With just over six months to go in his second term in Jackson’s top office, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said he is focused on rehabbing city facilities, driving more revenue and repairing the seemingly never-ending infrastructure needs in Jackson.
“I’m a hands-on mayor, and I want to see to it that these long-standing challenges for our residents are addressed,” Lumumba said during a Monday press conference. “In this job, you can’t just admire a problem. You can’t just say, ‘Well, our roads are bad, and we have issues with these facilities,’ you have to be able to identify dedicated streams of funding in order to address those things … So we’re looking high and low, each and every day, to how we find programmatic solutions to long-standing challenges.”
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, seen here in this Dec. 9, 2024 file photo, shared some of his top priorities he wants to focus on before the end of his second term as mayor. Lumumba is seeking reelection for a third term. His second term ends on July 1.
Challenges Lumumba mentioned and is prioritizing include repaving the city’s roads — an endeavor that has been in the works since 2023 with the “Street Resurfacing Project.” Phase 1A of the project, which aims to repave and resurface over 40 neighborhood streets, is set to finish by the end of March. Phases 1B and 1C of the project, which will see a combined total of 102 streets resurfaced, will begin after.
Another challenge Lumumba said he is prioritizing is repairing the city’s drainage system to prevent flooding in certain areas. Lumumba specifically mentioned the Queens neighborhood in Ward 3 as an area that needs to be fixed due to flooding that nearly always occurs after heavy rainfall.
One way to tackle the drainage problem, Lumumba said, is to use the funding the city receives from the state’s online sales tax. Lumumba said the tax could be used as a “dedicated stream of funding in order to address the drainage issues.”
Lastly, Lumumba continued to affirm that the city is still looking to develop the property across the street from the Jackson Convention Complex in Downtown Jackson. The property, which is owned by the city, is at the center of Jackson’s bribery scandal.
Lumumba, Ward 6 Councilman Aaron Banks and Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens were all federally indicted in November, accused of soliciting and accepting bribes from out-of-state real estate developers who said they were interested in developing the property into a convention center hotel, according to court records. Those “developers” turned out to be working with the FBI. Lumumba, Banks and Owens all ended up pleading not guilty to a combined total of 17 felony charges.
Without missing a beat, Lumumba matter-of-factly said that developing the property “has been a priority for the city for 30 years.” He made his case for why developing the property across from the convention center is important for Jackson.
Convention center hotel: Lumumba confirms city is still looking to develop property involved in Jackson bribery scandal
“The importance of that property, the importance of that area is because if you’re competing with Mobile, if you’re competing with Birmingham, if you’re competing with any of the cities within our region for conventions to come here, then you not only need the convenience that is there and necessary for people to stay, (but) what you also need is an experience,” Lumumba said.
A convention center hotel could provide that “experience,” Lumumba said, and hopefully make visitors want not only to visit Jackson but also come back.
That being said, Lumumba said he would continue to refrain from talking about his alleged role in Jackson’s bribery scandal. But, he said he was “motivated” in finding ways to develop the property and “turn it into an asset.”
Lumumba, along with all seven members of the Jackson City Council, are up for reelection this year. The municipal election day is set for June 3. Even facing a federal indictment, Lumumba previously stated he plans to run for a third term. His second term ends on July 1.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Jackson MS mayor shares top priorities as his second term comes to an end