re: Natchez, MS and the lack of tourism compared with other quaint weekend getaway places

It looks higher than that from the bridge

Agree completely, really a shame too as the architecture, downtown layout and topographics are hard to replicate..

Yeah I've notice that with all the geologist and geological companies there. CPE is based out of Natchez.

True

Natchez is a great town with a lot of untapped potential. There were three large factories that all went belly up (Johns Manville, International Paper, and Armstrong Tires).It has a solid tourism base but not one strong enough to power the town by itself.

It needs a factory of some sort in the worst kind of way.

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They need to have a fighting venue with some Calvin Candee type MMA cage matches. That would draw some crowds.

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They already tried that. It was called dimples.

Took a trip up there years ago. There were 5 different fights in the amount of time it took to pay the cover and make it up to the bar.

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Natchez is a great town with a lot of untapped potential. There were three large factories that all went belly up (Johns Manville, International Paper, and Armstrong Tires).It has a solid tourism base but not one strong enough to power the town by itself.

It needs a factory of some sort in the worst kind of way.

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It had all of those things and the reason they went belly up was because of pressure from the Garden Club (lotta old money) because they thought the commerce was getting in the way of tourism $$, and if Natchez continued to grow they would lose control of the town. Fast forward 20 years to now. Tourism is FAR lower than they thought even though they spent MILLIONS filling in the big gully and putting a visitors center there, building a humongous conference center, building huge hotels that only stay 1/8 full, and screwing up more the only intersection that I ever thought could not get screwed up more than it was. So now, especially with the oil industry laying everyone off, Natchez is mostly really rich folks or bottom middle class to full-out crack thug poor. The Garden Club shut down IP cuz they swore the smell was affecting tourism, they were key to driving Armstrong and the other factories out. So, the people who needed jobs moved or went to the oil field. Also, the ones who did not want to pay private tuition moved to Vidalia cuz we have the top pub school around. And Vidalia's nothing like Natchez. It's growing, businesses are coming in, and real estate is through the roof. My house I just bought for $210k in Vidalia would have only sold for around $160k or so across the river. So, scenery-wise Natchez is great to visit. But until those old money blue-hairs get ousted from control, I don't want to live there. I mean, they blocked both the Nissan Plant and the WalMart distribution center from coming here. So, those were built in Canton and Brookhaven. Then they turn around and let some other state store their toxic sludge just inside the city limits. How screwed up is that?

another problem in Natchez is that the historical society (I think its them) wont let people who own the old houses downtown do what they want with them. According to the historical society, everything about the outside of the house must be historically appropriate for the time the house was built.

That turns many people off, so instead of buying the old house and fixing it up/maintaining it, the houses go unsold and the recent owners move out or die and the houses deteriorate.

so youll drive downtown and see a street with beautiful houses and one crumbling house.

I think that if you are trying to revitalize the tourism industry, let someone buy these old houses and make them as eclectic and funky as they want, that would add more character to downtown and might bring more young people.

I thought tourism is the only thing Natchez has going for it?

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I think it was owned by two light in the loafers fellows last time I was there

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They own Cotton Alley Now. Friends of mine. You arse.