Downtown Jackson Partners welcomes legislative efforts to increase the number of Capitol Police officers and provide additional security cameras.
“You want to make people feel safe. With the recent incident, we support efforts to increase the Capitol Police,” said John Gomez, who directs Downtown Jackson Partners, the downtown management and economic development district for the downtown Jackson Business Improvement District.
The mention of safety was in reference to a shooting on Jan. 25 in the early afternoon that left a car riddled with bullets and covered in blood at the corner of Lamar and Capitol streets, which is just a block from the Governor’s Mansion. Two people were shot and taken to the hospital.
Sens. Sollie B. Norwood (District 28-Hinds), John Horhn (District 26-Hinds, Madison), David Blount (District 29-Hinds), J. Walter Michel, (District 25-Hinds, Madison) and Hillman Frazier (District 27-Hinds) have advocated for 50 additional Capitol Police officers as a way to help Jackson curb crime.
Since the global COVID-19 pandemic, downtown has been quiet as many employees work from their homes rather than their offices, but that’s beginning to change.
“We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Gomez, referring to workers in downtown Jackson returning to their offices. There are still businesses that haven’t brought their employees back, but spring is promising to have all the employees back. We’ll have to see if these hybrid schedules are going to be a common thing.”
Zoom allows people to communicate while remaining safe from contracting the coronavirus but a face-to-face conversation is still helpful, Gomez said.
“With advancements in technology, it’s easier to meet with people virtually, but it’s difficult not having those conversations you’re used to having during lunch,” he said. “It’s still nice to meet people in person. Once people are fully comfortable with getting through covid, we’ll have more people back downtown.”
Events in downtown have seen an uptick, Gomez said, starting with the Capital City Lights, an event last December that featured partners from the Two Mississippi Museums to Thalia Mara Hall. The Jackson Convention Center earlier this year hosted a three-day volleyball tournament, the Dixie National Rodeo came to town and Hal’s St. Paddy’s Parade & Festival is scheduled on March 26.
“We’re expecting a big showing,” Gomez said of Hal’s St. Paddy’s Parade & Festival.
Downtown Jackson Partners is throwing its support behind the city’s efforts to obtain funding for renovations at the Russell C. Davis Planetarium and Thalia Mara Hall, Gomez said.
“In 2023 we’ll have the USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson at Thalia Mara Hall,” he said. “We really want it to shine while we’re hosting people from across the world.”
Seventy-five percent of the residential units in the business improvement district are occupied, according to the most recent survey.
“In our district, we had 393 total units and 295 were occupied,” he said. “That would have included the King Edward, the Standard Life, the Tombigbee Lofts, Electric 208, the Lamar Life Lofts, the Capitol Art Lofts, the West Capitol Apartments and the Plaza Apartments.
The Walthall Lofts opened in the summer of 2020, and the Courthouse Lofts opened at the end of 2020, but they weren’t included in the most recent survey because they were too new, Gomez said.
Sterling Towers, which is outside the business improvement district, wasn’t included in the survey either but it typically is about 90 percent occupied, he said.
Another downtown residential survey is underway and should be ready by April, he said.
Residents of downtown are mainly younger professionals.
“The age range still skews on the younger side,” Gomez said. “You have people who have lived in bigger cities that want to live downtown and people who work downtown.”
Downtown Jackson could use additional restaurants, especially since The Elite and Parlor Market have closed, and amenities such as a grocery store and drug store. Plans to put a grocery store in the Landmark Center did not work out.
“Most people will still get in their cars and drive to get what they need,” he said.
Gomez walks around downtown daily and drives around downtown to see what improvements need to be made to make the area more attractive. New sidewalk planters with a watering system have replaced the concrete ones that dated from the mid-1990s.
The Downtown Safety Ambassadors patrol the downtown area while riding on Segways seven days a week, and the Downtown Cleaning Ambassadors pick up trash on public right of ways and handle other tasks Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
Many people believe in downtown Jackson and want it to succeed, Gomez said, noting that Downtown Jackson Partners is far from being done with its work.
