Jackson Jambalaya

Where on North State St. was Standpipe Park?

In 1935, The City of Jackson leaders implemented a "City Plan". 80 years later the leaders can't assemble much less implement a "Master Plan". Sometimes the semantics just get in the way. And that my friends is the bottom line.

Yeah. They did a hell of a job from 1935-1965. Hang anybody that stirs things up or threatens the moonshine trade or that tries to help blacks vote. Great plan.

That part goes without saying.

Where is/was Oakdale Park?

Water Scott was one of the greatest Mayors in the history of Jackson.

I didn't see a photo of Cowboy Maloney's trailer on 55 Frontage. It's been there for ninety years. Imagine that crap in Madison.

The difference between then and now, is not entirely about the demographic transformation of the city, or about the prioritization of "Social Justice" above all else, or about rampant corruption. There's also the current stylistic preference for Modernism, which began creeping in, along with Communism, around the time of WWII.

Picturesque traditional buildings, and formal designs for downtown parks, have gradually been replaced by ugly (but ideologically "correct", as in "Less is More") Modernist garbage. In reality, LESS IS JUST LESS. And enough 'Less' yields an accretion of structures amounting to a cityscape that's LESS-THAN-ZERO.

The style is cheap to design, cheap to estimate, cheap to build, and even cheap, when it comes to making computer models and renderings. What's even better, is that committees of idiots (particularly in Third World places like Jackson) are just so amazed that someone could "draw uh picture", they're wowed by any picture you stick in front of their slack-jawed faces.

The only problem, is that when all this cheapness gets built, you end up with a product that's ugly, depressing, and cheap-looking. For those of us who OWN buildings, all that ease & cheapness backfires. People don't exactly fight to get into those buildings - even when they're new. And once the new wears off (VERY quickly, with Modern), you end up renting for next-to-nothing - and sitting on half-empty buildings. WE learned OUR lesson. But some people, apparently, never learn.

It's funny, but Jackson's current crop of ugly "Mid-century Modern Retro" crap, blends in seamlessly with the city's older stock of ugly, "International Style" Modernist crap from the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

The "International Style" was formulated, so that even the most ordinary of Architects, with NO aesthetic ability, who'd gone to even the most ordinary of schools, in various middles-of-nowhere, could crank-out "Correctly Modern" buildings, with a minimum of thought, effort, or expense. This proved perfect for boys from lower middle class families, who'd gone through college on the government's dime, having chosen Architecture, because it was - well - a major. They had to major in SOMETHING, ya know... But that didn't mean they had to care about how things looked. The International Style is perfect for guys who only care about drawing some lines and adding-up some numbers.

But maybe I shouldn't complain, since Jackson's current preponderance of 'COW COLLEGE MODERN' buildings (And Cow College Landscape Architecture), really does make the city LOOK as barren, bleak, and hopeless as it actually IS.

My guess is that Standpipe Park was at the location of the present-day water tank at State and Riverside, across from Millsaps. Nearby Riverside Park was developed around the same time as the construction of the present tank, so they wouldn't have needed the smaller park.

Attn 12:27 AM Sober up on Sunday and write something comprehensible.

"Hang anybody that stirs things up or threatens the moonshine trade or that tries to help blacks vote."

Pukeworthy to note that the next post following that remark was Kingfish saying "That part goes without saying".

I don't know what 12:27 AM is ranting about either. Huh?
I wish the city had left the Coliseum alone with its fantastic orange exterior. It was "modern", unique, and an eye-catching example of "modernism". Now it looks boringly like anywhere USA. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Why? It's true. For all the bragging about how nice some things were in Jackson in past decades or waxing about how wonderful Capitol Street used be, those things were kept off limits to a large section of the population. I just don't see the need to flog everyone about it every time I post something historical about Jackson as it's pretty much understood by everyone- or I hope it is.

You're right Kingfish. There's a contingent here that must complain about everything.

After 12:27’s somewhat undcipherable post, I would like to thank you for allowing us to look back at how Jackson usd to look. My father-in-law told me stories of him diving from the elevated diving board at Livingston Lake. It’s a shame how that area has become blighted. I also read where the natural gas well at the corner of High Street and Greymont used to be a swimming pool which was warmed by rhe warm water underneath Jackson. I believe it was used from 1936 to 1942 or 1943. The cause of the warm water I will not mention.

This City was great at one time and I’m glad to see you were able to find some information. After renovating several old structures in Jackson I have found the early construction Designs and methods used were crude and cost efficient for its time which was during and soon after Reconstruction. The Architects of the 1920’s to 1950’s did have good vision and I also remember my Dad telling me that Frank Lloyd Wright designed and built a home somewhere in Jackson and lived temporarily on its site. I just wish a lot of these old structures could still be rehabilitated and used. But with the way Jackson has become I don’t see that happening.

To Frank Lloyd Wright at 12:27:

You're certainly not the first architect to exhibit an inflated sense of self-worth, but the 'piss-on-all-others' is not very endearing.

This anonymous comment was pretty good but for the first sentence, which I removed.

12:27; ... what are you trying to say? Name four buildings you like and four you decry. Name two architectural schools (in America if you don't mind) that you'd prefer and two you detest. It's real sad that nobody appreciates your talent and your world-class impression of what things should look like

The comment control mob has no interested 12:27 in providing any room for your difference of opinion.

"But maybe I shouldn't complain, since Jackson's current preponderance of 'COW COLLEGE MODERN' buildings (And Cow College Landscape Architecture), really does make the city LOOK as barren, bleak, and hopeless as it actually IS."

I do believe that 12:27 could benefit from a mission trip to Haiti with the Most Honorable and Reverent Hugh Freeze then get back with us on their advancements in architecture.

@1:31...is this the new motto for Jackson..."Jackson, Mississippi...we ain't Haiti" Might work though because some people would probably need to be convinced...especially if you took them on a tour of Kennefland. 12:27 was pretty accurate about modernism and I would say some of the structures in Jackson are more Brutalist, but that is what you find around centers of government...and for a lot of the reasons 12:27 cited. And I don't think anyone has ever accused Starkghanistan of housing the worlds finest Architecture or Engineering school...it serves it's purpose.

No, I gave The City of Jackson it's new motto several weeks ago during the water line crisis:

"Looks like Detroit, Tastes like Flint"

Kingfish is on an odd tear (pronounced TARE) today. First he thinks everybody who contributed to the growth and development of Capitol Street seventy years ago favored hanging black people and then he moved on to censoring comments directed at some architectural idiot.

Maybe all these posthumous sermons are taking a toll.

I always wanted to see pictures of the zoo when it had animals. Does anyone have any?

The Frank Lloyd Wright home is in Woodland Hills of Old Canton Road. Mr J Willis Hughes owned it from the 40's through the 60's I believe. Don't know if he was the first owner. I knew the family and went to Millsaps with his sons. It is a very nice concrete home.

Why didn't 12:27 just say, "Nobody appreciated my talent or would hire me", sign it George Jetson, and be done with it?

I was born in 1971. Kingfish just showed an add from 1935. Personally, I like it. I love looking at stuff like this. Seeing how things were a long time ago. Nice work KF.

8:18 - You're still a youngster. And the point of showing the ad was not just to remember old time photos (stuff for you to like). Am I wasting my time with you?

And the point of showing the ad was not just to remember old time photos ...

Don't beat around the bush. What was the other point?

@ February 4, 2018 at 2:57 PM

I think Detroit receives a bad rep for something a majority of major cities across the country experienced after World War II. From north to south, east to west - the suburbs were established. With the great black migration of the 40's, 50's and 60's - the urban metropolis for the north were infused with southern blacks. Henceforth culture shock and cities like New York and Chicago were already accustomed to self-inflicted segregation - Irish, Italian, Jewish, White Protestant and Asian communities.

But once all that leveled off, you had those black americans that came from the south worked for 30-40 years with companies like Ford, Chevy, Good Year, Eaton or in the public sector as bus drivers, subway transit workers, police officers and firefighters - they started returning to the south, to their hometowns. The land is cheap, they had plenty of money with great retirement packages.

So when those people left cities like Detroit, Chicago, Buffalo and Rochester New York, Cleveland - it created a revenue vacuum. That's why you see Florida, Texas, Tennessee, and Georgia doing so well.

Its not that Detroit is trash, its just lost some major revenue streams from locals that left the state of Michigan altogether.

It was posted for historical purposes. Nothing more, nothing less. Trying to find a moral in the post will get you shot.

Just as Detroit, without acknowledging the reality, PoCatfish reveals that black tax flight is also costing Jackson. The black middle class has been fleeing Jackson for many years now and the reasons for the exodus are well, well known.

No, it isn't because Jackson lacks a vibrant downtown.

@ February 5, 2018 at 10:29 AM

In all seriousness, they contributed to the loss of revenues too.

Can't argue with you on that

Kingfish @8:46:

To say that your post was for "historical purposes only" is not only disingenuous, it is in my opinion, also immoral. King you knew exactly that this post would not only inflame the anti-Jackson contingent, you knew that the defenders of modern day Jackson, like myself, would take the bait and lend a "historical perspective" to the historical post".

It was more than certain citizens (Black) of Jackson not being able to enjoy the improvements lauded in the CL article, the Black community in effect subsidized the improvements with their tax dollars, again with no access to the fruits of their tax payments.

I was involved in a case in the late 70's where the "Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law", sued the city of Hazelhurst for steering most of the federal aid awarded to the city for first class work in White neighborhoods (Curb and gutter, concrete sidewalks, and hot mix asphalt), while providing substandard improvements (sand and gravel mixed with recycled and waste asphalt products, and open drainage ditches) in the Black neighborhood.

The City of Hazelhurst admitted guilt and settled out of court.

The City of Jackson was next on the litigation list, however the COJ fathers hustled to ameliorate the disparity before the case was filed.

To discount the validity of the historical perspectives of my community is again, in my opinion, disingenuous and immoral.

Especially, King, and I say this with a sincere respect for your tenancity, when you knew exactly the responses you would get.

Shame, shame,shame.

I just do not understand the ill wishes towards Jackson?

I am not from Jackson, Mississippi, but it is technically like an adoptive home.

Traveled to many places and the one thing that is different is that people in the surrounding suburbs will still go into the city to support it - whether its Chicago, Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas - even Memphis is gaining traction in that regard. Whereas people in the surrounding suburbs of Jackson will not, there's a constant bash fest given any opportunity when it comes to Jackson.

I don't know what its going to take to change the attitudes and the narrative, but its 2018 and we should be thriving as a collective in the metropolitan area. Jackson and the surrounding burbs is a blank canvass. There's a lot of opportunity to do great things.

While Mickens continues to wallow in self imposed pity and a false narrative of having a boot on his neck all his life, let me remind him: Chinese in this state were not even allowed to attend public schools in the forties. They were not segregated into Chinese only public schools. They simply were not allowed to attend ANY public school.

Growing up with and around hundreds of Chinese families, I never once heard a Chinese citizen complain, moan about discrimination or spend a lifetime blaming others for the plight of his people. Quite the converse; they all struggled, achieved, excelled and gained prominence and respect all over the state, the region and the country.

And then.....there's Mickens.

Mr. Frank, the war is over. Let it go.

9:37 How do you know? Have you found the JJ equivalent in each of those cities and spend 24/7 on those like you do here? Are they also your adoptive homes?

It seems they expect KF not to post something just because it could get a negative response? How dare someone say something unpopular.

Feb 6 at 9:37....you don’t know what it’s going to take? It’s going to take all of the Byron Dela Beckwiths dying of old age. Still too many of them live on this board. And in the state Capitol.

Anon@ February 6, 2018 at 12:24 PM

The Chinese were not allowed to attend public Schools in the 1940's! Very poor example. Shall I say a piss poor example

1. The Chinese did not suffer the destruction of their families, self esteem and humanity through rape, castrations, shackles, and lynchings during the HUNDREDS of years of American slavery. How do you get over and or recover from HUNDREDS of years of slavery in the 60 years since the US Civil rights laws were passed?

2. The Chinese men were not abducted off of the street and out of their neighborhoods by public police and officials and then rented out as "convict" labor". This practice was especially egregious during World War 2, where war industries most notably in the coal mines and steel industry in Alabama during the 100 years of Jim Crow. They have unearthed thousands of unmarked graves of these Black neo=slaves as they continue to dig around the hills of Birmingham for new developments. How do you get over and or recover from GENERATIONS of JIM CROW laws and, lynchings and KKK violence in the 60 years since the US Civil rights laws were passed?

3. The Chinese did not have the CIA inject crack cocaine into their communities to finance US illegal forays into Central America during the 70's and 80'. How do you get over and or recover from DECADES of CIA interference in the 60 years since the US Civil rights laws were passed?

4. The Chinese were not subject to unjust and dastardly laws during the ongoing "War on Drugs" where White persons with pounds of cocaine in their possession were regularly given no or little jail time, while a Black person possessing and ounce of crack cocaine gets 10-20 years. How do you get over and or recover from DECADES of targeted and unjust in the 60 years since the US Civil rights laws were passed?

5. The Chinese were never targets of law enforcement where unarmed, and yes even naked Black men, women and children are regularly shot to death, (the legal term is murdered) within the past five years, with no repercussions suffered by the murderous police. How do you get over and or recover from DECADES of Police Brutality in the 60 years since the US Civil rights laws were passed and more importantly since cell phone footage can now be used to document the POLICE BRUTALITY that most Whites had considered "figments of Black folks" imagination?

I could go on but I know no matter what I say your evil, selfish heart and mind will not be moved,

In all fairness I will however point out that, with the exception of slavery, poor Whites suffer from some of the same inequities and evils I have outlined. The difference between poor Whites and Blacks is that enough African Americans were willing to die to gain their constitutional and moral rights while poor Whites, women, LGBT's, the handicapped, Jews, etc. were not willing to die. They did however benefit from the Civil Rights they gained from the deaths of African Americans up to and including the new push against sexual harassment in the workplace.

In my recollection,the last time White folks were willing to die for their rights was during the unionization efforts in the coal mines and factories during a 50 year period in the last century. Gains they have lost because because they did not stay the course due to their silence.

African Americans, your Blacks as it were, cannot afford to be silent. If we go silent we will CONTINUE to be harassed, killed and shot down on the streets as evidenced with "Castle and Protection Personal Space" laws that allow White folks, and White folks only to kill Black folks if the FEEL? Threatened? The possibility of White folks killing Black folks is so predictable, and economically advantageous, the NRA is selling insurance policies to defend Whites who kill Blacks

As Malcolm X (himself a CIA and FBI target) said "African Americans are undeniable the moral and vocal conscience of America's Constitutions."

Sorry for the long post. I know most won't read and none will be moved, however getting this out does make me feel better,

As for having a White boot on my neck all of my life? Yes. I can recount the many times I have been followed in stores, denied loans, contracts, stopped by police and security guards both in Mississippi and New York (stopped and frisked).. And this is when I'm wearing a suit and tie!

What do you call a Black man with a Phd, in a suit and tie who speaks lawless English? A Niggra!

Old joke. Current dilemma.

Kingfish said...
Mr. Frank, the war is over. Let it go.

@February 6, 2018 at 1:09 PM

Yes King the Civil War Between the States is over, but the War Against Less than Wealthy Whites, Blacks, Browns and Immigrants continues.

In addition to my response to ANON 12:24 let me present the CURRENT state of the battles being waged against the minorities I have cited above.

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2017/dec/13/truth-and-pandering-history-museums-open/.

@ February 6, 2018 at 4:45 PM

My gripe with the King was not based upon the content of his post, but rather his misleading preface that the post was for "historical purposes only".

It was. Guess you missed it a few years ago when I posted that video of 1930's Jackson or the one of the opening of the airport.

King, I guess I did miss your previous video post of years (?) years ago. Again I say I respect your journalistic tenacity and can I also add the genius of your business model, AKA "Mini-Me Rush Limbaugh". But can you still feint no awareness of how our post would be responded to?