Makaho(Economics 101)

[Mr. Matriculation]

Hey Makaho, you are a Republican and Republicans are supposed to understand Economics and big business. Give me a good economic plan to bring Jackson into the 21st century in terms of economic development. I was up in north Mississippi over the holidays and they have it looking good from Oxford to Memphis. Also, the coast is booming. Now tell me what can a Republican agenda do to make the Jacktown a premier southern city. The common citizen is ready, where can Republican leadership takes us??

 

[Makaho Bedrock]

Re: Republican Agenda

In Municipal level government, Rep. or Dem affiliation doesn't matter. I have never seen a Democratic or Republican "pothole". Municipal leaders should be mostly concerned about city resident quality of life issues and Bond Issues.

But if you look at the area from Oxford to Memphis.... yeah, it's booming because Trent Lott is the Sentator...The coast is booming because Thad Cochran is the Senator. Trent Lott can pull a lot of strings for MS..just look at Nissan. Thad Cochran as well, he is gonna soon be over apropriations being a senior member of the Senate.

The reason that these guys do things for those regions is that the bottom line is any politician is gonna take care of their voter base first. And that is any politician Dememocrat or Republican.

The City of Jackson had a chance to vote for Republican leadership when Daryl Neely (JSU grad) ran for Mayor, he was endorsed by Sec. of Education Rod Paige and Trent Lott...his campaign came up short, when he received 40% of the vote.

(Here was some Jackson citizens reasons for not voting for him)

He was too young (30).

I know our current mayor is ineffecitve but I can't vote for a Republican.

Some even made the argument that you gave all the white mayors two terms why not give him another (even though he ran against a brutha).

I could understand if people said that, Harvey Johnson is a very effective mayor and he is the best man.....not many said that, they just mentioned the previous.

And I could go on and on about his ineffectiveness but it reveals the true problems the city of Jackson has. You have too many people in positions of authority that hold on to outdated ideals.

Just look at Councilman Kenneth Stokes...ACLU field secretary Stephanie Parker-Weaver, and Charles Tisdale publisher of the Jackson Advocate. What is their argument..."White folks don't want us to have nothing!!"...
Im like WTF, Jackson is 70% black...you can do any dayumm thang you wan't to do. But they always play to that mentality.

What can the Republican agenda do, I think a good Republican mayor with conservative ideals can make the city of Jackson more attractive by offering Tax encentives to Big Business to attract them to our city. Another way is to have good relations with D.C., afterall that is where the money is printed.

Daryl Neely told me a strory that was sad, he said he went to a meeting in Trent Lott's office and as he sat in that chair he was told by Lott that myriad of famous people have sat in that chair to talk to him....
Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Jesse Jackson, Strom Thurman, Louis Farrakhan, Orin Hatch...
But you know who has never sat there....Harvey Johnson, mayor of the city of Jackson...why, because Harvey quote un quote..Is a Yellow Dog Democrat that don't need a Republican for nothing.

Now you see why Jackson is the way it is...it will take time..but we will progress one way or the other. Because citizens will eventually get out of the Status quo and vote for change.

P.S. I hope I answered some of your questions...mabye I should'nt post after drinking Crown.....


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[Mr. Matriculation]

Economic Development

I think 99% of black people in 2002 would follow a Republican fiscal policy(Bill Clinton was a Republican in economic terms). The problem is that present day Republicans have a twisted judicial policy (super harsh sentencing & racial profiling) and are threatning affirmative action. I guess those are policies white conservatives keep dear to their heart. As far as Jackson is concerned I agree that the blacks you mentioned in your post misrepresent Jackson as a whole and play the race card entirely to much, but you can't give the white power structure the benefit of the doubt. Case in point, when Nissan came black contractors had to act a azz to get a share of the construction because white folk were trying to be greedy as always. I feel that when we do get some new black political blood in office it's gonna have to be a person with a strong sense of dedication to his people and someone that is very smart because otherwise we are gonna still be fussing about potholes and cable contracts. By the way, i'm not a Harvey Johnson fan simply because everything he does takes to long to get accomplished.

p.s.. When do you think Farish St. is gonna start popping??

 

[MikeBigg]

Bedrock,

So you are saying that the Republicans are as guilty of partisan politics as they accused the democrats of being. Trent Lott and the other US Senator you mentioned should be concerned with the well being of all Mississippians. Is the slight to Jackson due to the political constituents or the color of those constituents? Please be honest with yourself. Just because Trent Lott is a Republican does not mean he is immune to being racially biased.

Please don't insult anyone's intelligence and say that Jackson gets slighted due to it's political complexion. As the old saying goes===> Don't piss on me and say it's rain...cuz I know the difference

 

[Makaho Bedrock]

Bigg

In most cases, Politicians will first and foremost take care of the people that got them elected. It's reflective of nature, the law of self-preservation always rules. I'll be damned if I give you "my" shoes so I can walk home over glass and concrete. That's why I tell people we should be more diverse as a voting populace. What happens every election, we go out and vote overwhelmngly Democrat and if our candidate doesn't win then we complain the whole time he or she is in office.

And yes, the City of Jackson gets slighted by it's political complexion because you have autocratic, outdated, eclectic mofo's concerned about the status quo instead of progress.

Im brutally honest Bigg, I always tell the truth. Which is why I am more concerned with Murder rates in "our" community, education rates in "our" community, pregnance rates in "our" community over Racial Profiling. I'm not a criminal, I don't drink and drive I'm not concerned by racial profiling. I have been pulled over way more times by black police than white police.

And yeah, Trent Lott is racially biased just like I am racially biased. I hope he loves being white just as much as I love being Black.

 

[MikeBigg]

Not questioning your concern for our community. Simply wanted to express my opinion that the lack of attention to the Jackson area could be just as much due to color as to party affiliation.

I agree that the Democrats are just as guilty. I'm a registered Democrat and historically, we have been the most racially and culturally diversed party. Nevertheless, the track record of the Democratic Party is also one of worst kinds of racism. The white powers in the party often pretend to be our friend.

Our best chance of gaining influence is on the local elections. It's were we have the greatest chance of victory and also having our needs addressed. We as a people need to look at the best person for the office and choose someone who will listen to our issues and concerns. I honestly don't know which is worse, the Republicans who ignore us or the Democrats who give lip service, talk a good game, and in the end delivers nothing!

 

[Makaho Bedrock]

Originally posted by MikeBigg

Our best chance of gaining influence is on the local elections. It's were we have the greatest chance of victory and also having our needs addressed. We as a people need to look at the best person for the office and choose someone who will listen to our issues and concerns. I honestly don't know which is worse, the Republicans who ignore us or the Democrats who give lip service, talk a good game, and in the end delivers nothing!

I could'nt Disagree with you Less....
For the most part, I vote mostly Democrat in local elections. We have Closed Primaries here in MS. so you have to vote straight ticket. Two Friends of mine I went to JSU with, ran for office, so in order to vote for them I had to vote on the Democratic ticket. What I try to tell people is that we should not put all of our eggs in one basket. When we do that we neutralize ourselves and get left hanging. I just wish more of "us" gave a dauymm and voted in the first place.

 

[Makaho Bedrock]

Re: Economic Development

p.s.. When do you think Farish St. is gonna start popping?? [/B]

With the current administration, I don't see anything happening there soon other than the Farish St. Festival.

Just to let you know what type of guy you are dealing with..Harvey Johnson has sat on 3 million dollars for over 2 1/2 years which was allocated by the Fed. Govt. for renovations on Farish St. I know that is not a whole lot of money, but he could at least fix some of those abondoned properties there.

The city gave Freelon's "L" when he was getting established. Code this, Ordinace that, instead of trying to help someone get business started in the Downtown area, they always hamper it. A typical example of city officials trying to justify their existance. Makes me wanna holler sometimes man.

 

[Mr. Matriculation]

damm jackson

Thats buck wild about how they did Freelons. I figured they would have incentives to bring people on Farish, as opposed to creating stumbling blocks. Basically Jackson is 1 more Fortune 500 company and a revitalized down town away from being a desirable city. We have WorldCom and Nissan, but our downtown is pitiful. White flight did a number on our city. I was listening to Tavis's show on npr.org (great left-wing show) and Jesse Jackson was saying the only downtown skyscrapers that are black owned are in Atlanta, New York, CHicago and possibly LA. Thats horrible, and it really tells a story about how far we as a people have come. If we as a people were on the same page Jackson could easily be black owned and operated financially. It already is politically. Even though Jesse is no moral leader of mine, I do commend him on the path he has been on the last decade with addressing the issues of capital access for black businesses.

 

[Makaho Bedrock]

Another Scary note.

Not only do you have "White" flight, you have "Black" flight as well. A lot of "us" that can afford to live in a neigborhood like Lakeover or Woodlea are opting to move to Madison, Ridgeland or Byram. So what you are eventually going to have here in Jackson are two extremes. People that have too much invested in Jackson to leave and People that can't afford to move.

If you look at the mentality of most of our city officials and a lot of so called civic leaders in our community it is one of "payback". Their thing is we are in control now so let's get them back for all those years of racism. On the other side of the fence you have some whites that no matter what year it is are still gonna hold on to outdated values. So again we have two more extremes left in the city of Jackson.

I think that we need more "funerals" here in Jackson, so that old guard mentality, both black and white will be buried along with their rhetoric.
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[Bengal E]

Hey Mak,

What role do you think our university can play in the revitalizaton of Downtown and in bringing tourists to the city through sporting events? Since we are touting ourselves as an urban university, what types are things are we doing to assist or need to be doing in your eyes?

 

[Makaho Bedrock]

man.....

The potential is almost limitless. As I have stated before, white folks are still kicking themselves in the Arse because they put Ole Miss in Oxford instead of Jackson.
I think with the Metro Parkway coming through the area and the demoliton of those abandonded properties will be a catalyst.

I tell people all the time, no matter what renovations and upgrades there are being made on the campus, it takes away from it when all roads leading to the campus look like ISHT. I know pretty much every urban HBCU is in the ghetto, but If we change the surronding areas then mabye we can change a lot of perceptions.

But Matriculation is right, Jackson is one fortune 500 business or one leadership tenure away from being a premire city in the south. I just hope it happens before I need false teeth.

 

[Bartram]

This is an OUTSTANDING Thread. Great Stuff!!!

So many outstanding points made here I just can't address everything.

One thing Makaho said that I didn't expect from Makaho was about politics at the city level and "potholes not being rep. or dem." or something to that effect. Couldn't have said it better myself. Here in Bama, the state/local offices are predominantly democratic, but Alabama votes republican in presidential elections and has done so since the 70s with the exception of Jimmy Carter.

Another question I have for Makaho is,,,,,, HOW IN THE HELLO DID MISSISSIPPI LEGALIZE GAMBLING??!!!:redhot: :redhot: This just erks me to no end! Mississippi and Alabama were suppose to be virtually identical twins,, yet Mississippi approved gambling,,, and Alabama is in the process of figuring out ways to shut down Arcades that give away Walmart gift certificates as "winnings"!!!!

Lastly,,, that Saints threat to move to Biloxi-Gulfport almost sent me ballistic! I just don't think I could have stomached B-G with pro sports after decades of ill-fated attempts at said in Birmingham, the, "football capitol of the South". x 100.

PS: How can we revitalize predominantly black counties/cities mainly in the Black Belt regions of Alabama and Mississippi?????!!!

 

[ABE]

Mississippi and Alabama don't have all that much in common.. Mississippi embraced the whole Bingo thing, and that basically got folks used to the idea of gambling.. Then the developers told the public how the casinos would help education. We were hurting badly in that department. Also New Orleans was stalling on its Casino.. It seemed to be a perfect proposition especially since the Mississippi voters would not start a state lottery, despite the millions that we spend in Louisiana on their lottery. Personally I think bringing the boats to Mississippi was a mistake.. The government did not learn to manage its money and now they have bugeting problems..

Another reason I think the casinos should be shut down is that we don't have any courses in casino management in MS universities.. Why? because it is illegal to teach them here.. So basically when they start a casino they have to bring in outsiders for the top jobs.. This is not a good deal.

On the subject of Farish Street, I heard at one time it would take about 15 million to get the district up and going. That is not a great deal of money. If Harvey has 3 million, and a few key figures match that, Farish would be an attraction much akin to Beale or Bourban street. I think it is shameful that the city tried to block Frelons from opening... Maybe they just wanted Mill Street to just stay like it was, a Transvestite and Hooker haven!

But MB ior Mr. M, or anyone else in Jacktown... What in the "L" are they gonna do with the old "Tiffany's Cabaret" and "Tiffany's Club" They have been sitting up unused for a while.....

 

[Bartram]

Those sentiments have kept Alabama from doing anything.

Well Dirty, what would Mississippi have done about education funding without legalizing gambling? Not one dang thing. The conservative old line (mostly) white voter block here says the same thing you are saying; "Alabama doesn't need a lotto/gambling; we just need to manage, cut fat in state government",, blah, blah, blah. The only reason they run all that smack is to defeat a referendumn/a politician at the polls. They don't do, nor do they have intensions of doing, a g-da_n thing about education funding in this state,,,,, unless, of coarse, it is in support of their private schools and "acadamies" or the Univ of Alabama and Auburn University.

Mississippi should work on getting rid of that law that says it's illegal to teach casino management in the schools. Further, maybe MS should have rabble-rousing politicians like we have here in Alabama (Joe Reed, Alvin Holmes,,, our versions of Jessie and Sharpton) to file lawsuites and constantly challenge the state on these issues.

I would gladly swop places with Mississippi/Georgia/Florida and have all yall pouring into Alabama spending your money at our casinos and on a lottery of ours to send our chillunz to college for free like over in Georgia.

Alabama has rejected ALL of the lottos, the casino gambling,,,, we got dog tracks, but they have taken a straight-up arse kicking since the inception of the Lotto in Georgia and gambling in MS. As I said, we are staring proration in the face (but legislature had an emergency sessions to raise taxes on corporations to raise 165M in desperately needed funds to keep our schools going) here in Bama,,, and now you can't find anybody who says, "well, just tighten your belt and cut fat" everytime someone attempts to come up with a way to raise money for schools.

Tuskegee/Macon county is a prime example. This is one of the, if not THE, poorest counties in the nation. Before the dog track the local high schools were in a woefull state and had not seen major improvements since the 60s. The dog track came in and the county earmarked some of the profits to the schools. D.C. Wolfe, South Macon and Tuskegee Institute High were all consolidated into a state-of-the-art Booker T. Washington 6A high school on a sprawling campus on the outskirts of Tuskegee. This is concrete results of bricks, mortar, a new athletic complex,, etc. If it were left up to the anti-gambling/religious/Ten Commandments/christian coalition (code for ultra-conservative white voters from the 60s white citizen councils here in Alabama) crowd here in Alabama,,, Macon county will still be struggling along in highschools abandoned by whites in the 60s with the onset of desegregation, in disrepair struggling just to make ends meet.

I'd say it is unfortunate, ultimately, that we have to depend on gambling revenue to fund public primary education in this state, but the voters here will have no parts of, say, property tax increases to fund public education, yet you attempt to raise revenue through a lotto/gambling and the voters will have no parts of that because of some coalition running a bunch of religious smack; what are these poorest counties (most of which are 70-90% BLACK MIND YOU,,,) to do?

 

[Makaho Bedrock]

Batram, it's like you read my mind.

Mississippi just like Alabama primarily votes Republican for Presedintial elections, and Demecrat for State wide elections. MS had it's first ever Republican Gov. Kirk Fordice who served two terms about 2 years ago. Our current Gov. is a Democrat who has served two years and has made a lot of enemies in the black community with his and the Lt. Gov's State Flag stance and their firing of former Director of the Dept. Human Services Bettye Fletcher who was also JSU interim President.

I think that the reason why MS was in favor of casinos is the same reason why we have the highest "law suit" settlements in the nation and legislatures are lobbying for Tort Reform....the "Lotto" mentality.
People rush off to the boat in hopes that them dropping a few quarters in the machines will cure all their economic woes.
And Dirty was right about his comparison to the N.O. casino....the Mob is too deeply rooted there to facilitate the quick acquisition of anything in that city, just ask Steve Mariuchi.

BTW Batram, that Saints thang was a ruse, everybody here pretty much knew that wasn't about to happen, the Saints infrastructure utilized that as leverage for new accomadations against their State Govt.

But Dirty, as far as Tiffany's (Club & Cabaret) is concerned the club was shut down due to numerous complaints from the residents and various activities that went on around in the parking lot. The Cabaret went by the wayside probably because they didn't pay the right city officials off. You know how it is here, you can keep anything here open as long as you "play the game". My boy Freelon wasn't bout to do that, that's why they game him hell on opening.

Remember, this is Jackson, MS. a city that is full of Democrats (Liberals) but when it comes to Bible Belt related issues they act more Conservative than I could ever be. Just look at the news lately, you got people protesting the new Hooter's opening up...go figure.

 

[Bartram]

Lotto Mentality

I can see the arguments for and against a lotto. I see the mentality that you are talking about here. People put all their hopes in hitting it big instead of sucking it up in high school, hitting the books, taking their arse to TU/ASU/AAMU/Miles/Talladega/Stillman/SelmaU or any college and getting an education or learning a trade/business in the family and continuing the business,,,, or rooting out a living on the land farming and managing woodlands.

It's a tuff call when you start looking at all those issues, but it seemed to be the easiest way to raise revenue in this state; you do it on your own, you make the decision to do it and the state slaps taxes on it and channel that money to the schools.

Take me for example. When I was living in California, I had no problem dropping a few duckets here and there when the jackpot was big. I went in fully aware that the chances of me winning were less likely than being struck by lightning. I never won, big deal. So I gave $20-30 dollars, at my discression, to the Cali lottery the 6-7 years I was there.

To me it just seems like such a simple thing to turn into a revenue source. People are going to do it, as you can see if you look at all them "Alabama" tags in the parking lots of your casinos and just across the line at them little hole inthe wall conenient stores in GA/MS,,, so why not keep some of that money in Alabama?

 

[ABE]

I rememeber when the Powerball hit 190 Million , there was nothing but Hinds County license plates in the parking lot of that store in Delta, Louisiana.. Just imagine all that money which was spent.. Not a single person was just buying one ticket.. Some were buying tickets for everyone in their family, job, or organization.. Ain't that right Robber? but umm..

Alabama might as well get on the bandwagon.. just think about how much money you have spent on football pools, crap games (illegal), poker, spades, Playstation, or whatever else you could bet on.. (Even SWAC football, but you didn't hear that from me) I think illegal gambling in some instances is even higher than legal... Not to mention street races, ultimate fighting, dog fighting, cock fighting, billiards, pickup basketball games, golf, and arm wrestling.....

The United States is a betting society.. the government might as well cash in on it...

M.B.-
I understand what you are saying about greasing politicians' hands with that loot, but don't they see their hard-headed behavior is making the city decline? Jackson can not stand to have perfectly good building standing unused while they are building new buildings in Flowood, Madison, and Clinton..

Bart. -
The way things are going we probably will boot out our current Democratic governor.. I believe he is a weak piece of isht.. I think he behaves like a woman.. Bring back "Dirty Kirk Fordice", at least he stood up for himself, he carried a pistol, and had a girlfriend.. gotta love that...

What would MS have done about Education without casino money?
Not a dayum thing....

What has MS done with all the casino money?
The legislators gave themselves a raise......