OT: Best place to live in Mississippi?

Mar 3, 2008
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Whoever said Hattiesburg is slowly becoming Jackson makes me laugh. I live in downtown Hattiesburg. Oak grove people ask me if I feel safe there and I just laugh. I’m three houses down from our church. My kids are a block from school and they walk everyday. We have sidewalks and neighbors who do things together. Parks, live @ 5, crawfish boils. Lots of new things happening down here. For the record I lived in Oak Grove for 7 years and my truck got broken into twice. It’s only been broken into once where I live now!
 

Bulldog Bruce

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Nov 1, 2007
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And let's not forget that both Money and Forbes has Olive Branch in their top 50 places to live in the USA.
 

ababyatemydingo

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Nov 27, 2008
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Jones County is weird.

I can say that: Laurel-born, grew up in Jasper County, lived in the Free State for a time, and have family on my mother and father’s sides living in Jones County.

Maybe @11thEagleFan should explore finding a place in his blue state that has a nice guest or mother-in-law house on its property for his mother.



I thought about suggesting Sumrall in my earlier post for many of the reasons you’ve mentioned.

Every way out of Sumrall is a 2-lane road though and I wonder if it may be too much in the country for his kids.
Thread hijack. If you ever need to file a civil lawsuit against someone or company, file it in the Paulding courthouse in Jasper county. Doesn't matter where you live in Mississippi. You will win 100% of the time. This is no joke.
 

Maroon13

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Sep 29, 2022
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I didn't chime in because he asked for south Ms. But since DC was mentioned....

If I had the option in north MS, I'd pick Tupelo over DC.

My kids went to Lewisburg. LHS and Hernando do have great teachers and principals but they do nothing special there. OB, LHS, HHS and all other Dc schools teach the same thing. LHS and Hernando are good schools because of the parents. Families, for the most part are in tact. Therefore the kids have a good up bringing for a solid foundation before arriving at school.

However overall Hernando is a nice charming MS town but its infrastructure is busting at the seams. OB is too close to Memphis. It is next Hickory Hill/Cordova. People are moving further and further out of OB to get to the DC/Tate/Marshall lines. To me, it seems Tupelo has decent schools, recreation and outdoors entertainment.... shopping and restaurants without the proximity to Memphis. Tupelo is a MS town and it's own town (not a suburb).

just my observations.
 
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ll Martain ll

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Oct 5, 2014
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The coast is the engine that drives this state. Like any metro area, violent crimes are isolated to certain communities. Coast schools consistently rank among the best in the state. There is no better place in Mississippi to educate and raise kids than the coast. Diversity of population and attractions separate the three coastal counties from the rest of the state. Plus proximity to New Orleans and Mobile add to opportunities no other areas provide.
It's really unfortunate that one of the selling points to both the coast and DeSoto county are because of easy access to big city opportunity in other states.
 
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johnson86-1

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Aug 22, 2012
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Whoever said Hattiesburg is slowly becoming Jackson makes me laugh. I live in downtown Hattiesburg. Oak grove people ask me if I feel safe there and I just laugh. I’m three houses down from our church. My kids are a block from school and they walk everyday. We have sidewalks and neighbors who do things together. Parks, live @ 5, crawfish boils. Lots of new things happening down here. For the record I lived in Oak Grove for 7 years and my truck got broken into twice. It’s only been broken into once where I live now!
Not that I have reason to doubt you, but I’ve heard almost the same spiel from people living in belhaven and fondren a decade ago.

I don’t know enough about that part of Hattiesburg to have guess on which way it’s going. Drove through downtown area recently and it looked like a really nice small town downtown. Saw some areas nearby that were really nice and some that were not, but nothing like the feeling you get when you head west out of downtown Jackson. Could easily see it going either way. I do suspect that’s one of the areas of the state that could become really nice if there were school vouchers and private school tuition wasn’t such a deterrent to living there.
 

Requiem For A Dawg

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Dec 3, 2008
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Most anywhere on the gulf coast. Bay St Louis to Ocean Springs. Madison, Gluckstadt, Flowood or Brandon are good too.
Ocean Springs is full. I moved here ten years ago, and I can even see the change in that short period of time. If you’re trying to get anywhere on Hwy 90 or Government Street, you better not be in a hurry.

If you go through downtown and look at 20 random license plates, 10 of them are going to be out of state.
 

tired

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Sep 16, 2013
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Off the top of my head, and no longer having kids in school, I can think of band (few privates have this), special education or handling special needs kids, PSAT prep (in MCs case having the most National Merit Finalists in the state most years), general breadth of electives is greater (if you call me to the carpet for no specifics, I'm not looking it up or arguing it because I just don't care that much), finally, the "D" word, diversity, where you get exposed to a much more realistic cross section of society than in most private schools.

Realistically, though, my negativity towards most of our private schools is in how they were founded and why.
You mean you just don't know that much. Why would you need to "look it up"?
What an ignorant & out of date claim you made that you couldn't back up.
 

DesotoCountyDawg

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Nov 16, 2005
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I didn't chime in because he asked for south Ms. But since DC was mentioned....

If I had the option in north MS, I'd pick Tupelo over DC.

My kids went to Lewisburg. LHS and Hernando do have great teachers and principals but they do nothing special there. OB, LHS, HHS and all other Dc schools teach the same thing. LHS and Hernando are good schools because of the parents. Families, for the most part are in tact. Therefore the kids have a good up bringing for a solid foundation before arriving at school.

However overall Hernando is a nice charming MS town but its infrastructure is busting at the seams. OB is too close to Memphis. It is next Hickory Hill/Cordova. People are moving further and further out of OB to get to the DC/Tate/Marshall lines. To me, it seems Tupelo has decent schools, recreation and outdoors entertainment.... shopping and restaurants without the proximity to Memphis. Tupelo is a MS town and it's own town (not a suburb).

just my observations.
You are absolutely right about Hernando. We have a major infrastructure problem that’s only getting worse with what’s been planned to come.
 

Mjoelner

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Sep 2, 2006
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On a steep hill in Tishomingo County preferably 5 plus miles from the nearest person.
 
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WranglerofDawgs

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Apr 20, 2014
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I can only speak for us, but we’ve lived in Tupelo, Jackson and Madison in the state of Mississippi. Grew up in North MS. We debated the coast when we left Jackson, but ultimately just went up to Madison. Madison has been by far and away our best option.
 

Maroon Eagle

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May 24, 2006
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You don’t know much about public or private options in MS. I didn’t look it up because it true and not worth my time.
Yeah.

There’s no doubt as to the history of why a lot of the private schools were started.

Some of them though are actually pretty good now.

A part of me long wished that MSMS was started before I was at State. I’d have gone to Columbus in a heartbeat since the classes at the academy rarely challenged me.
 

johnson86-1

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Aug 22, 2012
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You don’t know much about public or private options in MS. I didn’t look it up because it true and not worth my time.
This is sort of like your Trump derangement where you don't want to learn anything. How schools were started 60 or 70 years ago doesn't have much to do with their role now. PCS was a tiny private school when Hattiesburg public schools were good. But when Hattiesburg schools went downhill, it grew as it provided people a decent education option without having to move out of the city. I don't know if PCS was a segregation academy but if it was, it doesn't have anything to do with it now. Hattiesburg wouldn't be better off if tax paying citizens had to move out of hte city because there was no private option.

And 99% of the people that pat themselves on the back for "supporting public schools" and exposing their kids to "diversity" are they type of people that will send their kids to Oak Grove or Petal but not Hattiesburg High or Madison Central or Germantown but not Provine or Lanier. That's not a bad thing. You probably shouldn't send your kid to those schools if you can afford a better option. But it's not evidence of high character any more than sending your kid to PCS is. And it's certainly not better than the people that pay for private school because they can't just get a good public school by moving 15 or 20 miles.
 
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OG Goat Holder

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And 99% of the people that pat themselves on the back for "supporting public schools" and exposing their kids to "diversity" are they type of people that will send their kids to Oak Grove or Petal but not Hattiesburg High or Madison Central or Germantown but not Provine or Lanier.
BINGO

Oh but they'll hide behind "good schools". Schools are only as good as the students/parents that are being fed into them. So when folks say they move to a place for "good schools" they are by default saying they want to be around better kids/teachers/etc. Take that however you want to take it. There's nothing inherently better about a certain building.

It's really just a bad joke. Schools create the most 17ed up, fake and ignorant conversations there are. The whole premise of them can never be solved and no one will look at the reality. We just accept it for some reason, as something we have to do.
 

maroontide06

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Dec 14, 2023
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May want to check out Hide_A-Way Lake area. It' been rated among some pubs as the best place to retire in the state....gated community.
Interesting. Just don't move to the backside of Hide-A-Way. It'll take you 30 minutes to get out of that place and you better not speed or run a stop sign in there either. Living in there makes a daily commute across the Causeway look good.
 
Mar 3, 2008
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My kids go to Sacred Heart in Hattiesburg. Small school and each year the senior class numbers for scholarships always amazes me. I can say the same for PCS and if I lived closer to it that’s probably where they would go.
 
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Maroon Eagle

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My kids go to Sacred Heart in Hattiesburg. Small school and each year the senior class numbers for scholarships always amazes me. I can say the same for PCS and if I lived closer to it that’s probably where they would go.
I was thinking based on your previous post that your kids went there.

Heard nothing but great things about it.
 

tired

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Sep 16, 2013
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You don’t know much about public or private options in MS. I didn’t look it up because it true and not worth my time.
I didn't make any ignorant claims, and you don't know me, but being involved in both for over 25 years, yeah I don't know much.
 

horshack.sixpack

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Oct 30, 2012
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I didn't make any ignorant claims, and you don't know me, but being involved in both for over 25 years, yeah I don't know much.
so you are just angry because I called out the racist beginnings of private schools and decided to argue about something easy to prove? Knock yourself out. BTW, the sun is out right now in central time. We could argue that to the same end...
 
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tired

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so you are just angry because I called out the racist beginnings of private schools and decided to argue about something easy to prove? Knock yourself out. BTW, the sun is out right now in central time. We could argue that to the same end...
I'm not angry & I didn't disagree with that. I said it was outdated, and it means nothing today. My minority wife says "you can take your white guilt and shove it up your azz, & if you're not white, move on brother."

The other things you posted were based on your ignorance.
 

PooPopsBaldHead

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Dec 15, 2017
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...My minority wife says "you can take your white guilt and shove it up your azz..."
Now you have my attention...
The Office Reaction GIF by MOODMAN


And pics of course.
 

johnson86-1

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Aug 22, 2012
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so you are just angry because I called out the racist beginnings of private schools and decided to argue about something easy to prove? Knock yourself out. BTW, the sun is out right now in central time. We could argue that to the same end...
Again, the derangement. You listed PSAT prep as something not available at private schools. I'm sure it's not at every private school, but PSAT prep was taking place in academies over two decades ago. I would assume it's more common now.

But rather than consider updating your opinion, you pretended that somebody was arguing about the history of private schools, which literally nobody contested in this thread.
 
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TrueMaroonGrind

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Jan 6, 2017
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I'm not angry & I didn't disagree with that. I said it was outdated, and it means nothing today. My minority wife says "you can take your white guilt and shove it up your azz, & if you're not white, move on brother."

The other things you posted were based on your ignorance.
Mail order?****
 

greenbean.sixpack

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Oct 6, 2012
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I'm not angry & I didn't disagree with that. I said it was outdated, and it means nothing today. My minority wife says "you can take your white guilt and shove it up your azz, & if you're not white, move on brother."

The other things you posted were based on your ignorance.
Relaxed I Got This GIF by Utah State University
 

johnson86-1

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Aug 22, 2012
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For me, the most important factors are quality of schools, public safety, and entertainment options. Mom lives in the Laurel area.

Currently on the short list are Madison, Brandon, Flowood, Petal, Hattiesburg, Oak Grove, Biloxi, Ocean Springs, BSL, Gulfport. Not necessarily in that order.

If USM sports counts as entertainment, Petal probably checks your boxes while getting as close as possible to Laurel. If being close to Laurel isn't that important, one of the coast locations probably checks the most boxes. Ocean Springs probably has the best schools but the difference probably isn't in how the best students do but what percentage of students come from a bad home life. Ocean springs is going to be reasonably close to the casinos, which will have decent entertainment options and the Coliseum gets decent stuff.
 

bulldognation

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Jan 26, 2004
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Gulf Coast for sure is best place to be in MS. For all the reasons stated above. Schools and hospitals are top notch. The area is exploding with growth. New neighborhoods being built all over. Not to mention you’re about an hours drive to New Orleans, Mobile or a little further and you’re in Pensacola.
 

HWY51dog

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Jul 24, 2013
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You are absolutely right about Hernando. We have a major infrastructure problem that’s only getting worse with what’s been planned to come.
Neighborhood with 500 more new homes right across from the new high school is crazy. So much for moving the high school to help relieve traffic issues.
 

skipperDawg

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Dec 23, 2023
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Best place to live in MS?
That’s easy, raise your kids to be self sufficient after you pay for their college tuition.
Then move to orange beach Alabama
 
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was21

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Interesting. Just don't move to the backside of Hide-A-Way. It'll take you 30 minutes to get out of that place and you better not speed or run a stop sign in there either. Living in there makes a daily commute across the Causeway look good.
It takes me about 7 or 8 minutes to get through the guard gate and I'm pretty far back. Also, while it's adjacent to the town of Picayune, there's nothing local about it which I consider good. It could be located anywhere although it's in the southern part of the state. I buy my groceries and beer in the town but that's about all. I would agree that the town pretty much sucks but improving somewhat. It's also only 25 minutes or so to Slidell without all the congestion.
 

OG Goat Holder

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Gulf Coast for sure is best place to be in MS. For all the reasons stated above. Schools and hospitals are top notch. The area is exploding with growth. New neighborhoods being built all over. Not to mention you’re about an hours drive to New Orleans, Mobile or a little further and you’re in Pensacola.
Except for the hurricanes, which are proven to be significant. And every 35 or so years, catastrophic.
 
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