Sad, sad state
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10/9/2013
I have lived in Jackson off and on for 21 years now (save for 2 years in Novi and 15 months in TN; came back both times), ever since I was 8 years old. I'm not quite sure exactly when it started getting so bad around here, honestly. All I know is you used to be able to identify the more unsafe neighborhoods and stay out of them. Now you just never know. The area around Cascades (S West Ave over to the Queens area) used to be one of THE most desirable neighborhoods in the city. Just last winter friends of mine living in that neighborhood were burglarized while on vacation by kids who had been casing the area. Said friends moved out of Jackson less than a month later. The area off of Parnall Rd (namely the Walnut Ridge and English Meadows communities, where I live at) was, even as recent as 2 or 3 years ago, a safe, quiet area where you could walk around the community at night and still feel safe. Just last month a lady in my neighborhood was raped by someone who walked in off the street like he owned the place. The only things keeping me in this town are the lease with the mobile home community, my hometown ties from having grown up here, and some close friends who would be devastated if I left. In the past several years I have watched the downhill slide of this town and been thoroughly heartbroken by what I have seen. Drive down First St or another street in that area. Huge, once beautiful historic homes are now crumbling, run down, dingy eyesores with collapsing porches, peeling paint and roofs threatening to cave in. They have been transformed into seedy low-income apartments or crack houses. I hate to think about this town in another 10 years and how much more run down it will be. The city is making an effort to tear down a lot of these condemned buildings, but as soon as one comes down another goes into disrepair. There are no decent jobs; if you want anything that's going to pay you a decent living you WILL have to commute, unless you're lucky enough to get into Allegiance Health or one of the Jackson branches of Consumers Energy. Unless this city receives some sort of miracle intervention and FAST it is going to become the next Detroit.
Jennifer | Jackson, MI