re: Drove US 71 between Pineville and Bossier today.

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Never ever say the shite they call bbq in Louisiana is the best anywhere.

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You’ve plainly never been there. I’ve sample BBQ in pretty much every state known for it. Grayson’s is among the very best.

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But Louisiana Culture and tasty food.

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Greenville MS, Donaldsonville, Port Allen, all those old farm cities are just shells

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Greenville was more of a port city than farm. That town has gotten so bad, the industrial park on the north side of tow. is creepy as frick. There’s a manufacturer of food processing equipment out there that makes stuff for the catfish plants, it’s pretty much all that’s left in business. There are probably a dozen shuttered factories around it overgrown with weeds

Greenville and Clarksdale have gotten bad. So has Yazoo City

Cleveland, Indianola, and Greenwood are still doing ok. Greenwood has Milwaukee tools, Viking appliances, and 2 catfish processors keeping it afloat. Cleveland has Delta State and Baxter pharmaceuticals and a few other manufacturing facilities. Indianola has Gresham Petroleum that owns all the Double Quicks and a lot of farm/catfish money. Also a big dollar general warehouse. Being the intersection of Hwy 82 and 49 helps

Belzoni though is in a sad sad state. It pains me knowing how much of a thriving town it was in the 90s and early 2000s. There’s nothing left there. When the catfish industry hit hard times in 2008 it was hit the hardest. Humphreys county at one time had 100,000 acres of catfish farms and 5 processing plants and produced 80% of the catfish in the nation. Today it has maybe 5,000 acres in production and two processors. It’s really sad

My little town of 900 people (Inverness) has managed to stay nice. 80% of the downtown buildings are occupied with businesses. 2 restaurants, insurance agency, Freemason lodge, 2 barbers, couple farm offices, 2 grocery stores, gas station and a laundromat. At least it’s not vacant and crumbling there was a concerted effort that started 20 years ago to try to prevent the town from befalling the fate of other delta towns by a few wealthy locals buying up vacant homes fixing them up and finding nice families to move into them without them being put on the market. This was done to keep demographics “favorable” for the town. We have a ton of young families and more members in the rotary club than Cleveland has. The people here really care a lot about this town

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The routing of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s and NAFTA were the two biggest determinants of winners & losers of towns and cities in the US. Especially in the South & Midwest.

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Don’t forget school consolidation and proximity to major metros…

I drove down 71 heading to Bossier for the baseball playoffs once and saw the sign for Hall Summit and thought about all the good class C basketball they must have had

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Things change. No sense in getting so bent up over it to the point that you ruin your life. Grieve and move on.

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Oh don’t worry, I’m not grieving for any of these places. I do feel bad for my elderly parents, though. They grew up in northern Bienville Parish, and there is nothing there anymore. We’ll drive through Gibsland and they’ll point to an overgrown empty lot with trash everywhere and say that’s where so-and-so lived. It’s sad.

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Greenville had the most millionaires in the country at one point in time I'm told.

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At the peak of the catfish industry Humphreys county was one of the top 20 wealthiest counties per capita in the U.S. It is now bottom 10 poorest. Thank the govt for letting cheap shitty imports flood the market

We lived in Greenville when I was a toddler my dad ran a catfish operation for Farm Fresh owned by Hormel at the time. Early 90s. I remember my mom leaving me at the arcade in the mall while she shopped and the mall was so nice then. 80% white people. Had a Garfield’s and Piccadilly cafeteria all the storefronts were occupied.

Today it’s a mess. 70% is vacant, no restaurants, the stores all cater to an urban crowd. You best not dare step into that mall if you’re white. TJ Maxx is safe but that’s about it. I’m shocked the mall is even still open tbh

Atlanta HS closed down last year