Jackson Free Press

In 2008, Jackson Free Press readers voted Riverside Drive the best "cheap thrill" in the city—a pointed statement about the condition Jackson's streets, and the fact that so little has been done about it. In the write-up, our writer reminded readers that it wasn't even a good idea to drive 10 miles over the speed limit on that stretch of street, which voters compared to a roller coaster.

Residents of a city should not have to resort to satire to draw attention to the fact that problems are too often left festering, with too many people pretending there is nothing they can do it about it. It's always a blame game after a tragedy has happened, but too little action is taken to prevent it in the first place. Thus, people resort to jokes while little gets done.

This time, though, the point about street conditions was made in a tragic way just days after the Best of Jackson issue hit the racks when Murrah student Chris Ulmer was killed after an SUV he was riding in flipped on Riverside.

It would be naive to say that the street conditions caused the horrible accident—the young driver reportedly was going 70 mph—twice the speed limit—but it would also be naive to argue that the accident might not have been as bad, or even happened, had the street the young people were joyriding on not been in such a condition. It would also be naive not to point out that local police often do not enforce traffic laws meant to lessen danger in all our neighborhoods—from rolling through stop signs to running red lights to using signals to, yes, speeding through our streets. (We have often seen officers speeding down North State without blue lights on, endangering themselves and others.)

However, it would also be naive to try to lay the blame solely at the feet of the young driver as many would like to do—especially in a metro area where so many traffic laws are routinely broken by adults from the city and the suburbs, who are often talking on cell phones, running stop signs and setting horrible examples for every young driver who sees them.

Like all our challenges, fixing the dangerous streets that hurt our quality of life will cost tax dollars, and it will take effort and accountability on the part of our elected officials to fix these problems. It will take leadership to enforce laws, and public watchdoggery to make sure it happens. Sarcasm only goes so far.

We are encouraged by Sen. John Horhn's detailed comments in this issue about the need to lobby and build alliances to bring more funding to Jackson to help us deal with needs like street repair. The current mayor, who was elected based on nonsensical platitudes about crime, had no plan whatsoever for actually running a city, including strengthening its infrastructure, a less-sexy issue that his predecessor had a decent track record on, and no one demanded him to.

As the mayor's race heats up, we urge all candidates to leave the platitudes at the house, and talk specifics about how they are going to build alliances, raise money, and hold both public figures and citizens accountable for meeting the challenges this mayor has left untouched.