Editor’s note: This Mississippi Today Ideas essay is published as part of our Brain Drain project, which seeks answers to why Mississippians move out of state. To read more about the project, click here.

Growing up in Jackson, I had it good. My walk to school, Jackson Academy, was less than half a mile and if I wasn’t asleep or out with my friends, I was at school. I did show choir, sports broadcasting, tutored kids and spent a great deal of time studying.

I didn’t understand it at the time, but what made my formative years so great was my autonomy. I could stay at the school working a broadcast or rehearsal until 10 p.m., walk home and go to bed without a second thought.

Moving away to study civil engineering, I realized that most of my peers didn’t grow up with the level of autonomy that I enjoyed, and that played a big role in the passion I have for civil engineering. So far, I’ve learned a lot more than I bargained for, but it opened the door to understanding the broader complex system of infrastructure that connects and builds our communities.

After the elections this year, it was clear to me that Jackson is ready to do whatever it takes, and doing infrastructure right is crucial to setting the city up for success.

I believe downtown Jackson is key to creating that success.

Downtown Jackson is the most financially successful region of the city. That’s not a joke. As a civil engineering student well into my degree at Mississippi State, I have seen the latest developments in urban design.

In the context of Jackson, one company, North Carolina-based Urban 3, has stood out. Urban 3 helps cities by creating a comprehensive analysis of a city’s expenses and revenues.

Lafayette, Louisiana, is my favorite city to compare to Jackson. It’s a Southern city with rich history and culture. It has a population, suburban makeup and types of developments similar to Jackson’s.

Urban 3’s study of Lafayette found that the urban core generated the most in property taxes, enough to effectively subsidize properties and projects outside of the urban core. The rest of the city brought in roughly net zero or lost the city money. 

While Jackson has not been evaluated by Urban 3, every other city and town that has been evaluated has seen the same outcome. The densest urban parts of a community routinely bring in far more in tax revenue than they cost in infrastructure maintenance, policing, libraries, etc.

Jackson already has the buildings in place, but many of these buildings have no tenants or only partial occupancy. That is unacceptable. Downtown is the economic engine behind every community, and Jackson needs to repopulate its downtown to stand a chance at helping the rest of the city flourish.

Fortunately, the tools already exist to accomplish that goal. They just have to be used.

The first step is the most cost effective. I suggest updating downtown’s zoning codes to form-based codes (FBCs). FBCs do away with deciding which lot will be residential, commercial, etc.

Instead, FBCs establish a uniform look for a specified area. For example, an FBC may require building setbacks, height maximums and 50% of the first floor be commercial, hence FBCs are often more forgiving than traditional zoning codes.

Additionally, FBCs give property owners the power of the free market to decide how to best use their property; whether it be a grocery store, a law office or a furniture shop. This does not mean that all regulations should be abandoned, but you shouldn’t have to go through the lengthy process of rezoning the whole property for every new use.

The second step is the toughest to implement. I suggest that the city take a hard look at which properties still warrant new infrastructure spending.The city has lost thousands of residents since its peak population, and some neighborhoods simply do not have the number of residents to justify new roads or utilities.

Jackson is currently overbuilt, and the city needs to put what money it does have into investments that have the best odds of stabilizing the city.

If Jackson does not take care of the areas that can and currently do bring in net positive tax revenue for the city, then there is no chance for the rest of the city. Only by obsessively maintaining the infrastructure, utilities and public services for downtown will the city set up its golden goose with the best odds for success.

The third step is the most costly, but proven. Downtown should be designed at a human scale. To do that, streets must be built around people and their safety first. In the context of civil engineering, many experts put our roadways into one of two buckets.

The first bucket is labeled “roads.” Roads should be used to get you from point A to point B as fast as possible. Therefore, it would be absurd to build a Walmart with direct access to I-55 because of the danger of entering and exiting, not to mention the slow down of traffic along the interstate.

In the other bucket there are “streets.” Streets should be used to connect a storefront to its customers, building community wealth. Like the Walmart on I-55, it would be an equally bad idea to let drivers fly down the street with no way to slow them down.

Unfortunately, many of our roadways look like something in between the street and the road I just described, neither moving people efficiently nor building community wealth.

If you sit down for just a few minutes along West, State or Pascagoula streets, you will see cars flying down the road in what is supposed to be a downtown. Downtown can not be a safe and comfortable space for people of all ages when cars essentially have a drag strip to go as fast as they please.

Fortunately, the city has shown that it knows how to reorient these overgrown streets as proven on East Capitol Street. One lane was removed, roundabouts were built and sidewalks given more separation from traffic.

To prove my point, walk down Capitol Street and then walk down any of the three aforementioned streets. The difference is night and day.

Regardless of everything that can and will be done, some businesses and residents will still choose to leave. That is OK, because others will see the success of downtown and choose to move in, not because it will happen, but because it is already happening. Remo’s, Aladdin and Mayflower are all great new additions.

If this city values long term fiscal stability and strong community, it will capitalize on the wealth it has today instead of squandering what is left. 

Walker Patton Lake, born and raised in Jackson, is a junior enrolled at Mississippi State University studying civil & environmental engineering. He has had two internships  with the Mississippi Department of Transportation and has a keen interest in downtown Jackson.