Jackson Jambalaya

My obsession with blight began in December 2023 after a visit with Michael Watson and his team at the Secretary of State’s (SOS) office. By State statute, tax forfeited properties are turned over to the SOS’s office and Jackson had almost 2400 of the near 10,000 on the SOS’s list. Alas, Jackson with 5% of the State’s population had 25% of the State’s tax forfeited properties. This is not good.

Everyone at the meeting agreed something needed to be done, but what? The City’s budget to fight blight never contemplated a problem this big. The usual pace has been cleanup of 3 to 4 properties at each bi-weekly meeting which works out to a hundred or so a year. The SOS role is intended as administrator and collector of property taxes, not as landlord and groundskeeper. Some non-profits such as Revitalize Mississippi have worked valiantly to address the issue but budgets are limited and dependent on constant fund raising.

Folks who have toured the streets of south and west Jackson have seen firsthand the stark and depressing landscape of boarded up buildings and strip malls with few if any occupants. If you haven’t seen it firsthand, you can’t appreciate the magnitude of the problem. 

Maps were the visual aids that got people’s attention. It was Central Mississippi Planning and Development (CMPDD) that turned SOS Excel spreadsheets of Tax Forfeited property into Cat-scan like maps of Jackson’s blight that convinced anyone that looked at them that blight was an urban cancer and Jackon’s diagnosis was stage 4. It is intuitively obvious to even the casual observer that an epic crisis grips the city of Jackson.  

Maps in hand, the next step was obtaining buy-in from key community leaders, especially from law enforcement. Police Chiefs, the Sheriff, the DA, even U.S. Attorney Todd Gee – who pointed to Baltimore as an example of a large-scale war on blight. Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell and his Deputy Keith Davis suggested a Council Task Force. Such a Task Force was created in June by unanimous vote of the City Council. Hinds County District 4 Supervisor Wanda Evers helped the Task Force connect with the regional HUD representative. In July the Speaker of the House, Jason White created the Select Committee for Revitalizing the Capitol City to focus on water, crime and rundown properties.

The maps were and still are a wake-up call for just how serious the issue of blight is. Dilapidated and abandoned properties, both residential and commercial, aren’t just a bug but rather a feature of Jackson in 2025. They are a component in all the key issues Jackson faces. Blight makes fire-fighting and law enforcement more difficult and much more dangerous. Blight makes economic development a harder sell and much more expensive. Abandoned properties undermine neighborhoods and a cause of outmigration across the City over the past 15 years.

The 2010 census listed Jackson’s population at 173,000. The 2020 census showed Jackson’s population at 153,000, a loss of 20,000 souls. According to Google, Jackson is currently the fastest shrinking city in America at -4.5%. Managing large City-wide systems, like Water, Sewer, Garbage, Parks & Rec, Schools and 1100 miles of roadways in the midst of a shrinking population is exceedingly difficult.

Most of the blight related Bills proposed in this year’s State legislative session did not pass. But with a new administration coming to City Hall the outlook for next year’s session is very promising. Importantly, when the subject of attacking blight and abandoned properties comes up there are thumbs-up all around. The take-down of the Hotel  Owas celebrated as a victory over inaction. 

It turns out there is a very small constituency in favor of blight - mostly squatters, gangs and drug lords who need places to hide out. With determined and experienced leadership in City Hall we can get blight under control and when we do, the upside surprise for Jackson is going to be huge!