Yesterday, I saw where our Board of Alderman voted to remove the Bird scooters around town. I must agree that I’m disappointed with that vote, and I urge the Board to reconsider. As we surely are all aware, we have a huge retention problem with keeping people here after graduation. We educate top talent and do absolutely nothing to convince them to stay. This isn’t about scooters, but about bowing out when a problem arises and working against other parts of the city, like Starkville Main Street Association, who helped bring them here. When complaints went up a week ago, Bird listened and implemented a sweeping list of changes to combat every concern, including geofencing certain areas, like Highway 12, so the scooters would physically stop if they were close to those areas. I totally agree there are safety factors to figure out. Cities much larger and more complex than ours have navigated this. We surely could have done the same. I’m not here to talk about the small things, like how they look or that people push them over. Let’s elevate the conversation a bit.
My disappointment and astonishment lies in the fact that the Board knew Bird made these changes and didn’t even give it five full days to see if the changes alleviated the issues before pulling their business license. It goes further. Bird is a franchise, much like Chick-fil-A, and is operated entirely by a local team — our neighbors and members of our community that had done everything exactly by the book, including hiring locals to help maintain the scooters, purchasing a van to pick them up to charge, etc. Without even a public hearing or a member of the company present, the Board pulled their permit.
Look, I completely understand if you’re against the scooters. Again, it goes beyond this. Think about it: If you’re a small business owner, seemingly doing everything by the book, the Board has the power to shut you down on a Tuesday night in a single vote entirely at their discretion. Talk about heavy handedness and government overreach.
I went on to appeal to the four alderman that voted against (Carver, Beatty, Perkins, and Little) with the following closure: “The little things like this, showing how fractured communication is between groups and not even giving requested solutions time to work before pressing the red button is exactly why we can’t attract talent outside of the university and it honestly makes me regret pouring millions into this city.”
As a business owner here, my business partner and I made a conscious decision to stay and invest in Starkville. That is certainly not always an easy decision, and it makes it much, much harder to know that our Board really isn’t receptive to new ideas and new businesses. I love Starkville, and I love Mississippi. Sometimes the solution isn’t always black and white, but somewhere in the gray and we have to give those ideas more than five days to find the best outcome.
Hagan Walker
Chair of Starkville Main Street Association
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 39 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.