[Stauffer] A River Running Through It

by Todd Stauffer
April 7, 2004

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.

One proponent is Leland Speed, downtown developer, former chairman of Downtown Jackson Partners and now head of the Mississippi Economic Development Council. At a panel discussion held at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in March, Mr. Speed told the crowd his vision of the Lefleur Lakes project, which included an older version of himself being wheeled out (by his nurse, no less) onto the high-floor balcony of his condo to enjoy the view of the water and the downtown skyline.

It was an amusing anecdote. But the overall tone concerned me a little, too. (And not just because—at that moment—my mind's eye conjured the images of the front end of an old Jeep Renegade floating into Mr. Speed�s line of sight.)

Seriously, one thing that I commend Mr. Speed for doing is encouraging his staff at the Mississippi Development Authority to read "The Rise of the Creative Class," a book that's been mentioned in the Jackson Free Press a number of times since our very first issue, both for the impressive ranking it assigned to Jackson, and for the book's prescriptions for how a city can go about planning and development in a way that encourages creative class members—which means professionals who control their own career destinies to the point that they'll move to a place and then start looking for a job or business opportunity—to pick Jackson in order to live, work and contribute to the community.

That said, I hope Mr. Speed encourages them to read the whole book.

One of two concerns I have about developing the Pearl River is just who it's really designed to benefit. What I'd like to see is a proposal aimed at young professionals who want to be active, spend time in nature and appreciate the idea of a wild river in their hometown. Biking, hiking and fishing should all be components of that, with the resources, ideally, aimed at benefiting anyone in the community who wants to take advantage of it. That's a "creative class" notion I can get behind.

In "Rise of the Creative Class," author Richard Florida offers an example of two totally different weekend warriors: one, a young professional kayaking in a river paddling furiously; another, a hard-working middle-aged man sitting proud in the stern of his rumbling speed boat. Both of them, in their own ways, are "relaxing."

When I hear about the Lefleur Lakes proposal, I hear a lot about the amenities for the guy with the boat and less about the amenities for the guys and gals with kayaks. I think it"s safe to toss into that category the younger set who might want to hike, float and explore the nature trails, wetlands and natural habitats that are threatened by development designed for motorboats.

In Colorado Springs, where I lived for a while, the center of town was served by some basic running/jogging/biking trails that ran from downtown all the way to the northern rim of the neon development out on Academy Blvd—Colorado Springs' version of County Line Road. From the older in-town neighborhoods you could ride right from the grid streets down to that path, which you could then catch into downtown (and, for that matter, to some of the museums and coffee houses and art galleries). And that path didn't even have a river running through it—more like a culvert, really—and it wasn't exactly bereft of the occasional lonely shoe or derelict shopping cart.

Yet, close to downtown, developers built multi-story condos and, eventually, loft apartments looking over that area (with, admittedly, a nice view of the mountains). Those condo buildings, if I remember correctly, had bike racks at the bottom, brimming over with the latest cycling tech.

I said I had two concerns. My other concern is simple—Gov. Haley Barbour. Barbour is no friend of the environment, as evidenced by a memo sent by then-lobbyist Barbour to Vice President Dick Cheney a few weeks into the Bush administration. "The question is whether environmental policy still prevails over energy policy with Bush-Cheney, as it did with Clinton-Gore," Mr. Barbour wrote, and, according to The New York Times, he "called for measures to show that environmental concerns would no longer 'trump good energy policy.'"

If Barbour counts himself as a supporter of this project, and the project's major fight comes down to an environmental one, then we must watch carefully. During this process it's important that reputable scientists and environmentalists be heard if they feel that the process is shortchanged at all by politics, including calls to "streamline" the process or declare any sort of emergency status for the Pearl that end-runs environmental assessment.

Yes, I'd love to see a lake near downtown Jackson if it were a) clean, b) useful for flood control, c) environmentally sound (or, at least, done in a way that can be mitigated environmentall) and d) built to benefit all citizens and not just a ring of property owners and their million-dollar slips. We have a poorly named reservoir for motorboats and cul-de-sacs, thanks anyway.

Yet, I don't think LeFleur Lakes is a magic bullet or Jackson's "only hope." (Cue the music.) As the discussion continues, I hope we'll find compromise solutions that take into account the desires of all involved�including those younger adults we�re trying to attract to Jackson to help with that Creative Class economy that Mr. Speed and his staff know something about.

But those compromises need to be guided by the environmental findings. One good start would be for the proponents of the plan to step up with their own environmental assessment—how many trees do we lose, how much of the wetlands�and what their plans are to mitigate that damage.

And if, in the end, the environmental issues are too much to overcome, then the environment must "trump" grandiose economic development. I'll guarantee you one thing—turning down a bad development idea and turning toward good stewardship of natural resources is a sure way to convince some of those creative kayakers to make Jackson home. It may just turn out that having a river continue to run through Jackson is the best environmental and economic decision we can make.
Todd Stauffer is the publisher of the Jackson Free Press.

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