The thing about it is, that's a town with a population of 100K when you consider the surrounding county. They could do better, but nope, it's all chain restaurants and strip malls.
Yeah, one time I was waiting and this sort of strange guy tried to talk to me and he was kind of crazy looking. I started crying. He went away when I peed my pants because I'd been standing out there for twenty minutes, the library was locked up and I needed a bathroom so bad that I couldn't think straight.
In my defense, I was 12 and alone and didn't know how I'd get home if my parents didn't come get me.
And yet, still, I persisted in going there because there weren't books anywhere else and I don't think Davis Kidd opened until a couple of years later.
They could do better, but nope, it's all chain restaurants and strip malls.
Somehow, I feel this the crux of everything that's wrong with Jackson. Maybe this is the thing that we've been trying to articulate for years about Jackson being a sinkhole of DESPAIR.
And yep, that was exactly where all the insane homeless hung out because the mission was down there and the food bank.
When a Starbucks opened downtown a couple streets over just across from the courthouse, they used to come over and talk or beg all the time. Of course, encountering a mentally ill drug addict when you're in your 20s with a group of people is totally different from encountering one when you're all alone, 12, and totally need to pee.
That Starbucks is closed now. I guess the court crowd didn't go for them, and no one likes to go downtown at night there.
You know, it's funny. I never go to Davis Kidd here in Nashville. Maybe when Unemployment '09 ends, I should go.
And yeah, exactly, about Jackson. It gets larger, but it never grows.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-06 04:19 pm (UTC)The thing about it is, that's a town with a population of 100K when you consider the surrounding county. They could do better, but nope, it's all chain restaurants and strip malls.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-06 04:27 pm (UTC)Yeah, one time I was waiting and this sort of strange guy tried to talk to me and he was kind of crazy looking. I started crying. He went away when I peed my pants because I'd been standing out there for twenty minutes, the library was locked up and I needed a bathroom so bad that I couldn't think straight.
In my defense, I was 12 and alone and didn't know how I'd get home if my parents didn't come get me.
And yet, still, I persisted in going there because there weren't books anywhere else and I don't think Davis Kidd opened until a couple of years later.
They could do better, but nope, it's all chain restaurants and strip malls.
Somehow, I feel this the crux of everything that's wrong with Jackson. Maybe this is the thing that we've been trying to articulate for years about Jackson being a sinkhole of DESPAIR.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-06 04:42 pm (UTC)And yep, that was exactly where all the insane homeless hung out because the mission was down there and the food bank.
When a Starbucks opened downtown a couple streets over just across from the courthouse, they used to come over and talk or beg all the time. Of course, encountering a mentally ill drug addict when you're in your 20s with a group of people is totally different from encountering one when you're all alone, 12, and totally need to pee.
That Starbucks is closed now. I guess the court crowd didn't go for them, and no one likes to go downtown at night there.
You know, it's funny. I never go to Davis Kidd here in Nashville. Maybe when Unemployment '09 ends, I should go.
And yeah, exactly, about Jackson. It gets larger, but it never grows.