Was Kenneth Stokes correct when he called the Mayor "Lying Lumumba"? Watch Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba shuck the corn in this March 18 interview on the progressive website, Democracy Now. There is no untruth, half-truth, or quarter-truth he won't tell if it means he can blame someone else for Jackson's water problems. Watch the video or read the transcript. They are both posted below with color commentary from yours truly. Enjoy.
Here is the opening narrative:
Residents in Jackson, Mississippi, have been facing a water crisis over the last five weeks, with many people lacking reliable access to clean drinking water after deadly February winter storms caused pipes and water mains to burst. While water delivery has largely been restored, “boil water” orders remain in effect for most people. The city estimates it could cost $2 billion to fix the city’s water system. The crisis in Jackson, which is 82% Black, highlights how climate catastrophe threatens much of the nation’s aging infrastructure. Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba says while the city “contributes millions of dollars” in tax revenue to Mississippi each year, state leaders have refused to help and left the city to deal with the crisis by itself. ....
We go now to Jackson, Mississippi, where we’re joined by Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. He has served as mayor since 2017. His father, Chokwe Lumumba, also briefly served as mayor before dying unexpectedly in 2014 eight months into his first term.
Mayor, it’s great to have you back on Democracy Now! Your city is facing a massive crisis — two. Of course, you’re dealing, like the whole country, with the coronavirus pandemic. And at the same time, you haven’t had clean drinking water for a month. Can you explain what’s happening and what needs to be done?
It's teed up and the Mayor takes a full swing at the ball, right?
Yes. First, Amy, thank you for having me again, and thank you for lifting up this issue.
What we suffered after the two winter storms — and I need to make certain that I clarify that, that we had two consecutive storms that took place, leaving us in prolonged low temperatures in the city of Jackson, historically low temperatures in the city of Jackson. And what it did was it created complications getting water into our treatment facility. The raw water screens are at the inception point of the water treatment facility, in which they froze. And because we couldn’t get water in, it complicated or made it impossible for us to clean water and get water out, leaving our distribution system compromised. And as consumption was high, it drained many of the tanks across the city. And our PSI — our water treatment facility operates off of hydraulics. The PSI went down to 37. We need our PSI at about 90 in order to distribute water throughout the system.
Wait a second. Didn't DR. Williams say the sprayers failed? Something doesn't add up. The Rez froze over several times in the 90's but the intakes never froze. How come this is the first time the intakes froze up, if the Mayor is to be believed? Jackson's press release during the ice storm stated fish, trash, and other debris clogged up the screens. Sprayers are supposed to keep those screens clear. Water enters the plant every day from the Pearl River. There are always going to be animate or inanimate objects that clog up the screens. Hence the sprayers. However, don't let facts get in the way of a good excuse.
This is on account of an aged, aging infrastructure of a legacy city, money which has not been contributed over time, while the city of Jackson contributes millions of dollars each and every year, and has done so since Kane Ditto, before Kane Ditto, and continues to do so. What we have not is had a state leadership that identifies this as not just a city of Jackson problem, but a ongoing and shared problem of not only the city, but the state. And I’d like to just emphasize that in a few ways, if I could, Amy.
One, the city of Jackson is the largest city by a factor of three, the highest contributor to revenue to the state. We are the state capital, which means that many of our properties are untaxable. We do not get payment in lieu of taxes. Furthermore, we provide water to state facilities at no cost to the state of Mississippi. So, if they just paid their water bill, the city of Jackson would be in a lot better position.
When things aren't going your way, attack! How many times did the Mayor falsely claim the state did not pay for its water? New York Times, MSNBC, local press conference, and Democracy Now just to name a few. The Mayor can say he was "armed" with bad information all he wants but the truth is he was smearing the state in the national day literally all the way up until this website busted him on his national fabrications and make no mistake, by state, he means whitey.
There is also his claim the state contributes no money in lieu of taxes. The Mayor's assertion once again does not square with the facts. The state created the Capitol Complex Improvement District to help the city of Jackson. The state takes over the infrastructure as well as police protection within the district, relieving Jackson of the expense. DFA told this website the state contributed over $14 million to CCID.
Mayor Lumumba opposed the CCID when it was created. What the Mayor wants is a nice fat blank check he can dole it to his friends. 30% anyone? To say the state does not contribute anything in lieu of taxes when it provides up to $8 million per year to the CCID is yet another Lumumba lie.
UAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Mayor, I wanted to ask you — for the brief time that your father was in office, one of the things that he was praised for was attempting to address the infrastructure problem. As I recall, he tried to institute a new tax to provide better infrastructure services. What’s been the problem between the — you mentioned one aspect, the state not paying its water bill — but in terms of being able to implement upgrades of the system?
MAYOR CHOKWE ANTAR LUMUMBA: Well, I think that you would have to understand the comprehensive infrastructure problem in the city of Jackson. The 1% sales tax generates about $13 million annually. And when I said $2 billion, I didn’t say $2 billion for the water system; I said comprehensively. The way we know that is that the EPA has estimated that our wastewater problem is about a billion dollars, where sewage is coming up in people’s yards and in their backyards and in ditches, and those issues. So, that’s one. That’s before we get to the drinking water, which we see the crisis that we have on our hands after the February storms. That doesn’t get to the drainage. We suffered a 30-year flood just recently, this past — in 2020. So, that doesn’t get to the issue of how drainage is — how people address that. And that doesn’t get to roads and bridges and all of these things, all these parts of our infrastructure that our residents rely on. So, $13 million is just insufficient to meet the need.
$2 billion? Prove it. Where is the itemized list of projects? Where is the engineer's analysis?
The city of Jackson was not ill-prepared based on the winter storms; we were ill-equipped. And so, this is because resources are often stripped from the city of Jackson. Not only are we not met with a consistent plan in order to support the city that supports the state of Mississippi; we don’t enjoy the commensurate support that the city provides the state. But also, we’ve had resources stripped away from us. You referenced the conversation, or you referenced the statements of Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann. As we have lifted up these issues year after year in our legislative agenda, understanding that it’s not a matter of if these infrastructure systems will fail, but when, he redirected the conversation to talk about the state’s effort to take over the city of Jackson’s airport, which is a profitable institution that we rely on year after year.
Mayor Lumumba, exactly what resources are being stripped away from the city of Jackson? How exactly does the city "rely" on the airport's profits? You know damn good and well airport revenue stays at the airport. The sales tax revenue goes to the city coffers and will continue to do so if a takeover indeed takes place. The Mayor knows what he said is not true but of course, he said it anyway. Anything to fit the narrative he must tell.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And how difficult has it been for the residents of your city to deal with the water situation while at the same time contending with the issues around the COVID pandemic?
MAYOR CHOKWE ANTAR LUMUMBA: Well, as you can imagine, our residents have made every endeavor to be as patient as they could. But the frustrations are high. You know, as you can imagine, when people want to drink water, cook with water, not only bathe but get rid of waste, people being concerned about not only the safety precautions of the pandemic but also taking medications, simple things like that, that they anticipate that water will help serve the need to do those things, it has been extremely difficult.
And so, you know, I do want to lift up the many people across the city, individuals, businesses, people from around the country, who have stood in the gap, rallied around the city of Jackson to distribute water. Each one of us have spent countless hours out making certain that we got water to the elderly, to the immobile, to the disabled. And so, while there has been great frustration around these issues, these are issues that the residents of Jackson have dealt with for quite some time, and so they’re very familiar, they’re intimately familiar, with the history of divestment, the history of a lack of investment from the state, very familiar with the woes and troubles of our water infrastructure and our infrastructure in a comprehensive way, as well.
What exactly does he mean by "lack of investment from the state"? Is the state supposed to drop money into Jackson just to prop up its infrastructure? How much should the state invest? What should the state do when other cities demand similar investments? If the state bails out Jackson, what is the penalty for years of financial mismanagement?
AMY GOODMAN: So, can you explain how people are getting water? I mean, if people can’t afford to buy water, how do they get to places where water is, or have to go to pick it up? One older woman described the only thing she could get was little bottled water. This is to keep themselves clean. It’s not just for drinking.
MAYOR CHOKWE ANTAR LUMUMBA: Well, you know, along with the complication of a water treatment facility essentially crashing during the storm, we also had the challenge for several days because roads were iced over and the transportation or distribution system was interrupted on our highways. And so, it became complicated because the local stores didn’t have water anymore. It became complicated because — it was increasingly challenging because trucks could not come and deliver water. But we were able to manage through that and set up distribution sites across the city. The state National Guard did set up tanks around the city for non-potable water, for people to come with containers and utilize. As I mentioned, you had several businesses, several individuals, that stood in the gap in order to support people in that way.
This is true. Iced-over roads prevented the Jackson area from getting much-needed supplies in its grocery stores. Unfortunately, the Mayor goes back to validating Kenneth Stokes in his next statement.
I do want to lift up the issue that Ms. Davis spoke to: the equity issues. You know, it is not a system where you turn on water from one area of town or another area of town. The system distributes water through the lines that were laid, actually, more than a hundred years ago. The problem is an issue of equity. We just have to understand when the take took place. The take happened, or the issues of people who are in poverty or don’t have the resources not being able to get the water, is because they live in areas that were not valued as high or as more desirable by those who had money. Those who had money built homes near — closest to the resources, closer to the water treatment facilities. Therefore, when water is redistributed through the distribution system, through the lines, they are the ones who get water sooner. When you get to South and West Jackson, those are the areas furthest away from the plant. Those are the areas at higher elevations across the city, which means that the water not only has to travel far, but it has to travel high. It has to go up those high elevation points.
The Mayor flat-out lied. Period. The O.B. Curtis plant was built in drum roll........... 1991, many years AFTER the completion of all residential construction in Northeast Jackson. Wait, there was some residential construction that did take place in that area after 1991: apartments such as The Reserve. Hardly an enclave of rich, white folks. The plant itself is by the spillway and is sandwiched between the river and a trailer park. It's also a pretty safe bet that living near a water plant was not exactly a priority for Jackson residents. One can just see Leland Speed saying to his son, hmm.... let's develop Eastover right here because in 30 years there might be a water plant several clicks upriver.
The Fewell plant was built over 100 years ago. The city planned to close Fewell after opening O.B. Curtis but that idea was abandoned. The areas in West Jackson with 100 year-old pipes are what were once the privileged white parts of town. Look at that area around Hawkins Field, the Jackson Zoo, the municipal golf course, the old Parkway Baptist, and abandoned St. Mary Catholic Church. Who do you think lived in that area 100 years ago? The privileged.
As for South Jackson, the city built a pumping station as well as well connections on the other side of the ridge that separates it from the city. (Rest of this paragraph was added later). Wait a second. South Jackson wasn't predominantly black until 25 years ago. South Jackson for decades was the home of middle-income, blue collar whites. Cruising McDowell Road was the Friday night fun for multitudes of South Jackson teens. South Jackson was white when annexed in the 1980's. Of course, the Mayor was in diapers at the time so he may not remember.
And so, you know, we must lift up not only how we build sustainable infrastructure, but how we do it in an equitable way, looking at these issues and looking at how we address those areas through city planning. And city planning is never neutral. City planning is not by mistake. We have to be able to make sure that we do this in a way that creates dignity for all residents across our city.
What exactly does he mean by dignity? Asking for a friend.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Mayor, on this issue of equitable distribution of resources and services, years ago, your father pioneered the Jackson-Kush Plan, an attempt to empower African Americans in the majority area, geographical areas of the South. How do you assess the progress that’s been made, beginning with his administration, but then going through yours, in terms of spreading this idea of the equitable distribution of resources?
MAYOR CHOKWE ANTAR LUMUMBA: Well, that is a movement that is ongoing. And we have many successes to point to in that regard. What our goal is, is to democratize power, understanding that issues of infrastructure, that we need to be able to connect, pothole to pothole, in community to community, so people in Jackson, Mississippi, understand why there’s a community that looks just like theirs in Jamaica, Queens, New York, in Gary, Indiana, or Detroit, Michigan. In that process of fixing that pothole, in that process of how we repair our infrastructure in terms of water, what we ultimately learn is that the pothole was never your problem in the first place. Your problem is that you don’t control the decision-making process that leads to the pothole being fixed.
And so, we do that by having people’s assemblies where we engage community. We do that by participatory budgeting, understanding that the budget of the city is a moral document, and if we don’t listen to the community, listen to what the community needs and scratch where they may be itching, then it reflects what our values are as a community. We’ve done that through making sure that we extend a model which is just and transparent as we look at the issues of public safety and policing, not only making sure that we have a police ID task force populated by the community, so that they can work alongside the police department and understand how public safety must look. And so, we’ve done that in a number of ways. We’re are looking at that in terms of economic mobility and economic development in the community, understanding that we want to be a business-friendly city, but we also understand that it has to be a reciprocal relationship. And so, we lift up cooperative business models, as well, so that we can learn how we can fill the gaps.
Even as we have this conversation about water and the issue of water over the last month or so, the reality is that every effort in order to support the infrastructure of the city of Jackson has been undertaken by the residents, by the people, more than the state itself. The decision to tax themselves more in order to help the infrastructure was supported over 90% by the residents. The state isn’t filling in the gap or standing in the gap when people decide to tax themselves more. Those are people taking the issue in their own hands, realizing that we are who we’ve been waiting on. And so, we should be met in that way.
How many times has the Mayor cancelled meetings of the 1% Commission or tried to use it's money just to bail out the water/sewer billing department? The Mayor moves next on to Covid-19.
AMY GOODMAN: Mayor, very quickly, Mississippi has become the second state in the nation to offer vaccines to everyone above 16. At the same time, the mask mandate has been lifted. The significance of this for your city, for Jackson?
MAYOR CHOKWE ANTAR LUMUMBA: Well, it’s a contradictory message, and I believe that it is dangerous. While we are happy that we can expand the opportunity for people to be vaccinated, every health professional that I have listened to, all the health professionals we listen to nationally, have indicated that it is just too soon in order to lift the mask mandate.
The city of Jackson, we execute our COVID policy based on science, not politics. And so, we will maintain our mask mandate in the city of Jackson. However, the state’s decision to do otherwise still puts us in a compromised position, because we’re not only the capital city, we’re the capital of healthcare. What that means is, is as surrounding cities may not issue the mask mandate, when their residents, unfortunately, fall victim to the virus, they will overburden our hospitals in the city of Jackson, leaving not only our residents in greater danger, but those individuals who seek hospitalization or seek medical attention for a myriad of other issues, even outside of COVID. And so, I think that it is contradictory. I think that it is confusing. And I think that it is ill-timed.
He understands science? Someone needs to tell him those burbs he decries saved his butt when it comes to sales tax revenue. Their reopening forced him to take his foot off the neck of Jackson businesses last year. If he had not done so, sales tax revenue would have been a disaster for Jackson. The Mayor likes to talk about science? Here is some science.
Kingfish note: I shouldn't have to say this but Jackson's infrastructure problems weren't created overnight. Dale Danks instituted a monthly maintenance fee of $6 per month. It developed a surplus which meant it had to go. Harvey Johnson screwed the pooch with bad bond deals that did nothing for the city but earned his friends a bunch of money in fees while Harvey got dummy money to use. The Mayor never mentions the Siemens deal even though it blew up the city's water/sewer revenue stream just as Jonathan Lee warned in 2013. He seems to forget over 20,000 customers didn't pay their bills for years (thanks to the city telling them not to do so), depriving the city of tens of millions of dollars in water/sewer money.
This train wreck took a long time to develop but develop it did until it blew up on the Mayor's watch. If the Mayor wants help, perhaps he should stop attacking the people he asks for help and accept some responsibility for previous Mayor's and City Councils.
I came across this interview before I saw the statements on CNN, PBS, MSNBC, the New York Times, and the March 8 press conference in Jackson. The Mayor follows the same pattern. He eloquently blames everyone else for the water system's failure while playing racial politics. He interweaves lie after lie within the oral tapestry while no one thinks to question his claims.
Busting him for not telling the truth is starting to get old and that my friends, is the bottom line.
57 comments:
Nice work KF. Thanks.
Lieing Azz Lumumba
Stokes was correct this time
At this point if he gets re-elected it will mean that what you do in office truly does not matter. What matters is your street cred, uptown fade, and how you look in a suit. Disgraceful.
Some years ago when a local hospital I was associated with was trying to garner a CON for a site in another county I proposed that a significant reason to do so was the inability of the COJ to support the infrastructure needed for said hospital.....much documentation over the last twenty years to prove same.....
KF gives excellent analysis of the lies by this incompetent Marxist.
The logical extension of his total falsifications about OB Curtis has to be that the reservoir could have been built 10 miles downstream but wasn't in order to deny black Jacksonians the benefit during cold weather events of close proximity to the water treatment plant.
He's out of control and completely reckless.
He blames Cane Ditto. Why? Cane was the last white mayor!!!!!!
How bad is Lumumba? Kenneth Stokes is now a voice of reason.
Do ANY reporters do the old fashioned way of reporting, and force an elected official to justify what he/she says? This kid is a common liar and allowed to get away with it. "We do not have, nor will we have, a Mayor now, or after the election. Our current Mayor will get re-elected as black professional flight has decimated the pool of qualified, decent candidates. The list of people running as we speak is laughable. Lumumba is all about image and sounding good. He has redefined empty suit."
Meanwhile CoJ has recorded #35 for 2021.
JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Jackson police are investigating after a woman was shot and killed Monday night.
The shooting happened around 8:00 p.m. at Black’s Food Market on West Capitol Street at O Ferrell Avenue. The victim has not been identified at this time.
IMO, there was consensus with Rs and Ds to use federal and state dollars to massively repair the water and sewer system in Jackson. The Mayor has likely ruined that chance. This was the greatest opportunity in a generation to use state and federal dollars to overhaul a system that was broken over decades. That window is almost slammed shut and the Mayor is fully responsible. No other way around for anyone seriously paying attention to this issue.
Reported a full month before the ice storm.
WAPT
January 12, 2021
Thousands of south Jackson residents have little to no water pressure | City points finger at mechanical problem at water plant
This lil'boy Mayor is obviously getting more upset every day.
His "interviews" are now conducted from his fortified manor house.
However,I really get a kick out of seeing the rolling "home library" ladder in the background.
Make your mind up Antar !
(Whom do you really wish to emulate) ?
Radical figures from World History, or old rich White Men with a home library.
It’s amazingly sad and downright pathetic that nobody in the Jackson media (other than KF) will call this fool out on his lies.
Only the choir reads this blog. Yes, Lumumbalot will be re-elected because the electorate gets for what they vote. .... just sayin’.
Asking one of you fancy lawyers:
What would it take to redraw the Hinds-Rankin county from the mighty Pearl to, say, State street?
It could create “east Jackson and leave most of this silliness behind
Just thinking ....
Jackson’s window for improvement has closed. It can’t be fixed. People who argue otherwise either have a vested interest in it continuing to decay or are in denial.
On track for 145.17 murders this year.
As frustrating as it is to read or listen to, thank you KF for continuing to report the actual facts. The Mayor simply is not bound by facts or the truth. Scary that someone like that could become Mayor. I can’t name one part of the City he’s improved.
Politics is a high stakes gam of give and take. Everything done by politicians is a negotiation with winners and losers. The mayor has a big big list of wants and is not willing to do more than bad mouth the people he wants to give above and beyond their responsibility so that he can take the credit.
I say all of this to now say he will lose.
Why?
Simple politics - a game he refuses to play.
Chokwe gonna lose? Nah. He'll win.....after he slips Charlotte Reeves a cool million for her to propose "rolling blackouts" that he can explain, in his own words, to his voters. Right? Right.
Dr. Williams has said repeatedly that the screens freezing caused the initial problem. The sprayers didn't work when the screens were frozen, which is what led to the clogging. The problem was complicated by some of the key figures not being able to get to O.B. Curtis with the roads frozen. It was Saturday before they could fully diagnose the problem.
9:19. Rankin county resident here. We have enough trouble now with former Jacksonians fleeing that city. So...thanks but no thanks.
Stokes for mayor. We already have worse.
Perhaps you should combine all of your questions into a single document & ask for the mayor's written response. Publish them in the form of a written Q&A news media interview. Not that the mayor intends to cooperate - it serves his purpose not to be specific. When he declines your media request, you'll have another story about the mayor's refusal to be held accountable.
If the homicides keep up enough will be killed or leave that the water situation will correct itself.
If Lumumba was white or conservative or even a black Republican the local Democratic mouthpieces would be tripping over each other to bring his outrageous embellishments to the public.
Doesnt Chokewe live in that racist ass property close to the Pearl River that got water first? He is a babbling idiot. No one, and I mean no one respects this clown. He is a joke even in the AA community. The only people that listen to him spew his hate are the white liberal apologists. Think about that. He has a crowd and its the exact people he spews hate about. You cant make this up. He and Rachel Maddow could be besties.
What our goal is, is to democratize power, understanding that issues of infrastructure, that we need to be able to connect, pothole to pothole, in community to community, so people in Jackson, Mississippi, understand why there’s a community that looks just like theirs in Jamaica...
Boy he said a mouthful with that one. At least the people in Jamaica are happy. If we are connecting pot hole to pot hole, we are very well connected.
Not a defense of the Mayor, but the all lie. Our problem as uninformed and ignorant citizens is that we believe the lies of those that we like (i.e. those in our party). Dem voters buy the lies of the Dem politicians and Rep voters buy the lies of Rep politicians. And, each screams about the other parties lies. It's actually quite humorous to observe the full-on ignorance on both sides.
Of all the clowns running, Charlotte Reeves takes the cake. What a goofy dingbat.
Jokeway will win because this field of candidates is the weakest that I've seen in 20 years, including the incumbent. I can imagine that most of the best people in the area who could be a better mayor have either left Jackson or are doing very well in their current positions and don't want to take on either the pay cut or the headache.
Jackson Mississippi is the microcosm that the rest of the country should examine to understand where the ultra progressive socialists would take us all. All the infrastructure problems, all the "inequities" of income and opportunity, all the societal ills created by traditional family breakdown
are festering in Jackson and a progressive administration is at the helm. Their ultimate solutions will always involve confiscatory taxes and total governmental dependence. Without complete control of population migration they cannot succeed...people who can afford to will ALL just leave. What will be left will be a hellhole. A progressive socialist hellhole. The progressive wags in New York, San Fran, and Detroit do not realize that young Antar has already failed or they wouldn't be highlighting him. They'll learn, then they will go somewhere else.
I’ve said this before. I have no skin in the game as I don’t live near Jackson (Thank God). But damn. I had to read the entire article twice to attempt some sort of understanding. But alas it didn’t work. I have listened though while watching the young mayor while trying to place him in his wanted political place. That’s not to difficult but it’s unusual to say the least. Young Chokwheat shows he is a true hybrid, part communist, part nazi, part racist, part baptist minister and a whole bunch of Barrak Obummer part three. The guys all over the place as though he actually thinks he lives in the utopia he has created. If only the white devil slave masters could see things his way. Maybe the mayor thinks that Jackson could simply secede from the state. I’m sure some of the surrounding cities sure hope he’s successful. One thing is for sure if Jackson is 82% black then 80% think what he says is gospel. The other 20% or s should GTFO ASAP!
Every city or country that is run on a Marxist idea RUINS it! I’m not going to support this crap.
Reductive Analyst says:
. . . "not only making sure that we have a police ID task force populated by the community, so that they can work alongside the police department and understand how public safety must look."
What a load of bull sh*t. Reading the whole transcript one hardly knows where to begin. Take the example above. We must understand how public safety looks, not how, or if, it works. It's all about perception.
Mr. Mayor you are doing great in your bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Keep up the good work.
Amen 8:34am. He is a joke and so are all the others on both sides.
And we blindly fight to defend the idiots on "our" side while they all steal from us and no do nothing of benefit in return.
it seems pretty hopeless.
The water froze because the sprayers quit working. The sprayer failure caused the screens to become clogged with debris which in turn slowed down the water flow. Slow enough that it could freeze if what you say is true.
As for the road being iced over, you mean the city had no off-road or four wheel drive vehicles?
As stated earlier, it has gotten much colder in Jackson on a few occasions. I can remember twice in the 90s the Rez froze over.* Yet the water managed to flow into the plant as everything worked fine.
The question to be asked is why the sprayers failed and if there are backup sprayers.
*Whoever rigged up that intertube to an airboat fan and scooted across the frozen rez was a true baller. Respect.
What happened to the funds from the 1% tax increase implemented by Senior?
If these people spent half as much time trying to solve a problem as they do trying to blame someone else they may actually fix something.
I feel feel sorry for the small business owners in that city. There's a restaurant downtown that we love. We planned a trip this past Friday night to go there but the closer we got to the city limits the more uncomfortable I got. It was my son's birthday and we were taking him and his wife. My son is also a police officer and he had his weapon (hidden) with him. I was scared for our safety, I was concerned about the water that was being used by the restaurant. I was mostly afraid of being a victim of a crime and my son having to act. My son is a white certified well trained officer of the law but with him being from out of town I was afraid that if he acted within the law and the other individual was black their would be hell to pay. I made the decision not to enter the city just a few hundred yards from the city limit sign. I made my son turn around and we went and spent our money somewhere else. I may never go to that city again.
care of wlbt:
This time, the cause was not bad weather, but debris that had accumulated on the raw water screens at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant.
At a Wednesday press conference, Williams announced that private contractors had been called to the plant to clean those screens after the sprayers quit working and the screens got clogged.
“The raw water screens were not able to bring in water, so we had to shut down the conventional side for today and get some cleaning done,” he said.
The screens act as an initial filter for the water brought into the plant from the Barnett Reservoir.
Williams said it likely was clogged by “fish, clams, mussels, probably tree branches,” and other large items that came in when the water is pumped in. Because the sprayers were not working, those items could not be removed, causing the blockage.
“The inability for us to bring water into the plant is why you are seeing low water pressure,” he said. “We have contractors on-site to make the repairs that are needed ... Once they get those cleaned, we should be back to fully operational.”
Williams hopes the work is completed by around 6 p.m. Wednesday, and that pressure can again begin to build.
The news comes as about 10,000 customers in South and West Jackson are still without water, and as customers in other parts of the city, like Fondren, again experience a loss in water pressure as a result of the problems at the plant.
“We made some very good gains this week,” Williams said. “It’s very disappointing to see the screens go down.”
9:23pm, as a lifelong Jackson resident, I have to admit you're exactly right! I mean, when you think about it, what COULD turn Jackson around? It would take some effort from the population, but all they are interested in is taking.
The only hope for Jackson, at this point, would be for the State of MS to take over the City (not sure what that would look like). The culture that now runs / inhabits the City is not one that creates societies. It's one that feeds off of already-created societies. The goal for them is not to better or even sustain something, it's to "get mine before you get yours."
9:24am is also prescient in his/her comments. As we all know, WHEN the collapse happens, it will ALL be someone else's fault.
10:11 Bro, you gotta lay off the meds. You’ll be fine, my man. I’m sure you’ve gotten blackout drunk in New Orleans before with no issues.
@8:02 at this point it probably is safe to conclude
that our Jackson metro media knows they are looking
the other way. JFP and MT are so in the tank and
committed to racial animus that no amount of dishonesty,
distortion and outright fiction on Lumumba's part
is unacceptable. WLBT will tread lightly so Maggie
can retain her regular softball session with the
Mayor. Clarion-Ledger is plain lost. Facts and truth
were the old normal. The new normal in the media is
the end is justified by any means.
I pledge never to purchase anything from any business in the Jackson city limits. Just so my sales tax dollars don't go to support this POS.
Whoever would have thunk that this Mayor would solicit and embrace an endorsement from an old, rich white man.
I knew something was off early on when The Bloviator, Lumumba the Second, declared that Jackson suffered from a "perception of crime."
Sooner or later, national media outlets will get enough egg on their faces that they will cut this spoiled rich kid loose. It takes a lot of work to pin down a serial liar, and I don't think the national outlets are willing to devote that much in resources to interviews with a flash-in-the-pan like Lumumba. Thanks for doing the work, KF.
At least we got the zoo for 6 million. Where did the 90 million from Siemens go?
CCID is great but I think you’re overstating the scope of it. I’m not even sure they’ve done any water projects but either way it’s a drop in the bucket and definitely not enough to be a “take over” of the infrastructure problem. It’s a nice supplemental source.
Per Williams, the sprayers don't work if the screens are down, and the screens weren't working after the second freeze. Not sure backup sprayers would help with that.
The city has the requisite transport for its own employees, but there's vendors and private sector folks who keep the system running, and they're apparently the ones who couldn't make it to the plant in time to prevent the breakdown.
I don't think the depth of the cold was the problem, I think it was the length of the freeze. The catastrophe didn't really kick off until the second storm on Wednesday. Public works seems pretty adamant that it was storm two that shut the whole thing down.
10:16, that's about two weeks into the crisis and delayed the recovery, but it's not the original freeze that caused the entire crisis to begin with.
March 31, 2021 at 12:35 AM & March 31, 2021 at 12:39 AM
Take your ignorance back to the Mayor’s office
The sprayers clean the screens, dummy. The screens clogged because the sprayers were ignored.
The minority-contracted vendor could not get there in a timely manner and the city did zero to do anything about it. This is squarely administrative failure.
Williams appears to be nothing more than the James Davis of DPW.
Seriously, beyond Lumumba's prodigious yammering and preening for elements of the sycophantic press is there anything in this city that is actually working?
The catastrophe didn't really kick off until the second storm on Wednesday.
Reported elsewhere (by one of the pubs hellfire sure the whole debacle is about racism) that Williams didn't have it figured out what was broken and not working until the following Saturday, Feb 20th. When it comes to a mission critical service that was a incompetently lethargic response to the unfolding crisis.
As someone linked above South Jackson had been plagued by water pressure problems for already weeks by mid-January. Williams backhanded the problem to WAPT by claiming the city was "waiting on parts".
It is debatable whether the city actually has the requisite leadership and technical expertise to actually operate OB Curtis.
About a year ago, he was ALL over the news announcing the 89 million from Siemans and how no one was going to spend it unwisely - the city would be saved. A year later and it's already begging/blaming season again.
12:35 - you are trying hard to be a mouthpiece for Mayor Mouthpiece, but you are failing miserably. Granted, its hard to argue facts when the facts are against you so really, you should try to come up with something better to argue - or maybe just louder.
The problem is that the city's water busines is broke. And was broke long before the cold weather/ice storm of February. And because the water-sewer business is financially broke, they haven't maintained the water treatment plant operation, just as they haven't kept up the distribution lines.
The sewage treatment facility's operation is contracted out to a private company, unlike the water treatment plants. And the sewer treatment plant is much more complicated and much more susceptible to freezing weather. And it survived without problems (granted, there was limited sewage flowing into the system since the city's water system was largely down, but the many private wells at the hospitals and other large operations were still shipping their s**t downstream).
The fact that the city's water business is financiall broke, and has been for a few years has led to the total lack of proper maintenance of the water treatment plants and that chicken came home to roost in February. When the Curtis facility began to fail they didn't have the parts and equipment to replace/repair the problems. The sprayers didn't keep the screens clear and the second team replacement sprayers were no longer there. The valves froze and they didn't respond, but if they had tried they didn't have the replacements on the shelves any longer. When the sprayers didn't keep the screens clear, the water quit flowing into the system; and standing water freezes quicker and easier than water in motion.
Then, the city didn't bring in help quick enough. It was beyond their ability to handle but Williams choked (pun intended) about spending money he didn't have on outside contractors because the city has been unwilling to pay outside contractors many times in the past ----- which has resulted in many contractors not being willing to work for the City of Jackson, but thats another story for another day.
Plenty of other water systems operate using surface water sources and survive these problems because they keep their plants properly maintained and make sure the backup systems are in place and operable at all times. Jackson bet the house on not needing those backup systems workingn and lost. Crappy bet.
Today is 4/1/2021 - why are Mr. Stokes and GE Aviation handing out free water and food today? Mayor Baby Chowke announced that the water failure is fixed and drinkable, didn't he?
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