Jackson Free Press

Briarcliff Circle, tucked away in South Jackson near Jackson Memorial Gardens and Candlestick Park, is not like other neighborhoods in Jackson. While it is common in many areas for neighbors to barely know each other, each person consumed with his or her own life, the Briarcliff residents make a point to get acquainted. In fact, this is one of the main reasons former resident Rev. J.T. Robinson began the Briarcliff Neighborhood Association in 1998. "We formed the association to help enhance our neighborhood. We wanted to help neighbors get acquainted with each other, to get the neighbors to stick together," Robinson said. The main reason was to deter crime, because criminals, he said, don't like unified neighborhoods where everyone knows each other and sticks together.

Robinson, a minister in the Church of God in Christ denomination, wanted to see Briarcliff be a neighborhood that was clean and well-lit, with neatly maintained yards. The association was initially difficult to begin, Robinson said, because several of the neighbors had misconceptions about what a neighborhood association meant and what it would do.

Many of them thought at first that having an association where everyone is encouraged to get to know each other and be a part of each others' lives was just a way of letting others pry and be nosy. "I would say I worked on it for four to five months. When the neighbors became aware of what we were doing, they supported it," Robinson said.

Robinson encouraged all of the neighbors to familiarize themselves with what everyone's cars looked like as well, so that if a "strange vehicle" was parked at someone's house, the neighbors would recognize it as such. "It's not about being nosy, or knowing when my neighbors are home. It's about neighbors helping neighbors." Because of the nature of the association, he said almost everyone came to know everyone else.

'It's Just a Place to Live'

Security remains a top priority in Briarcliff, and this is obvious by the A-1 Protection, Pro-Tech Security and Protection One signs that decorate many of the yards. Robinson said that, during his time there, "It was real safe. I felt real comfortable. After the association was started, neighbors started watching out for each other."

There is a difference of opinion among the neighbors on just how safe Briarcliff is. Dwana McCollum has lived in Briarcliff for one year, and she is currently making plans to move out. "The neighborhood is not as nice as we had thought it was when we moved in. I had thought it was a really quiet neighborhood, but it's not really," McCollum said. Looking back over the past year, she said several neighbors have been leaving."There have been a lot, a lot of break-ins over the last year. (Some of the other) neighbors feel the same way. This is not a quiet neighborhood."

According to JPD, the most recent crime on Briarcliff Circle was a house burglary on Sept. 15. The rough borders of the larger Briarcliff community are Terry Road, Rainey Road and Cooper Road. There have been a total of nine crimes reported in this area during October, all either house, auto or business burglaries, except for one auto theft. Briarcliff is in Precinct 1, which has seen a total of 1,923 crimes this year as of October—down 22.2 percent from last year's 2,472.

Frank Thornton, a long-time resident, has never been involved in the neighborhood association and wasn't aware that Briarcliff had one. Referring to the apartments nearby and the surrounding neighborhoods, Thornton said, "This street here is fine, but I don't feel safe coming in (to the neighborhood)."

It's not just the street itself that matters, Robinson said, but the surrounding areas as well.
"Whenever I buy a house, I want to know what's on the next street, whether houses are being built or abandoned, and things like that. When I moved there, I liked the house, the location and the surroundings."

Chonsey McDaniel, a two-month resident of Briarcliff, said the only thing he dislikes about Briarcliff is the "dogs running around all the time," and his favorite thing about the neighborhood is how serene it is. "It's alright. It's quiet. I'm always safe. I don't have to worry about any trouble," McDaniel said.

Another long-term resident, Carl Mize, said, "It's been a quiet, well kept-up neighborhood most of the time. It's just a place to live. You don't have anything here that you don't have any place else. I mind my own business, and everyone else minds theirs. It's been a good place. Nobody has bothered me, and we haven't had much crime."

Thornton, who has lived in Briarcliff for 27 years, said the neighborhood has become much more diverse over the past few years. "African Americans started moving in about five or six years ago. The neighbors, both black and white, are nice." Thornton, who moved to Briarcliff when it was first built, is planning to move out in 2006 when his wife retires.

Flood of Abandoned Houses

In spite of all their work, Robinson said in many ways the neighborhood did decline during the time he was overseeing the association, and that was due, in part, to the poor way that rental property was treated. The association, he hoped, would encourage people to take care of their property, and also decrease the number of houses that are abandoned.

"Neighborhoods with bandoned houses attract more crime," Robinson said.

Abandoned houses were "one of the things driving the association," Robinson said. Council members were urged by Robinson to get with local insurance commissioners to see if they were aware of how much vacant property there was in the area. "I went through there several months ago, and noticed that … another house had been boarded up. Some people, when they can't sell, they just abandon their house."

Robinson said insurance commissioners often are unaware that the owners of many Jackson houses could very well live outside of the city, or even the state. Not only this, but under the current system, Robinson said, it would be easy for insurance fraud to take place, and he believes that quite a bit of it is happening. A person who is unable to sell his house could have someone set it on fire, without caring at all who ends up with the property, and collect on the available insurance money. Robinson believes this happens in Jackson.

Mize said that selling Briarcliff houses isn't always easy. "It takes forever and a day to sell a house around here," he said. Mize said you have to go back to 1979 when a flood ravished a great portion of Jackson, hitting hard the homes of Briarcliff. If he had to do it over again, Mize said he would have left the neighborhood after the flood affected every room in his house, as many of the neighbors did.

"The population didn't fall down over night, but almost all of the people that lived here when I came have left," Mize said. It just became too expensive, Mize believed, to do the necessary repairs that the homes needed after the flood. "The flood brought 17 inches of rain. It ruined damn near everything. There (probably) isn't a house on this block that hasn't had to have some foundation repairs. If they didn't get repairs, (the houses) are still out of whack," Mize said.

Residents that had water coming into their houses received government help, but unless there was water in the house, Mize said residents were on their own. "You couldn't even write the repairs off your income tax. When repairs are taken into account, Mize said people just moving in would have to spend $100,000 on what should be a $50,000 home. "I wouldn't buy here now," Mize said.

Mize walked to the house next door, which has been vacant for a year now, and pointed out the damage the flood did to it, particularly causing several significant cracks in the driveway. "This driveway has been just like this for 20 years," Mize said.

Also damaging the neighborhood, Mize said, was the fact that when the neighborhood was built, several pine trees were cleared, and houses were built directly over where the roots were growing, on top of the stumps. Mize said, "Several years ago, tree roots caused a 30-foot long hole in the street. The city had to come and fix it."

Mize hasn't decided whether he wants to stay in Briarcliff. Originally from St. Louis, Mize moved to Jackson because of his job with Consolidated Freightways. Mize said now that he is retired, he has thought of returning to St. Louis where all of his friends and family live. "These homes were all new when I came. They're all getting old. Everything here was built within the same two to three years. I had only been living here a couple of months when the flood came," Mize said.

A Family Atmosphere

Robinson is proud that the association stopped a liquor store from being built on nearby Chandler Drive. "We got a petition and went to the committee that issues licenses. We got with a City Council member, and they gave us guidelines. I didn't see where the need was for a liquor store. Being a homeowner, I know that a liquor store can destroy a neighborhood," Robinson said. On the petition, Robinson said there were right at 200 names.

Associations of this sort are becoming more common in Jackson, Robinson said. The Oak Forest neighborhood and the Swan Lake neighborhood have a neighborhood association, and since Robinson moved to Quail Ridge a year and a half ago, he has started one there. When Robinson left, he turned the leadership of Briarcliff's association over to Julia Lofton. Lofton has not returned phone calls.

Anyone driving through the Briarcliff Circle area, and surrounding areas such as Rainey Road and Chelsea Drive, is likely to see neighbors riding their bikes, residents decorating their homes with Thanksgiving banners, and children playing in their backyard club houses. There are people of all ages in the neighborhood.

Robinson said when he lived in Briarcliff, "There were a couple of retired people and some military people ... not a lot of children. It's mostly working people, middle aged, in their 50s," Mize said. If he had to guess, he would say that about 60 percent of the families in the neighborhood have children or grandchildren.

Open for Business

The South Jackson area surrounding Briarcliff is up and down as far as businesses go. Area restaurants include Paradise Grill, Jarrod's BBQ and Fish, Crossroads Bar and Grill, Hudgey's and "This Is It" Bar and Grill. Area businesses include Eagle Mountain Clean Water located on Briarcliff Circle, Discount Tobacco and Beverages, Paradise Lanes, the Liquor Store, Candlestick Fitness, Save-A-Lot, Beauty Master, Lamar Knight Family Dentistry and Little's Auto Repair. Right down the road, continuing on Rainey, is James Meyers Masonic Lodge. Neighbors also have access to Candlestick Park, located within walking distance of any of the Briarcliff homes. Churches in the area include Victory AME Zion Church and Way of Grace Baptist Church.

Lois Milton, an employee at Jarrod's BBQ on Cooper Road, said though they have done very well since opening four years ago, she has seen several businesses in the area close over the past four years.

Another long-time restaurant is Hudgey's, a Southern food restaurant. Employee Trey Fortenberry said: "My grandfather bought this restaurant in 1966 when it was Dog n' Suds. He changed it to Hudgey's." Fortenberry, who has worked at Hudgey's most of his life, said, "We became the oldest restaurant in the area after Scotty's shut down."

Although people come and go, Robinson believes that Briarcliff, though still aspiring to be all it can be, has made strides toward being a peaceful and safe neighborhood where people support each other and their businesses. It is, he said, a friendly, diverse and progressive area where the neighbors know and look out for each other.

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