Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
UALR's law school (Bowen School of Law) is one of the brightest stars--if not THE brightest star--in all of LR, imo. When folks here talk about colleges/universities in AR, they rarely mention Bowen. That's a shame. For several years now, Bowen has had the highest 6-months-post-graduation placement rate of any law school in the nation (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Berkeley, etc. included). I went to law school there, so I'm a bit biased, I suppose.
Anyway, I think rdicter's first post was right on target.
Sounds like you have put some work into it. Maybe you should join one of the development groups in Little Rock. One of the previous posters on another thread said that he tried to do that very thing and it he was rebuffed. If that is something that you really want to do, which I think is great and you do get rebuffed, start your own organization. I can help with that.
It is very legally complicated to start such an organization because you want to set it up so that you qualify for both state and fed grants. There are a lot of fed funds out their for development in technology and mass transit systems. If this is something you would be interested in doing, you should talk to Judge Thornton. He is a former congressman and I believe he has an office in UALR Law School across from MacArthur Park. He is one of the nicest people I have ever met and he will talk to anyone. All you need to do is walk into his office. He knows a lot of very important people, he being one of them.
This is an interesting discussion, and there are similar ones on other Arkansas related forums...
What makes this thread pretty great is it shows how many people are thinking about this topic just on this forum, and how many visionaries are among the ranks of just regular folks... I'm glad PurpleLove08 has initiated the discussion, because I'd become pretty jaded on the issue. It is definitely an issue I used to obsess about, being my EAST project some 6 years ago, compiling records, and more...
I think the sentiments expressed in this thread--the grassroots vision for community--could, and should be tapped with the latest social networking/internet technology. Since I'm heading out of state, I might as well divulge what I was thinking a while back, so maybe someone else will do this:
At one point, I was considering the Clinton School after college because of my interest in nonprofits. (Now reality has hit, and I have a lot of loans to pay back.) I know that part of the Clinton School's curriculum is an independent project to related to public service. If I ever went, I had a project in mind.
Grassroots-powered Community Development
The basic idea was to create a website that would weave the multiple different visions for Little Rock (e.g., more parks, more universities, more public transportation, social justice, environmental sustainability, etc.) into a holistic vision--which I tentatively call Vision Little Rock. As the latest Web 2.0 technology, social media networks, and Obama's election show, the technology is ripe for this kind of project. (I have experience designing websites, so I tend to keep up.)
The current community development orgs, like the Little Rock chamber of Commerce and the Downtown LR partnership, are top heavy in that they are lead by the city's conventional leaders (i.e., businesses and other large organizations), and tend to offer the conventional perspectives on LR development. This would be grassroots centered forum--a la Obama's campaign.
Rough Structure
Picture a website that is a hybrid of "expert" opinion and individual citizen input on ways to develop LR as a community. The website would cover key areas: public transportation, environmental sustainability, green spaces, developing a nonprofit corridor, city monuments, etc. It would be hybrid in the sense that it would have experts and nonexperts alike contributing ideas to make a better community. The more fleshed out ideas--those with graphical depictions, more thorough thought process, or those based on ideas implemented elsewhere—would take precedence. There would be a rough hierarchy where people could simply submit ideas asking others for input or help, eventually creating a high quality “vision” that is relatively well-researched, well thought out, and imaginative. Rating systems, comments, popularity, and other user feedback mechanism would determine how they’re displayed on the website…
For these different categories, the website would solicit voluntary input from community leaders, or simply people who have well thought out visions. For example, for public transportation, we might get a leader in a local bicycle advocacy group to discuss possibilities of making downtown LR more bike friendly and what other leading-cities around that nation are doing. For the bike example, a local bike advocate might cite roads that have been permanently converted to bike roads in Portland, and suggest that we convert 2nd street or something into a pedestrian/bike/tram only route. His contribution would be a high quality essay and perhaps some maps with proposed routes. His essay would be open to comment/rating from other people to hone the ideas, and perhaps create new ones. Another example might be local nonprofits proposing how to deal with the homelessness problem, and how the leading cities in the nation have addressed them… Artists will have city art ideas, environmentalists will have sustainability ideas, people of all sorts will have all sorts of ideas. The key ideas here are a fluid exchange and constantly evolving multiple visions to weave into one holistic vision.
Those vague impulses, like creating a “nonprofit corridor” (whatever happened to that?) in LR, would be given the affirmation and solidity through citizen involvement.
What is the benefit of grassroots-centered w/ latest social media technology ? First, from the grassroots zeitgeist you would cultivate a true identity for Little Rock that is not dictated by conventional leaders from the top down, but by the spirit and the passions of many people. Second, the types of people who self select into organizations like the Downtown Little Rock partnership are likely provide homogenous views, e.g. businessmen will view an issue from a specific mindset, but they're missing a whole 'nother perspective offered by others who haven't been conditioned to one field. Artsy people will have their own visions, environmentalists another, and random people of all kinds could offer their own ideas based on their personal experiences. At this website, they wouldn't need the gravitas and weight of a business or full fledge organization. As is demonstrated on these thread and many others, there are individual ideas floating around going to waste. Finally, grassroots technology and involvement is just ripe at this time in history, with unprecedented levels of citizen activity during Obama's campaigns and other organizations like MoveOn.Org. People are simply getting more involved, and the archaic visions of the world are being completely discarded in exchange for visions of what the world should be. (Just think about how important fair trade and environmental sustainbility have gotten in the past years alone.) With social tools like Google Maps/Docs/Spreadsheets/Twitter/Facebook etc, the foundations are set for grassroots powered community development.
In addition to this exchanging of ideas, there would be two more components: (1) Some sort of space devoted solely to developing mechanisms to actually realize these visions. (E.g., obtaining capital, developing policy), and (2) A possible TED-inspired (ted.com) speakers series on community development, discussing a wide variety of topics and bringing citizens together in the physical (backed by the infrastructure of the Clinton School).
That will not happen for a long, long time. If we still have dry counties, we certainly are not going to get pot legal and I am not sure we need another vice legalized. We already have too many.
This is an interesting discussion, and there are similar ones on other Arkansas related forums...
What makes this thread pretty great is it shows how many people are thinking about this topic just on this forum, and how many visionaries are among the ranks of just regular folks... I'm glad PurpleLove08 has initiated the discussion, because I'd become pretty jaded on the issue. It is definitely an issue I used to obsess about, being my EAST project some 6 years ago, compiling records, and more...
I think the sentiments expressed in this thread--the grassroots vision for community--could, and should be tapped with the latest social networking/internet technology. Since I'm heading out of state, I might as well divulge what I was thinking a while back, so maybe someone else will do this:
At one point, I was considering the Clinton School after college because of my interest in nonprofits. (Now reality has hit, and I have a lot of loans to pay back.) I know that part of the Clinton School's curriculum is an independent project to related to public service. If I ever went, I had a project in mind.
Grassroots-powered Community Development
The basic idea was to create a website that would weave the multiple different visions for Little Rock (e.g., more parks, more universities, more public transportation, social justice, environmental sustainability, etc.) into a holistic vision--which I tentatively call Vision Little Rock. As the latest Web 2.0 technology, social media networks, and Obama's election show, the technology is ripe for this kind of project. (I have experience designing websites, so I tend to keep up.)
The current community development orgs, like the Little Rock chamber of Commerce and the Downtown LR partnership, are top heavy in that they are lead by the city's conventional leaders (i.e., businesses and other large organizations), and tend to offer the conventional perspectives on LR development. This would be grassroots centered forum--a la Obama's campaign.
Rough Structure
Picture a website that is a hybrid of "expert" opinion and individual citizen input on ways to develop LR as a community. The website would cover key areas: public transportation, environmental sustainability, green spaces, developing a nonprofit corridor, city monuments, etc. It would be hybrid in the sense that it would have experts and nonexperts alike contributing ideas to make a better community. The more fleshed out ideas--those with graphical depictions, more thorough thought process, or those based on ideas implemented elsewhere—would take precedence. There would be a rough hierarchy where people could simply submit ideas asking others for input or help, eventually creating a high quality “vision” that is relatively well-researched, well thought out, and imaginative. Rating systems, comments, popularity, and other user feedback mechanism would determine how they’re displayed on the website…
For these different categories, the website would solicit voluntary input from community leaders, or simply people who have well thought out visions. For example, for public transportation, we might get a leader in a local bicycle advocacy group to discuss possibilities of making downtown LR more bike friendly and what other leading-cities around that nation are doing. For the bike example, a local bike advocate might cite roads that have been permanently converted to bike roads in Portland, and suggest that we convert 2nd street or something into a pedestrian/bike/tram only route. His contribution would be a high quality essay and perhaps some maps with proposed routes. His essay would be open to comment/rating from other people to hone the ideas, and perhaps create new ones. Another example might be local nonprofits proposing how to deal with the homelessness problem, and how the leading cities in the nation have addressed them… Artists will have city art ideas, environmentalists will have sustainability ideas, people of all sorts will have all sorts of ideas. The key ideas here are a fluid exchange and constantly evolving multiple visions to weave into one holistic vision.
Those vague impulses, like creating a “nonprofit corridor” (whatever happened to that?) in LR, would be given the affirmation and solidity through citizen involvement.
What is the benefit of grassroots-centered w/ latest social media technology ? First, from the grassroots zeitgeist you would cultivate a true identity for Little Rock that is not dictated by conventional leaders from the top down, but by the spirit and the passions of many people. Second, the types of people who self select into organizations like the Downtown Little Rock partnership are likely provide homogenous views, e.g. businessmen will view an issue from a specific mindset, but they're missing a whole 'nother perspective offered by others who haven't been conditioned to one field. Artsy people will have their own visions, environmentalists another, and random people of all kinds could offer their own ideas based on their personal experiences. At this website, they wouldn't need the gravitas and weight of a business or full fledge organization. As is demonstrated on these thread and many others, there are individual ideas floating around going to waste. Finally, grassroots technology and involvement is just ripe at this time in history, with unprecedented levels of citizen activity during Obama's campaigns and other organizations like MoveOn.Org. People are simply getting more involved, and the archaic visions of the world are being completely discarded in exchange for visions of what the world should be. (Just think about how important fair trade and environmental sustainbility have gotten in the past years alone.) With social tools like Google Maps/Docs/Spreadsheets/Twitter/Facebook etc, the foundations are set for grassroots powered community development.
In addition to this exchanging of ideas, there would be two more components: (1) Some sort of space devoted solely to developing mechanisms to actually realize these visions. (E.g., obtaining capital, developing policy), and (2) A possible TED-inspired (ted.com) speakers series on community development, discussing a wide variety of topics and bringing citizens together in the physical (backed by the infrastructure of the Clinton School).
Again, just speculation.
Very impressive. I think you are on to something. You know you can still work on this in your part time even when you leave. Send me a direct mail. I may have some need for web design services in the future. Where are you moving to?
That will not happen for a long, long time. If we still have dry counties, we certainly are not going to get pot legal and I am not sure we need another vice legalized. We already have too many.
Nita
Vice?
Too bad there isn't a smiley falling down laughing.
I would like to see more Corporate headquarters come to Little Rock. These are the type of jobs that will pay well and pull people into the city. I spoke to former Congressman from Arkansas and asked why were not getting more of the corporate headquarters. His answer was that we tax them to death. This was a democrat. He pointed to FedEx that used to be here but Memphis gave them a better deal. We need to do more to attract that type of business to Little Rock.
It isn't that Memphis gave Smith/FedEx a better deal, it's that Little Rock would not deal at all.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
