With the Fifth Ward seat finally filled, Jackson Mayor Derek Dobies joined WKHM to talk about what’s on his plate right now.

First up, housing. “Trying to right-size our housing market, get rid of the blight, and follow the market; right?” Dobies said, “The market is saying that more people want to rent, we’re trying to build out some downtown spaces, what you see with the Miller-Valentine project, the Gen Cap (General Capital) project over at the old Cit Pat building, is that we’re trying to attract through some tax credits and collaboration with MSHDA, some of the low to moderate income developments into the city so that people with little means can have access to the safe, affordable, housing; but also share in that renaissance downtown and all the activities that are happening downtown.” Dobies continued, “In the future that will help us to attract some of the amenities that we’ve been trying to attract downtown, urban grocery stores, different festivals and events.”

“We did a lot of the roads projects, we moved forward with some road projects for Higby, Durand, Grinnell, and Thompson Streets. Those will be mill and caps.” Mill and Cap is a project term that means the road will be ground down, and then repaved.

They also passed the first reading of the Youth Council, a board that helps get young people engaged in city affairs as an advisory board to the City Council. Finally, First Ward Councilwoman Arlene Robinson will be holding a community meeting to talk about the redevelopment of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Center.