All results / Stories / Todd Stauffer
Meet MIPA
June 14, 2006 As you may know by now, The Clarion-Ledger has recently revealed The Distribution Network (TDN), a scheme to control the distribution of free publications in the Jackson Metro. The Clarion-Ledger met with area retailers, telling them that the newspaper would be happy to clean up the "mess" of free distribution racks in front of their stores by offering a single, 9-panel distribution box owned by the C-L. All the retailer has to do is sign away to The C-L the exclusive right to manage free publication distribution in exchange for 25 percent of the big box's revenue to the retailer. (That tops out at $12 under the current pricing.)
ON SCREEN: "Opera Jawa"
Mississippi Museum of Art
Crossroads Film Society presents "Opera Jawa" and "Luxury Car" as part of the Global Film Festival,
What a Difference a Week Makes
May marked the first full year of the Jackson Free Press as a weekly publication, a feat that we were excited to dive into last summer and, now more than 50 issues later, we're very glad that we did.
Your Grid or Mine?
<i>Jackson Designers Push 'New Urbanism'</i>
Turn off U.S. 51 onto Hoy Road in Madison, toward the reservoir, and drive past a number of bland gated communities until the gravel ends and you're on dirt. Keep going through the trees, under a Natchez Trace bridge, through more trees—and, suddenly, you'll emerge at a clearing near the water. In that clearing (assuming I had my bearings right) will one day be the business district of Lost Rabbit, a "town" planned for this stretch of about 260 acres of this land. Right now, it's muddy, with water lapping the shore, two-by-fours and building materials (and fast food trash) scattered as if construction workers had skedaddled after sighting a gator.
[Drive] Cat-Like Reflections
Does your car say something about you? It's a question I can't seem to get out of my head, even though, intellectually, I'd prefer not to worry about it. Unwittingly, I'll look around at people I know when I see them in a parking lot and make subtle judgments. A Camry? Interesting. A VW Jetta? A-ha. A Hummer? Oh…I see.
Attack of the State Street Sandwiches
If there's anything Jackson offers in spades it's a good lunch—particularly plate lunches and meat-and-veggie smorgasbords such as Collins' Dream Kitchen, Two Sisters, George Street Grocery, 930 Blues Café, Gloria's Kitchen, and many others. But what you may not be getting enough of are some of the city's best new sandwiches. In fact, returning students may not even know about some of these places as they've all opened their doors in the past year or less. And here's another odd fact—all three have opened within two miles of each other on State Street—biking distance for Millsaps, UMC and Belhaven students and only a short drive for Tougaloo's and JSU's sandwich fans.
Celebrating the Best
Welcome to our tenth annual "Best of Jackson" edition, celebrating the best that Jackson and its surrounding communities have to offer in terms of people, places, services and products. (And, yes, lots of food and drink.)
The Smell of the Matrix
The Toyota Matrix keeps growing on me. Initially I wrote it off completely as aimed a little too young for my taste. As I dig deeper into the idea of a sporty wagon, however, I find myself back at the Matrix, still feeling a bit squeamish about the rakish lines but ultimately realizing that it's a perfectly fine car that gets outstanding mileage with a price that starts down near Ford Focus territory if you go for the base model. Maybe I'm a bit younger at heart than I realized.
[Drive] Mocked in a Mustang
I have never been in a hardtop Mustang that was made after 1972. But I have seen them around and wondered about them. So, I was determined a few weeks back to rent one and report my findings here. Unfortunately, as I have been in the past, I was thwarted by a clever Hertz representative who, by using mind-control mojo, got me to take a convertible instead. She did this by saying, "Would you like a convertible instead? It's only $7 more a day."
[Publisher's Note] Celebrating the Best
Welcome to our tenth annual "Best of Jackson" edition, celebrating the best that Jackson and its surrounding communities have to offer in terms of people, places, services and products. (And, yes, lots of food and drink.)
‘Gone Weekly'
If there's one JFP-related question I've heard more than any other from folks around Jackson in the past few weeks and months, it's been this one: "Are y'all going weekly?"
Workaholic Needs To Schedule Regular Exercise
For the past few months I've been loving the time spent either on the elliptical at the gym or on the bicycle that I've recently dusted off, adjusted a bit and started riding around the neighborhood. After an hour or so of cardio mixed with hard work for my leg muscles, I'm ready to enjoy a long, quiet evening and a good nights sleep. There's only one problem -- I generally only get that exercise one (sometimes two) nights per week!
Thinking ‘Locals' First
It's hard to believe Mal's St. Paddy's Parade—and the attendant celebrations both downtown and elsewhere—are already upon us. It doesn't seem like it's been long enough since the Great Snowman Contest of February, even if daylight savings time is here.
Music: Les Kerr, Christmas On The Coast
I heard Jackson native Les Kerr perform "Christmas on the Coast" this summer during a gig at Hal & Mal's and, despite the poor timing (of course, musicians rarely have the luxury of recording Christmas songs during the holidays), I enjoyed the song then. On his new album of the same name, the "Christmas on the Coast" track features background vocals by the Jordanaires, which give the song some Johnny Cash ballad credibility. Overall, the song balances novelty and a familiar coastal country sound, adding something significant to the body of Christmas tunes we stick into our CD changers each year.
Running with the Young Guns
I just typed "04" in the date for this file and then corrected myself. It's that time of year again. After our week off for the holidays, we're back and ready to take on the world, even if we can't get the year right yet when writing a check or dating a file.
Charrette Leader: Make City 'Walkable'
Andrés Duany, the renowned "New Urbanism" architect, promised "no resolution tonight" as he gave the final presentation of the intensive planning charrette held this past week to discuss ideas for retooling the Pearl River for flood control and economic development. Instead, he told a large crowd in the Mississippi Telcom Center's third-floor theater on Monday evening that he was "clarifying the plot" by presenting the different plans that his firm, DPZ, will now study and draw in detail, including pros and cons of each plan. He will deliver the final report to the Levee Board, which will be available to the public at some point in the next few months.
Going ‘Round in Circles
What's the toughest thing to get people to talk about? Crime? Race? How about commercial development? Funding city services? These are the types of social topics that are being tackled around the country in "study circles," an approach to community-building and public forums championed by the Topsfield Foundation of Pomfriet, Conn., which created the Study Circles Resource Center in 1989.
[Stauffer] A River Running Through It
The LeFleur Lakes project will be something that Jackson talks about for some time to come. Originally the brainchild of developer and engineer John McGowan, the "Two Lakes" project, as it�s often called, is a plan to dredge a canal in the bed of the Pearl River and then flood the river to create what (arguably) could be called two lakes—an upper and a lower, with the dividing line somewhere around LeFleur's Bluff Park. Some supporters tout the project as a miracle solution to Jackson's problems—or, at least, the flooding and economic development woes. With waterfront lapping up to the outskirts of downtown and all along the eastern edge of Jackson, people will flock back to Jackson and once again fill the city's tax coffers, they say.
Tale of Two Downtowns
What step to take next will be a huge question for 2003. We could be going nowhere, or at least a relatively short distance—after all, we're in a recession, Mississippi's telecom industry is "retrenching," and the prospect of war may change local and national goverment priorities significantly.
Blowin' In The Wind
Last week Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff, I. "Scooter" Libby, was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice in an investigation into how the identity of a covert CIA operative was leaked to the press. This scandal comes one year after President Bush was elected to his second term, and it puts us in mind of two things that happened about a year ago this month.