Jackson Jambalaya

Very good! Downtown has some great potential. One can only hope the city council will make the right decisions to bring it back to life. Police need to have a very visable presence at all times. Tax breaks for downtown business. Keep it clean! Resurface all the streets downtown and have excellent lighting at night. Common sense things is all it takes.

I will say this about downtown: Just about every time I've had occasion to bring a non-Mississippian there, they've commented on how it has "great potential" or "really great bones" or "you could really make something out of this."

And that's absolutely true. It's laid out much better than many comparably-sized cities. The only obstacle to a downtown renaissance is ... literally everything else.

And - develop and execute an action plan dealing with the homeless and panhandlers to reduce crime and create a safe environment. This must be addressed and it is the responsibility of the City Administration and the Mayor to do so.

Don't ignore this issue!

It has a direct negative effect on the perception of Jackson and downtown by tourists, out of state groups here for business or conventions and is detrimental to quality of life for citizens who work and live here.

They had to clean it up for next weekends festivities... pretty sure the state put some pressure on them to do it!

Also noticed they filled the potholes on Reddoch and Pear Orchard recently as well as other streets in Northeast Jackson. Someone's been working.

Also noticed that the crews working on Capitol Street last week worked until sundown. The city crews that replaced the water/sewer lines earlier this year seemed to cut out around 3 PM or so quite a few times.

Only in Jackson Mississippi can filling a few potholes and repaving a relatively short stretch of roads make headlines. But, it is a start.

You want to impress me, hit Mill Street!

Good lord there are some land mines on that puppy!

Too little, too late.

What make this downtown have potential, nothing. A downtown area is a place for economic activity and people working.

Gee, imagine that, the city of Jackson actually fulfilling a city responsibility. Let's give everyone a raise!

This will be fun without pavement markings for folks who haven't been on Capitol since it went two-way...

Downtown is a red-ink money pit.

There just isn't any reason for people going downtown and a lot of reasons for people not to go downtown.

City is milling West Street now....all the way to Capitol.

Until the panhandlers are gone, Jackson will remain the same. It's really THAT big of a deal! In other "comparable" cities, I NEVER get hassled, but in Jackson, there's about a 95% each time I go downtown. Many of my friends - both male and female - cite getting shaken-down as the main reason they stay away........and until you can get business owners to get over whatever "perception" they have, they're not going to take a hard look at the 50% reduction in rent benefit they would have by moving back to downtown Jackson!

Catfish, Mill Street is coming soon. It's on the list. Can only do so many at one time.

SMOKE & MIRRORS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LIPSTICK ON A PIG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blah blah blah 10:30. Facts are stubborn things.

https://www.usich.gov/tools-for-action/map/#fn[]=1400&fn[]=3100&fn[]=6300&fn[]=10400&fn[]=13200&all_types=true&year=2016

what about Ridgewood? Why can't they complete it? Incompetent sub-contractor? Man hole covers are now potholes as they did not raise them, of cut old asphalt down around them.

Lumumba will NEVER forcibly move the panhandlers and homeless anywhere nor mandate where the churches and non-profits can feed, clothe and minister to them.

All the road work in downtown recently was supposedly done in conjunction with the opening of the new Civil Rights Museum on North Street. I’m not sure if it was part of that particular contract or if they were simply waiting to knock it all in one fell swoop and used the opening of the museum as the date, but glad they did it. I work downtown, and Amite Street between State and Jefferson was awful. Pascagoula crossing Jefferson was a virus for alignments.

I hope it lasts. Sadly, Jackson has too much Yazoo Clay for any work to be long term without replacing 10 feet below with good red dirt.

@ December 4, 2017 at 11:37 AM

"mandate where the churches and non-profits can feed, clothe and minister to them."

This is Mississippi and the legislature would have a field day if a group did try to push any initiatives to pass that kind of legislation.

In my humble opinion, something needs to be done in regards to church sprawl in and around in Mississippi. It's ridiculous how many pop up out of the blue with little if any kind of congregation. Not all of them have a true calling to minister, they just want to get in on the cash pyramid known as tithes and offerings.

If there is bad news about Jackson, y'all gripe. If there is good news about Jackson, y'all bitch. Yeesh.

1:02. You OWN this site. Are you just now coming to that epiphany? Yeesh.

With the rents you can get out here in Madison for a house, I am about to lease mine and move downtown.

Remember Old Canton Rd. being repaved two years ago?? The potholes were not fixed, just paved over and the problems manifested again shortly after. Hopefully, this doesn't happen to Capitol St.

Was Old Canton Road milled? Or just an overlay? downtown is getting milled. Very important.

Why should any Mayor be a member of DJP?

3:12....The enabling legislation and DJP bylaws lay out pretty straightforward what the DJP board makeup will or can be. Elected officials are not included, and why would they be? DJP is a 501 C 4 private corporation established by the laws of the state of Mississippi.

2:26 is clearly a very troubled, obsessed individual with an ax to grind. She monitors "all things DJP" with a seemingly twisted if not scary obsession.

11:37
The homeless aren't born in downtown Jackson. They are shipped in from other cities and mental health facilities. You can see them being dropped off near the train station. They tend to stay nearby because that's where some charity is available, like Stewpot and Gateway.

How are downtown businesses supposed to stop that? Perhaps the citizens around the state should take care of their own and not ship their difficult cases to Jackson.

If DJP would work with the Mayor maybe we could get some new tenants and bring back some of the old tenants to the CBD.

Red herring comment.

If one checks around the country, the homeless problem is getting overwhelming. Hawaii is the worst as cities are actually flying their homeless there with one way tickets and a few hundred bucks in their pockets. In Jackson it is annoying, but not nearly as bad as sister cities.

5:12. Northside Sun reports Regions Plaza and Capitol Towers now nearly full. Both almost totally empty 5 years ago. 250 new jobs at Baptist downtown. Streets everywhere being paved. Entergy adding 80 jobs and $12MM facility. Smith Park redo by DJP. FRENICIOUS and RevClaim new businesses downtown. Another 300 new jobs. Capitol Art lofts almost finished. 31 apartments and retail. Walthall being refurbished as we speak. 128 new apartments. Westin just opened. All kinda good stuff busting out everywhere. All in Northside Sun last week. What's the beef?

"If one checks around the country, the homeless problem is getting overwhelming. Hawaii is the worst as cities are actually flying their homeless there with one way tickets and a few hundred bucks in their pockets. In Jackson it is annoying, but not nearly as bad as sister cities."
December 4, 2017 at 5:14 PM

That's a GREAT idea! Why don't we do the same thing? Climate is PERFECT, although Hawaii is a very anti-White place. They won't freeze, or suffer from excessive heat. Plenty of families do that, when their kids get on drugs. Even if you rent them an apartment for six months, pay tuition at a community college, and hand them twenty thou, they blow it all on drugs, and then can't afford plane fare back. They're STUCK, and can't continue dragging the family down with them. Just make sure you put them on the plane in LA (there's also a nonstop from Atlanta, now). Otherwise, they'll "convert" the ticket to cash, halfway across the country, and not leave the Continental USA.

All the hoopla of Trump coming to the museum opening is going to destroy the experience for the rest.

5:41 you left out the 2 museums opening this weekend too.

What's the beef?

Lumumba had nothing to do with any of it.

Will someone tell me what a Civil Rights Museum is going to do for the economy of Jackson or this state? If anything, it will only gin up more malcontents, hatred, acting out and violence. And what, if anything, has the Medgar Evers 'museum wing' at the airport done for Jackson?

We will never, ever in 400 years, work together for the betterment of our mutual society (while demanding personal accountability) as long as we concentrate on division, renaming streets and airports, building museums, tearing down statues and flags and spitting in each others' food.

Any chance that they will put a Whole Foods on Capitol Street now?

Word on the street is the Landmark Center has a grocery store lined up, if they can secure parking. Who knows?

I cannot begin to believe that the moron President Trump will be on site to ruin this weekend's events. God knows what the idiot will say.

To 12:12pm
What if all these storefront churches scattered throughout Jackson are only there for money laundering? Am I the only one who thinks it's odd that a city based largely on wealth transfers from and drug dealing has so many "churches" everywhere?

Yeah I agree. The whole narrative just got aborted. Bet Winter and Ditto are freaked out.

8:03, would you have rather had the other moron, Obama come to Jackson instead? You know, the moron that wanted to encite violence and discord, allow burning and looting of cities so BLM could hate Law Enforcment and blame it all on white privilege?

It will be fun to watch the two rednecks, Tater and Feel, give speeches sucking up to him and the other rednecks.

8:03 -- you should move to Venezuela

All right, I'm zapping some comments. This post was about the repaving of Capitol Street. Somehow it turned into everything about Ben Allen. He has been the subject of many posts on this website and will be again, but not today. Save your gripes and praise for when he is.

Why put a grocery store in the Landmark, when there's a vacant spot on W. Monument Street and Mill Street. That makes better sense logistically too.

If I'm living in the heart of downtown, the Landmark would be more convenient.

8:03; we are MUCH better off economically now than when your past president was in office. Bring President Trump here. We will gladly accept him. So far he has made the economy pick up....not something the empty chair did. Oh....but he sure liked saying the government built everything the private sector made. In a free market economy, that type of socialist thinking doesn’t work, therefore your party lost. Whether you all like it or not, I’m glad the streets are being repaved. Jackson was a great city at one time and it can be again.

Trump did it again. All it takes is a visit from the man and the streets of Jackson change from a goat trail to a smooth highway.