Good Drivers Make Good Neighbors.

Some good news about Mississippi--you’re safe on our roads.  In a data crunch conducted by The Daily Beast to determine “the country’s worst drivers,” Mississippi came in near the bottom, which is a good thing.  According to The Daily Beast, we are near the bottom in a category where it’s good to be at the bottom.  We only have the 45th worst drivers in the country.  In other words, the 6th best.

            The Daily Beast used crash data--because accidents provide an objective way to define someone as a bad driver or not--and focused on fatal crashes, using the most recent data (2009) because these are reported uniformly state-to-state.  To ensure that tiny Rhode Island and giant California are measured evenly, The Daily Beast averaged these driver-caused fatal crashes by the total number of driver’s licenses issued in each state.  And to make sure that it was not penalizing states where the average motorist drives more--and thus gets into more accidents--they factored in how many miles each driver in the state logs and how long they spend in the car, adjusting the data accordingly.

            Mississippi had 631 fatal crashes out of 1,935,764 driver’s licenses.  The most dangerous age to drive in Mississippi is 18.  In the category of driving under the influence of alcohol, we were the 41st out of 50.  In failure to obey traffic signs or signals we were 48th out of 50, or third best.  For careless or inattentive driving we ranked 16 out of 50.

            Think about  what this could mean to bringing people and jobs to Mississippi.  With a low cost commitment, Mississippi could get people to come here.  First, make a commitment that in 3 years, Mississippi will have the best drivers in the nation.  Focus on the areas where we are weakest, distracted drivers, DUI, etc., and get all the drivers to become committed to helping Mississippi become the best driving state--a low-cost plan to get all citizens committed, from individuals to local officials to state officials.  Second, put out a PR campaign to advertise this fact.  Think of the numbers of tourists who might be compelled to come visit.  “Come visit us, the Hospitality State.  We even keep you safe on our roads.”  Think of the numbers of job seekers who might be considering a move to Mississippi vs. a number of our neighboring states.  If I know that I live in a state where I’ll be safe on the roads, that job opportunity in Mississippi might become even more appealing.  And finally, think of the economic development opportunities.  Think of the number of businesses who might set up shop in Mississippi if they feel sure that their employees, executives, and suppliers will be safe getting to and from work and living everyday in the community.  And it instantly adds in our favor an advantage over our neighboring states, who face much more dangerous roads, and with whom we usually compete for the same kind of major economic development projects.  Our neighboring states Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Alabama rank as having the 4th, the 16th, the 18th, and the 26th worst drivers, respectively.  Texas, one of our main competitors in manufacturing jobs ranks 10th. 

So, more people come to visit, more people come to live, and more jobs come to provide an increased standard of living.  And this continuous improvement project would become a cycle:  as more people move here, more jobs will follow.  As more jobs move in, more people come to live.  And these will all be people who obviously value having safe roads, which makes us as a whole even better drivers.

            Good drivers make good neighbors.

Pocket Parks for North Mississippi

One of the perils of tough economic times is the effect on our quality of life. And I don't mean just our economic way of life, but our civic way of life, the little things our cities and towns do to increase our enjoyment of the place where we live. One way that can help is to think in terms of micro-projects, small civic projects that continue to add to the life of our municipalities. Pocket parks can do this with little money, with neighborhood-level involvement, with no great loss of tax revenue, while serving the needs of small groups who want to contribute and participate.

A pocket park is a small outdoor space, usually no more than ¼ of an acre, most often located in an area that is surrounded by commercial buildings or houses on small lots, with no places for people to gather, relax, or to enjoy the outdoors. There is no set design for a pocket park; each one is different depending on the size and use of the space.

In Indianapolis, pocket parks have become a vital force in city beautification. Since 1995, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. has helped neighborhoods, schools, churches, and other community-based organizations create beautiful places from vacant lots, old parking lots, medians, or little used areas. Often, these sites are neglected and overgrown—inviting littering, illegal dumping, or worse. These little-used, undervalued, or detrimental places are transformed into community assets--green and beautiful places that build community, encourage community pride, and add value to neighborhoods across Indianapolis.

In Salisbury, NC, a pocket park is born, honoring the history of textile mills in the area. It emphasizes Southern local history and community/school involvement, especially the school art departments. In Montana, a local horticultural group sets up a pocket park on irregularly shaped city right-of-way. In San Antonio, pocket parks have been tied in with the overarching RiverWalk park concept, tying together major city-wide projects with localized projects, (much like the new Rails to Trails could be done or perhaps tying in with the Tallahatchie River Park in New Albany).

The main goal of these little pocket parks is to make livable streets and neighborhoods. They emphasize shade, quiet, history, education, and increased property values. New York City is perhaps most famously known for its pocket parks, and it is the model of how to make it work, but there are a multitude of examples of a variety of pocket parks across this country. They can be city-owned with community volunteers; they can be privately owned with city assistance; they can be public-private partnerships; they can even be tenant-owned with access rights granted to the community.

Ideas for pocket parks in our area are unlimited. They could be set up and connected alongside the Tenn-Tom Waterway, tied in with tourist attraction/historical sites, set up as art installations, sculpture gardens, learning oases, block playgrounds. They can be quiet places for lunch in work areas, shopping breaks in commercial zones (like the Renasant Bank of Pontotoc pocket park), spiritual respites in busy neighborhoods, showplaces for horticulturists, community gardens for seniors and kids, rest stops for bikers, runners, and walkers.

In peril, our families, neighborhoods, and cities need anchors like pocket parks, tucked ingeniously into our civic life.

Cheapening Christianity

Here in rural MS there is an interesting phenomenon occurring that the Brit Hume brouhaha brings into clearer focus. There is a rapid demeaning of religion, especially the Christian religion, occurring here. If you travel down any road, you will see churches popping up everywhere. I've lived here my entire life, and it used to be that each community had one church, usually Baptist, sometimes Methodist or Presbyterian, with a place name. Now they have names like Bread of Life, The Living Water, and By Faith; single-word names like Cornerstone, Compass, and Centricity. They pop up in the middle of nowhere, in abandoned storefronts, in closed-down factories, in metal buildings put up in the middle of the woods. And everyone has a preacher who is called Brother, or Elder, or Bishop.

And all these fundamentalist (I assume based on looks and publicity) churches spend the majority of their time either directly or indirectly involved with local, state, and national politics, involved in the Teabagger movement, the War on Christmas movement, the myriad boycotts movement, and posters and ads of every conceivable real or imagined movement.

As someone who had become immune to most of it, I can't help but be aware of the way in which religion in this area has been very deeply cheapened. It ceases to occupy a space of personal and public sacredness. It focuses not on the personal, but the political. And I am even beginning to detect this cheapening in acquaintances who I know to be quite religious. There is no war on the sacred; they are doing it themselves.

Update: Be sure to read Bill in Portland Maine's take on this.


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