Jackson Jambalaya

Great childhood memories of the 80s there. By the early 90s it was getting bad. Vehicle theft, home invasion burglaries, and gang violence started becoming common by 1995.
Maria Drive was our street. Went through there about 10 years ago and it was worse than any third world country you could imagine. You should’ve turned off McDowell and driven through some of those ghetto neighborhoods for some real fatigue porn. What “they” have done to the city is inexcusable. This footage should be projected on the side of the civil rights museum.

Work took me to South Jackson a couple of years ago. I stopped by the old library on McDowell Rd next to Key Elementary. I looked through the window to see the the ceiling falling through and books just soaking up water, completely destroyed. I walked around to the side entrance to find a bum passed out with about 20 beer cans around him. These people don't even care about maintaining a library next door to an elementary school where the facilities could be used to improve children's lives on a daily basis. There is no hope for this community.

The city should take a bulldozer to any building left in a burned-out and/or open shell state, and fine the owners. I know that sounds Melton-esque, but why make the remaining inhabitants suffer more by surrounding them with uninhabited buildings that become eyesores and drug dens?

Mario's was really good!

A friend took me to Mario’s around year 2004, I think. Was amazing. Couldn’t believe the place was tucked down on McDowell. Sadly I don’t think it lasted much longer.

Some people groups simply cannot self-govern or even do simple maintenance. It’s a crappy ghetto, but it’s theirs and no one is going to tell them how they should live or how to run their community. If you try to, they throw the R word at you

Some people living in their own world think the destruction of Jackson came only in certain neighborhoods whose racial makeup changed. What they may not choose to comprehend is that similar rot has taken place in communities that were once family friendly Black communities. Black people who grew up in Shady Oaks and Grove Park, College Park, Washington Addition, etc. can also remember the "good ole days" when Mississippi was hell but those places were comfortable havens with good people living there. Now the communities AND the people are different. For some the only difference is race. They miss the point. There's a lot more to this story.

From the potholes to the beer cans white with foam,
God bless New America, my home, sweet home.

Meth started S Jacksons downward trend. Then the other culture came in and killed it forever. I try to be fair as a white man. And the XtaCY meth culture was huge back then.

Spent countless hours at Video Village and cruising McDowell Road. Those were the good old days.

Once lived on Woody Dr. Attended McDowell Road baptist church. Shopped at Apple Ridge. Makes my heart hurt...

KF, I hope both of you were packing. I suspect yes.

I agree with 9:46. Today's Jackson ghetto leadership blames "white flight" for Jackson's problems, but the real problem is the "black flight". ALL the people who left, black or white, left for the same reasons, and race had little, or no, part of their decision to get the hell out while the getting was good.

Kingfish,
Anyway to post photos of south Jackson in the 1980s or 1990s ? Maybe even of Forrest hill school too back in the day. The Forest hill Rebs

Who was the guy that had the GTO's and would get them out now and then for a rip up and downMcDowell?

9:07 You hit the nail on the head. Jackson proper was a garden spot up til the 80’s. The racist white power structure must be to blame for its demise.

You’ve summed it up well.

You’re actually right, because observation will tell you meth is almost exclusively a white vice.

Witnessing the slow blight of your childhood neighborhood can leave a quiet but lasting trauma. As familiar streets and homes that once felt safe gradually turn into symbols of loss and neglect. It's a grief that's hard to name, Giving away your property and watching the places tied to your earliest memories decay often stirs a deep sense of helplessness and disconnection that lingers into adulthood. I feel like avoiding urban living is about to be my next chapter in life.

South Jackson is gone. As long as the every administration ignores it it will never change. They want to focus on downtown, but you have a 1/3 of the city living in third world squalor

Can someone please send in some pictures of south Jackson on n the 1980/1990s please

Mario's was the best. I've never had lasagna that held a candle to his. I ran across his obituary a while back. Turns out he was from Alexandria, Egypt!

You may have not picked up on it but all of the businesses still open all take SNAP. Even the gas stations have “cold cuts” they sell to people with the welfare debit cards.

We used to play league tennis at Tennis Center South on McDowell back in the 90s. Even then it was starting to go. Frequently heard gunshots, and they wouldn't schedule women's matches down there. Courts were in terrible shape. I'd forgotten about Pizza Express. Seems like the one in North Jackson was in that shopping center across from Scrooge's. Pizza was nasty as I recall. Probably why they aren't around anymore.

The city should de-annex much of south and west Jackson.

Who? Us?

Smith Wesson is absolutely correct. They want no outside guidance no matter how bad things get.
@9:54 is on target too. I grew up there and white trash was a huge problem. Meth was a big part of it, but looking back I can look at many of my friends parents who had no business raising children. I know of at least 10 deaths caused by overdosing among my age group and I'm in my mid 40s.

There is no hope for all of Jackson.

Bulldoze the whole city. Property values would increase

No one in Jackson wants a job.

The current population of Jackson will NEVER do anything to help themselves or Jackson. Bring in thousands of immigrants into Jackson to help save it at least they work

Anyone want to guess what I didn't see on McDowell Road?

Police?

Legally how would that work? Had it ever been done?

KF were you afraid?? I know would had

As a young man, I wanted to believe. But the older I become, the more time passes, it's clear to me that we don't want the same things in our lives and in our neighborhoods. I'm completely opposite now of what I was as a youngster, convinced now that it would be better for all if we lived apart.

I'm positive the new mayor and his monochromatic administration will return this area to it's former glory days soon.

I grew up in SoJack from 1987-2001. At 18, I was hired at Secrets Cabaret by John Adams as a DJ, fired for playing too much electronic music. I cruised so many miles, made lasting friendships. It literally makes me physically disturbed to go through there, my mind trying to reconcile the ghost of my youth because so much of it is unrecognizable. I attended the Southwest YMCA, patroned Woods Stereo, worked at Jitney Jungle. I've covered almost every street in the area all the way to Byram.

I have just one question...is gas really at $1.99 at KJ Food Mart?

I agree

I hate to say it, but you are correct.