Not long ago, the good folks at America’s Most Livable Cities selected Jackson, MS, as one of their award winners. I pooh-poohed that nomination, suspecting that it was little more than a stunt designed to route a few eyeballs to the organization’s web site.
The first sign of trouble? Vague criteria.
The second sign of trouble? Jackson’s nomination seems to be based on facilities and resouces that are, in fact, imaginary. The web site discusses the Farish Street Entertainment District, the Federal Courthouse, and the TeleCom center in the present tense … despite the fact they don’t exist.
The latest sign of trouble? The website associated with the award promised to post detailed info on winning cities by May 20, 2004. Eight days later, that promise has been edited. Now, the detailed info is “coming soon … check back often!”
Still, all the hoo-haa — and good comments from readers like Knol — prompted me to think of Jackson in a new way. Instead of noting all the things I don’t like about it … what do I like about it? If I had to justify calling Jackson one of “America’s Most Livable Cities,” what features would I emphasize?
1. The tiny little airport. The Jackson International Airport is small … and, when you want to get in and out quickly, that’s a great thing. Forget going to the airport two hours before a flight … even a half-hour prior to departure is plenty of time to run the security gauntlet and hop on a plane. Also, thanks to Southwest Airlines (whose presence forces airlines like Delta to charge less), we see remarkably reasonable fares to many cities.
2. The cuisine. In addition to high-brow options like the always consistent Bravo!, Jackson is home to a number of incredible eateries. SoulShine Pizza, with its cracker-thin crust, stands up to any gourmet pie joint I’ve ever visited. Thai House, featuring the sort of honest, home-cooked meals you’d be served in a modest home in Chiang Mai, is a rare find. The under-rated Rossini puts other Italian restaurants in the area to shame, and the huge influx of immigrants makes excellent, inexpensive Mexican food easy to come by.
3. Video Library. I’m biased … but frankly, even before I had reason to be biased, I loved Video Library. I’ve never seen a better-stocked, better-run video store anywhere. Not even Atlanta can bost a locally-owned store this big and bright. Sterile corporate chains have made the successful independent video store a dying breed … and here in Jackson, we have one of the very best, despite Blockbuster’s best efforts.
4. Fast navigation. In Jackson, rush hour lasts about thirty-five minutes, and no local destination is ever more than a half-hour away. For a city our size, the traffic situation is positively rosy.
5. It’s green. Unlike so many ugly, hastily-urbanized southern cities, Jackson is positively bursting with pine and kudzu. Even the ugliest parts of town are draped in blossoms and vines.
6. Affordable housing. Thanks to the high number of state offices and tax-doging mega-churches, our taxation rates are too high … but property values remain, at least on the surface, affordable. In much of town, rambling houses on generous lots are the order of the day. Example: our house here in Jackson cost about half of what our house in Atlanta did … and the Jackson house is almost one thousand square feet larger … and has a pool.
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