This post was first published on April 1. It seemed appropriate with the approaching election.
It is a tenet among a certain crowd to blame the "state" for all of Jackson's problems. One Jackson politician even went so far as to say the legislature was hollowing out Jackson. Such themes play well to their audiences but as usual, ignore reality as it was Jackson who hollowed out Jackson through negligence, corruption, and good ole fashioned incompetence. Think yours truly is being too hard? Let's take a look under the hood.
Crime & Police
It was not the state that ran off a popular police chief who got things done only to replace him with a bozo for over five years. Jackson suffered homicides in the range of the 60's each year prior to Lumumba becoming Mayor. Murder went up, up, up after Vance left. Homicides rose to the 80's and then skyrocketed to 157 homicides in 2021. There have been over 100 homicides each year for the last five years. Officers fled JPD as the the number of patrol officers fell below 150, leaving beats unfilled.
The state expanded Capitol Police, putting over 100 cops on the streets. For it's trouble, the state got lawsuits and protests by the Mayor .
Fire Department
The firemen live in squalor. Nuff said.
Libraries
Few things demonstrate Jackson incompetence as the libraries - where they still exist. Eudora Welty and Charlies Tisdale libraries were allowed to fall apart until demolished. The Director repeatedly went to the Mayor and City Council begging to save the books and libraries but her pleas fell on deaf years. The Mayor's Chief of Staff said he was coming up with a plan five years ago. Other libraries have been forced to close. Tens of thousand of books were destroyed because the city dillied and dallied as it studied away. Notice the administration still has not found a home for a downtown library.
Ironically, it was the segregationists who tried to keep blacks out of the city's libraries. The Lumumba administration has managed to accomplish what the Ross Barnetts could not do - keep blacks out of the libraries.
Animal Control & Animal Shelter
The animal shelter was so poorly run, the city had to shut it down. Adoptions had to be paid for with cash and logs were not kept. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened. An outside group offered to spend $300,000 to train staff and get it up to speed. The city said nah, just give us the check. The result is no animal control in Jackson. The city once had over half a dozen animal control officers.
Thalia Mara Hall
Several hundred thousand dollars in state aid sat in the bank while Jackson neglected the HVAC system. The city rented chillers for events. The "microbial growth" did not happen because the system failed over a weekend as claimed by the Mayor but because it was running at a lower level for quite some time, thus creating conditions for the "microbial growth." Such growth doesn't develop over a few days .
The manager screamed for help for over a year but was ignored. For her troubles, the administration fired her. The Mayor claimed the auditorium was ready for the state fire marshal inspection. The state came and said it was if the city had not even touched the auditorium . Hell, months after the first fire marshal inspection, the city still had not cleaned up human crap off of the outside balconies.
How is this the state's fault?
Jackson Zoo
The Mayor took over the zoo from the Jackson Zoological Society board voted to study moving the zoo. Study. The Mayor threw a tantrum, bragging he would hire another organization to run the zoo. The problem is, no such entity exists. The zoo was forced to close for a year when the Mayor foolishly terminated the JZS's lease without realizing JZS had the license, which it promptly surrendered to the USDA. No license means no zoo . Somehow it is the state's fault no one attends the zoo or it took the city a year to get a license .
Meanwhile, the zoo continues to wither away as the collection shrinks and few people attend.
Roads
Is anyone satisfied with the roads? Seen Ridgewood between Briarwood and Old Canton Road lately? Paved only eight years ago, the road is now cratering as the city did not mill the road before paving nor did it perform any maintenance after repaving. So focused is the Mayor on fixing the roads that Public Works has not had a public works director for a year and a half. Somehow, that is the state's fault. Competence at its best. How much would have been paved if the 1% Sales Tax Commission did not exist?
Smith-Will Stadium
The city allowed Tim Bennett to lease the stadium but didn't collect any rent for years. The city then forgave the half a million dollars he owed. The lease required Bennett to get a performance bond but the city failed to ensure he got one. Such a bond would have ensured the city got paid under the lease .
Meanwhile, Bennett allowed a cigar bar to operate. The bar would crank it up while kids were playing baseball right outside the window. The bar completely violated the terms of the lease. Bennett subleased the parking lot to the V.A., violating the terms of the lease. He pocketed all profits from the sublease while not paying his rent. The state finally moved to terminate the lease and regain possession of the Smith-Wills property.
Water System
The water system made a profit and had money in the bank. Harvey blew it up with the Siemens deal. Mayors Yarber and Lumumba worsened things by imposing moratoriums on cutoffs. The current Mayor didn't hire people to run the plants. He caimed we needed to build a new plant when all he had to do was fix leaks and valves that were turned off, something Ted Henifin managed to do. Of course, replacing a 30 year old plant with a new one means sweet contracts for the sweethearts.
The Mayor covered up the EPA's emergency order for over a year after blowing off the Health Department for years. He repeatedly lied until the system collapsed in August 2022. He covered up an ammonia leak. The Mayor lied about ordering parts when several pumps at O.B. Curtis were out for eight months due to an electrical fire . The lies continued until the feds took to over. The Feds didn't trust Jackson with the money. Thus the Congressional appropriation decrees the city has no authority to spend the funds.
Garbage
Complete garbage. The city went without garbage service for two weeks as the City Council and Mayor fought over who should pick up the garbage. The Mayor tried to ram Richard's Disposal, a troubled New Orleans company, down the Council's throat as he tried to force every household in Jackson to purchase 96-gallon garbage contracts from a vendor he selected. Although he claimed he was trying to save money, he ignored an even cheaper bid by Richard's Disposal that did not offer garbage carts. Somehow, that is the state's fault .
Traffic Lights
A multitude of traffic lights went on the fritz thanks to a lack of maintenance. Sound familiar? Of course, the city had no technicians on staff. Hizzoner said the problem was the city purchased them all at the same time so they were malfunctioning at the same time.
Hizzoner loves to blame the state for any and all of Jackson's ills. Given his record of failure, what else can he do but do what he is doing now, blaming the state and stirring up racial division. Of course, his crowd thinks Jackson is just fine but then again, pigs love to live in slop and some people are no different.
The truth is, Jackson hollowed itself out with no help from the state and that, my friends, is the bottom line.
15 comments:
You left out the bond rating.
I find it interesting that these race baiting politicians blame the state and Republican leadership. Delbert Hosemann lives in NE Jackson as does wickers daughter many Barbour family members as well. So to suggest they are hollowing out Jackson is a tactic used to enrage a certain low information voter base.
Not one lie here. What happened to Jackson? I know my family's values haven't changed since they arrived in the late 1960s. Who's responsible for the moral and cultural rot, decay, and idiocy of the typical Jackson voter of today?
If you are Skock-Way, it is always the "man's" fault.
Lucky for them, most of the City of Jackson votership is low information so it works.
The few remaining intelligent people are far out numbered.
It's a shame, the way Jackson has been destroyed, a shame. Yet, those that have done the dirty deeds that caused this shame, preen like peacocks. May Jackson's long night of suffering be coming to an end.
Also happening while Chokwe was the anti-corruption mayor: The Siemens lawsuit and settlement. Followed by the quick micturition of the same.
I saw a report on one of the local TV stations the other day in which the mayor told the reporter he should be re-elected because "I care about people, right?" There's no evidence of that. Of course, unless he's talking about his grifting family & pulpit pimps.
IT IS NOT THE STATE'S RESPONSIBILITY TO BAIL JACKSON OUT. I don't see how they can't understand this. Every other municipality operates on its own. For some reason, The Democrats of Jackson feel that the state owes them something.
It's a shame to see what Jackson has turned into. I see pictures of Capitol Street in the 40's, 50's, and 60's on the Mississippi Memories page on FB, and if you comment that it looked so nice back then, you're hit with 20 comments of "Yeah, unless you were black!" Well I hate to tell ya, but take a look at Farish Street in the 1950's. It was booming and bustling. The black neighborhoods were well kept and thriving. Do you know what the difference is? Most everyone took pride in themselves and their property! Most homes had a father present, AND welfare wasn't the norm. There is no reason that the people that moved into Jackson (after white flight) couldn't have kept up their properties and businesses just like the previous occupants. However, I guess someone always has to play the blame game to gloss over their shortcomings.
Mayor’s attempt to rid city of abandoned houses just hit a snag. Asbestos inspections on many many abandoned houses will have to be redone- asbestos inspectors certifications were not renewed so all inspections performed by these inspectors were invalid. Just another case of poor management by the city.
Way to go Chok. The screenplay writes itself...movie is gonna be awesome.
Deep gratitude to JJ for timely, factual data on Lil Choke's miserable performance, for years.
Seems like only the 'sting' of the FBI sting got South and West Jackson to finally see through the mayor's obfuscation and layers of lies, straight into his utter incompetence and corruption. I have previously posited that Bennie T may have put the Feds up to their sting to bust Jodie & Lil Choke, if only because the two of them made democrats look so bad in Bennie T's district.
In an Interview with WLBT, Chokwe described himself as “kind of conservative” and was proud of what he has accomplished. You can’t get any more delusional than that.
I believe the change in Jackson Leadership is on, Uncle Bennie has Spoken. Thank Goodness- after a mighty miserable situation going on to Long.
Post a Comment