Sen. Josh Harkins, R-Flowood, lists valuable property (worth close to $500,000) just across Lakeland Drive from Jackson Municipal Airport Authority land. He says his bill to take over control of the Jackson airport and its property is not a conflict of interest. He also owns and lists other commercial and private real estate in the surrounding area.
The bottom section of Jackson airport land butts up to Old Brandon Road—and isn’t developed. This no-trespassing sign is across the road from the Homeland Security office.
The East Metro Parkway funs about two miles south from Lakeland Drive/Highway 25, but stops abruptly. The plan is to expand it to Highway 80 to help motorists avoid Lakeland traffic. It is lined by valuable land attractive to developers.
The view of Dogwood Festival area development looking north on East Metro Parkway through JMAA land that is “shovel-ready” for development. The Dogwood developments back right up to JMAA land where development suddenly stops. The East Metro Parkway, as completed to date, has bike lanes and sidewalks.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.