Jackson has lots of upside potential but it won’t happen until blight and abandoned properties are under control. 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 2,400 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 three to four properties at each bi-weekly meeting which works out to a 100 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. But 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 who looked at them that an epic crisis gripped the city.
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 large scale war on blight. 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. Supervisor Evers helped the task force connect with the local HUD representative. In July 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. They make fire protection more difficult, they make law enforcement more difficult and much more dangerous. They make economic development very difficult and more expensive. They are a result of 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 and schools in the midst of a shrinking population is exceedingly difficult.
There were a number of blight related bills proposed in this year’s legislative session but most did not pass. While disappointing, 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 O Hotel was a victory over inaction. It turns out there is a very small constituency in favor of blight -mostly gangs and drug lords who need places to hide out. When we finally do get blight under control the upside for Jackson is going to be huge!
Ashby Foote, councilman Ward 1.
