Fort Smith, AR vs Spartanburg, SC (Little Rock, Fayetteville: job, health care, business)

[lateby3K]

Hi,

Hope the list members can help me out. Read through most of the posts for both places and can't seem to get a real feel for the places.

I have to take a decision in the next couple of days between these two places. I work in a health care field and have a job lined up in both places.

Really looking for warm weather and people who are easy to get along with. Big city amenities (theater etc.) and airports nearby would make life easier. Planning to have kids in the near future so schools etc would be a consideration.

Pretty easy to get along with (have to in my job...:-)) I am not caucasian or christian. Would that be a problem in either place?

To all folks who help out in these forums, a big thanks. Your help has been immeasurable to lurkers like me.

Thanks

(I plan to cross post in SC forums as well. Posters without borders..:-))

[DFWMike]

The one thing that quickly comes to mind for me is that Spartanburg has alot better access to big city amenities and airports. Fort Smith has NWA airport about an hour away with commuter flights into hubs, Tulsa is a bit further, I'd say for non stop flights you would probably have to go 3-4 hours to Little Rock or Oklahoma City. Spartanburg I believe is about an hour to Charlotte, so obviously a fairly good size airport there.

My thoughts on your religious preference would probably go over easier in Spartanburg, Fayetteville would be a better choice for you in NWA if you could possibly swing that, but commute would be pretty long back to Fort Smith.

There are some good school districts around the Fort Smith area(Greenwood, Alma, southern Fort Smith). I can't comment on Spartanburg as I would only be looking at a greatschools.net comparison that you could easily check out yourself.

The whole Northwest Arkansas region used to be lilly white, but that has changed dramatically in the past 20 years.
But make sure you go take a look around Fort Smith, it suits some, but I looked at it real closely and decided against it. It's not the cleanest town ever, has a really nice downtown area and is a nice hilly town, but coming from cookie cutter dallas I'm used to a certain look and cities in Fayetteville area are much more successful at making their cities presentable as opposed to Fort Smith. It's like everything was just kind of plopped down with no thought put into it.

So if it were me, with the desires you put down, I would go for Spartanburg in a minute unless you can pull the Fayetteville metro(Northwest Arkansas) into the picture which I would imagine you can't given what you've written. Now I do list a caveat here in that I've never directly been the Spartanburg, but I've spent a good deal of time looking around Greenville, SC in the same metro. If I wasn't leaving behind alot of family in Texas I probably would've done that move.

[lateby3K]

DFWMike,

Thanks much for your response. Obviously, due dilligence and all that is necessary on my part but your answer is very helpful...:-)

[matto]

Fort smith has an airport. It's not a bad city, I wouldn't live there though, but plenty work there. I say live in van buren, work in fort smith if you do decide on the area. NW arkansas is nice, and people probably call it "cleaner" because most everything has just recently been built because the area has exploded, where as FS most of it is older.

[DFWMike]

Thanks for clarifying the airport issue matto, I just assumed it didn't have one when I was looking into Ft. Smith. So I immediately went and checked NWA airport and Tulsa. And good point on the cleanliness issue.

[matto]

Yes, Fort Smith has an airport, it's a decent sized one too. If I remember correctly they got an award for having the cleanest airport or cleanest airport bathrooms or something odd like that here a while back.

[DFWMike]

One thing to keep in mind though, is that if you fly out of Northwest Airport or Fort Smith you will be flying in buckets with wings. Tulsa has Southwest(737's)and American flies some MD80's into there, so it's not all puddle jumpers. Of course Tulsa is a little further from Fort Smith than Charlotte is to Spartanburg so probably six in one half, half dozen in the other. Some may not have anything against the little planes but I can't stand em.

[boulder]

DFWMike - I’m guessing you haven't flown in / out of the Northwest Arkansas Regional airport in a while ....

XNA (the NWA airport) offers direct flights to most major cities including multiple flights a day to NYC / NJ (LaGuardia and Newark), Washington DC, Los Angles, Denver, every other hour to Chicago and Dallas and Atlanta, Miami, Raleigh / Durham, NC, Orlando, Detroit, Seattle and a handful of other cities. With the business going on in NWA and the amount of people coming into the area during the week these flights are a necessity. Of course it's expensive to fly out of XNA (supply and demand), but hey - it's nice to wake up in Arkansas be able to be in midtown Manhattan for a meeting late morning and be back in Arkansas before the sun goes down.

Most service in / out of XNA is either regional jets or AA services a few routes with MD80's.

[DFWMike]

You're quite right on that Boulder, actually I've never flown out of NWA airport, and my information is a little dated. I figured it must have been getting better in NWA due to population explosion though.

[bchris02]

DFWMike is right, unless you can get into the NWA metro, go to Spartanburg.

Fort Smith may not be a nice place for you, as it is opposite of most of the things you suggested. The choices for shopping, restaraunts, entertainment, etc are very limited outside of Wal-Mart or your typical fast food chains. You wont find big city amenities here without a drive to Tulsa, OK City, or NWA at the very closest. Most people go to church for entertainment, and about the only concerts you get are Christian bands or maybe a few country bands during fair week.

As far as getting along with people, they aren't the most accepting to outsiders, especially if you don't abide by the 2 unwritten rules for living in the Ft. Smith area.

1. You must be a Christian fundamentalist and attend church 3 times per week if at all possible
2. You must have conservative political views and vote exclusively Republican

There are other rules such as taking an interest in hunting/fishing, NASCAR, and country/bluegrass music that aren't as important but still important nonetheless if you want to fit in well in Ft. Smith. The scenic beauty is a plus, but you can find the same scenic beauty in NWA without the backward-thinking mentality that dominates down the hill. Go to NWA or go to Spartanburg!