We just discovered Fayetteville, and now for some questions (Little Rock: relocating, transplants)

[TheChooch]

Hi there,
We are looking for a place to relocate, and we came across Fayetteville. It sounds wonderful on paper, and we are trying to decide if we should come see it. We are Northerners ,and my husband thinks that our child would never be accepted by the other children, because of her lack of a Southern accent. I was wondering if this is true. As adults, I assume it would be easier for us. Where we live now our child is very well-liked and popular. We wonder what a drastic move would do to her(going from Manhattan to the South).

Can you tell me if there are many transplants in this city or have families been their for generations? Are out of towners welcomed with open arms, so to speak? Thanks in advance.

[rackensack]

As the home of the University of Arkansas for the last century and a quarter, Fayetteville has always had more transplants, and more highly educated ones, than just about any other part of Arkansas. A large number of the kids your children would be around would be the children of faculty and staff at U of A who will have moved there from all over the US and around the world. I grew up in small, very rural towns in eastern Arkansas until I started junior high, when we moved to Fayetteville. I quickly realized that sounding like a redneck was NOT the way to be cool around the smarter kids in Fayetteville, so I semi-consciously started losing the Southern redneck accent. By the time I was in college, during a NEH seminar at Harvard, my seminar-mates couldn't place my accent at all -- it had flattened out to a classic American midwestern/broadcast accent. To this day, no one ever pegs me as being from Arkansas. And I owe it all to living in Fayetteville as a teenager .

Insofar as anyplace in Arkansas can be said to be cosmopolitan, it's Fayetteville, even more than Little Rock. It's more so today than it was in the late 1970s and early 1980s when I lived there. There are cultural opportunities I could only have dreamed of, and with the huge influx of new residents all over northwest Arkansas, even the surrounding areas have lots more to offer than then. Don't give the notion that your child would be rejected because of being from somewhere else a second thought -- just won't happen, because nearly everyone else is too. If anything, they'd be more likely to have trouble fitting in if their family had been farming in the country outside town for generations.

[undertheironsea]

Originally Posted by TheChooch

Hi there,
We are looking for a place to relocate, and we came across Fayetteville. It sounds wonderful on paper, and we are trying to decide if we should come see it. We are Northerners ,and my husband thinks that our child would never be accepted by the other children, because of her lack of a Southern accent. I was wondering if this is true. As adults, I assume it would be easier for us. Where we live now our child is very well-liked and popular. We wonder what a drastic move would do to her(going from Manhattan to the South).

Can you tell me if there are many transplants in this city or have families been their for generations? Are out of towners welcomed with open arms, so to speak? Thanks in advance.

Actually, as said above, your kids are more likely to be accepted being from NY than being from other Southern areas. In the time I've spent in Northwest Arkansas, I've rarely heard a Southern accent in town. I have a thick one at times (I'm originally from South Mississippi), I'm more likely to catch flack for that than you will for being a New Yorker. As a kid, I was picked on for having an accent in school (in Nebraska and Indiana, they acted like having a Southern accent was a foreign language) so I would never advise you to put your kid in that situation unless I knew they wouldn't get picked on.

Everyone else in the area is from another state or city, so it's not like they're going into cricket and banjo land. The metro area (Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, Bentonville) is about 400,000 or more. It's not the biggest place in the world, but it's big to me. Growing constantly. Very urban.

[nmnita]

we are in the process of relocating to Bella Vista (about 6 more months we think) when visiting the area we have rarely heard a southern accent, it is really closer to mid west, plus as mentioned the entire nowest part of AR is a little different than some parts of the state. from what we have gathered, Fayetteville, being a college town is a little more liberal than the surrounding areas. I think children, can be accepted almost without question as long as the big people in the family don't make any issues about being a little different.
It has been our experience, from visiting, having a granddaughter that is a senior at the university and speaking with others, many of those who live in NW AR are transplants. Now, if you want to live someplace where everyone has been here for generations, come to NewMexico..

Nita

[JohnN]

We're from Chicago, and living in Arkansas for some decades now. My son goes to UA Fayetteville. With the University and Wal-Mart influence, it has a lot of diversity these days. I think it's a fabulous area.

[Bumblewick]

You need to check out the Fayetteville area for sure. It has been recognized several times over as one of the top ten places to live in the US. I believe your fears about the accent thing is unfounded.
Fayetteville is cosmopolitan with beautiful scenery everywhere- especially Eureka Springs (highly unique and close by) and the adjacent Madison county also has a beautiful countryside. We have a son & family who live in the area and they enjoy great quality of life.

[MaggieMay23]

Everyone in Arkansas thinks that New York is the coolest place around. If I were from New York and wanted my kids to be accepted, I would definitely move to Arkansas. Fayettville has a lot of people from smaller towns, who have rejected the "country" life, and are looking to Fayettville for a more "glamorous" existence. So, Fayetteville is surely the best place to move to for a family from New York. Don't worry about your children...they will be the "cool kids from New York."

[Stormcrow73]

Originally Posted by MaggieMay23

Everyone in Arkansas thinks that New York is the coolest place around. If I were from New York and wanted my kids to be accepted, I would definitely move to Arkansas. Fayettville has a lot of people from smaller towns, who have rejected the "country" life, and are looking to Fayettville for a more "glamorous" existence. So, Fayetteville is surely the best place to move to for a family from New York. Don't worry about your children...they will be the "cool kids from New York."

Here's one Arkansan who breaks this rule...

[boulder]

I like the New York Yankees - just hope they rebuild their starting pitching rotation during the off season.

[jrmelmer]

hows the job situation in fayetteville?