county government and starting putting criminals in prison for a long time. But that is not going to happen. Jackson will only get better when the people 17ing up either 17 it up so bad that THEY can't even live there, and leave, or die of old age. Then private capital may possibly move in to take advantage of dirt cheap real estate.
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The South MS lawmakers might be ok with the extra driving to not have to be in Jackson. But they wouldn't be the problem. It'd be all the investment in Madison and Rankin Counties and then also Clinton that would push back hard against that. Think about what Jackson area would look like without the state capital.