Ok people- I have a bone to pick. In the wake of the election, people want to moan and whine about the current mayor and what she's "not doing" or "hasn't done" and complain about how we don't have enough big restaurants or stores. Allow me to shed a little light: this quote is of one comment Rosemary Aultman left when asked on a Facebook Forum why the Hampstead Blvd extension hasn't been completed yet. (Valid questioner who just wanted an update). If you'll take a moment and read the quote, you will have an inkling of an idea of what it takes to do things in a city. A very. small. inkling. READ this:
"Hampstead Blvd has taken much longer than anticipated because it took 18 months to get clearance from FEMA and Federal Highway for the box culvert to be installed in a low lying wetlands area. That document (CLOMAR) has been received and currently all the final legal work is being prepared. The Hederman family owns all the land where the roadway will go. They are giving all the right of way and are paying their share of an assessment for infrastructure which equals hundreds of thousands of dollars. They've been very cooperative. Hopefully the project can be advertised by mid summer. Having a thru roadway will make a tremendous difference in developing the highway frontage. If one doesn't work with these projects you have no idea how long it takes to put one together. It is very frustrating, and requires tremendous patience and tenacity." - Rosemary Aultman
Now - 18 MONTHS just to get the permission to install a freakin' culvert?! And that's before any other legal process or construction process can even begin! Or finding the most economical company to hire- because if they spent "too much money" on it, the town would roar over that too! Everything is a Catch 22. Also- businesses like Target or Outback are NOT coming to a city without a certain amount of traffic that passes by at peak hours- look it up. Which means that until we can get that frontage road available and accessible and bring more traffic to the city, they're not coming. Now everybody already complains about having too much traffic in town as it is! And then they complain about the construction of roads, etc that is going on around town. WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE?!?!?!? You can't have it both ways! You either WANT TO GROW or you DON'T! You cannot sit around complaining about the process of the very thing you're pissed about not having! You cannot be mad because it now takes you 7 minutes to get home from the grocery store, when it has ALWAYS only taken you 3 1/2 minutes to get home! When you start living in a town that has more business, you obviously are going to have more traffic. You should just start planning accordingly. The days of a 5 minute commute across town are no longer. And you can be mad about it if you want, but don't then blast the city and the mayor for all the growth you think we ought to be seeing and aren't...... Also, do you know why the old Kroger is still vacant??? Because KROGER won't sell it! And that's not the mayor's fault. She can't force their hand. They're avoiding competition moving in on the "new" Kroger. She's done everything in her power to make these projects and improvements happen as quickly as possible all the while dealing with every other aspect of our city's progress and growth. And she's done it all in panty hose and heels! PLUS- she has a board of aldermen who make decisions with her- this isn't a Dictatorship. There's a whole group of people with a hand in the decisions. Now do not misunderstand me to think that our mayor and aldermen have not made mistakes or poor decisions in their tenure.... they're humans. I'm sure there are things they look back on and might do differently. But have you ever looked back on your life and thought "hmmmm, I probably should have done XYZ instead." I bet you have. You're human too. No one is perfect all of the time, so let's all take a step back and not forget all of the GOOD that has been done. When you think you want to whine and complain about our city and what's gone on in the past- think about 25 years ago. All we had was Mazzio's, a Golden Corral and a couple of drugstores......No Wal Mart, no Mexican food, no Hibachi grills, no hotels, no children's clinics, no top of the line athletic parks or public parks, no beautiful Parkway through town (remember when you had to drive through SOME neighborhood to get to the other side of town?), no movie theater, not many options.... We had to drive into Jackson for EVERYthing. Wanted a TV? Jackson. Wanted to see a movie? Jackson. Wanted to have family stay in a hotel? Jackson. This place is a booming Metropolis compared to what it was back then. Do you think that happened out of sheer coincidence?? Nope. It happened because the mayor and the aldermen made certain decisions. But we also don't live in Chicago or LA, either. If you want nightlife and constant entertainment, the suburbs of Mississippi isn't the place for you. So get happy with what's going on here or quit asking for change. You can't have it both ways. And to the majority of the Republican Primary voters and those who live near lots of open land, I hope none of you end up with a landfill by your house.......good luck!
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