JACKSON, Miss.—Shelia Bell’s lawn mower rattled as she rolled it from inside her garage and down the driveway of her South Jackson home, a small rancher house with an enclosed garage and a significant amount of lawn to mow. It was grass-cutting day, a labor of love and pride for Bell.
Maintaining a good-looking yard is one of the values that her parents instilled into her as a child growing up in the Northwest Jackson neighborhood of Presidential Hills. “I grew up caring about where I stay and where I live. That’s why I keep my property up,” Bell said. “We grew up doing the lawn and having a nice home that was clean on the inside and out. I got that from my mama.”
Bell has owned her home on Stuart Street off McDowell Road in South Jackson since moving back to the capital city from Yazoo City eight years ago. Her house has a unique look. The top half features horizontal white panels; the bottom is made of layered brick.
Most days, between doctor’s appointments, yard maintenance and planning parties for her grandchildren, Bell likes to sit outside on the front porch, watch people come and go, and talk with her uncle, R.T., while he smokes cigarettes.
But Bell is fed up with blight in her neighborhood, especially the burned-out, dilapidated properties on her street with grass and brush grown up toward the windows. These houses have become dumping grounds for everything from used tires to tattered mattresses and discarded children’s toys.
“I’ve been calling the city about it for years,” she told the Mississippi Free Press that day in May 2024. “They ought to know my number by now.”
South Jackson resident Shelia Bell wanted to purchase the property where this dilapidated home sits. The home is owned by the State of Mississippi and controlled by the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office. She fears abandoned properties such as this one in her neighborhood bring down property value and invite a criminal element. Photo by Imani Khayyam
Although Bell does what she
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