[Lora Kay]

jwisconsin,

Hello! I was just checking the internet and found your post. I just joined this website. I thought it was neat to hear that you are moving to the Little Rock area from Wisconsin. That's just what we did! We've been here since April. We are from Beloit and Janesville.

We were living in apartments here in Bryant. They are really nice apartments to live in in the interum of finding a house to buy. We are moving this week to Bauxite. We just had a house built out there. Bryant is just south of Little Rock. Bauxite is kind of out in the boondocks but my husband really wanted a place with some land.

Bryant has a very nice park, Mills Park. It has a walking trail, tennis courts, park and a lot of city events are taken place there. The Mills Park area is a nice place to live because it is also near Bryant schools.

I have two teenagers and my son really liked the Bryant schools. He immediately made friends. My daughter likes it here also.

If you want to talk more, give me a call Moderator cut: no personal info, please, due to internet trolls; please use direct mail feature or email e-mail me. Moderator cut: no advertising I will be happy to be of assistance.

Moderator cut: please do not sign posts

[northbound74]

"If you could pick the best school in the area where would you choose?"

good luck with that.

[escobalesjarka]

hi people, we are moving to little rock too. need your help. need to know which neighborhood is safe. thank you.

[northbound74]

West of 430 is somewhat okay. It's allegedly upscale, but when I lived in an apartment complex in that area, (Chenal Parkway) there were frequent break-ins, occasional muggings, etc...Hillcrest and Pulaski Heights were nice older areas, but probably have the same problems as the westside...you can't get away from it in Little Rock. Gangs claim territory in every square inch of the city....I really did see that on a map in the paper.
Remember, you're in Arkansas, so the places with the so-called "better" schools are still substandard compared to other parts of the country. Private schools are the way to go.
Some of the "suburbs" are okay, but Maumelle is hands down the best. It actually looks like a normal place right there in the middle of Arkansas! Wow. Not much retail there..you must go to Little Rock or North Little Rock to shop for just about anything but groceries. Places like Cabot and Benton seem to get accolades from the locals, but those towns are VERY redneck.

[Sam I Am]

To open the area up a little bit - there was a thread on this not too long ago. I really am not sure the Heights, Hillcrest, and Chenal see much gang activity, provided you know where the boundaries of those neighborhoods really are. The realtors seem to have stretched the limits quite a bit...anything north of UALR seems to be "Hillcrest" these days, and it isn't. Maumelle is a lovely community on the north side of the river, a very large community, with homes and apartments in most price ranges.

My rule of thumb for Little Rock would be - north of I-630, west of Stifft station, which is where Markham and Kavanaugh come together. On the east side of that dividing line you will find a few pocket neighborhoods that are rapidly appreciating, north of the deaf school and on the south side of Markham at Dennison, Rice, Thayer, etc. (Capitol View). It's spotty right now but the trend has been toward "upscaling" that area with home renovations. The downtown area around the river is definitely renovating, but you will find high rises and lots of professionals there with part time lofts or apartments....the upscaling of the downtown area hasn't done Average Joe any favors. It's not a conducive are to raise children simply because there isn't anywhere to go and there's lots of concrete except in the neighborhoods that back up to the river, and those are pricey. Quapaw is downtown - again, it's not the neighborhood, it's what's around it. Quapaw itself is lovely and people who live there have a love of old historic homes, but I personally wouldn't throw down stakes there. The Heights and Hillcrest are older homes from about the 1920's and up - the boundary lines are pretty fuzzy there and prices have gone through the roof to the point of getting ridiculous. You'll know the "old money" areas when you see them, trust me.

To the south of I-630 there are pocket neighborhoods such as the area just west of UALR that remain nice (Broadmoor, but only certain streets - and it's used as a cut through by the crud that comes off Asher Avenue), but the University/Asher Avenue area is notoriously problematic. Going west, after you get to I-430, most everything is game. The Stagecoach/Col. Glenn area is very nice, although situated away from the actual city. Brodie Creek runs south off Kanis at about Bowman. Farther west is the Chenal area, which is where the city has sprawled to, but it's pretty much north of Chenal Blvd. or Financial Parkway or whatever they are calling it these days. It is pretty much new construction, but in all price ranges as well.

Going west on Cantrell, there's the Heights, Leawood, Foxcroft, Robinwood, Pleasant Valley, and then you're into the Sam Peck/Chenal area. I'm not sure what the area is called south of Cantrell around Reservoir Rd. - Treasure Hills? - but be very careful picking around Reservoir. That's just one big apartment complex and it seems to be the wart of west Little Rock. There's a huge amount of apartments off Green Mountain and Rodney Parham, and again going out Chenal and up Bowman Rd.

The problem with Little Rock is that there are very desirable areas that still have cruddy spots backing up to them, or right in the middle of them. Generally speaking, the further north of I-630 you go, the better off you are. Bear in mind, though, that the face of Little Rock is changing pretty rapidly. A few years ago you couldn't have paid anyone to live close to downtown or in the Capitol View area - now it's all the rage. The other problem is that housing prices for Arkansas have skyrocketed, but perhaps the soft housing market will loosen things up a bit. With the advent of the river market district, being closer to downtown has become all the rage for those who enjoy the professional social life, some of the arts, and the proximity to work.

Little Rock doesn't have many directions to go - it's bounded on the north by the river and on the south by the Benton/Bryant area. Deep east Little Rock has the airport, and, as all cities, the area around there is not as desirable. Little Rock has already hit the Roland area and is pretty much to the Perry County line. However, there are still a lot of rural areas around Gamble Rd., Col. Glenn, Stagecoach and at the Roland line if you want to spread out a little more.

Lots of people commute into Little Rock every day from about a dozen small communities within a 30 mi. or so range, and some come in from as far as Hot Springs and Malvern - but the I-30 traffic (and I-40, if you're coming from the west) is just absolutely horrible. Be prepared to sit in traffic a lot if you are working regular hours and commuting. If your job has more flexible hours, you might look at outlying communities as well.

[eric1]

Heights are bounded by University ave. to the west, cantrell rd. to the south, arkansas river to the north, The Country club of Little Rock to the east. Just south of the Heights are Edgehill and Prospect terrace. Edgehill are $1,000,000+ and Prospect Terrace is $400,000 on the extreme low end to $1,000,000+

[northbound74]

I didn't mean to imply the whole city is completely overrun with gangs, but there is gang activity in every corner of town. Obviously, there are some parts that are much worse than other (Asher Avenue), but in Little Rock, the way things have played out there, the gangs haven't really been contained to one area. It is my opinion, based only on my observations when living there, that the people of Little Rock don't seem to care very much about what happens in their town. They are much more pre-occupied with the state of Arkansas as a whole, as well as the nation as a whole, while their own hometown gets put on the back-burner. Just look at the front page of the DemGaz...the main photo is almost always of the war or some statewide event. The ten o'clock news rarely reports the homicides that happen a few blocks away from the tv station. They'll cut to the weather during your favorite show to warn you about the thunderstorm in friggin' Fayetteville that's headed northeast at 35mph! There was a mayoral election when I lived there, and NOBODY knew who the other candidates were that ran against the incumbant, because they didn't care. So much apathy and indifference towards the town they live in. Very strange considering how politically minded people there seem to be. Sorry about the rant. For the most part, I didn't mind my stay there, but I obviously had some issues.

[amandahelm1]

Sheridan and Benton are both good places and are close to Little Rock.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by amandahelm1

Sheridan and Benton are both good places and are close to Little Rock.

this post is almost 2 years old, or should we say over 18 months old. It is amazing how, after a year of so, sometimes they just pop up again.

Nita