The city's U-Haul shortage is another example of Jackson's shrinking population
Moving to a new place sparks that feeling of fresh adventure and new opportunities as you leave everything in the rear-view mirror.
But moving all that furniture you see in your rear-view mirror is never fun. Especially when you can't find a moving truck to fit all of your essentials into.
Such is the case in Jackson right now. A shortage of U-Haul trucks has been reported as the amount of one-way travelers leaving the city is causing limited availability, according to Jeff Lockridge, U-Haul's manager of media and public relations. Lockridge spoke with U-Haul's president of Mississippi, Charles Johnston, who confirmed the shortage, while also noting the shortage is affecting Mississippi's Gulf Coast as well.
"Our Jackson teams have very limited inventory of available one-way equipment right now. This can and does happen when migration trends in a given market lead to more equipment leaving than arriving," Lockridge said in an email.
Lockridge ran a migration trends report for the past year, discovering, which states Mississippian's are using U-Hual trucks to leave for. Those Top 10 destinations:
Texas
Alabama
Louisiana
Tennessee
Florida
Georgia
Arkansas
North Carolina
Missouri
Illinois
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The U-Haul shortage is illustrative of a bigger issue in Jackson: decreasing population. The Clarion Ledger previously reported the latest U.S. census results, discovering that Jackson has received the title of the fastest-shrinking city in the United States with at least 50,000 residents. The 2021 census saw Jackson's population drop below 150,000 for the first time since before 1970. The current population is 145,995.
"The shrinking of Jackson's population is a historical issue. In the '60s when you had white flight and you started to see a lot of white residents move out of Jackson to Madison and Rankin counties had a dramatic impact on the infrastructure and is why you continue to see some of the problems that Jackson is facing today," said Jamiko Deleveaux, the interim director for the center of population studies at Ole Miss.
Jackson is still experiencing the fallout of that migration, Deleveaux said. But his studies differ from what the U-Haul shortage tells us. His studies have shown that the decrease in Jackson's population isn't mostly because residents are moving out of the state but because they are moving to areas outside of the city's limits such as Madison and Rankin counties, as well as other parts of Hinds County. This is a sort-of silver lining, because it means residents are still living in the metropolitan area and could one day move back to Jackson.
"The good news is that even though people are leaving Jackson's city limits, they're still staying in the state," Deleveaux said. "They're just relocating to different parts of Hinds County, Rankin and Madison. I think that's also part of the story that has to be be told: Jackson can get those residents back eventually."
Deleveaux suggested three areas the city could improve to attract more people: creating more jobs, improving public education and infrastructure development.
"If you had more businesses coming to Jackson that definitely helps brings people and attract people to the city," Deleveaux said. "It also gives them a new economic base, new individuals coming in and living and working in Jackson. That increases your tax base."
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This is something Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba is working on, said Melissa Payne, the city's director of communications.
"The mayor is making a concerted effort to work more closely with local businesses, community developers, and city leadership to continue to help Jackson evolve into a place that residents will want to call home," Payne said.
As far as improving public education, Deleveaux stated it's something that not only Jackson, but the entire state of Mississippi should be working on. The 2022-23 Mississippi Academic Assessment Program showed that the state's students achieved record results in mathematics, English language arts (ELA), science and U.S. History. But last week, the Mississippi Department of Education invalidated over 900 state assessments in five districts and 12 schools due to testing irregularities. It's not certain whether those invalidations have impacted the improvements the state has made in education.
"Public school education is something we can work on more in the entire state," Deleveaux said. "As we continue to improve in Mississippi and in Jackson, that would be a gold standard to attract younger people to want to come into the state and the city."
Lastly, improving the city's infrastructure is key, which Deleveaux reiterated starts with creating more jobs and heightening the tax base.
"Jobs will help disburse some of the revitalization efforts because the more people coming in increases the tax base, which will help bring more money to improve things like roads and the water system," Deleveaux said. "A great infrastructure is going to attract companies to want to relocate there and bring their employees."
If the infrastructure gets fixed, then Jackson may be able to build a public transportation system, which would help the city be on the same level as other cities such as Nashville and Atlanta.
"In Jackson, a lack of public transportation is problematic. Having something like a light-rail can actually help Jackson and the downtown corridor," Deleveaux said. "Those sort of things really could help drive more people to come back into Jackson."
Overall, Deleveaux still sees a lot of potential for Jackson and thinks city leaders, as well as residents, should start spreading the word on the city's positives more when it comes to revitalization efforts.
"The city has the potential to really be one of the best cities in the U.S," Deleveaux said. "If you reverse some of the trends we are seeing, by 2030 or 2040 we can see where Jackson has subsided in population loss and hopefully rebounding with a strong population increase."
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: U-Haul shortage illustrates Jackson's shrinking population
