Talk:Meridian, Mississippi/GA1

GA Review

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch

Reviewer preliminary comments

These are some initial comments, based on one reading of the article.

• The article is clearly written, except for a few sentences. WP:USCITY recommends writing the Media section and the Notable natives and residents section as prose, rather than using lists as this article does. The Featured Article Minneapolis and its subsidiary articles Media in Minneapolis-St. Paul and List of Minneapolitans show a good way to do this.
• The article appears to be factually accurate and based on reliable sources. On the other hand, there are three sections that are not sourced at all: highways, the radio/TV listings and the Notable Meridianites.
• The article's breadth of coverage is good. WP:USCITY gives a guidelines for writing articles about cities, and this article follows it to some extent. Several topics recommended for coverage in the guideline seem not to be covered here, or covered very briefly: sport teams, utilities, health care, annual cultural events. There is some coverage of parks, but it seems to be tied to recreation; are there any "plain old parks" that are big grassy areas for relaxation; are there any specialized parks such as botanical gardens or zoos?
• The article is written from a neutral point of view.
• The article is stable.
• The images all have free licenses, are relevant to the topic, and (with two exceptions) have suitable captions. The exceptions are: (1) The infobox picture has no caption; (2) The MSU Riley Center is captioned with its old name, Grand Opera House

Since the structure and coverage are good, I will review each section separately and post my comments here over a period of several days. Then I'll decide which are the must-fix items for GA status. --Uncia (talk) 01:08, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Reviewer detailed comments and editor responses

Lede

The lede (or lead) should be a very condensed version of the whole article. It is also an enticement for people to read the whole article, so it should concentrate on the most interesting aspects of the city and omit or treat lightly the more routine parts. You don't have to mention that Meridian has a government, or schools, or media, because every town has those. The article does not have to present information in the same order the article does. You only get 4 paragraphs, so you have to be very selective in the detail presented, and somewhat selective in the choice of topics. There is a great deal of general advice at WP:LEDE.

Things I would mention in the lede:

• location, county seat, population
• a little on early history, and importance during most of its history as a railroad town and transportation hub
• Mention the Goodman-Chaney-Schwerner case; this is a famous case, and although the murders did not occur here, the workers were based here, and Chaney was a native
• current economy and important sources of income (this appears to be retail trade from the surrounding area, but you need to beef up this part of the Economy section)
• access to the city: major highways, rail, air
• government institutions located here, such as the two colleges, two military bases, and the drug training center
• mention a few of the more notable tourist attractions
• mention anything that makes Meridian unique or unusual; this might include:

• Peavey - this is a famous brand, and few people know it is based in Meridian
• the black Carnegie library
• a short list of really famous Meridianites that people would have heard of; this might include Jimmie Rodgers, Diane Ladd, Sela Ward

You don't have to put the info in this order; pick an order that makes the narrative flow smoothly. A stylistic note: statements in the lede normally do not have to be footnoted, if the information is repeated in the body and footnoted there. Omitting the footnotes makes it read more smoothly.

The lede is the hardest part to write, and should be the easiest part to read. It should be written last because it will summarize the rest of the article. You can keep a lot of the present lede, but it has more on history than you can afford in 4 paragraphs. Some specific comments on the current lede:

• How "historic" is the Amtrak station? The article says it was built in 1997.
• The infobox picture needs a caption
• Is the city really struggling economically? The cites for this are 30 years old
• "Since the 1950s, the city's population has been declining" - not according to the census table under Demographics
• Are MainStreet Meridian and Vision 2003 still in business? Don't mention them here if they are not.
• infobox: says city was founded in 1854, but this is not in the body; body implies it was founded in 1853, but doesn't say this explicitly

--Uncia (talk) 14:02, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

History

There are a number of statements that are probably true but are not supported by the references; I have marked these as "citation needed". There's one item that appears to be a direct quote, "provide luxury to the common man", that I have marked as "cite this quote".

I have made a number of small improvements in the text; please check these.

Specific comments

• "Originally inhabited by the Choctaw" - "Originally" is probably the wrong word here; I think this passage means that the Choctaw were here when the white men showed up; we may not know who lived here before the Choctaw.

 Done. I changed it to "previously"; sound better?

• "Meridian was purchased by the United States" - the article Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek says it was a land swap, not a purchase. Which is correct? The cited source does not support either story, so we need a cite for this too.

 Done. To avoid needing more sourcing, I changed the phrase to "Meridian was obtained by the United States"; there's no doubt about that.

• How did Richard McLemore come to own the land? It must have belonged to the US Government immediately after the purchase or swap; did he get a government grant of some sort? How much did he own?

Yes, he did get a land grant, but I'll have to find a source that says this.

 Done. I found a source that says he got a land grant of about 2000 acres; unfortunately it's an offline source from the National Park Service. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 22:45, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

• Sowashee, Ragsdale City, Meridian should not be bolded, see WP:BOLDFACE

 Done

• History of Meridian Mississippi seems to be mis-cited: There's no mention of Don E. Wright in the source; in the source it is attributed to Rowland, Dunbar, LL.D. and dated 1907, not the 2004 date given in the cite.

I have no clue where Don E. Wright came from, but the 2004 date I got from when the page was last edited, which can be seen at the top. I'm sure I should use Dunbar Rowland, but should I use a date of 1907 or leave it as 2004?

• The Meridian naming story doesn't make sense chronologically, because it says (1) the town was incorporated as Meridian in 1860; (2) the name was chosen when the Southern Railway reached Meridian, which according to the Nussbaum reference was in 1861.

Well, Meridian was incorporated in 1860; I know that for a fact. The Nussbaum reference simply states that the name of the station (not the city) was changed to "Meridian" from "Sowashee" in 1861, and I believe I misread this when I was originally writing this. I've clarified the story now.

 Done. I updated the naming story substantially with a new book I found written in 1938. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 22:45, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

• What's the origin of the name Meridian? It doesn't lie on a meridian.

Honestly I can't find any source for why they chose Meridian.. only that they chose it. I (being a resident of the city) have been told before that the name was thought to be a Native American word (maybe pertaining to the Sowashee creek? I can't remember), but the people who transliterated it made a mistake, so it doesn't actually mean what it was thought to mean haha. I'll keep looking for sources.

 Done. Found a source. Apparently people in the early city though "meridian" (meaning the longitudinal line) was synonymous with "junction," so I was right that it was a mistake, but it wasn't a Native American word. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 22:45, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

• Sherman "destroying the railroads" - can we be more specific here? For the most part Union troops in the war tore up railroad tracks, but there's much to to a operating railroad than the tracks.

All the sources say "destroy[ing] the railroads" and nothing more.. I'm not sure what exactly happened, but I know they were repaired in 26 working days, so it couldn't have been that devastating, could it?

Found a source and added, "Among the damage was the destruction of an arsenal, immense storehouses, and the railroad in every direction."(William T. Sherman (January 21, 1875). "Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman – Meridian Campaign". St. Louis, Missouri. Retrieved 2010-06-02.). --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 03:09, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

• common English words such as General, manufacturing, railroad should not be wikilinked

 Done

• "Industry profits helped finance the construction of most of the city's major buildings" - this is not stated in the cited reference

 Done. Removed.

• "the Grand Opera House in 1890, the Wechsler School in 1894, two Carnegie libraries in 1913, and the Threefoot Building, Meridian's tallest skyscraper, in 1929" - these dates are not stated in the cited reference

 Done. I added references with all of these dates. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 23:17, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

• "The city continued to grow thanks to a commission government" - as written, this attributes the growth to the form of government, which seems unlikely to be true

 Done

• "90 new industries in 1913" - probably this means 90 new industrial businesses, not that 90 previously-unrepresented industries moved in. Also, did all 90 arrive in the same year? That's an amazing amount of economic development.

The source, which I obtained from the National Park Service, says "industrial plants," so I've changed it. And yes... Meridian was booming at the time haha.. wish it were that awesome now :P.

This book also says 90 plants. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 22:45, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

• "The population has since continued to decrease as the city has struggled to create a modern economy based on newer industries." Three points: (1) according to the population figures under Demographics, the population goes up and down; it is not as steady a decline as this statement implies; (2) The cited reference does not say that the city has struggled to create a modern economy; (3) The cited source is from 1979, so it can't tell us what's happened in the past 30 years; is the city still struggling? Probably so, but we need a source for that.

 Done. I just removed the claim. The information I added about the city in the 1960s and 70s makes up for this claim, so it's not needed any more. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 23:17, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

• I recommend moving the last two paragraphs before the Historic Districts to Economy, since they deal with economic development and are not really history, being only a few years old.

I'm not sure what the last two paragraphs were at the time you wrote this, but now I believe the history section has a great flow all the way from the 1830 settling up to present day. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 23:17, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

• Is Mainstreet Meridian still alive? The referenced web page still exists but it only talks about Union Station and doesn't say anything about MainStreet.

 Done. Updated information about organizations and their efforts.

• "Mainstreet Meridian, along with The Riley Foundation, helped renovate the historic Grand Opera House in 2006 into the "Mississippi State University Riley Center for Education and the Performing Arts." A 6-story parking garage, built to provide parking for the future Riley Center, opened in 2005. Plans are now underway to renovate the Threefoot Building into an upscale hotel before the end of 2009." The references given say that these things were planned to happen. Can you get references that said they actually happened on the dates indicated? Also, the reference for the Threefoot Building was written before construction began and does not state a completion date; is there a more recent reference for this one?

 Done

• "Meridian contains nine historic districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places, illustrating the city's rich history." Unclear - does the fact that these are listed illustrate the city's rich history, or do the contents of the districts illustrate it? And is there a source for this claim?

 Done. I removed the claim all together.

• Late Victorian and Bungalow are given as styles but they are not in the references. Also, is Bungalow really a style? It is wikilinked to Bungalow which is a type of building, not a style of building.

--Uncia (talk) 22:39, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

The "nris" reference includes "Late Victorian" and "Bungalow" as styles. This is actually a somewhat misleading reference that has caused some trouble with Wikipedia:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places. The wikiproject uses a tool created by User:Elkman (found here) to query the NRHP database for information about specific properties or districts. I don't really know how to attribute this source (and neither does anyone else). This has been brought up at the project page numerous times, but there seems to be no sufficient answer; maybe you would like to bring it up over there?

In case you didn't check a diff, I answered many questions up there and asked a few more. I invite you to look over the entire section.--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 04:35, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

• I noticed that there is no mention of the March 2, 1906 tornado that killed several people and did extensive damage to downtown Meridian. There is no mention of it in the main article: History_of_Meridian,_Mississippi either. There are newspaper reports that exist on the subject, and photos taken during aftermath of the disaster that exist as well. I kindly suggest that this event be recorded in both articles. In my opinion, it is certainly worthy of inclusion. -- Bully84 (talk) 07:28, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

Government

This section is basically OK. WP:USCITY recommends "Secondly, a brief paragraph about finance: spending for a recent year and/or proposed spending with footnotes to the full reports. The method of taxation: sales tax/real estate/personal property. The total number of government employees could be listed." This is useful to show how big an operation the government is, and how stable its income stream is, in up and down times. The present article says that Meridian is struggling economically; if the government is doing anything innovative (beyond the usual penny-pinching) to preserve and protect its income stream, that's worth mentioning here. --Uncia (talk) 15:26, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Demographics

This section has a lot of good information, but it is all jumbled together and mixed in with some non-factual speculation. I suggest this be reorganized and grouped as:

• current (2000) Census Bureau statistics on population, housing, and ethnicity;
• fluctuation of population, including reasons for this if known (much of this might be better covered under Economy)
• shift to a black-majority city; this needs to be documented carefully, with numbers, percentages and years and eliminating unsourced speculation. Part of the data is for "non-white" rather than black, and this needs to be distinguished carefully.

The last two items are important stories and help make this an interesting article.

Population figures are frequently vandalized on Wikipedia and need to be sourced and checked carefully. Also consider omitting the less-important measurements.

Meridian seems to have a lot more economic activity than would be expected from a city its size. Is there a much larger population in the immediate area? Is Meridian a business hub, or retail or manufacturing center? If so this should be discussed under Economy, but here you can mention the size and geographical extent of a larger community it is drawing upon. You can talk about the Meridian micropolitan area here.

I added info about the micropolitan area as well as some figures for population in a 45/65 mi radius from the EMBDC's website. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 00:09, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Specific comments

• "Between 1980 and 2000, the population declined over 16%": that is what it says in the reference (p. 32), but they calculated it wrong. The 1980 population was 46,577, the 2000 population was 39,968, so the 2000 population was 39,968/46,577 = 85.81% of the 1980 population, or a 14.19% drop. The source calculated it with a base of year 2000 instead of year 1980.

So should I go with the source, or would this explanation be WP:OR?

• "The city's African American majority places it on a small list of such places." The list referenced here goes on for many pages, and Category:United States communities with African American majority populations lists 1,231 communities. How is that a "small list"?

 Done. I removed the claim.

• The unemployment and CPI figures need to be dated more precisely; this data is usually issued monthly, not annually, and varies a lot from month to month. Also, the 7.1% increase is more than 2 percentage points (not 2%) above the national increase. Also, this information probably should be moved to Economy.

I just removed the information.

--Uncia (talk) 15:57, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

I thought about adding a "Religion" section here. So I don't clutter up my bookmarks on my browser, this mostly a mental note to incorporate the following pages: [1] [2] and [3] (although this third one is about Lauderdale County and not just the city). --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 05:09, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Religion section now added.--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 00:09, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Geography and climate

This is OK overall. WP:USCITY includes human-made features as part of Geography, including skyline and neighborhoods. So the article might mention the Threefoot Building here as the tallest building, and any other especially tall or attention-getting buildings. Is there an "old town" and a "new town", or is the oldest part just in the core of the city? Are the black people concentrated in one part of the city? There's an African American Historic Business District; is there anything especially notable about it?

Specific comments

• The distances to other cities appear to be driving distances rather than as-the-crow-flies distances, and this should be noted.

 Done

• This section is overlinked. Do not not link common English words such as oak, pine, tornado.

 Done

• Since we have a nice table of temperatures and precipitations, I think we could omit the narrative for those things. If the narrative is to be kept, it probably should reference the same data source as the table to avoid inconsistencies.

--Uncia (talk) 20:45, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

The narrative only points out high and low temperatures as well as average precipitation, things that can be gathered from analyzing data in the chart, but the narrative makes this information more straightforward IMO. The reason they have different sources is the averages are only in the idcide source and not the weather channel. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 21:28, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Economy

The economic picture probably includes a lot of things that are near, but not in, the city. It's OK to include these and speak about "Meridian area" activities, but if the article says something is "in Meridian", it should be inside the city limits. This may not be that important to customers or employees, but it is important to the city's tax base and how future growth is managed.

I've reworded some of this material to clear things up.

From the data here it appears that Meridian draws retail customers from a much wider area than the city itself: A city of 40,000 with a per capita income of $15,000 could not possibly generate $2 billion a year in retail. Some of the shopping centers claim the area has a market of from 1/4 to 1/2 million people, which is probably an exaggeration, but there must be a lot more than 40,000 people shopping here. See what you can dig up about this. Also, do many people commute from outside the city to work?

Can't really find anything about this.. I'll keep looking though.

This site states that there are 232,900 people in a 45 mile radius and 526,500 in a 65 mile radius. Maybe that's where the 1/4 to 1/2 million figure comes from? Should I include the data on this page? --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 05:18, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

I changed the table in the section to reflect the employment data given here. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 04:20, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

The data in the Industries table is very old (it's from 2002) and imprecise in some spots (Administrative and support is given as 1000–2499, an uncertainty that is larger that most of the other classes). I suggest you try to get some better data, or omit this altogether. The Mississippi Department of Employment Security has very detailed employment data. The current table seems not to include government employment, which is a significant part of Meridian's labor force.

I agree that the information is too old and imprecise, but I was unable to find anything better. The MDES only has information specific to industry about Lauderdale County and not the city itself; would this still be ok to include? Here are some examples: [4] [5] [6].

I also found employment information (though it appears to be undated?) here. What are your thoughts? --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 05:18, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

I've begun adding this data. I'll see if I can work in the MDES information. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 04:20, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia generally does not speculate on future events; see WP:CRYSTAL. Projections about future economic growth should not be included, unless there is very strong evidence that they will come true.

 Done. These claims were removed.--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 04:20, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Very specific data quickly goes out of date, for example, the statement that retail has "378 institutions employing 4,892 people" is almost certainly not correct today. If you want to report to this level, also give the date when the data was valid; in this example it would be "As of 2002, ...".

 Done

Similarly, lists of particular stores in shopping malls tend to go out of date. And, as all large shopping malls tend to contain the same national chain stores, it's not that informative to give evidence that this is also true in Meridian. A short list of the anchor tenants or other notable stores can be useful to indicate the character of the mall. For example, there are not that many FAO Schwarz or Neiman Marcus stores, and if a mall has one, that is worth mentioning.

I shortened the list, but there aren't really any super-unique stores in the center. It's a basic shopping center with these stores. Mind you, the stores I originally included were by no means all of the stores in the shopping center – just the biggest ones. There are many other smaller stores in the center.

I just removed the list entirely.--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 04:20, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Specific comments

• This section is over-linked; common English words such as train and cotton should not be linked.

 Done

• A number of wikilinks go to the wrong article; these include Department of Homeland Security (goes to the national office, not the state one); Structural steel does not link to the company; support links to a disambiguation page; war on drugs is correct but overly-broad, as it covers a lot of policy work too and does not depend on innovations in law enforcement

The DHS link was intended to go to the national office to describe what a department of homeland security is.. The DHS in question is actually a local DHS, so there is no article about it. It's mentioned in the Government section of the article.

• "The city is also home to two military facilities, Naval Air Station Meridian and Key Field, which supply more than 4,000 jobs to the city's residents." - the video says the NAS and National Guard at Key Field (not Key Field in general) account for more than 4,000 jobs, but doesn't say they all go to city residents.

 Done. I reworded the claim.

• NAS Meridian and Key Field are near but not in the city

--Uncia (talk) 21:23, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

NAS Meridian may not be in the city limits (I'd have to check on some maps), but Key Field definitely is... I live right beside it haha. Regardless, I've reworded the information to say the city "is served" by the two, which doesn't require them to be in the city limits. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 21:44, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Culture

This is a good description of the art and recreation situation in the city, but it needs a lot more sources. Some statements copied from existing sources are not very clear. Most of the sources are from the thing being described (they are not third-party sources) and in some instances some unwarranted bragging (WP:PEACOCK) has slipped in. I have flagged most or all of these problem statements.

In WP:USCITY recreation is discussed under Parks and recreation rather than under Culture.

Specific comments

• this section is over-linked. Common English words such as photography and sculpture should not be linked.

 Done

• The Hamasa Shrine Temple Theater needs more detailed citations. Currently it has only one, to the front page of its web site. Probably the sources for these statements are on the web site somewhere, but each statement needs to be tied to a specific page. I've also flagged a dubious and probably unverifiable statement that the pipe organ is "equivalent" to a 100-piece symphony orchestra.

 Done

• "the Carnegie library at 25th Ave and 7th St was closed" - looking at the map, it appears that the old library and the new library are both at 25th Avenue and 7th Street (on opposite corners), so this description may be confusing. How about giving the street address instead?

The old library was a Carnegie library; the new one is not. By saying "the Carnegie library," I am in fact referring to the old one.

• "official arts agency" - explain here what "official" means (it's in the reference). "Official" can mean a lot of things, including a purely honorary designation, but here it means they control some money, which is important.

I'm not sure how to do that based on the source. Little help?

• "Around Town Carousels Abound is a public arts project of 62 carousel horses, representing the historic carousel. Sixty-two pieces have been sponsored by local businesses and citizens, and design of the horses was conceived and painted by local artists. They are placed throughout the city and county." This section is confusing, partly because it runs two verbs together (abound is), partly because its connection to the carousel is not mentioned until fairly late, and partly because because it is based on a vague source. I'm not sure how to fix all this; try to get a better source (there's probably some press coverage of the project), and maybe rearrange the order of items. Possibly it should be moved to the Arts section, as it seems to have more to do with art than with parks.

 Done

• "railroad equipment from the steam-engine era" - should this be "steam locomotive era"?

--Uncia (talk) 19:30, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

I've also added some more about arts (such as the MAEC and it's Walk of Fame and the Meridian Symphony Orchestra) as well as moved some information from the Recreation section. I rearranged the arts section for a better narrative, so I'd like your thoughts on the new layout. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 21:49, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Transportation

This could be improved with some narrative; it is now a set of lists, not much different than you would get by looking at maps and timetables. Some questions that spring to mind:

• Considering the historic importance of the railroad to Meridian, does the present-day railroad only deserve one sentence? Is there any rail freight, or is it only passenger travel?

The present-day railroad has an entire paragraph devoted to it.

• There is no description of the Meridian Transit System; the article doesn't even say what it is. My guess is that it accounts for nearly all of the 242,360 passengers per year.

I was unaware an article had been created (though it's crappy at best) about the Meridian Transit System, but I just linked to it. There's not really much information out there.. nothing of worth on their official site, and these two articles[7][8] are really the only thing talking about the system. If you can fashion something about the system from these sources, by all means be my guest.

• Is Atlanta really the only place you can fly from the airport? That seems like a waste of the state's longest public runway. Who provides the commercial air service? Does it get the Essential Air Service subsidy? Do the two military installations also use the field? Maybe they are the ones who need the long runway.

Yes, Atlanta is the only place you can fly. Yes, it is a waste. Military installations do use the field, but I'll have to find some good sources for this.--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 22:32, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

• Is Meridian still a major transportation hub? Is the transportation now by truck rather than train?

--Uncia (talk) 22:44, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Education

This is good, except for a discrepancy in the number of schools in the public school system between what is written here and what the reference says. --Uncia (talk) 03:03, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

 Done. I updated the sources for the number of public schools and also added a source for private schools in the city. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 23:30, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

Media

The newspaper section is basically OK; I've flagged some spots that need improvements.

The TV and radio sections have a number of problems, including:

• not sourced
• unclear whether these are the stations that are received in Meridian, or that broadcast in Meridian
• W47CG is a repeater and probably should not be listed; whatever it is repeating should be listed instead

WP:USCITY cautions that "It's very easy to make this article a list of radio/TV stations, movies, TV shows, etc. This should be avoided, instead constructing the information as prose."

The subject of concentration of media ownership is a important one. Is the newspaper locally owned? Are the TV and radio stations locally owned, and are there a few companies that own them all?

Are there any alternative publications, such as (possibly free) art newspapers? Is there a community access TV channel? Is there an NPR outlet? Are there any nonprofit stations? --Uncia (talk) 04:32, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

I think this page shows all TV signals broadcasting from Meridian, but the info is unreadable to me haha. Could you perhaps fashion something out of this? Here is the AM and FM links as well. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 00:38, 8 June 2010 (UTC)

Notable Meridianites

WP:USCITY says in part, "Provide information, preferably in prose form, of any famous or notable individuals that were born in, or have lived for a significant amount of time, in the city. A bulleted list is usually acceptable in the early stages of an article's development, but such lists are frequently vandalized, and the higher level review processes (WP:GA and WP:FA), prefer that this section be written out as prose."

See List of Minneapolitans for an example of a good treatment. Notice that the people are discussed in groups by occupation, and that in most cases the connection to Minneapolis is given and a reference is given.

Since all of the people currently listed here have their own Wikipedia articles, in theory you should be able to get the connections and the references from those articles. I did a brief spot check, but it wasn't very encouraging on the references: most did not give sources for their claims. One article, LisaRaye McCoy doesn't even mention Meridian. --Uncia (talk) 04:34, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

 Done. --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 18:56, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

Reviewer's assessement and list of must-fix items

This article has much good information and is generally well-written, but does not yet meet the good article criteria. Don't be dismayed by the large number of reviewer comments; most of these are easy to fix, and many are not sufficiently serious to prevent promotion to GA status.

The article passes good article criteria 3–6 with no problem. It almost passes criterion 1 (Well-written), except for a few ambiguous or contradictory statements. It is not too far from passing criterion 2 (Factually accurate and verifiable); there is quite a lot of unsourced material here, and a moderate amount that is not from third-part sources, but the good article criteria only requires citations for specific types of claims, and not for all claims.

Here's what I would like you to fix before I pass the article. Everything is negotiable, so let me know if you would like some changes in the list. I'll give you until September 15 to fix these; this also is negotiable, and somewhat arbitrary.

• Fix all the statements that are marked as unclear, wrong word, should be, doesn't make sense, discrepancy, and similar words. In some cases this just requires rearranging the sentence, but in others the statement is ambiguous and you need to go back to the source to get the correct interpretation
• Fix all statements that are marked as contradictory
• Fix all statements that are marked as not being supported by the reference
• These discussions need to be sourced carefully:

• Meridian's economic decline (if you decide it is declining)
• Wikipedia has especially strict rules for information about living persons (WP:BLP), including strict rules for sourcing. Most of the people in Notable Meridianites are living, so their inclusion here needs to be sourced. If you cannot find a high-quality source for a living person's connection to Meridian, take the person out of the list.

• Describe briefly the Meridian Transit System
• Rewrite the lede as discussed in the reviewer comments

Good work so far! I hope you will go beyond these GA requirements and fix more of the article, as many of the fixes are not that hard and they will improve the article greatly. Leave a note here if you have questions or want to negotiate the must-fix items or the deadline. --Uncia (talk) 19:16, 28 August 2009 (UTC)