If You Could Improve Starkville..

[ArcherSPS]

It's the summer months so that means we're going to be having a slow down for sports news especially at the college ranks. So I bring a question for the pack. If you could do a few things to improve Starkville; what would you do? I personally would add more bars and get rid of Perkins and the rest of the gaggle of fools' montra of alcohol sales having to be 250 feet away from churches and keeping bar closing time early. Also adding more of a music scene (Rick's sux) that has more than groups like U.S. and ****** country bands. Something that can bring in some decently known acts.

 

[coach66]

Bring in some big industries with high paying jobs, the rest of the

improvements will follow.

 

[HammerOfTheDogs]

I would expand the Cotton Mill, making a pub row like you see in a lot of college towns...hopefully, the bars would have an eclectic mix of different bands...from country to classic rock to college rock...

Also, I'd hire some architects to give Starkville a unifying architectural theme. Give the buildings a new face. Miss. State is beginning to do it to some point, have Starkville's architectural theme be similar.

Design some retirement communities, where old Mississippi State fans would love to come back and live out their retirement years near campus. There's plenty of land outside of campus and town. Have everything from luxury villas on pristine lakes, to 2 and 3-bedroom garden homes with community pools, golf courses, and and tennis courts to independent-living apartment communities. Have shuttle bus service with handicap access so the older alumni don't have to worry about parking or walking a mile to get to any game...or the refurbished Cotton Mills community for the old geezers who still think they can hang with college kids. Make sure they're far enough away from the college crowd so the old folks don't go out screaming, "DOWN IN FRONT!!!" (we old goats do that enough at the games).

 

[GTAdawg]

THIS right here, end of story.

improvements will follow.

If we had an industrial park half the size of Starkville on the back side of town behind the air field FULL of new industry with massive job opportunity, then the community would exponentially grow and prosper.

That is what I attribute all of Tuscaloosa's success to. Not the university, but all the industrial growth in the surrounding areas of Cottondale, Vance, and Northport.

 

[ArcherSPS]

but those industries bring gang rapes***

 

[ckDOG]

Showing my ignorance here...

If we had an industrial park half the size of Starkville on the back side of town behind the air field FULL of new industry with massive job opportunity, then the community would exponentially grow and prosper.

That is what I attribute all of Tuscaloosa's success to. Not the university, but all the industrial growth in the surrounding areas of Cottondale, Vance, and Northport.

Would there not be some sort of way to attract hi-tech/engineering firms to develop in the area by piggy backing off the already established infrastructure/knowledge base in the research park? Maybe we already do this to some degree or is much easier said than done? Don't know..just asking.

 

[godlluB]

If we had an industrial park half the size of Starkville on the back side of town behind the air field FULL of new industry with massive job opportunity, then the community would exponentially grow and prosper.

That is what I attribute all of Tuscaloosa's success to. Not the university, but all the industrial growth in the surrounding areas of Cottondale, Vance, and Northport.

From today's Starkville Daily News:

http://www.starkvilledailynews.com/node/17622

 

[godlluB]

improvements will follow.

This. Retail doesn't improve a city. A way for the city's citizens to earn a decent living is what improves cities. We need to be worrying about bringing in more manufacturing and engineering types of jobs.

Then, once the city has lots of people making lots of money, the bars, shopping and other stuff will follow on its own.

 

[aTotal360]

Improve the visual appearance of HWY 12 from the university to Walmart. Some of the empty lots look like a warzone other parts look like downtown Mumbai with all the electrical wires and poles. It's the most traveled part of town and its the ugliest.

And yes, I know this would cost 963 trillion dollars to fix.

 

[GTAdawg]

Great to hear. But simply "building it" will not guarantee "they will come". Although it is the first step in the process. We could just end up with an empty land area.

It's really more like "build it, provide incentives (tax breaks, workforce development sponsorship, etc.) and they will come". Hopefully the government and community leaders understand that. Even though some of their recent acts show otherwise.

 

[57stratdawg]

Starkville also needs to get its **** together with regards to building codes. If that Cotton Mills Holiday Inn extension turns out like that photo in the Dispatch a few months back, someone needs to be held accountable.

 

[sipDawg98]

If I wanted to do it fast track, I'd pretty much do the same as all you guys have suggested. Long term, I'd completely wipe clean the ******** leadership that is currently in place in Starkville. It is beyond apparent that the leadership and the old money that "drives" the leadership in Starkville is dead set on making Starkville the small town it was 50 years ago. You take out the backwards thought process of everyone with the power in Starkville, you solve a lot of problems.

 

[maroonmadman]

If only Starkville had a major state university with a civil engineering school that could make a class project out of this and help Starkville solve some of these problems while saving huge amounts of money and allow students some real world experience in civil engineering and in dealing with local politics, if only.....oh yeah, and the leadership thing too.

Also, why is it that when it came time to expand operations companies like Stark Aerospace, originally located at Bryant Field, chose to relocate to GTR? Was Bryant Field too small? Were there any inducements offered to keep them?

 

[The Maroon Pug]

Rumor is..

Raytheon is moving everything out of California and into Alabama and Mississippi in the next couple of years. Starkville leaders need to jump all over this.

 

[Palos verdes]

I would love to have a pub row in Starkville, unfortunately you need to have 50-60k, or more, permanent residents to make that work. Starkville doesn't have near the population to sustain such a dedicated development year round. Bars/restaurants would simply dry up in the summer. If Columbus were closer it would benefit Starkville tremendously. The opportunities in retail and commercial development would change a lot of things.

There are current benefits to being in the Golden Triangle region. GTR has a modern industrial park with a few aerospace companies, this should help in attracting more companies looking to relocate, start up, or expand. It also helps keep air service there 13 miles from campus. It would also be nice if GTR could get more air service.

I think one thing that would help Starkville would be to demolish a lot of the dilapidated and abandoned buildings and lots in town. They look terrible and distract from the nicer things. Spiffy up downtown a little more and do some road improvement which is badly needed. I would still love to see a restaurant like the original Iron Horse Grill downtown or in the District with a balcony, an old rustic fire pit and live music. The food would bring people in from miles and make it a destination watering hole on game day weekends.

 

[DerHntr]

but those industries bring gang rapes***

And dancing

 

[drail14me]

From today's Starkville Daily News:

http://www.starkvilledailynews.com/node/17622

Very interesting and puzzling! Looking at the map in the article, I can see that this park will be located in the NE corner at the intersection of HWY 25 and 182 across from Fast Break. The interesting part is that this proposed industrial park is just a mile down the road from the Cornerstone Industrial Park at HWY 25 and HWY 12. Cornerstone has been sitting VACANT for years and is in need of infrastructure work. From what I understand, Cornerstone doesn't have the electrical capacity it needs for industry. So, why go build a new park just down the street when you already have an empty unfinished park? Plus, the empty unfinished park has rail access. Why not finish the infrastructure on Cornerstone and fill it before investing in building a whole NEW park. I'm sure they have their reasons but I'm curious what they are.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Footloose all over again.

 

[The Peeper]

Is Cornerstone private investors or public funds, I don't know but that could be reason enough there. If private then they could have run out of money. If its public, opens up lots more doors for incentives that aren't available for private funded projects.

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

If you want business, build gig internet like Chattanooga did

I read an article about how it's really helped attract business. The city built it themselves. That can help attract the companies that bring progress and cool ****.

 

[drail14me]

Is Cornerstone private investors or public funds, I don't know but that could be reason enough there. If private then they could have run out of money. If its public, opens up lots more doors for incentives that aren't available for private funded projects.

It's public. It was built by the County. OCEDA (Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority)

 

[Dawghouse]

Isn't CSpire already doing this around Starkville? I know they are building a new data center up there as well.

 

[The Peeper]

Mrs. Diaz says this thread is a few years too late.....

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

Yes. Hi Tech hub industry. A factory of folks making $30,000 will do less than a small Hi Tech firm with higher paying jobs.

It's a tough sell for central Mississippi but you can push the University, cost of living and southern life style versus the urban sprawl.

One of the reasons Austin (where I live) is still capturing hi tech industry is that it is really not far between downtown and country side living in this town, unlike say Houston or Dallas.

 

[Shamoan]

a simple fix would be changing its name. that would seriously improve its perception. call it cambridge, pretoria, or anything other than starkville. think about it.....its basically being called boringville or blandville. why a town in mississippi would be named after a revolutionary war hero is beyond me...after all, mississippi wasn't even a state then and mississippi was an unnamed frontier in the 1770's. the mississippi territory didn't even exist until 1817.

STARKville are the last thing you want associated with a small town in the middle of nowhere mississippi.

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[DAWG61]

 

[clintstone]

Improve the public schools. I realize that is not an easy thing to do, but as long as we are waving our magic wands it would be nice if there was a major push from State with manpower and money(if needed). Schools help you get better employees, faculty, etc. as well as build your tax base. The GTR area is bringing in new business. Make Starkville the place those high paying people working out by the airport want their families to be.

Team with the university and work on bringing high paying tech jobs to the area, or high end manufacturing.

Strict building codes. No more pay day loan places on 12 or 82 (looking at you old wendy's building).

Continue to develop university and main street. Expanding hours they can be open and getting rid of the church rules might help.

Increase free bus shuttles that run Thursday - Saturday night. I would think this would help with parking, getting people home safely, etc.

Clean up the empty lots, especially on 12.

Underground power lines.



Continue to develop the university main/street corridor with restaurants/bars.

 

[Drebin]

but those industries bring gang rapes***

"That's when the whores come in..."

 

[The Usual Suspect]

Nothing changes until the public schools do for the long term. I would like...

to see a large multi story major hotel such as Marriott or Hilton with ties to the university.

 

[ToxicTimberDawg]

Re: Raytheon

Raytheon is moving everything out of California and into Alabama and Mississippi in the next couple of years. Starkville leaders need to jump all over this.

Any Raytheon work transitioning from California to mississippi will be going to the Raytheon site in Forest. Construction crews working on building expansion already.