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In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

washingtonpost.com

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Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#101

Post by itissid »

boeingUH60 wrote: post #45

Where I reside..what you’ll call a third-world country (Nigeria), everyone who builds a home digs their personal water borehole and sewage system because our government is too incompetent to maintain city-wide infrastructure. I’ve always thought it would be much better if we can get centralized systems for these things as they do in developed countries, but I’m pretty sure this is the type of thing we would see regul…

It is similar to my native punjab, but after several years the borewells are all dried up.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#102

Post by nostromo »

Jackson is in a death spiral. It’s been shrinking for decades and the people who leave first are the people with income, money, and opportunity.

The people left are increasingly poor, on public assistance, and simply don’t pay enough in taxes to maintain their city’s infrastructure.

When this happens, cities need to restructure. Shrink the city boundaries and end service to people outside of it. Give them plenty of warning of course - years of warning - but a city that is shrinking in population and wealth also needs to physically shrink and reduce the amount of infrastructure being maintained to be solvent.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#103

Post by afterburner »

hollywood_court wrote: post #8
cs702 wrote: post #5

By all measures, this is due to the kind of neglect and mismanagement one would expect to see in an underdeveloped or war-torn country, not in a city inside a state that is part of the most powerful country on earth. And Jackson is the state's largest city and as well as its capital ! It must be so embarrassing for the politicians who have been running Mississippi. They've done a truly terrible, horrible job on this.

Us Southerners love to shoot ourselves in the foot. We do it every single election cycle and then make disparaging remarks about states like California.

Jackson, Mississippi is 83% black. About 90% of black voters vote Democrat. Mississippi is a Republican state.

So, not really, the people affected vote for change, and the rest of the state decides to give them the shaft.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#104

Post by pessimizer »

systemvoltage wrote: post #12
cs702 wrote: post #5

By all measures, this is due to the kind of neglect and mismanagement one would expect to see in an underdeveloped or war-torn country, not in a city inside a state that is part of the most powerful country on earth. And Jackson is the state's largest city and as well as its capital ! It must be so embarrassing for the politicians who have been running Mississippi. They've done a truly terrible, horrible job on this.

These are the people that have been running the city: - (D) Harvey Johnson Jr. [2009-2013] - (D) Chokwe Lumumba [2013-2014] - (D) Charles Tillman [2014] - (D) Tony Yarber [2014-2017] - (D) Chokwe Lumumba [2017-Present] From the article: > “No one is taking responsibility” for the crisis, she said. “You have the governor and the mayor blaming each other. They just keep going back and forth. Both of them knew the water…

This is a problem that developed over a very long time, not just since white people completely abandoned Jackson.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#105

Post by systemvoltage »

pkrotich wrote: post #81
cs702 wrote: post #5

By all measures, this is due to the kind of neglect and mismanagement one would expect to see in an underdeveloped or war-torn country, not in a city inside a state that is part of the most powerful country on earth. And Jackson is the state's largest city and as well as its capital ! It must be so embarrassing for the politicians who have been running Mississippi. They've done a truly terrible, horrible job on this.

I guess your idea of America is from movies - immigrated here 24 years ago from a so called third-world country and I can tell you it’s rather unsettling when you see the bowels of America especially in the southern parts (I live in Louisiana).

Honest question - why do we send so much foreign aid but don't fix our own backyard? This has been going on for decades and there must be an opportunity cost here. Sure some things cannot be solved by just throwing more money at it, but a lot of things can be.

I remember this was a popular topic in pro Ron Paul 2008 reddit discussions.

More people are eager to help Ukraine than our own states. They'd be ashamed infact.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#106

Post by userbinator »

boeingUH60 wrote: post #45

Where I reside..what you’ll call a third-world country (Nigeria), everyone who builds a home digs their personal water borehole and sewage system because our government is too incompetent to maintain city-wide infrastructure. I’ve always thought it would be much better if we can get centralized systems for these things as they do in developed countries, but I’m pretty sure this is the type of thing we would see regul…

The US has been described as 50 small countries inside a big one. There is, for lack of a better term, a lot of diversity between them.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#107

Post by xienze »

8ytecoder wrote: post #19
theropost wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as we like to blame government, and politicians - at the end of the day, ll... We are the government. We are the politicians. We are the inept, lazy society who has let it come to this. We are the ones fighting amongst ourselves, unable to converse and work with opposing viewpoints.

Not necessarily. Jackson is a typical blue city in a red state. Even before all the gerrymandering, a single city won’t have enough political power at the state level. Given the political differences, state officials can withhold funding or hold back on maintenance without much repercussions.

I can name numerous blue cities in red states that, you know, have municipal water systems that work properly and have for decades. Stop blaming the Republican boogeyman for problems that are due to city-level incompetence and corruption. Jackson is most definitely not a well-run city that’s being held down by the white man. It has lots and lots of problems of their own design.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#108

Post by cableshaft »

parkingrift wrote: post #68
cs702 wrote: post #5

By all measures, this is due to the kind of neglect and mismanagement one would expect to see in an underdeveloped or war-torn country, not in a city inside a state that is part of the most powerful country on earth. And Jackson is the state's largest city and as well as its capital ! It must be so embarrassing for the politicians who have been running Mississippi. They've done a truly terrible, horrible job on this.

Urban decay. Maybe the state will step in to save Jackson, but maybe not. There isn’t a quick fix to reverse the situation in Jackson. Even with dedicated funding and committed resources it would be a multi-decade effort to save the city. The state government may just let the city rot away and disappear.

It's the state's capitol and largest city (by more than 2x the population of its second biggest city), if the state isn't willing to help in that situation, I'm not sure what the state government is there for. Small towns I can see slipping through the cracks, but not your largest/capitol city.

Now it's possible the state just doesn't have the resources to fix it, I wouldn't be surprised about that (and reading an article that appears to be the case, they're even getting $429 million from the federal government for it and they're saying it might cost billions to fix). But that's different from just deciding not to.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#110

Post by sirspacey »

boeingUH60 wrote: post #45

Where I reside..what you’ll call a third-world country (Nigeria), everyone who builds a home digs their personal water borehole and sewage system because our government is too incompetent to maintain city-wide infrastructure. I’ve always thought it would be much better if we can get centralized systems for these things as they do in developed countries, but I’m pretty sure this is the type of thing we would see regul…

This is actually quite common in New England, where many homes have both their own spring & sewage - even when public systems are available

Far more resilient design in the event of extreme weather events, which most rural homes must endure

Centralizes has benefits, but so does decentralization!

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