Jackson, Mississippi Is The Worst Place I've Ever Seen

almost anywhere in Mississippi is awful someone said that once in a comment a long time ago and it always really stuck with me I don't know if they live here they were just trolling but I never knew if they were right or wrong because I hadn't really been here before after driving around all of Mississippi for a week I can now say that's not true the whole State's not awful I had seen enough of this state to know that that was a lot of good here man Jackson is bad so I was just driving around Jackson trying to check the place out and he came across the street in the middle of town well I don't even know if you can even call this a street anymore a road Maybe I mean people were weaving back and forth to avoid the potholes like it was just a normal day for them I was like this is probably the worst Road I've ever driven on and I had to finally just get out of the car this was just too much looked like a major disaster just hit the place but that didn't happen then a guy pulls up his name's Chris you'll meet him later he didn't want to be on camera at the time but the stuff he told me man oh man what the [ __ ] okay you know this is the age old infrastructure system if they go back and do the research this thing probably hadn't had any type of significant you know upgrade in Forever probably since I hate to say it you know since this is it was ran by white people and and and you know and maybe need to go back to that Jackson Mississippi was the last place I stopped on my Deep South Road Trip I'm kind of glad it was the last stop if I had started here it would have been a really bummer way to begin thank you foreign it was my final day on my deep south adventure and on this day it really felt like an adventure so I was here in early April and the area got hit by a really intense rare almost hurricane thing so I had to spend the day driving around in the super bad weather so I apologize in advance for the footage driving into the worst hoods is hard enough but in the pouring rain on roads that are just terrible well think of this as war footage I had heard there was a dark cloud hanging over Jackson I guess this is it right what is happening so I drove around all the areas of Jackson where people told me were the worst and man they weren't lying I saw so many streets that had burned out homes and everything was overgrown I've been to a lot of bad places in this country and halfway through the day's Drive I was like I think I hit the Ghetto Gold Mine Jackson has all sorts of issues it's the capital of what's been called the worst state you can live in there's less than 150 000 people here now and that's down 25 percent just from 1990 alone sure there's other bigish cities in the U.S that are in bad shape Detroit Baltimore Philadelphia but those cities have an industry and pride and some kind of hope not here not in Jackson not at all what's up hey hey honey would you let me have a dollar 15. where I am right now is in South Jackson there really isn't a bad pocket in Jackson it's very very much a north south thing like everything north of downtown seems to be decent we'll see that later but everything south of downtown is a complete disaster for one Jackson has one of the highest murder rates in the world the only two other cities with a higher murder rate were Tijuana Mexico and Caracas Venezuela my God the state's Governor himself just called Jackson the murder capital of the world he'd know he's here every day look at that murder rate it's pretty easy to get a gun here and as long as you're 18 you can carry one so a lot of people here have guns and that's caused a lot of problems a few years ago Jackson's mayor made it illegal to openly carry you can imagine how that went this is Mississippi damn it that didn't last long if you get into trouble here it can take hours for the cops to respond I heard in some parts of Jackson it's pandemonium there's gunfights at gas stations and they're breaking into pharmacies to steal pills it's just chaos be glad that's not happening where you live it just looks like the end of the world in here and there was all these gangs moving up from New Orleans and Memphis that are coming in to try to set up new Turf that makes it all even worse they know they need more cops so they upped the pay to 30 000 a year can you imagine getting paid that to work in here as a cop this was where they fought for civil rights and now they're killing each other as you can imagine at night this place is nowhere a white boy with a YouTube channel should be but this was early morning and it was raining so everybody was inside but I'm sure [ __ ] goes down here on blocks every single day and I don't think a lot of these people will ever get out of here somebody once told me Jackson Mississippi is like a prison Without Walls part of the problem is it's just super poor here but I didn't have to tell you that you can see that maybe one in three people here in this part of town lives on welfare alone you know the saying here in Mississippi they're first on every bad list and last on every good list and a lot of that comes from Jackson but it wasn't the danger that stood out to me on the days I drove through South Jackson it was the condition of the place I've been a third world countries before but the stuff I saw here was worse I'm not kidding [Music] foreign [Music] hell it's like this everywhere now I hardly ever get out of the car when I'm in a bad area but I just had to on several occasions you're just driving around and then you come across these huge potholes just right in the middle of the road where the residents have marked them to warn people I mean that's like four feet deep oh you have got to be kidding me somebody planted a tree there in a pothole and it's growing [Applause] Jesus I just bottomed out I just bottomed out on that road but the frame hit the street oh my God this is tragic look at this there's something like this on every single Street in town with all the rain it just makes it all worse some of Jackson's roads are so bad they might as well be gravel now here's that Main Street again I showed you earlier I don't know how you fix all this it's like they've stopped even trying and then there's the water situation you can do a whole video on that Jackson's water system is all old and overwhelmed so they have to boil their water sometimes the tap water comes out brown sometimes they don't get any water at all or their water bills triple for no real reason it's been a thing here for decades and it's getting worse right here in a capital city in the good old USA one day driving around I came across a block where the sewer was leaking into the streets I've never seen that anywhere else I've been there sure are a lot of things here that I haven't seen before I've heard there's a bunch of money sitting there to fix all this but nobody knows if that'll ever happen they never the City established temporary trash drop-off locations but there's still a large amount of uncollected garbage and all seven boards the state DEQ says the dumping sites made available don't meet state requirements and then the 25 000 penalty each day until the issue is resolved and the newest problem here is the trash as if the Water Crisis isn't enough Jackson's dealing with sanitation problems seems the city can't agree on a contract with their trash collection company so well no one's picking up the trash now when I was here the trash contract mess was a few weeks in and it got worse after I left but there was trash everywhere on the sides of the road in the middle of the road in big piles like this one I don't know how I feel about this I guess this is the city's fault but they have to come down here and throw in a big pile like this and this was in the decent part of town too they're gonna have a rodent problem and a bug problem too to go along with their trash and Road problem here's another one I was just looking at another rundown part of town and then I turned a corner and it was just everywhere just in the middle of this neighborhood I can't believe people think this is okay this just about sums it up we have all these problems with crime potholes dilapidated buildings and we're putting our effort and energy into garbage one local guy said oh yeah in case you haven't heard there's a syphilis outbreak in town too unbelievable so take all of this the infrastructure and the chaotic crime and the corruption it's bad enough but that's not all every block you turn down in the south side of town stuff's broken and abandoned everything's empty and I'm not just talking about the homes I mean the retail space everywhere you go in Jackson things are closed down [Music] foreign strip malls here look like a bomb went off I turned a corner and found this on the south end of town the whole place shut down and then got vandalized and then burned to the ground and then squatted in they just need to knock all this stuff down but where's the money for that they can't even keep the water on the trash picked up and all over the place it's like this no [ __ ] who would invest in this place Mother Nature's taking Jackson back and it doesn't look like anybody here has the ability to stop her of course the old mall is empty now but it's like that in most of our cities I was over there checking that out and then I saw there was another huge pile of trash that people had started it looked like a cop was guarding it or making sure nobody added to it I'm not sure what was happening there even the churches were closed down here and this is the Deep South where religions all a lot of these people have even the foreign churches are closed this church just burned down one day I saw all of this in just one day of driving around Jackson without really anybody to guide me on where I should go you don't really need to know where to go you just drive around it's right in front of you it's everywhere I saw liquor stores that were closed down that's a sign that things are super bad if they can't make it there were stray dogs all over the place that was tragic and then this guy or girl I was getting footage of another dumpster and I was like wait what is that what is happening in this country people and all of this and they have these keep Jackson beautiful signs all over what are they talking about [Music] the poor kids the schools are terrible a lot of the teachers have to work second jobs what have we come to when our teachers have to pick up shifts like seriously how did that happen people in town say this is going to be the next Flint Michigan driving around I think it's already there now the problem started in the 70s when Mississippi desegregated their schools a lot of people didn't like that so the wealthy families took their kids out to The Burbs and then the place just went downhill a lot of businesses closed the mall closed all of this was a pretty busy little neighborhood one time now there's hardly anything left for blocks and this is just a few blocks from downtown the kids here just don't have anything to do so they get into crime the adults have some options here in downtown's actually not a disaster or anything it's not a very big downtown but it's not too bad Jackson has some homeless people that I didn't see very many of them the culture and history here is really strong especially the music history they call this the city with Seoul because of the Blues and gospel and folk and Jazz they also have a bunch of museums that talk about all the good and bad things that have happened here over time and there are some good humble happy hard-working people in town you'll see a lot of that when you're downtown I didn't want you to think the place was completely crazy and downtowns where the state capitol building is which is under construction you can read into that how you want I can say it was the only construction project I saw in the entire city a lot of people say Jackson's corrupt and that corruption is a big part of the problem here I don't know about that but I know there's a lot of controversy with the decisions being made here not too long ago they announced that the state was going to have to step in and take over the policing of Jackson and a lot of people here didn't like that that's because Jackson is 80 black and the state legislature inside that building is mostly White anyways the NAACP is involved in this now and there's never a dull day here in Jackson I suppose so it's not a complete mess here I showed you downtown already and some of Jackson's decent here's just an average part of town in a lot of the city you can get a house in the 80 to 90 000 range and that makes it pretty much one of the cheapest cities in the country a lot of these people are just trying to stay out of the way just trying to make by and the north side isn't too bad they have a commercial neighborhood up here called Fondren that's pretty nice it's kind of an up-and-coming area in an otherwise dying City it's a very small Entertainment District with some restaurants and some stuff to do this is where most of the hospital professionals and business people stay when they're in town and this is where I stayed there's only a few decent hotels in the entire city little fondren's just about the only great part of town left anymore like that corner of the cheese that isn't yet moldy you can tell they're pretty worried about the bad side creeping in I saw high-tech security cameras in the main shopping center most of the neighborhoods on the North End are some form of middle or upper middle class this is what that looks like up here homes were around 350k I heard these neighborhoods are hiring private security guards to patrol their streets there's government jobs in Jackson there's hospital jobs and this is home to Jackson State University so there's opportunities here I think that's where a lot of these people must work and then you go way up north of Jackson and it's really nice up here is Madison it's only 20 minutes away but it feels like a separate state one website actually called Madison the seventh best city to live in the whole country it's just a super nice Posh burb with tree-lined streets good schools and no crime the complete opposite of Jackson I mean look at the Taco Bell here they don't put Taco Bells up like that in the hood when I was out and about in Jackson I didn't really go too far from my hotel just because there's really nothing to do here I was told to go to the Iron Horse Grill people said it's one of the most iconic restaurants in Jackson but it's burned down like five times before I was like no thank you so I just kind of wandered around Bondurant night one evening I wound up as zundo ramen bar I got some amazeballs pork dumplings with that soft bread mm-hmm and a good old Ramen Bowl and the second night I went to Thailicious and had some crab rangoons I also got some yellow curry I wish it was more exciting here but that's all I got folks I think it was on that second day in the rain right around the time my car bottomed out on that broken up Road in the hood that I thought you know what I think Jackson Mississippi is the worst place I've ever been worse than Baltimore worse than Shreveport and Pine Bluff even Oakland it was a really terrible horrible no good very bad day I came down the South knowing I'd see a lot of poverty and crime and the results of Decades of political missteps but man and the thing is you don't really hear about Jackson a lot kind of an under the radar disaster on my last night here I looked out the window from the hotel and I saw the cops all stationed in Fondren it kind of reminded me of in a battle you know when the tanks Patrol the only Turf they have left to protect you know since everything else has been taken like they're holding their ground I don't think this is a red or a blue problem it's a green one there's just not enough of it to fix the place I don't know what Jackson's gonna do I don't know what they can do here except hold on for the ride but yeah so I wanted to talk to you um how long have you lived in Jackson my whole life now when I reached out to you I think I find you on Craigslist I'm doing a video about Jackson I went to Jackson um there's a lot of a lot of problems with Jackson I know I stopped and talked to some people that I met in town and they were frustrated by some of the progress that's being made how do you feel about how Jackson's gone um I think it's terrible um I I just can't believe we even got to this point um I've I've lived in Jackson slash by room um last 20 years so as far as the water goes like living on it you know they're lying when they have water issues we do um that can cause stress and chaos and tension in the household because we're all frustrated we have no water you know having to use bottled water to flush your toilets to wash face brush our teeth everything it's just it's very stressful honestly um and then like I said causes in my household it causes tension and drama and we all just trying to keep the peace you know what I'm saying so it's a lie I used a lot um but thankfully we haven't um had to deal with the trash the garbage Fiasco I didn't have to deal with that but my co-workers did um they was frustrated with that I mean that was just ridiculous in itself so you know yeah it like the water situation another trash the roads um yes the crime and stuff I'm like what what does Jackson need to do to to get itself back to its Glory Days again right um the crime I I hate leaving the house at night um I have a three year old son so I don't even take him out anywhere um it's times where I don't even stop and realize um you know certain time certain parts of Jackson um every day on the news um my news app is another shooting somebody else being murdered I'm like oh my God what is going on like is it's terrible um but I just can't bring myself to move like gotta take the you know bad with the good I love it but it's I I do fear um of being carjacked or robbed or anything like that that is one of my fears how did it get to this point in Jackson I really don't know I will say I I my co-workers say the pandemic but I feel like we was kind of headed down there before Colby hit um I I really don't know maybe kova just brought everything to the surface um but I I know this like in my apartment complex doing a pandemic that's when like the carjackings started and the robbery started was during March February March 2020 so I don't know I mean is it to a certain point that they just you can't elect people that I mean it's been a problem that's just getting worse right is it a political leadership thing or is it a residence thing everyone needs to just be like enough's enough like we need to get this city back I feel like just a little bit of both um I'm not happy with the mayor I don't think he's getting reelected I don't I I I'm not happy with nobody in the office even from the city council I feel like it's too much back and forth um and I feel like I feel like they have personal issues and it's affecting the residents like you know what I'm saying I I think it's personal between them so I I I don't I don't like nobody in office right now I can say that so um in the residents I just feel like I know I know everybody's fed up everybody's tired um I feel like it's not enough for the Youth um I mean enough recreational activities I guess for the Youth um so that's why they're crashing out doing all this so it's it's both it's both I mean at a certain point I mean just the roads themselves are in terrible shape and yeah and stuff um do you guys feel like you're just not even being respected or treated like normal people cooking all the states basic stuff that most cities have you guys just don't have no we don't um the potholes that I I've had busted tires um I almost had an accident trying to Swerve the potholes um in the rows down here the the neighborhoods are just a sight sword they're terrible is trashed on everywhere tires uh in the on the side of the road in the neighborhoods um it really feels like we it's a third world country like it's it's absolutely disgusting um I don't even think it's healthy to breathe the air down here you know what I'm saying um even me and my mom was talking last night we was like we feel like the water is making us itch you know we was like she she says this she said this morning it smelled funny um so it's just it really does seem like nobody care about us it does seem like that um but at the same time we've been here for so long we can't just up and leave you know what I'm saying so I don't I don't know what to do I I do think that we need to elect somebody else um but I don't I don't even know how they'll even start you know can it get worse I mean what's I always ask people what's the future of your city what what do you think I mean is it gonna you think it's gonna get worse I don't think driving around I don't see how it can get much worse but apparently it is getting worse sir Adam I don't feel I don't know I don't think it could get any worse I hope it don't I pray you don't but I mean it kind of seemed like they're trying to like push us out I don't know like force us to move I don't know it's it's weird I don't um so I know my mom wants to move out of Jackson um that's easier said than done um so I don't it the changes that need to be made like it's just so much I don't I don't know where to start but I know that they have been having like trash pickups on the weekends on this to start um the crime I think this you know our police um Forest is the numbers are low so yeah nobody wants to be a copter yeah I heard they pay 30k to be a cop in Jackson yeah I don't know it gave me that low but if it is I see why we don't have none um and the few the few that we do have it take forever for them to come out you know what I'm saying I mean the cops are crooked here anyway it's like it's like I don't know it's terrible I don't know I don't know but yeah I noticed that there was construction going on at the um Capitol Building they got all that they're doing all that but then they can't fix y'all's roads and all your stuff exactly it is exactly like I say all the time they they fix the roads it don't even needs to be fixed like they working on on a bunch of nothing you know what I'm saying it's like Gallatin Street is right there you know what I'm saying Terry Road it is so much more that they could be working on besides what they're choosing tools it's like we just they just don't care like just a last resort you know what I'm saying I don't think they care at all about anything to be honest I mean I know and it's like I don't know what it's gonna take for y'all to I mean the protesting standing outside demanding change whatever it is that needs to be done because I don't think it's Gonna Change until you guys all are like we've had it exactly exactly exactly and like I said I think they just want us to leave say they so they won't be forced to have to you know fix things you know what I'm saying like is we already don't have much like all the businesses are leaving closing down um I don't know let's talk about good what's good about Jax there's some good stuff there right we got some good food hey we have some good food very good food um establishments um one of my favorite places I like to go to Iron Horse that's off Galaxy Street um yeah someone told me it's burning down though no I was great and I like um the fact that they have the live music food is good drinks are good um yeah so I would say the food is good uh the museums here are nice um like the Children's Museum and the park there that's very nice I love that um so yeah we got some good stuff but um most of the good stuff is kind of like on Lakeland towards you know I live in Jackson right Eva Jackson well you just hang in there and try to get your people to like stand stand up and say something and and this will help I mean a lot of people are gonna see it okay you have to put pressure on people but um y'all like I I feel bad man and right you guys are just are just at a point now that you're just you've settled in and you're just like oh another bad thing and right just that's just not a good place to be no it's not but you know I could I could just hope it gets better like the water the [ __ ] trash dude they gotta get this [ __ ] off it's terrible it seems like the city is going in reverse um order they they spend so much time bickering and you know and and it's been studies that has been done and saying that that this place is the most corrupt place of the entire Union and at some point in time the federal government must Step Up if the city can't do it and the state it can't do they can't get along to come to the a solution versus nickel you know someone has to take control of this thing you know and and ultimately I think it's up to the federal government to make them do the right thing yeah man yeah that's cool who's Big like who's bicker huh like the politics yeah yeah the politician the politicians they sit up there they comfortable you know you know the local government they they bigger with each other they're the local and the state government they blame it they pulling fingers at each other you know this is an age old infrastructure system if they go back and do the research this thing probably hadn't had any type of significance you know upgrade in Forever probably since I hate to say it you know since this is it was ran by white people and and and you know and maybe need to go back to that okay we're out here what's best for the city that's what we need to go for regardless of color we need to get off of color you know and we need to hold these politicians accountable when we when we elect these people we elect them with with the insurance that they're going to do what they said they're going to do you know but so many times you know they have got elected and they have done nothing and it's honestly it's discouraging you know it's very discouraging you know it's not what the crime is so bad too that's part of the reason why yeah of course of course of course that's part of the reason why between the Educational Systems you know um hey man if you go just I hate to say it go to Madison those schools look like colleges they're getting funded you know here they say they fund them based on attendance you see they shutting down the schools around here there's two schools right here that shut down Rowan Middle School Brown Elementary side by side so not not only is this these academic institutions are being shut down now it's a Haven for crime now the eyesore you know it's a ripple effect you know and a citizen I don't do so much now here go to trash problem now Mo businesses talk about leaving the city who more business oh they're talking about leaving the city you know something got to be done man who you with I got a YouTube channel okay yeah I think I could draw some attention to it yeah something has to be done man you know you know on our levels you know the federal government got six steps they're gonna have to step up you know it's just a problem look at that are you gonna stay cause a lot of people are leaving I'm going to stay I've been here all my life so you just want I mean it's just it's just why should I have to leave why should I have to pick up my bags and leave it's almost like this location Force everyone out don't do anything don't force them out physically but the lack of service the lack of security the lack of basic need drive people away then come back rebuild it at such a high rate that you know a guy cheats there's no solution no solution and play for the for the near future so this thing is going to linger for months and months and months the summer is about to approach these mosquitoes are about to get vicious you know what I'm saying it's going to be a lot of sick it's going to be a lot of the X you know a health issue you know you know it's going to be a health issue man an environmental issue you know when it's gonna start affecting the water it's going to start affecting the Clean Water System well the water's already [ __ ] up anyway right and what solutions they don't have any type of plan for that you know the streets crumbling no plan for that so I don't know I ain't leaving though I'm not leaving I'm not picking up my bags no no we're gonna fight good we're gonna fight are you looking to move and need advice I do Consulting that's right I'll sit down and talk about where the next perfect place for you and your family should be I do it all the time together let's find you a new home that's safe and checks all your boxes and I can also help you find your new house too email me and I'll work with you on not just helping you figure out where to move but I can help you find your perfect home too that's right I know awesome reliable agents all over the country and I'd love to connect you to somebody who can help you search for that perfect home hey guys if you learned something new about America or what it's like to live in America great you should think about subscribing and turning on your notifications you can also click one of these videos or playlists for more this is manager this has been a Corner House Entertainment production

Channel: Nick Johnson

Views: 1,451,038

Keywords: mississippi, mississippi travel, mississippi hotels, mississippi realtor, mississippi homes for sale, what is mississippi like, mississippi crime, mississippi history, southern living, road trip, moving to mississippi, mississippi tourism, mississippi culture, mississippi hunting, gambling, texas, mississippi jobs, things to do in mississippi, casinos, mississippi worst cities, worst places in mississippi, ocean springs, hurricanes, jackson, jackson mississippi, us poverty

Id: XuU4UAsT8dY

Length: 41min 21sec (2481 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 18 2023