{"id":6208,"date":"2012-12-13T22:00:51","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T03:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=6208"},"modified":"2024-12-04T17:39:21","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T22:39:21","slug":"what-is-fondren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=6208","title":{"rendered":"All About Fondren"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Linda Burton posting from Jackson, Mississippi <\/em>\u2013 \u201cHere\u2019s something about Fondren,\u201d Sandra said, as she pulled more brochures from the shelves at the Jackson Visitors Bureau. \u201cIt\u2019s a fun, fine place; you\u2019ll want to check it out.\u201d Find It In Fondren<\/em> is the name of the magazine she gave me, the Winter 2012\/13 edition. The People, Places & Events of Jackson\u2019s Hippest Neighborhood<\/em> were the words printed across the bottom of the cover photo; Dr Blair E Batson (of the Blair E Batson Children\u2019s Hospital in the Fondren neighborhood) is pictured in a red plaid vest, grinning big as he reads Dr Seuss to the children and nurses and doctors gathered round; the mood comes through. I flipped through the magazine, trying to tune in to the idea \"\"<\/a>of Fondren. Ads on the first two pages promoted the Mississippi Blues Marathon coming up January 5 (hey, hey, the blues is alright) and Babalu Tacos and Tapas, over on Duling Avenue (Eat Here). The index page was intriguing; titles such as \u201cGame of Hope,\u201d \u201cA Noble Profession,\u201d \u201cA Cheerful Heart,\u201d and \u201cChange Maker\u201d lured me further inside with the question, “What is Fondren?” I turned to page 12, \u201cBuilding Jackson.\u201d And that\u2019s where I learned about Scott Crawford. <\/p>\n

Scott Crawford has lived in Fondren since 2006; he likes the small-town feel of this culturally diverse, friendly neighborhood that offers central urban amenities, like public transit and shops you can walk to. \u201cThat\u2019s important to me,\u201d he says, \u201csince I can no longer drive; and at any rate, I prefer the greener modes of transportation.\u201d Scott wouldn\u2019t be able to live alone without a place like Fondren, because in 1999 he came down with a rapidly progressive form \"\"<\/a>of Multiple Sclerosis. \u201cIn less than two years I went from snow skiing in northern Idaho and bicycling seventy miles to using a wheelchair,\u201d says Scott.<\/p>\n

How did he cope? He began building Jackson. With LEGO blocks. It was just a distraction at first; but as he modeled the tiny blocks into more and more of the buildings that make up Jackson, friends got excited. They urged him to contact the Great Jackson Arts Council, which offered to put it on display. This is the third year that Scott\u2019s toy-like view of the capital city is showing at the Arts Center of Mississippi at holiday time; it will be there through mid-January.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>LEGO Jackson isn\u2019t just a replica of familiar landmarks; it\u2019s also Scott\u2019s vision of urban planning. For instance, his LEGO City Hall includes the council chamber, an elevator, and solar panels. Jackson City Hall doesn\u2019t have solar panels to store energy, but Scott thinks it should. A Keep Jackson Beautiful<\/em> sign in LEGO Jackson is meant to be inspirational; he serves on that particular city board, and littering is one of his concerns. He also serves on Jackson\u2019s ADA Advisory Council; he seeks to raise awareness of the Americans with Disabilities Act and to educate government agencies and private developers about ADA requirements for accessible sidewalks, entries, bathrooms and parking lots for disabled residents. LEGO Jackson is a city with bike lanes, city parks, ample ADA parking, and public transit that accommodates wheelchairs. \u201cWant to \"\"<\/a>make a difference? Get involved.\u201d says a sign beside a group of LEGO people in a committee meeting; the person at the end of the row sits in a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

Getting involved seems to be the credo for Fondren residents; there is Paul Bonds, who owns and operates Bean Fruit Coffee Company; he\u2019s the only fair trade certified coffee roaster in the state of Mississippi. \u201cFair trade\u201d ensures that the farmers who grow the coffee are paid market value for their coffee. \u201cCoffee is one of the most underpaid and unappreciated industries,\u201d says Paul. \u201cIt takes a lot of time, work, and hands getting it from seed to cup.\u201d Fondren businesses such as Sneaky Beans, Campbell\u2019s Bakery, and Lemuria Bookstore sell Paul\u2019s Bean Fruit Coffee; \"\"<\/a>and Paul gives back. Fifteen cents of every unroasted pound of coffee he buys is donated to We Will Go Ministries in Jackson; another fifteen cents goes to Grounds for Health, an organization that provides cervical cancer screening and education for women in coffee producing countries.<\/p>\n

And there is Winnie Rubin, who has come to Fondren from New York City. She\u2019s a psychology\/public health graduate of Vermont\u2019s Bennington College, and now a member of the nationwide FoodCorps team. FoodCorps puts team members in limited-resource communities in order to connect kids with good, healthy foods; Winnie is here for a year of public service. She\u2019s assigned to Pecan Park and Dawson schools in West Jackson; their vegetable gardens were started last year by FoodCorps members; she\u2019s continuing to maintain them and gives hands-on cooking demos for kids and \"\"<\/a>their caretakers. She hopes the lessons on healthy eating affect more than her students; \u201cI want a whole family change, a whole community change.\u201d Winnie loves living in Fondren, \u201cIt\u2019s sort of like Manhattan!\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

The Fondren neighborhood is a fun, fine place, as Sandra said when she handed me the magazine. There is music on the streets; they even get together to celebrate Thursdays. Stores are owned by locals; there\u2019s the Rainbow Co-op, the Creative Loft, S Moak Salon, Blithe and Vine, NUTS (Neat Used Things for Sale), Roosters, McDade\u2019s Market, the Slavebird guy boutique, Wier+Boerner architects. But it\u2019s a giving community too; businesses help businesses; residents stand together and make a difference through giving their talent, skills and services. Corey and Christy Winton conduct a tutoring program at St Luke\u2019s United Methodist Church for middle and high-school aged girls from the Methodist Children\u2019s Home. Ann Herlihy facilitates donations for Lizzie\u2019s House, an \"\"<\/a>organization helping homeless women and their children in Jackson. Kathy Clem is executive director for \u201cGood Sam,\u201d an organization that helps families in crisis. Eddie Outlaw, Mike Smith, Lori Garrott, and Stacey Spiehler (A Bunch of Turkeys) raised money for Stewpot Community Services for Thanksgiving, buying over 69,000 pounds of food for needy families through social media efforts.<\/p>\n

The magazine answers the question \u201cWhat is Fondren?\u201d in this way: \u201cFondren is Jackson\u2019s crown jewel, reinventing itself \u2013 and the city \u2013 one person at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find It In Fondren<\/em> is a quarterly publication, Paul Allen Wolf, Publisher and Founder. http:\/\/www.finditinfondren.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Burton posting from Jackson, Mississippi \u2013 \u201cHere\u2019s something about Fondren,\u201d Sandra said, as she pulled more brochures from the shelves at the Jackson Visitors Bureau. \u201cIt\u2019s a fun, fine place; you\u2019ll want to check it out.\u201d Find It In Fondren is the name of the magazine she gave me, the Winter 2012\/13 edition. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4586,1580],"tags":[1678,1681,1688,1679,1683,1687,1673,1677,1675,1686,1690,3077,1680,1684,1689,1359,1676,1682,1674,1691,1685],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6208"}],"version-history":[{"count":50,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15162,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6208\/revisions\/15162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}