Convicted killer Polo Edwards sits behind bars yet he is still up to his old tricks.
Edwards and his cohorts created a Facebook page called "Polo's Perspective" that also happens to be home to something called the Mississippi Tea Investigations. Whoever is ghostwriting for Edwards posted this bit of foolishness last week:
THE $55 MILLION QUESTIONWhy Fondren Keeps Building—And The Rest of Jackson Keeps Asking WhyThe headline moved fast across timelines, but the implications behind it move much slower—and much deeper.A $55 million apartment complex breaking ground in Fondren, the third development in that district this year, is being framed as progress. And on its face, it is. New construction signals confidence. It signals investment. It signals that, somewhere in Jackson, the system is working exactly as it was designed to work.
But beneath that announcement sits a question that continues to echo across South and West Jackson—not quietly, but with growing frustration:Why does it keep happening there… and not here?That question, repeated often enough, begins to sound like an accusation. But when examined closely, it reveals something else entirely—not a conspiracy, not a coincidence, but a structural reality about how development in Jackson actually happens.Because nothing in this city gets built without first being approved.And approval is not determined by need.It is determined by votes.Jackson’s City Council is made up of seven members. Every major development—especially one tied to funding, zoning, or incentives—must pass through that body. And the threshold is simple: four votes. That is the line between stagnation and progress, between a proposal sitting on paper and a crane rising into the skyline.So when a $55 million project breaks ground, the real story is not just about the developers or the design. It is about what happened inside that council chamber. It is about alignment. It is about negotiation. It is about whether four individuals, representing different parts of the city, chose to move something forward.That is the mechanism.And it does not change depending on the zip code.Fondren’s recent momentum—three developments in a single year—is not the result of random opportunity. It reflects a pattern. Proposals are being introduced, and more importantly, they are surviving the only test that matters: the vote. Despite having one of only two Republican representatives on a seven-member council, that ward has consistently been able to build the kind of cross-member support required to push projects through.That detail matters, because it dismantles a common misconception.Development in Jackson is not being dictated by party dominance. It is being determined by coalition-building. No single council member has the power to deliver a project alone. Every success is the result of reaching across that chamber and securing the numbers required to approve it.Which brings the conversation back to South and West Jackson—not as victims of neglect in a vacuum, but as areas operating under the exact same system, with the exact same rules.If development is not occurring at the same pace, the explanation cannot stop at surface-level frustration. It must move into more uncomfortable territory. It must ask whether projects are being brought forward with the same frequency, whether they are structured in ways that can survive scrutiny, and ultimately, whether they are receiving the four votes required to move ahead.Because if they are not, then the issue is not just economic.It is political.And beyond that, it is civic.City government does not operate independently of the people it serves. It responds—sometimes slowly, sometimes imperfectly—but it responds to pressure, to organization, to engagement. When residents are present, when they are informed, when they are actively questioning and tracking the actions of their elected officials, the environment inside that council chamber changes.But when that engagement is absent, something else takes its place: silence.And silence, in a system built on votes, becomes permission.Permission for decisions to be made without scrutiny. Permission for priorities to be set without challenge. Permission for entire areas of the city to remain on the outside of conversations that directly impact their future.Over time, that permission produces visible results—not in policy documents, but in neighborhoods. In the absence of cranes. In the absence of new businesses. In the absence of the very developments people are asking for.What is happening in Fondren should not be dismissed or resented. It should be studied. Because it demonstrates what is possible when a project is able to navigate the system successfully. It shows that development is not locked behind an invisible barrier. It is not reserved for one part of the city by default.It is available to any area that can move an idea from proposal to approval.And approval, every time, comes back to the same place.Seven council members. Four votes.That is the entire equation.So the next time a headline announces another groundbreaking in one part of Jackson, the reaction should not end with frustration. It should begin with questions—specific, targeted, and directed at the only place where outcomes are actually decided.How did your council member vote on the last development proposal? What projects have they introduced or supported? Where are they building the relationships necessary to secure those critical votes? And just as important—where are the citizens demanding those answers before the decisions are made?Because development is not just about money flowing into a city. It is about whether the people within that city are actively engaged in shaping where that money goes.Fondren is not moving forward by accident.It is operating within the system—and winning inside of it.The rest of Jackson is not locked out.But until there is consistent, informed, and organized civic pressure coming from every corner of the city, the results will continue to look uneven, the headlines will continue to feel familiar, and the same question will keep being asked without ever confronting the answer.In Jackson, growth does not begin with construction.It begins with four votes.
As stated earlier, foolishness. Government doesn't create those projects. The only thing the city did was approve zoning/site plans and issue permits.
It was not the government who built up Fondren but the people of Fondren who did so. The residents of Fondren rolled up their sleeves over 20 years ago and got to work building up their neighborhood. You know, the assholes and elbows thing. They cleaned up what could be called Fondren's business district. The Fondren Renaissance Foundation spearheaded the rebirth. As Fondren spruced up, it became attractive to investors, you know, the people who fund projects.
What took place in the Fondren can happen anywhere else in Jackson - if the residents get to work instead of expecting the government to do the work for them.
31 comments:
Yeah, I remember when I first learned about how commercial development works.
Three major hospitals, in close proximity to Fondren, create the demand that spurs development of high end multi-unit residential buildings. Not complex politics.
Those in the southern and western parts of the city can't conceive of doing something positive by themselves.
Fondren is the only area of Jackson I’d live in. South and West Jackson made their own bed now they have to lie in it.
He also forgot to mention crime and the implementation of the CCID and Capitol PD expansion as reasons for businesses coming back.
I live in Fondren. Street racing, gunshots, nuisances like Taste, shitty neighbors, animal abuse. It's not the heaven people think it is.
Well, The Fondren is still in Jackistan.
Why would anyone expect brainwashed communists to understand to understand free market capitalism?
Well Polo, I'll answer that question as a former South Jacksonian. Y'all ran the white people out of town decades ago from both South and West Jackson. We're not coming back. We built strong communities in Rankin and Madison counties. White liberals keep helping to investing in Fondren and that's more than fine if they wish to spend their dollars in that area. However most of us don't believe in funding Jackson and its current midnset, so we made other plans. We didn't ask for this type of treatment, but it's what we got. We'll all just have to live with it at this point.
Invest in Madison. Safer and no water problems plus less drama. Jackson is Mississippi Detroit
Crabs. In. A. Bucket.
This is classic click-bait from absolute retards using buzzwords they got help with from ChatGPT. Stirring up a bunch of NOTHING is they only way they can make money. Please don't even patronize such stupidity, KF.
@9:44am Have you considered calling the Capitol Police Department on such crimes?
Delelopments like these are based upon available capital, measured risk taking and common sense. Politics have very little, if any, impact.This article is written like there is a development conspiracy in the COJ involving politicians.
Kingfish, you’re so busy calling it “foolishness” that you missed the part where y’all are actually saying the same thing, just at different levels.
Nobody thinks the City of Jackson built Fondren with a hammer and nails. But pretending government is just a rubber stamp ignores how projects actually get across the finish line. Zoning, approvals, infrastructure, and yes, votes, decide what gets built and what doesn’t.
That’s the part Polo is talking about. Not dependency, engagement.
Fondren didn’t just roll up their sleeves. They organized, built coalitions, attracted viable projects, and created enough alignment, both civic and political, to get things approved. That’s not just effort. That’s execution inside the system.
And here’s the part that got overlooked. Polo is actually holding up a mirror, not making excuses. The message is the same at its core, residents have to be proactive, but it goes a step further by pointing out where that proactivity has to show up, in the rooms where decisions get made.
Saying just get to work is easy.
Building something that can survive scrutiny, secure investment, and get four votes, that’s the real work.
Fondren didn’t win on effort alone. It won because effort, organization, and system navigation all lined up.
That’s the blueprint, not the punchline.
At least he's saying don't complain about Fondren's success, but use it as a model to have success in your own neighborhood. Granted, as many above pointed out, there are intrinsic things like stable, high quality jobs in the neighborhood as well as CCID status, but at some point improvement through investment has to start somewhere.
It won't stop the population loss.
I'm old enough to remember when Fondren was Woodland Hills...
10:02…what Ai was used for this? It reads like a Gemini production. You should have left off the last line because that is the giveaway.
Fondren is an island of vomit in an ocean of diarrhea. You can put lipstick on a pig and it’s still a pig.
No point in running for office, these are your constituents
I would visit Fondren more if it were safer crossing streets with our kids. There has to be a way to get speed bumps through there so its safer for pedestrians who want to eat and shop there.
Everything posted by Polo and friends is so heavily
AI written and long winded, I don't have the patience to read it. Not to mention, I could care less what a convicted murderer has to say.
Its the crime, stupid.
"We are highly confident this text was AI generated"
"Chance this entire text is... AI 91%"
https://app.gptzero.me/
What "Polo" didn't acknowledge is the primary difference between an area of development/growth and an area of decay/decline: Culture. There's a 180 degree difference in the culture inhabiting Fondren vs the culture inhabiting West/South Jackson.......so much so that Fondren can survive even when the West/South culture periodically infiltrates Fondren. Black and white, democrat and republican council members vote, and investors invest, in projects that take place where society is stable/civil and where money and people are safe. Take those attributes away, and development chooses other locations. It's really not that complicated.
Like has often been said about addicts: to conquer the problem, you must first admit there IS a problem.......and that's what is so conspicuous about complaining certain areas are growing vs others: there's no acknowledgement there's a problem in the decaying areas! The first claim is always to blame others on why their area isn't making progress......thus the main reason there will be no progress!
Basically polo is saying white Fondren and NE Jackson are doing better bc of whites. We don’t have grocery chains fleeing our area. We have many developers that live in Fondren and NE Jackson that develop in rankin and Madison co but live in Jackson. Lost rabbit developer lives in Belhaven and polo thinks it’s all race related. Look at the Jackson zoo area and look at the children’s museum area. It’s not just race. It’s pride in community and ppl aren’t afraid to visit there unlike south and west Jackson. Which South and west Jackson council people opposed capitol police. You get what you vote for morons
This idiot thinks government is the answer and that’s the problem. It’s private investment and community here not government not just handouts
The expression is "I COULDN'T care less."
You maybe old enought to remember when it was called Le Fleur's Bluff.
None of these developments would have happened without the CCID. That's the bottom line.
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