Two different proposals for the establishment of an entertainment district in downtown Greenwood were advanced Tuesday before the Greenwood City Council.
Brantley Snipes, executive director of Main Street Greenwood, said her group was backing plans to provide for state tax incentives for certain new businesses that open up in the city’s historic downtown district.
The council would have to create the entertainment district through a resolution before it could take effect, Snipes said.
“This is another tool in our tool box” for revitalizing downtown, she said.
Snipes said the proposed district would run from Claiborne Street in North Greenwood to the Main Street underpass in South Greenwood.
For businesses that establish a theater or museum, Mississippi offers a five-year accelerated depreciation on the operation’s income tax.
The other tax break involves nightclubs and restaurants, which must be open to the public, seat at least 40 people, operate at least five days a week from 6 p.m. to midnight and feature live entertainment three nights a week.
Those businesses would be given an 80 percent rebate on all sales taxes for up to 10 years or until reaching 30 percent of the approved project’s cost, whichever comes first.
The second proposal, advanced by Jelani Barr, would involve creating an entertainment district similar to Memphis’ Beale Street or New Orleans’ Bourbon Street as a means of reducing crime.
Barr is president of Mississippi Delta Cease Fire Inc., an anti-gun violence group.
“As studies show, most crime occurs in areas that are poverty- stricken, that lack the proper extracurricular activities, which keeps most people idle. We all know the dangers of an idle mind,” Barr said.
“We believe through events and entertainment we can simultaneously reduce or prevent violent crime and also help boost our local economy,” Barr said.
Shun Pearson, who founded the anti-violence group several years ago, said the proposal was coming from business owners in the community. Pearson formerly operated a nightclub on Main Street.
“If we’re going to have an entertainment district, we’ve got to have some kind of way to make money,” he said.
Barr said the proposed entertainment district would encompass downtown Greenwood and South Greenwood, specifically including Main Street, Baptist Town and Carrollton Avenue.
The proposal would provide for barricading from vehicle traffic certain sections of the entertainment district from 8 p.m. until 3 a.m. There would be no closing time for bars or clubs, although under state law they could not serve alcohol after 1 a.m. After 3 a.m., persons who had been congregating outdoors would have to move inside.
Barr said the designated areas would have police or private security.
“Think of it as a Beale Street- or a Bourbon Street-type of place. A place where adults are allowed to walk freely, in certain areas, with alcoholic beverages as long as it is in a cup,” said Barr, a former mayoral candidate.
The city’s current closing time is 1:30 a.m.
A request in 2012 to roll back the closing time to 2 a.m. failed after objections by then- Police Chief Henry Purnell. The chief said the closing time was set in 1993 and directly contributed to a reduction in alcohol-related violence.
Ward 6 Councilman David Jordan said although he liked the idea of such a district, “I want to see it in a way that there won’t be any bloodshed.”
Snipes said both plans, while “very different,” are “relevant to our community and should be taken into consideration.”
In other business, the council approved accepting a Mississippi Department of Transportation Grant for $290,000 for the Greenwood-Leflore Airport.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7235 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
