OT: For the Jacksonians (long)

[LTblows]

Todd made a comment in another post about making Jackson safer, so I felt like I should share this conversation I had this past week with Pittsburgh's former mayor Tom Murphy.

Murphy was mayor in Pittsburgh from 1994-2005. When he began office, he had a city that had been trending downward for decades. They had lost their economic base (steel), and the city was crime-ridden; everyone was fleeing to the suburbs, much like Jackson and other large and mid-sized cities. Although the city was broke, he was extremely aggressive getting the city to
partner with local developers to redevelop the city's abandoned steel
mill properties.When he left office, he had helped transform it into a safer, thriving, happening place, where big companies like Google (regional office) and American Eagle (headquarters), among others, started to relocate.

I asked him point-blank how he got crime down in Pittsburgh, because I was from a top 15 crime city and was frustrated with the status quo. What he told me was fairly simplistic, however, it is extremely true. He told me that New York City had 2,400 murders in 1993, 1,550 in 1995, and 920 in 1998. So from 1993, when they started to focus on cracking down on crime, to 1998, they saw a 62% murder rate drop in FIVE years. Now they're one of the safest large cities in the world. Murphy told me, "It's a choice. Crime management is a choice." He then went on to say how he recently went to an area in Baltimore that's the largest drug market between Virginia to New York. The cops had these guys on camera slinging dope, but never tried to break anything up because the police's priority is on violent crimes. They chose not to act.

Sixpackers, I agree with Murphy and submit to you that it is in fact a choice, and a choice that our city government is not choosing. Murphy said to reduce crime like NY did, and like Pitt did, it takes these three things:
1. It has to be made a PRIORITY. "If people don't feel safe, nothing works." The powers that be either have to tackle it head-on, or nothing significant will change.
2. There has to be leadership. This is obviously a no-brainer, but we need to go recruit outside of the state for someone who's been effective in significantly reducing crime in mid-sized cities before.
3. Get the police the technology to not only react to the crimes, but to get ahead of the crimes before they happen. I cannot say I truly know what he was talking about here, but I know there's police stuff out there I'm just ignorant of. *Minority Report is going through my head here*

The bottom line is this- you create VALUE when the crime rate drops. The public schools still suck, and the infrastructure isn't great, but this has to be the first priority if we are to see Jackson grow and thrive. There's a lot of great things happening in downtown, and there's more to come, but in order for those things to truly catch fire, crime must be reduced. So Jacksonians, I urge you to push for a progressive public body that "gets it." We all have seen what happens when a transformational leader comes in (Foglesong), and people who "get it" are put in the right place (Byrne/Mullen).

I think it should be noted that, although frustrated, I am a huge supporter of Jackson, and always will be because it is the lifeblood of this state.

 

[LTblows]

Todd made a comment in another post about making Jackson safer, so I felt like I should share this conversation I had this past week with Pittsburgh's former mayor Tom Murphy.

Murphy was mayor in Pittsburgh from 1994-2005. When he began office, he had a city that had been trending downward for decades. They had lost their economic base (steel), and the city was crime-ridden; everyone was fleeing to the suburbs, much like Jackson and other large and mid-sized cities. Although the city was broke, he was extremely aggressive getting the city to
partner with local developers to redevelop the city's abandoned steel
mill properties.When he left office, he had helped transform it into a safer, thriving, happening place, where big companies like Google (regional office) and American Eagle (headquarters), among others, started to relocate.

I asked him point-blank how he got crime down in Pittsburgh, because I was from a top 15 crime city and was frustrated with the status quo. What he told me was fairly simplistic, however, it is extremely true. He told me that New York City had 2,400 murders in 1993, 1,550 in 1995, and 920 in 1998. So from 1993, when they started to focus on cracking down on crime, to 1998, they saw a 62% murder rate drop in FIVE years. Now they're one of the safest large cities in the world. Murphy told me, "It's a choice. Crime management is a choice." He then went on to say how he recently went to an area in Baltimore that's the largest drug market between Virginia to New York. The cops had these guys on camera slinging dope, but never tried to break anything up because the police's priority is on violent crimes. They chose not to act.

Sixpackers, I agree with Murphy and submit to you that it is in fact a choice, and a choice that our city government is not choosing. Murphy said to reduce crime like NY did, and like Pitt did, it takes these three things:
1. It has to be made a PRIORITY. "If people don't feel safe, nothing works." The powers that be either have to tackle it head-on, or nothing significant will change.
2. There has to be leadership. This is obviously a no-brainer, but we need to go recruit outside of the state for someone who's been effective in significantly reducing crime in mid-sized cities before.
3. Get the police the technology to not only react to the crimes, but to get ahead of the crimes before they happen. I cannot say I truly know what he was talking about here, but I know there's police stuff out there I'm just ignorant of. *Minority Report is going through my head here*

The bottom line is this- you create VALUE when the crime rate drops. The public schools still suck, and the infrastructure isn't great, but this has to be the first priority if we are to see Jackson grow and thrive. There's a lot of great things happening in downtown, and there's more to come, but in order for those things to truly catch fire, crime must be reduced. So Jacksonians, I urge you to push for a progressive public body that "gets it." We all have seen what happens when a transformational leader comes in (Foglesong), and people who "get it" are put in the right place (Byrne/Mullen).

I think it should be noted that, although frustrated, I am a huge supporter of Jackson, and always will be because it is the lifeblood of this state.

 

[davatron]

I'm afraid this will get turned into one of those political threads that gets locked so I'll just PM you instead.

 

[thatsbaseball]

I don`t think you can build enough jail space to handle it.

 

[LTblows]

[No message]

 

[weblow]

I grew up in Jackson and tried moving back there after college. I lived in Northeast Jackson but finally gave up.

My house was broken into, my car was broken into twice, once the window was broken out and the radio stolen, the second time they broke in and stole a shotgun, set of waders, and a radar detector.

I had a garage but 3 cars and only a two car garage. My wife and I had to live with the fact that if we left the garage open, even when we were home and during the day, we would be robbed. This happened twice when my wife was home, once they stole my toolbox and the other time they took my chainsaw and weed eater.

They also stole the bikini top off of a jeep and a set of golf clubs.

Funny thing about the golf clubs, this was back when Golf World (i think that is the name) was open and I drove up there to hit some range balls. I took a break from hacking the ball and noticed a guy a few down from me, hitting the ball with my damn golf clubs. I approached him with a sandwedge in my hand and wanted to get a closer look. Yep, they were my clubs that had been stolen a few weeks prior. I asked him where he got them and he told me he bought them in Memphis. I went back out to the parking lot, called the police and wrote down the tag number of every car in the parking lot. The police took 20 minutes to get there, by then, the crook had gotten in his car and took off. I chased him but he was in a much faster car than my pickup. After he lost me I went back and gave his tag number to the police. After a week, they told me there was really nothing they could do. I knew a guy that worked for the County Sheriff's and had him run the tag, get the address and he went with me and knocked on the door. The guy very politely returned my clubs.

The problem with Jackson is that the JPD is awful. I am sure there are some good JPD officers but I have yet to deal with one. I understand that they don't make a ton of money and put up with a lot of **** but the difference between them and the Madison PD is night and day.

When I was broken into numerous times in Jackson, an officer would show up, once it took them over 24 hours to come by the house. They would walk in and fill out a report, tell me it would be turned over to a detective and give me the detectives name. The detectives never, not once, contacted me. I would call them and they would say they were looking into it.
My wife and I left for Madison and we were actually were broken into in Madison, this was not a random crime, it was someone we knew that had a certain problem, at the time we did not know that. My wife came home and noticed the front door open and some stuff messed up in the house. I asked her to leave and headed that way, when I was less than 1 mile from home, I called the MPD and told them I needed an officer to come over, we had a break in and told them it was no emergency, could they just send an officer by to file a report. By the time I made it home, there were 4 MPD cars in front of my house. They asked me to wait outside while they cleared the house, including the attic. They dusted for prints for about an hour and took several things as evidence. The detective was there within 20 minutes and came by the next day to check on us and give us an update. She called daily for about a week until I found out who had done it. She asked if we wanted to press charges and we said, no, not at this time.

People will make excuses of JPD is too busy, not paid enough, ............but the FACT of the matter is, until there is a MAJOR change in the JPD and the Jackson Public Schools, you can build all the ******** you want, you can remodel downtown and dress up the city but it won't make a damn bit of difference. The apathy within JPD is an attitude that is passed down from the top and spreads all the way to the bottom.

You will not keep people in a city if you cannot make them feel safe. You will not keep middle class families in the city, those that cannot afford JA or Prep, without a decent public school option. Fix those two things and you can fix Jackson, until then, the suburbs are looking pretty good.

 

[FlabLoser]

 

[Shmuley]

remove the reference to the specific name of the county sheriff's office that ran that tag for you. Just say, "... a guy that worked for another county's sheriff office ..."

 

[weblow]

[No message]

 

[crackerjack.sixpack]

1) The breakdown of the family is the root ofmost of theseproblems. Statistics from DHS show that nearly 80 percent of black children in Mississippiare born out of wedlock. No male authority figure at home in a kid's life, a family just trying to survive, no outside educational motivationand you have a recipe for a vicious cycle of poverty,drugs,andcrime. Starts at home. And this obviously isn't limited to minorities, but we're talking about Jackson.

2) JPD has problems with funding, competence, leadership, and corruption. I was at a friend's birthday party on the northwest side of Fondren the other night and a girl had her driver's side window broken out and some stuff stolen out of her car. She called 911, and nobody answered after letting it ring forever. After calling back a couple times, they finally sent someone over. Once the cop arrived, the cop insisted it was her fault she had her car broken into for leaving a bag sitting on a seat. Have also heard former JPD officers talk about the corruption involving drugs. Until the city decides to get a legit police force, not much will happen.

 

[pchaney301]

We got into a discussion yesterday at lunch about the improvements of downtown Jackson. Things are getting much better, and there is a ton of money being put into buildings all over the place. I'm making it a point to go down there more often than I do right now. Things seem to be getting safer, but right now I still wouldn't really want to go down there after dark with a sign on my back that says "rob me."<div>
</div><div>It seems like a lot of the bums are clearing out, the streets and building are being renovated and are beautiful. There are a lot of things that downtown Jackson offers that people just are not aware of. </div>

 

[woozman]

I think it should be noted that, although frustrated, I am a huge supporter of Jackson, and always will be because it is the lifeblood of this state.

The Coast disagrees with that statement.

 

[patdog]

I called the MPD and told them I needed an officer to come over, we had a break in and told them it was no emergency, could they just send an officer by to file a report. By the time I made it home, there were 4 MPD cars in front of my house.

That is so like the Madison PD. They have so many officers and not a whole lot happens there, so whenever anything does happen, they just swarm to it. I've seen 3 MPD cars have 1 car pulled over more than once.

 

[Jackdragbean]

Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I had my vehicle broken into while at work downtown. When the police officer finally arrived (over an hour), he asked what was taken and I told him some cd's and a couple of other items. (The thing that pissed me off was the shattered window) He wrote up in the report that I had over $500, a $2000 camera, 100 cd's and some other crap. He handed me the report and said he put all that on there for insurance purposes. Needless to say, I didn't turn it into my insurance. I'm not dealing with a crime by committing another one.

 

[MSUCE99]

I called the MPD and told them I needed an officer to come over, we had a break in and told them it was no emergency, could they just send an officer by to file a report. By the time I made it home, there were 4 MPD cars in front of my house.

That is so like the Madison PD. They have so many officers and not a whole lot happens there, so whenever anything does happen, they just swarm to it. I've seen 3 MPD cars have 1 car pulled over more than once.

That is no **** right there. I lived in Madison about 10 years ago, had a small house with a carport on the back of a loop. Some kids were driving by, saw the gas can in the carport that I used to fuel my lawnmower, and slowed down and grabbed it real quick.

No ****, the police called ME to tell me I had been robbed, but they already knew who did it (thanks to a neighbor getting the tag), and were already at the kids' house talking to them and their parents about it. They were calling to ask me if I wanted to press charges for the theft of a 5 gal. gas can with about 1 gallon of gas still in it.

 

[615dawg]

I'll opine about the situation at JPS.

JPS is in need of a complete enema. They aren't even trying anymore. They just fired a superintendent because he basically made some decisions that would be tough, but could lead to better schools. They fired him under the guise as him being an outsider that didn't know Jackson.

I don't throw this around lightly, but I mean it when I say that the leadership of JPS is blatently racist. I have worked with some teachers (black and white) that will tell you details that would make you cringe. Also, if you want to work in JPS' central office, you need to be related to someone. I know for an absolute fact that one of the most important departments at JPS is currently headed by a non-degreed individual (a job that typically requires a masters, if not a Ph.D.) that got in a few years back because she was a sister of one of the higher ups. People kept leaving, and eventually she moved up. JPS is missing out on millions in federal grants because this person doesn't know how to do her job.

Then you have basketball coaches that are beating kids and get to keep their jobs.

JPS is in complete ruin. I am of the educational mindset that every child enters kindergarten within just a few notches of one another. Yes, a kid that is sent to an elite preschool may be smarter than a kid that hasn't seen other kids until kindergarten, but the gap is not wide at all.

For instance, lets look at Bradley Elementary (JPS) and Northshore Elementary (Rankin County Schools)

QDI
Bradley: 196
Northshore: 193

Teacher Quality:
Bradley: 64% of teachers are qualified
Northshore: 98% are qualified

Which is the first problem we see, but as the foundations are being built in elementary schools, we see a small gap

Language Arts
Bradley: 150.2
Northshore: 153.2

Math
Bradley: 149.4
Northshore: 155.8

then the kids go to middle school, we look at Blackburn Middle vs. Brandon Middle

QDI
Blackburn: 146
Brandon: 174

Interesting that some JPS Elementary schools actually have a higher QDI, but by 6th grade, the gap is widened.

Teachers:
Brandon: 97% qualified
Blackburn: 70%

So after years of being taught by unqualified teachers, the middle schools are only slightly better, which leads to:

Language Arts:
Brandon: 151.1
Blackburn: 142.9

What was a slight 3 point gap has widened to 9 points by middle school

Math:
Brandon: 153.2
Blackburn: 148.2

The gap remains about the same in Math, but ...

in Advanced Math:
Brandon had 109 8th graders test at 100 percent passing for advanced Math at 665
Blackburn only recognized 54 as advanced (same size school) and 96 percent of them passed at 664

So, more kids are taking advanced classes, but the JPS advanced kids are right there, then we go to high school ...

QDP
Callaway: 140
Northwest Rankin: 213

Instead of the high schools being better, the high schools are the weakest part of JPS and provide a significant gap to their suburban neighbors.

Teachers:
NWR: 93
Callaway: 84

but are they doing their job:
NWR:
653 Algebra I
375 Biology
652 English
392 History

Callaway
652 Algebra I
346 Biology
647 English
334 History

So the quality of education gets worse as the kids get older. So when the kids have a chance to decide on careers, college, etc., JPS is failing them miserably, and a high percentage of them end up on the streets starting the cycle again. JPS is spending millions having dad conferences when they need to be focusing on getting their high schools in order.

There are some smart kids in JPS. Look, the average Algebra I student in JPS is just a point lower than those at NWR. They are failing hard in Biology and History, but it isn't because the kids are stupid.

 

[Shmuley]

Eye opening to say the least.

 

[Hutchinson11]

more reasons why every law abiding citizen should have guns and a concealed weapons permit. i'll be sure to enforce the castle act before i call the police when someone breaks into my house or car.

 

[jacksonreb1]

saw a suspicious looking couple of guys wandering thru my back yard. called ridgeland pd, they had a car there i 5 minutes. he got my info and scoured the neighborhood looking for the guys. was glad to do it and when i said "prob wasn't anything, i hate to bother you with it" he said no, please call anytime something doesn't look right. we want to check it out. very refreshing attitude.

 

[EmoryBellard]

I bet you are a member of the Mississippi legislature, aren't you?

I love me some guns too, but they ain't the first, second, or third solution to any of the problems outlined above.

 

[MSUCE99]

...for the schools that these non-English-speaking Twittering idiots graduated from.

I've always been of the opinion that a school system is only partly responsible for the education of a child. Yes, I want my children to go to a good school system, but I've seen very well-educated people come from all over the state, and not always just from the high-performing high schools. As a parent, I look for those teachable moments to involve my children in critical thinking exercises on the weekends, at night, etc. I believe that just about every child is intelligent enough that (if you can keep them away from poor role models and mind-numbing distractions like reality TV and Twitter) the sky can be the limit if parents make an effort to involve themselves in the education as well.

 

[LTblows]

And I don't want to turn this into a pissing contest, but it's the largest city, the largest metro area, where the state government is located, and where largest concentration of economic drivers in the state are. Especially post-katrina, I don't think it's even an argument. Let's agree to disagree.

 

[615dawg]

A typical inner-city child that lives with a single mother or grandmother has a EPI of just 30. That means that that child has a 30 percent chance at graduating on time.
A typical suburban child with a strong family culture has an EPI of 96.

That gap is huge, and if you take the suburban child with the good family and put them in an inner city school, the EPI drops to 72. And if you take the inner city child and put them in the high quality suburban school, the EPI raises to 69.

Fathers need to be around, yes, but a good bit of the problem is the education system. You throw them in an elementary school with 40 percent of the teachers unqualified, you are asking for problems.

You'll see what JPS wants to do with this superintendent hire. If they hire a run of the mill JPS person, it will be more of the same, but if they hire one of the outstanding candidates (a JPS grad that is an assistant in Houston would be awesome), then they can fix a lot of the problems.

 

[patdog]

I am of the educational mindset that every child enters kindergarten within just a few notches of one another.

I'm pretty sure that children with parents who spend quality time with them, read to them, and teach them in their first 5 years enter preschool way ahead of children who are basicly ignored their first 5 years.

 

[weblow]

After the break in, my wife was pretty nervous to be left at the house by herself overnight. I travel a good bit with business and like to hunt on the weekends so this was something we were going to have to address. We installed an alarm system she could turn on and then the MPD Detective said that if we would like, call the MPD when I was going to be out of town and she could go into the "Watch Binder." Of course, I had no clue what that was and he said that from 9:00 PM till daylight, an officer would come by and check out the house and any cars parked that did not look like they belonged.

The next day I was out of town so I called up there and gave them my wifes car, make and model. My wife said that starting at 9:00, every 15-20 minutes a police car would slowly creep by the house and shine their spotlight down each side of the house and the bushes. Made her feel great until we realized it was not a random crime and that it was someone we knew that broke into the house.

Pretty cool service that they offer. Also, if you are going to be out of town, you can call them up and do the same thing.

 

[615dawg]

have hurt the English language. When's the last time most people wrote a formal letter?

 

[Hutchinson11]

But I can tell you if someone breaks into my house the my
gun is going to be their first problem.

 

[DerHntr]

1. a quick way to get this thread locked is to turn it into a gun debate.

2. this is how you reply to a post

 

[EmoryBellard]

nm

 

[JimboDawgo]

This example (NYC crime) is referenced in The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. They started with the small crimes (vandalism on the subway cars, etc.) Basically, no crime went unpunished, no matter how small. People began to see the cleaner, safer subway, started changing peoples attitudes related to crime, and the crime rate dropped very quickly. I've summarized, and omitted quit a bit from the book, but you get the idea. From the stories above, it seems to be the exact opposite of what jpd is doing.

 

[Johnson85]

And I don't want to turn this into a pissing contest, but it's the largest city, the largest metro area, where the state government is located, and where largest concentration of economic drivers in the state are. Especially post-katrina, I don't think it's even an argument. Let's agree to disagree.

State government, even though we actually have a comparatively decent one, isnot an economicdriver, other than it concentrates rent seekers who employ people. .

 

[EmoryBellard]

It's very interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

 

[DerHntr]

[No message]

 

[weblow]

different story. His numbers actually really make me rethink my opinion on this.

I have two kids, both in private schools, and was of the opinion that my kids had a pretty good advantage going into first grade. I thought/think that they had this advantage due to constantly being read to, constantly doing activities that I assumed challenged their minds. My kids never have been tv watchers and really loved to have books read to them and play games with my wife and I.

We started both of them at a private school for K3 and they have done exceptionally well through elementary. Both could read by the time they were 5 and I would have guessed they were ahead of many of the JPS kids the same age.

I think what his numbers show is that regardless of where they are in K3-5, kids that have not received the same education to this point can close the gap fast and get on the same page.

it appears the real gap shows up in high school.

I think JPS does a pretty ****** job but I think a lot of the blame falls on the parents also. I know that starting in 9th grade, if my mom and dad had not ridden my *** on a daily basis, my grades would have been ****. I was much more concerned with girls and sports and thought school was a waste of time. I would assume that is not an uncommon thing to not care about school in the high school years and if they don't have parents that are involved and pushing them to do better, many don't stand a chance. Sure there are some kids that are very dedicated to school but there are many, like myself, that would not have opened a book or done a lick of homework, without the fear of what my parents might do if I did not do well in school.

I think Jackson's problems start in the top levels of government and roll on down. The entire town needs an enema and now I am hearing they are wanting to raise the sales tax by .01. Throwing money at a broken system is not going to fix a damn thing. As was already said, an enema is needed.

 

[615dawg]

but they have taken 100 suburban kids with stay at home moms and fathers that work, 100 kids that go to high performing day care, and 100 inner city kids and here's what the EPI came to at age 5:

Stay at Home Moms: 89
Good Preschool: 93
Inner City: 85

Not a huge gap at age 5. Yes, a disadvantage, but not a huge one. By the time they get to second grade, the stay at home moms have caught up with the good preschool kids, and the inner cities have dropped to 65. By the time they get to 7th grade, inner cities are hovering around 30 while stay at home and preschools have hovered in the mid-90s. Big time gap formed by middle and high school.

 

[drt7891]

What is Layman's definition of EPI? <div>
</div><div>*Edit* And QDI?</div>