JACKSON, Miss.—James Hopkins, founder of the grassroots organization Reset Jackson, officially launched his campaign for mayor of Mississippi’s capital, joining a slate of candidates running against an embattled incumbent.
Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba is running for a third term despite facing federal felony charges related to an ongoing FBI bribery investigation in the capital city.
Hopkins typically spends his time with Reset Jackson, which organizes community-outreach activities including community cleanups and violence-prevention rallies aimed at young people.
“We try to rebuild the city by resetting the mind,” he told a group of about 15 people who gathered inside a meeting room at the John & Vera Mae Perkins Foundation on Robinson Street in Jackson on the night of Thursday, Nov. 14, to hear his “One City, One Community” vision for the city.
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“The first step is you have to change people’s mindset. You have to make people believe that there’s positivity in Jackson. Regardless of what the state says about us, regardless of what the country says about us, we’re a great city,” Hopkins continued.
On Thursday, Hopkins shared that he will prioritize crime-prevention efforts, increasing the city’s tax base and selling off the dilapidated properties plaguing the city’s neighborhoods.
“I want to turn Jackson back into a homeowners community. They talk about the One Lake Project and Lake Hico, turning them into these nice, expensive homes,” Hopkins said.
“And all that is fine. But we have too many low-income apartments. We have to have affordable housing where people can come out of these apartment complexes,” he continued.
He also reiterated his plan for ridding Jackson of City-owned dilapidated properties.
“People say I’m crazy, but my plan is to sell every last one of those properties to Jacksonians for one dollar. Why? Because it’s going to save us $10,000 on tearing a house down and $20,000 on tearing a building down,” he said.
A decline in homeowners in some areas of the capital city and a lack of funding to demolish structures have
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