Jackson Jambalaya

I guess that means Highland Colony Parkway is 20 years away from becoming the next County Line Road. Crazy in my life time to see a prominent road like that become what it is now. This place is crazy.

Interesting in typical WLBT liberal fashion, they addressed the who, what, where, when but not why.

A culture of not paying and implementing a 5 fingered discount is the cause of this.

fear not though! Jackson has a need for more stores selling press on nails and locks of horse hair in a myriad of colors! I am certain that some entrepreneurial purveyors of exotic animal shorn hair extensions will find use of this newly available retail space!

Local LE needs to beef up now.

Mayor Horhn better stop worrying about water rates that are thankfully out of his control and the Zoo nobody attends and get his rear end working on business development.

Crime, schools, and infrastructure. Those are the 3 major issues in every city/town. Fix those and everything else takes care of itself. Residential, commercial, etc. all go where the people want to be. And the people look at crimes, schools, and infrastructure.

Please also report that Sermon Sandwich Bar opened in Fondren, right down from Louise's Piano Bar that just opened next to Walker's, and at the District, Emerson's Provisions and Little Effie's opened (Masa Mesa coming soon), and La Presa just opened at Highland Village. It is not all bad news in Jxn... Arby's is garbage anyway!

Dang thats bad when cats and dogs are leaving Jackson! Next will be rats and roaches.

As long as crime goes unchecked in those areas, along with a weak judicial system in Hinds County (thanks, judges), businesses will continue to flee.

Why didn't they move to Fondren? (Sorry, one of my gifts is sarcasm.)

Of course, we have know for a while Porsche was moving out of Jackson.

Heard today The Bulldog closed.

it will be a real shame to see what that strip mall development does to the parkway and that area over 7 to 10 years.

I think, if I was a developer, I would get all owners engaged from the old Academy/Toys R US section, Ridgewood Court, up to county line, and I would repurpose that property to bring back up scale shopping. that would also require the city to actually patrol and engage crime prevention.......

If the city of Ridgeland want to be the strip mall capital of the world, then let them

Arby's does not use lard in any of its processes or offerings.

That Pet Smart had gotten sad. It was impossible to get checked out in an efficient fashion and with no self check out, it was way too much trouble to buy anything there.

Had we had John Horhn rather than Chockwe in office last term, this might not have happened. Businesses can only take so much. They prefer Rankin and Madison counties.

Apparently the Bulldog on Ridgewood also closed.

Who is surprised by any of this?

The shoplifting and carjacking will continue to move farther northward just in time for the holiday season.

Chowke is the runner up U-Haul salesman of the year behind Mamdani and Newsom.

Arby’s will be replaced I bet but other 2 won’t

If yall can’t handle Jackson at her worst then you don’t deserve her at her best. Yall must not know. We can find another you in a minute. Matter fact they’ll be here any minute. Don’t yall for a second get to thankin yall irreplaceable

That Arby’s was the absolute worst. They were always out of food. How did they manage to always run out of sandwich meat?

Can you blame them ?

Jackson is the Mississippi version of Detroit

CRIME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only Arby's is a recent announcement. The others were known/expected a while back when they announced their plan to open down the road in Ridgeland. --

The Ridgewood Court shopping center is slowly emptying. Urban Air has to be wondering why they located there.

Tattoos and liquor stores

They wont

Yes, but up here they die of lead poisoning.

That Arby's has been going down for years. Never as busy as everything else around it at lunchtime - never even close. As a previous poster said, something else will go in there.

You be funny hahahahahahaha

^^^will be in Madison buy groceries tomorrow^^^

Exactly. When I first read that these newbies were opening there I thought that they didn’t really do their homework. Maybe they received a recommendation from Chowke. I mean locating next to the M-Bar, what could possibly go wrong?

I’m at the point where I couldn’t care less about businesses closing in Jackson. Fewer reasons for me to venture across the county line into Mad Max territory.

ChickFilA County Line will be the next to leave. There are too many panhandlers and people walking the road with suitcases.

That’s not their classy act.

Old Navy moved also.

@ 4:14 Seriously? The problem is the replacements are low life, meth head, criminals without a job and will pay no taxes.

Several years back, and for 20 before that, Highland Colony was a beautiful parkway, winding among forested areas, nice office buildings in settings that utilized the beauty of the flora, peaceful and enjoyable.

Now it's becoming, as was mentioned, just another junked up street and will resemble Pearl or County Line before we know it.

The defining moment, we thought, was Ridgeland's mair allowing a seven story monstrosity but that was exceeded by Costco, a gas station, drive thru fast food and, of course, sports bars. Can titty-bars and payday loan joints be far behind?

Ridgeland should have learned their lesson on allowing too many retail shops and strip malls to set up. Heck even Madison let too many of them in their area. Those stores can have a short life span and also tend to attract "those people" to communities where residents moved to avoid them.

Jackson is hopefully coming out of its Zohran Mandami phase. It will take decades to recover, however, as New York City is going to find out.

Meanwhile Highland Village in the heart of Jackson, it thriving. New high end retail shops, new restaurants along with 3 new restaurants at the district. So yes, we are sending TJ Maxx and Arby’s to Madison County where they belong

Why didn’t they move to Fondren? Because nobody comes to Fondren to eat garbage fast food or shop at bland, soulless big box retailers.

You should try trading your gift of sarcasm in for a little common sense.

But the leak at the monkey exhibit has been repaired-

Will the last business to leave Jackson please turn out the lights.

I recently moved back to MS after 20 years to marry, and we're leaving after her youngest graduates. I love my home state, but it will never get out of its own way. Spending the previous 7 years in the Huntsville area, it is thriving, Mobile is booming, Bham even with its own atrocious crime rate is booming, Huntsville is now physically larger in square miles than Chicago proper. We can't seem to prevent brain drain, attracting at best data centers which never bring prosperity. MS will always be home base, but our lives will be lived on the road, and we're blessed to be able to do that. As long as the whites and blacks keep pointing fingers, we'll be right where we are now 50 years from now.

I have Gene McGee fatigue. Please ride your bicycle off into the sunset. Past time to retire.
The parkway from Hwy 51 to Highland Colony was the biggest mistake made, followed by Walk-Ons, Wendy’s and the TJ Maxx development. Upscale neighborhoods less than 1/2 mile away. I would not want that mess in my front yard. A hodge podge of businesses, ghetto and upscale. The theater ruined Renaissance with no thought whatsoever about who it would attract, well now we know. The same applies to Top Golf. Gene just wants the money and to be the premier shopping destination.

Not surprised about Arby's... about a year ago I decided to stop by there. Waited at the drive through speaker for about 3 minutes with no response. Pulled around, parked, walked inside... doors were unlocked, lights were on, but not a soul to be found. Shouted "hello," nothing. Probably could've made my own sandwich and they'd have been none the wiser.

8:06 AM, I honestly don’t see how Buffalo Peak stays in business. How do they pay that astronomical rent? The last 3 times I’ve been there is nobody in the store. It was my favorite store at one time and the only reason I would come to NE Jackson.
I suggested to the manager that they need to move and I might come more often, lol.

I didn’t see any of those elite Eastover folks that you think make HV so “high end.”
They’re coming to the suburbs to shop at TJ Maxx and Marshall’s for all the closeouts and designer labels and they tell their friends it came from Maison Weiss.

To be honest, I thought The Bulldog had closed years ago. But I don’t travel to Jackson much anymore. Does anyone remember the name of the little micropub that was there many years ago? And the other one that IIRC was on I-55 Frontage Road where IHOP is now?

@9:03am Understand this mentality, but you can't honestly think that same finger pointing isn't happening in Alabama, right? Mobile is the only far inland port along the gulf, and was meant to boom all along. Bham proper is still shrinking, metro is growing but the city is not. Twice the size of Jxn due to the steel industry back in it's hay-day. Huntsville is the model here, but their aerospace industry is also a big lift. We don't have much of any of those industries because we are a flat agrarian state.

But, this whole mentality of "we are leaving because this place isn't booming" just sucks. It doesn't boom until our natives decide to stay, instead of chasing the next best thing. If you actually love your state and have loyalty, stay and do your best to make it better. The mark of a man is not how quick he is to flee for greener pastures. Build something and leave a legacy!

@8:06am Agreed. Highland Village is the model. To call TJ Maxx and Arby's "businesses" is an insult to businesses. Cheap junk spots.

@5:57pm, at Whole Foods or Corner Market in Madison?

Lousy ass joke. Fondren actually is very busy (and safe) full of local businesses.

I thought The Bulldog closed a long time ago as well. I haven't been in many, many years. When it "changed". It used to be Lager's, I believe. We'd go there before walking over to The Forum or Headliner's.
The IHOP one was "Hop's", if I recall. I used to live on the other side of the interstate off Briarwood and Pine Lane. Loved when Hops was there.

I’ve always liked the Arby’s French Dip and a large curly fries. Simple pleasures for a simple man.

I think former Flowood mayor Gary Rhodes allowed too much commercial development also. Numerous stores at Dogwood Promenade are closed. I suspect we are 10 years away from the shopping centers at the intersection of Lakeland Dr. and Old Fannin Road being filled with pawn shops, plasma donation centers, and payday loan shops.

Don't forget the dialysis centers.

7:32 beautiful parkway, winding...forested...blah, blah, blah.
BUSINESS PARKWAY to be developed for BUSINESS!

There were several recent positive stories to report on in Jackson that you, quite predictably, were radio silent about.

But, by all means, an Arby’s closing in the largest city in the state is “breaking news.” Get serious. And I’m directing that criticism to that trash station, WLBT as well.

Gotta shove whatever you can to appease your base—even if it appears intended to present a one-sided and inaccurate picture, am I right, kingfish?

Thanks for your help in bossing other people around about how to do their job. Despite your obvious charm, they were apparently fine with you staying away, as they didn’t move locations.

For Sale. Y'all want to buy it? Current out of state owners ran most of the local tenants off.

You do know that Highland Colony Pkwy isn't in Jackson, yes?

I have memories of County Line from I-55 to Old Canton being 2 lanes and pastures/trees on both sides. Maybe it can be restored? At least on the south side?

I recommend Martin's for lunch. Ate there for the first time today after noticing the lack of establishments on High Street (I miss you Chimneyville!!). It was VERY good and a pleasant experience.