Jackson Jambalaya

Donkeycrats shaking down Donkeycrats.

Hinds County and Jackson ARE LOST.

as Larry the Cable Guy would say, "now that's funny!".

i would file a counterclaim so fast it would spin your head...

Fell down laughing few weeks back when Girl About Town Skipper openly trolled her twitter followers to help fill some apartment openings downtown.

All despite the bunker Prophet's one-note sermons that the waiting lists there are miles long.

It is obvious at this point who doesn't "get it".

Ben Allen, president of Downtown Jackson Partners, said at the press conference that he has seen figures showing that, with all the residential development downtown in the form of loft apartments and condos, that in 10 years there could be as many as 25,000 people living downtown, tripling traffic on Pearl Street and Pascagoula Street.
-- Mississippi Business Journal
-- March 3, 2008

What happened to the $20M that was alledgedly subverted? This will be a long process, and undoubtedly Eves would not be involved in a frivolous process. When will someone have time to respond?

$88 million in lost profits. Why not just ask for a billion? I mean, if you are just going to pull numbers out of your ass, why not go all the way?

Free publicity for John Arthur....cheaper than a billboard.

In the county's defense, this was totally unforeseeable.

No one could possibly have predicted that a company seeking taxpayer money to build a robot parking garage for a "green mixed-used development" would engage in less-than-ethical business practices.

I mean, next you'll tell me that Solyndra was a boondoggle, or that convention centers aren't an express ticket to urban renewal.

Don't count John-Arthur-Light out yet. He's got a whole new crop of daffodils on the roadside and there's a couple of new four-wheelers patrolling the property. No 'legals' spotted yet though.

Don't count John-Arthur-Light out yet. He's got a whole new crop of daffodils on the roadside and there's a couple of new four-wheelers patrolling the property. No 'legals' spotted yet though.

Everything the BOS is involved in turns to Drama. They don't give a damn how much time or expense it cost the taxpayers, or the image they project. They, and their consultants, are inept and they just keep kicking the can down the road.

Next up, cat juggling!!!

6:29pm...bravo! You made me literally laugh out loud with that opening sentence!

Now for the rest of you, I'd like to sing a tune from the state's past...

Win! Win! Win! with John Arthur Eaves,
And bring back the honesty that's missing today!

"Fell down laughing few weeks back when Girl About Town Skipper openly trolled her twitter followers to help fill some apartment openings downtown.

All despite the bunker Prophet's one-note sermons that the waiting lists there are miles long."

"Girl About Town Skipper"?

"the bunker Prophet"?

These are characters worthy of Faulkner or Welty. Poetry lives in the Magnolia State :-)

@Team Jackson Shoutout...

Can you provide the link to that twitter post?

I clicked on one of the links above and found this gem of a comment:

What amazes me the most is how people in Mississippi continue to wonder why people in other states think that everyone here are (sic) ass backwards. This state and the people in it are like time just stood still... I can only hope that the younger generation of adults that flee here as fast as they possibly can for lives in cities where there is lifestyle, culture and progression choose to come back and tell all of the boring and backwards naysayers that they are sick of their home state and capital being boring and underdeveloped and they are ready to make a change. What I look forward to most is the large amount of synical (sic) conservative dry geeks that will standing on the outside of Old Capital (sic) Green looking in wishing they new (sic) someone that could get them in... never seen rich people living around poorer people... go to New York, Atlanta, Chicago or any other city where development has moved ahead in time and not stood still like Jackson. Hell I bet if somebody suggests a development in Madison folks will be all over it with positive remarks. The people here are so narrow minded and negative.

Donna's spell checker must've been on the fritz that day.

What part of they did not have any money and lied to the board does that person not get? The vacancy rate is nearly 40%. 9 empty buildings but the solution is to build MORE office space?

Am I missing something here? Demographics are not even a part of the equation. Whoever is pushing this project at this point must own shares at Char because that is where the money will go.

@9:17. Laugh at the grammatical errors if you want, and I will admit that they are numerous, but the substance of that comment was true. I left the state (along with many of my other peers that could) after college, in part, for that reason. Brain drain is a real problem in this state. The fact that people let the closest thing this state has to a real city decay is one big contributing factor to it.

The rednecks voted with their feet when they moved to Rankin and Madison Counties. Educated people re voting with theirs when they move out of the state. Sorry, Madison just isn't nice enough to move back to either.

10:13 wrote: "I left the state (along with many of my other peers that could) after college, in part, for that reason. Brain drain is a real problem in this state. The fact that people let the closest thing this state has to a real city decay is one big contributing factor to it.

The rednecks voted with their feet when they moved to Rankin and Madison Counties. Educated people re voting with theirs when they move out of the state. Sorry, Madison just isn't nice enough to move back to either."

Honey, people did not "let" Jackson rot. They tried really hard to make it work, and did some amazing things toward that end. The International Ballet Competition is one of those things. The Sweet Potato Queen St. Patrick's Day parade was another. And the city's affluent led the nation in volunteerism and charitable giving. The 'Palaces of St. Petersburg' exhibit, and the blockbuster exhibits following it, resulted from Jackson Businesspeople's generosity to that Russian city, at a time when people there were dying from lack of basic medical supplies. Out of gratitude, St. Petersburg allowed treasures never allowed outside Russia to come to Jackson. Despite ever-mounting obstacles, that was Jackson, up until the Turn-of-the-Millennium.

But a drug lord ran the town for a long time, and his network of corruption grew steadily larger. Then, the voters chose a succession of mayors who made things even worse. Black voters dug Jackson's grave, by electing the politicians who have destroyed the city.

People have stayed as long as they could. They have invested time and money, making neighborhoods like Belhaven and Fondren inviting places to live.

But people can only hang on for so long. The 'Last Straw' may be an armed robbery. It may be a night made sleepless by 'Boom Cars' thumping as they go down a nearby thoroughfare. It may be police inaction, when you really need their help. It may be a broken axle or a blown tire, caused by a pothole of surreal size. It may be extreme rudeness by a cashier, when you're trying to shop inside the city. Or maybe the 'final straw' is hearing your sweet ninety-something-year-old neighbor was discovered beaten to death in her carport.

Whatever the reasons - threats to one's safety, or simple weariness - people reach the conclusion, "I can't live like this anymore." And so they move.

I'm somewhat puzzled by your statement that "The Rednecks voted with their feet when they moved to Rankin and Madison Counties. Educated people are voting with theirs when they move out of state." Are you saying that people moving out of state are educated, while those moving into the rather luxurious homes in Madison and Rankin are UNEDUCATED? Honey, I think you need to have a look at the numbers. The percentage of people moving from Jackson to Madison and Rankin Counties are probably mostly "educated". It's hard to make the payments on a brand-new Acadian-style ranch house, when you're not "educated".

Get on Google Map, and, via Cyberspace, drive around the new subdivisions. Do those look like the homes of high school dropouts?

As for the 'Redneck' part: plenty of people moving out of state are Rednecks, too. (They may, however, tell themselves otherwise...)

Next step is to have Stokes call for Malachi to reveal who is really in charge of the non existent funds Full Speculum is demanding. Once Full Speculum doesn't get paid, who gets to spend the money saved? Meantime, Stokes probably wants to know who has been hiding these funds from Stokes.

That $20 million that supposedly has been diverted, can it be used to pay consultants to do the supervisor's work that the supervisors don't do? Once it is returned to wherever it started at from? That is?

Full Speculum wouldn't be asking for the money if it wasn't already hiding somewhere! WHO IS REALLY IN CHARGE? WHO IS MAKING THESE DECISIONS?

Can this be paid for by refinancing some PID bonds or vacant buildings? Maybe Malachi knows how to factor some bail bonds?

10;13 "I left the state (along with many of my other peers that could) after college, in part, for that reason. Brain drain is a real problem in this state. "
??
Kind of like the 'brain drain' we hear we will lose in gub'ment if we ever limit their terms....Really? I will take that chance because last I witnessed a person with a GED and good business can balance the checkbook (money in = money out) and doesn't live on 'mommy and daddy' sending me off to college and to the 'Big City!!, Daddy, can you pay my rent, NY is sooo expensive, but I love it, I'll sit on your lap again!- uhh okay son".
So, I will take my chances with your 'brain drain' and up it with, if you want it, pay market prices with YO Money!

The problem in Mississippi is one of compensation. I moved out of state for an extra $40K a year. I had peaked income wise.

Check out the Street View pic of the address of Full Spectrum in NYC

@12:18. Yes, you are letting the city rot. The private sector is just as guilty as the public sector on this one. Yes, you did name some pretty good examples of volunteerism that helped improved the community. Most of those things, with the exception of the St. Petersburg exhibit, which was discontinued for the reason that there is no longer space left to do it, is still going on by the way. I'm assuming that it is without your help.

So you claim that all of these good-hearted people did all of that stuff because they cared about their commmunity, but that the last straw was a rude chashier? Really? Obviously you don't care that much about your community if a rude chashier or a flat tire is your "last straw."

By the way, I didn't like Harvey Johnson either, but saying that he was a "drug lord" is pretty inaccurate. It is also a good example of the trash talking that you guys throw back, thus hurting the city even further. What happened to the good-hearted volunteerism?

You made a good point when you said that the people of Jackson did make Belhaven and Fondren nicer places to live. If I ever do move back to the area, that would be the place I would move.

Either way, a lot of people gave up on the city, which is the biggest contributing factor to its ills. I guess I would have been able to include myself in that category, but I was born and raised in Madison, not Jackson. Which is the reason why I can talk about Madison and Rankin Counties being redneck. Growing up there does give me some authority to speak on that.

If you don't believe that brain drain is a problem for Mississippi, I suggest you do some research on the subject, then we can talk.

From one of the links above:

"The supply/demand metrics behind all of these projects in downtown Jackustan is pure hype. If the ROI actually worked the private sector would have funded these boondoggles long, long ago. The projects didn't make sense when the private sector was lavishing money on anything remotely plausible and the arguments for them are even more specious now. The idea that there is a pent-up wave of people looking to move downtown, businesses looking to relocate downtown, consumers looking to spend on overpriced boutique goods/services downtown and conventioneers overeager to attend conventions in the downtown of Detroit's unofficial sister city was a pipe dream from the outset."

7:41am...For someone who implicitly claims to be a "brain" you don't seem to get it. What 12:18 was saying was not that a single incident is enough to run someone out of town, however the offenses build up until one reaches a breaking point. That's what the idiom "last straw" means. If you are incapable of comprehending the concept, I suggest you do some research. Also, learn how to spell "cashier" (you misspelled it the same way twice, so don't try to claim it was a typo).

I lived in Jackson until 2005. I left because of falling property values, rampant crime, closing businesses, roads that were turning to gravel, high property taxes, higher insurance rates, higher car tags, a hostile city administration (hostile is the appropriate word), and several other factors. I stayed and tried to make it better, but the time came when I had had enough. The chief factor was that I didn't feel comfortable letting my child play in the front yard. There are certain sacrifices I'll make, but I won't sacrifice my family to curry favor with the likes of Donna Ladd (who's going to hate me no matter what I do).

The most ludicrous point you make is to say that those leaving Jackson for Madison/Rankin are rednecks who are letting the city rot, but those leaving Jackson for other states are educated people making prudent life choices. Please!

Another well written comment from one of the links above (2011...JJ readers sniffed this out long ago):

Well, I can't say I'm shocked that this deal is falling apart, but my concern is less to do with the integrity of those involved than with the endemically flawed concept. The developers/financiers/contractors etc. can have the most honorable intentions and be of indisputable probity and the project will still be a bust, because it's not grounded in practicality.

Others have said it more eloquently than I, but it bears repeating. This notion that a ready-built prefab community will make downtown Jackson an urban residential mecca is insane. Further, it shows a complete misunderstanding of the dynamics of this city, its residents, its business trends, and the region at large.

Just look at the numbers. The story claims that Capitol Green plans to add four thousand housing units to the area. Setting aside the "mixed income" designation and the ludicrous notion that well to do residents will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a home within eyesight of just-above-poverty-line housing, the idea that the current (or ANY) housing market will absorb 4,000 new units when there are safer and cheaper options within a reasonable commute is ignorant.

I'm constantly befuddled by these projects. It's as if no one stepped back and asked, "What is the end toward which we are striving?" Let's say the wrecking balls come, then the construction crews, then the painters and landscapers and the city has a nice, shiny new mixed-income neighborhood right out of some politically correct Hollywood TV show. What then? How do you sell it? Certainly the lower end of the "mixed-income" clientele will be excited to upgrade their digs, but what does this afford the middle- or upper-income resident? Are there 2500 home buyers willing to take out a 30-year mortgage to live within walking distance of the Old Capitol? Call me quirky, but I just don't think Ben Allen and Donna Ladd can use their tactics of guilt, shame and denial to persuade that many people to leave Madison, Ridgeland, Flowood or Byram for a questionable roll-of-the-dice township.

Promise me all the blues clubs you can, but I'm still not gambling my family's welfare on this, and I think it's safe to say that neither will most area residents. But it appears we'll never know now, will we? Actually, I think that's a good thing. I'd rather see this thing fail early than get halfway through and run out of money, only to have the developer go hat-in-hand to the Legislature for a multi-million dollar loan.

Wait, that last part seems all too familiar...

7:13.... The Street View picture is classic. The BOS did a great job underwriting these folks!

Ben Allen: "Downtown is dying"

- MS Business Journal
- January 28, 2013

Venture the strategery for us Kingfish.

Full Spectrum has either received some reasonable assurance of a settlement through a back channel from Graham and/or Stokes?

OR

Graham and/or Stokes has used the same channel to let it be known that they (and their yap dog Hunter) will now vote to approve the robo-garage loan but need to be forced to do so by the lawsuit in order to avail themselves of the political cover?

Hard to believe that Full Spectrum would scorch this earth if they weren't confident the controlled burn would benefit them, some way, in the end.

Hazard a guess for us Kingfish. What do you think the odds are that the matter gets resolved before the upcoming special election? This smells like the political fix is in.

You folks know what downtown Jackson needs?

A monorail!

Is there a snark-off brewing between 10:13 pm and 12:18 am & friends?

Since 9:08 started the trend of summarizing other people's arguments, I will continue that trend.

There are two basic premises in 10:13's post that neither 12:18 nor 9:08 answered to: (1) there is brain drain in MS; and (2) that it is caused, in part, by the fact that there is not a vibrant urban area in MS to attract them.

Jackson is the closest thing you have to an urban area in the state. The ill of urban plight is something that was born out of the private sector and could end of the private sector actually WORKED to end it. If they actually wanted to atleast.

But no, people like 10:07 like things just the way they are. Maybe he is one of the "rednecks" to which the earlier post was referring.

Excellent reporting, KF.

"By the way, I didn't like Harvey Johnson either, but saying that he was a "drug lord" is pretty inaccurate."

I don't think this was directed at Harvey.

Explain why there were ZERO arrests for drug dealing during Frank Melton's entire first year in office. look it up.

"You folks know what downtown Jackson needs?

A monorail! "

Let's combine it with other great ideas for revitalizing the Capitol City.

How about a toll monorail that will carry 23 persons per day to the airport. Staff it with robots to keep costs down, and arrange for stops at all the new night spots on Farish Street. Power it with sawgrass to stimulate rural Mississippi's economy too!

(1) there is brain drain in MS;

(2) that it is caused, in part, by the fact that there is not a vibrant urban area in MS to attract them.

Prove it beyond anecdote.

"Land is relatively cheap. Construction is relatively cheap. We needed a catalyst, and that happened with the convention center," City Council President Ben Allen said. "What you're going to see is a tremendous amount of backfill in these offices downtown. If we can get our arms wrapped around some of this social disorder and crime, no telling where we're going."

-- Clarion Ledger
-- February 24, 2007

11:54, as someone who graduated from college three years ago, I think I would have some credibility on what recent grads consider when determining where to live after college.

If what you are wanting is an official study on the issue, you can look that up yourself. I'm not going to go through the trouble of providing you one when you obviously have the same access to the Internet as I do.

I agree that there is a problem with young people leaving the state, but that's not a new phenomenon. When I was a new college grad, half my circle left for Atlanta or Dallas, and if I hadn't had a really good job, I would have as well.

Times haven't changed that much and people certainly haven't. Young people don't move into a vacuum. They may go to a bigger town, but they go where there are jobs and places to make a living. There are indeed rich kids who traipse off to New York and live off their parents, but most of this "brain drain" is fueled by a lack of careers. A twentysomething with a college degree fares much better in a city of 3 million than a city of 200,000.

See, your premise is flawed. You appear to be coming from the position that Jackson needs a hip urban community to keep young people from fleeing (a notion that has been posited here MANY times), but hip urban communities are not sustained solely upon duende. There has to be an economic engine.

How many people do you know who leave Jackson to go to Chicago specifically for the purpose of working at McDonalds? There may be a few, but that's not brain drain. That's a relocating slacker. Brain drain implies bright people who have the means and the potential to enhance a city are leaving, and such people generally follow their fortunes. If they have a choice between 100K in Jackson and 100K in Houston, they may choose the larger city, but the reason they leave is usually that there is no 100K in Jackson.

Jobs have to precede the hip community. It just doesn't work the other way round. If you build it they will come is a great slogan for ghostly baseball players in Iowa cornfields, but it doesn't translate to a city run by incompetents very well.

Ben Allen a/k/a Thomas Jefferson lite, Stokes, Spectrum, Farris Street "development" and now John Arthur Eaves, pseudo evangelical look a like. What a perfect storm of integrity and competence.

Somebody tell us about the robots.

Don't know how much they're paying Eaves, but looks to me like they didn't get the "full spectrum" of legal services, which would normally include proofreading (though KF fell for it too).

Of course, unless they've changed their name to emphasize the true nature of what they're after.

So is it Old Capitol Green or
Old Capital Green? (Capital is in the filing)

Of course they could always change their name to Full Spectral.

September 4, 2013 at 1:38 PM = NAILS IT

Brain drain is Spin.

" "By the way, I didn't like Harvey Johnson either, but saying that he was a "drug lord" is pretty inaccurate."
I don't think this was directed at Harvey.
Explain why there were ZERO arrests for drug dealing during Frank Melton's entire first year in office. look it up.
September 4, 2013 at 11:47 AM "

Actually, I was referring to neither Harvey nor Frank. When I said the voters "...dug the city's grave by electing mayors who made things even worse", I was including Harvey and Frank. The person to whom I was referring may or may not have been Mayor. He had a 'white-sounding' last name. But his Momma's 'people' were from an island between Europe and Africa, whose inhabitants have a certain reputation. It is not a reputation for docility and honesty. Mississippi has, in recent decades, had some prominent politicians and power brokers by that description. Most of them are from the Coast. They have English/Irish/Scottish sounding last names. So how could they have 'mob ties'? Then, you hear their mommas' last names, and you go, "Oooooooh!"

12:52m said..."as someone who graduated from college three years ago, I think I would have some credibility on what recent grads consider when determining where to live after college."

As a 25 year oldish person....you dont know shit. those massive incomes of the twenty somethings don't fuel a city. Families do.

1:38 did indeed nail it.

3:57 "But a drug lord ran the town for a long time, and his network of corruption grew steadily larger. Then, the voters chose a succession of mayors who made things even worse. Black voters dug Jackson's grave, by electing the politicians who have destroyed the city." So, you weren't referring to a mayor, but to a someone else who "ran the town" and may or may not have been white, or maybe Caribbean/East Indian. Sounds pretty vague for someone who "ran the town".

"an island between Europe and Africa, whose inhabitants have a certain reputation. It is not a reputation for docility and honesty. Mississippi has, in recent decades, had some prominent politicians and power brokers by that description. Most of them are from the Coast. They have English/Irish/Scottish sounding last names."

an island between Europe and Africa? mobsters? sounds like Sicily - but they have "English/Irish/Scottish sounding last names"?

Not the Sicilians I've known.

Since we're talking about grandiose development plans that have gone to shit, can anyone tell me what the status is on Farish Street?

"Since we're talking about grandiose development plans that have gone to shit, can anyone tell me what the status is on Farish Street?"

B.B. King's House of Crack is set to open in Spring 2014.

I originally wrote "Capitol" but when I read the letter, I thought I was wrong so I changed it.

9:02 B.B. King is a great man - leave him out of it. There is no shortage of creeps, crooks, losers, leeches, etc., in Jackson who do deserve ridicule.

" 3:57 "But a drug lord ran the town for a long time, and his network of corruption grew steadily larger. Then, the voters chose a succession of mayors who made things even worse. Black voters dug Jackson's grave, by electing the politicians who have destroyed the city." So, you weren't referring to a mayor, but to a someone else who "ran the town" and may or may not have been white, or maybe Caribbean/East Indian. Sounds pretty vague for someone who "ran the town". "

I said "may or may not have been Mayor". There WERE mayors before Harvey and Frank.

So, maybe, maybe not. Maybe it was someone serving in another capacity. But I'll shorten the list of suspects for you. It was not Evelyn Gandy. It was not Zelma Finch. And it was not the Governor who was a drag queen...or the Governor whose offspring sunbathed nude on the flat roof surmounting the Mansion.

I like your "Caribbean/East Indian" theory a lot... yeah! Because we all know that the Caribbean is a zone lying between Europe and Africa. Oh, PLEASE tell me your major was Geography!

I'll give you another hint: not a great hint, though. There is a breed of chicken from that island. The chicken is named after a flower. The flower is named after a dairy product. These chickens are very capable and domineering birds. They tend to rise to the top of the pecking order within days of their introduction into a multi-breed flock.

B.B. King doesn't make the day-to-day business decisions regarding his restaurants. He's merely a celebrity figurehead with a minority ownership. That hasn't stopped shameless people from applying pressure on him and his Mississippi roots to support a terrible idea. The Farish Street location won't stay in business any longer than it has to. I give it 4 years on the outside...more likely two.

And I have no idea who this "riddle me this" person is dropping esoteric accusations of spectral drug lords and shadow puppet masters named after Caribbean chickens, but it's getting really, REALLY stupid. (Is it too hard to say "Sicily"?) Call a name or shut up.

12:18am That is the best rationalization for fleeing to the suburbs, I've ever read.
But, that's all it is.
The problem is that when the going got tough, instead of digging in to continue to fight, you ran.
And, your notion that the jobs went to the suburbs just isn't accurate. I would point out the hospitals and state government and the colleges and university for starters.
The fact is, the unemployment rate in Jackson in July of this year was 6.7%...lower than the rest of the state including the suburbs.
And, you left out that rather alot of the white flight took place initially because people couldn't afford private schools. Indeed, Madison was growing when Dale Danks was Mayor.
Developers loved Madison as well in those days because the buidling codes were weak and the fees and taxes lower and they could throw up a subdivision in a cow pasture..Many of the lovely subdivisions had septic tanks. And, if you think Jackson's water/sewer system is bad, just wait to see how Madison's will be in a few decades. And, the roads? Ride around in Annadale. Those roads aren't holding up for a reason...they weren't built well to start.
Our problems in education are a major cause of MS's failure to attract jobs. Young people do seek opportunity so they go elsewhere But, opportunity is also about the ability to be upwardly mobile. The continuing pressures for conformity and advantages of having been in the right sorority or fraternity still exist.Those young people who attended an Ivy League school and do return are not warmly embraced,they are regarded with suspicion and one is likely to hear something like " they think they're smarter than we are". Instead, we should hope they are and be glad they brought their brains and knowledge back home!

Those young people who attended an Ivy League school and do return are not warmly embraced ...

Bullshit. You clearly have NO F'ING IDEA how many Ivy League grads have happily returned to Mississippi to be loved and embraced as if they never left home. You are a complete idiot.

Kingfish, please show the street view for Full Spectrum in New York. It is glorious.

And 8:12 you are a bitter little sad, lonely soul.

It's sad that you people are oblivious to a secret shadow government that has been running the city for a century. The leader is person who might be a female who sunbathed naked on the steps of First Baptist church, or it might be a man who was named after a certain breed of anteater that hails from a country on the coast of a continent that isn't Antarctica. And those are some FEISTY anteaters, let me tell you!

Anyway, they've been putting drugs in the JPS lunches and convincing the kids to tell their parents to vote for certain people, but only people whose last names rhyme with a brand of snowtire manufactured in a southeast Asian island nation that was named after a vegetable that was named after a meat substitute...

...and that's why we need to build a $20 million parking garage that's run by robots!

that street view of their address is priceless! "Touba Afrikan Clothing" and "Mother Pearson" (which appears boarded up)!Talk about a sham-- no wonder they didn't produce any financial records!!

8:12 pm do the Ivy Leaguers have friends and family? Sure. Do the ones who are doctors or lawyers have a reasonably successful career? Sure.
But, if you don't know they are often thwarted, seen as a threat and talked ugly about behind their backs, you don't get out much or else you are a close friend or relative and nobody says anything to you.
The Duck Dynasty folks and the Lizard Lick towing folks would have more influence in the halls of the legislature, local governments,and in some professions.
No tolerance for " effete intellectuals" in these parts and those who have forgotten " how we do things around here".

As an Ivy Leaguer who came back to Jackson, let me say two things:

1. I took a 50% pay cut to come home. I still do fine and the cost of living helps a lot, but that's a huge reason many of Jackson's smartest young people end up somewhere else. However;

2. I have never once heard a negative comment about where I went to school. Not even a passive-aggressive joke. If people find out--and most don't--the normal comment is that it's great Mississippi is getting people from that school to come back home.

President Clinton as a southern governor was tutored by our own Governor Winter. Winter had come up thru the political and military ranks. Clinton and Winter opened up the Latin American drug connection for the money center banks. Mayor Ditto was partner and manager of Winters firm prior to his political career. They and the Brunini firm occupy the Pinnacle building currently down on Jackson Place on Lamar. Jackson will rise again but it will be caused by these very gentlemen and their connections.

Gov. Barbour and the former US Attorneys left their downtown offices when Butler Snow law firm moved to Madison county taking a lot of wind out of the tallest commercial tower. It is home to some good lawyers still. Watkins Eager and other gold plated law firms haven't betrayed the capital city downtown. Getting a better developer than the New York City mafia should occupy the city fathers. The remaining law offices have the potential to renew Capitol Green.

You're funny.

William Winter the segregationist?

Jones Walker is a New Orleans law firm so I see the Capitol Green being the default location for the coast casinos, the Saints, and other lawful businesses when the next storm hits real hard.

Yeah, Entergy will move from hurricane hazard to downtown Jackson where the flooding odds are only slightly better? Flooding on the Pearl could be stopped if the 1960 levees that protect the Rankin County municipalities were re-engineered to improve the flood discharge instead of restricting it. The lakes plan attempts to solve this restriction without correcting the levee design. The levee board, the Chamber, and the lakes promoters are thinking they can trash the endangered species act in court instead of making a proper floodway and levee system. Downtown development is hindered in Jackson because of this uncorrected flood hazard.