One would think local residents might be happy about a new, top-quality project by Jackson State University given the exodus of residents and businesses away from West Jackson. Unfortunately, you would be wrong for thinking such is the case. The Jackson Free Press reported a representative of Chartre Development caught major grief from area residents at Koinonia Coffee House's Friday Forum last week:
"Many west Jackson citizens and community leaders let Chartre Consulting know this morning that they are not happy with the developer's plan for a mixed-income development near Jackson State University.
#David Kelly, a public relations consultant for Chartre, spoke at Koinonia Coffee House's Friday Forum about a plan to build more than 150 mixed-income townhouses along Dr. Robert Smith Sr. Parkway. Dozens of citizens, most of whom do not like the Oxford-based developer's plans, grilled Kelly with questions for more than an hour.....
Chartre proposes building the development on the land across Pearl Street from Koinonia, just west of Union Station. The Jackson State University Development Foundation currently owns the land. JSU Development Foundation sought out Chartre to buy the land to create the development.
Several citizens voiced concerns about the housing development not being what the people of west Jackson want as their gateway to downtown.
deborah Rae Wright, who does not capitalize her first name, started Best FOR* West, a community group specifically aimed at getting what the people want in the area of the proposed development. She said west Jackson needs more retail and economic growth. Specifically, she said the area needs a high-quality grocery store.
The city, county, state and agencies like the Jackson Redevelopment Authority should be creative and innovative with new development ideas, Wright said.
They (should not) just say, 'This is right and wrong', (but) 'This is how it can (be)," Wright said. "Jackson should not be happy about getting a new thing, be it a hotel (or) a building. It needs to be excellent and innovative. We've settled too often for getting a new something that is not innovative, that is not excellent, that doesn't make anybody want to come see it. We need to be making stuff that people get off the highway to see, because it's lit up at night. We need to have things that are made to where people from Madison are even going to come and say, 'I've got to see this.' We don't think that way."... Article
What does one say? That area has been going downhill for decades. A developer comes in to construct residential housing that will be affordable to people who can't otherwise get a mortgage but can make a housing payment every month. However, this bunch doesn't think its good enough for them. No, they instead want a Nordstrum or Maison Weiss. So where will the customers come from? Oh, that's right, if you build the high-end retail whatever it is, they will come from Minister Farrakhan's spaceship in the sky or somewhere similar.
They must have missed the part about businesses and demographics or how housetops bring retail. The more residents they get, the more likely they are to attract the retail they so desire but no, they just want to make life miserable for those who want to invest in their community. Kind of like a starving person complaining he got a ribeye instead of a filet. Of course there is one solution for these "community leaders" (Read malcontents): Go get your own investment and develop your own projects. Then you can have exactly what you want.
Some people are never happy.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
They never learn
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20 comments:
Can the developer get Mr. Patel to squeeze in a high-dollar grocery store?
my my...this is what happens to people when they spend GENERATIONS addicted to the welfare teat..they are no longer able to see a good deal even if it runs over them...
Love this site, but it is Nordstrom ,not Nordstroms,...reminds me of the Wall-marks folks,...haha!!!
Funniest shit I've read in a while. Thanks.
This would be the same deborah rae Wright who said the indigenous people of the area are not capable of leading themselves or making their own decisions. The same person who helped start a community organization called to fight services for the homeless but completely forgot to tell the residents about plans put just such a facility into the old Holiday Inn on Hwy 80. The same person who benefited greatly I'm told from renovations to her home purchased through Voice of Calvary Ministries and renovated through the same organization. Anything she's involved in is suspect and probably self serving.
"Doesn't capitalize her first name." Oh, that's a good sign.
Where were these fine folk,when Habitat pissed all over Jackson including the PARKWAY !!!!!!!!! The demographics don't match and never will .......... Silly Wabbits.......
Or, maybe The City has a plan for economic development to transform the corridor....... But, please no more Detail Shops,Churches, or Indian Stores....... You see where that has got us..........
Dayum! Someone is against churches and Indians owning stores? How about a gun shop with a stool with your name on it?
This calls for an in-depth study and, of course, we'll need to hire another out of state advertising firm to get the spin just right.
Money is no object! Full speed ahead.
I have a friend who told me that his company would never hire anyone of the following:
someone with a double last name.
someone with Ms. in front of their name.
someone who went to a for profit college
someone who had a first name that the average person could not pronounce
now I am sure he would add a person that does not Capitalize their first name.
Sounds like 'your friend' might be a hold-over HR-guy from the 50s. Only gonna hire people that 'look like me' and 'know their place'. Right off the bat, I'd say your friend is going to cost his employer a helluva lot more than he will save them. Well, before they fire his ass.
They need a "top quality" grocery store??? Why? So the thieves can steal better quality meat? Or so they won't have to drive across town to rob the patrons? Absoltely ridiculous to think a "top quality" place (of any type) would set up shop anywhere just because folks feel like they 'need it.' Maybe they're entitled to a whole foods these days?
And "deborah,' after people stop laughing at you attempting to explain the capitalization of your first name I'm sure you'll have much luck in your endeavors.
Shadowbrain,
Where did I say my friend mentioned that someone had to "look like me" and know their place? I did not neither did he, and by the way he does quite well for him company and you are an idiot.
Does a neighborhood start to go down for some unexplained reason and then the blacks start moving in as property values decline, or do blacks start moving in for some unexplained reason and cause the neighborhood to go down as property values decline? We can dance around it as much as we want, but developers are way more interested in making money than they are in improving the community. Investors black and white are leery of putting their money into projects in what they consider to be the black part of town because other projects in similar neighborhoods haven't produced the profits they want. The neighborhood activists can demand all they want, but unless they happen to demand it of a particularly philanthropic person they won't be able to intimidate someone into doing their bidding just by playing the race card. Back to the chicken and egg...
We can dance around it as much as we want, but developers are way more interested in making money than they are in improving the community.
The downtown Jackson crowd being the sterling example.
Last year (2011) Savannah Georgia coaxed Food Lion grocery stores into building and opening a brand new store right smack dab in the middle of MLK blvd. --an area that had not had a grocery of any type for many years. The store opened and operated for a total of nine months before Food Lion shut it completely down and moved out of that brand new building. Seems Food Lion could not sustain the level of theft by local inhabitants. They were said to have been very upset that they were not being served by a Whole Foods Store so they could access a better selection of dijon mustard.
12:16 has obviously never owned a business.
JSU needs good housing. What in the world do the people complaining have against a mixed-use development? They are cropping up all over other cities. I have to wonder about the "d" since your first name used to be a Christian name.
I love this.....where else can you go to find this kind of a story. An out of town developer, comes to your run down area and comes up with what appears to be a good conceivable plan to promote better living conditions and give the area some MUCH needed economic development. ONLY THEN, to have a bunch of guvmnt fed do nothing whiney titty babies to bitch because it's not the kind of economic development and private investment you want. Not deserve and especially not what you've earned, what you WANT. This is like having an electrician come free of charge to fix an electrical problem in your house, only to then complain that the electrician didn't fix your leaky roof. Freikin' A!
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