How does Fort Smith compare to Fayetteville/Bentonville?

[Snaple4]

I have been hearing mostly positive stuff about Fort Smith over the last few years. I finally decided to look into the area a bit more and was surprised to see some of the development and growth they have. I also noticed an emphasis on trails/parks. I then started to look at the overall growth statistics of the area and was surprised to see stagnant growth…. Anyone know if that just happened to be bad timing on the estimate(s)? Some insight would be nice b/c it does seem like there is a lot of potential as a stand alone MSA and as a part of NWA….

[locally47wine]

Some of my family still live in Fort Smith and the growth is in the Chaffee area- as it is right in the heart of the I-49 corridor to Hot Springs, Texas/Louisiana. The city is growing outward, but as you said the population is very stagnant.

The loss of jobs in the manufacturing industry hurt Fort Smith drastically in the 2000s. They still have not fully recovered from it. The JSF-35 contract at the National Guard base is promising, but it still needs an injection of population/cash in the form of infrastructure for I-49, a port to transfer cargo to air/road/rail/water on the intersection of I-40/I-49 and Arkansas River(leads to the Mississippi River), a powerplant/auto plant, OR become a regional medical hub. Without one of these major developments, it will continue to be stagnant.

Right now, the biggest knock is that the water bill just keeps piling up due to violation of EPA standards since the 80s or 90s and it literally is taxing the population of 88k people to death. City development is muzzled by the millions or hundreds of millions that are due to the violations. You're seeing the city cut some corners on lighting and maintenance in order to not continue passing more of the buck to its citizens. Overall being nearly 40 years old, I've always said the town has potential. It is a good city, but I sure hope it figures out how to turn things around otherwise it will always continue to be the city that had so much potential to me.

[weezerfan84]

Originally Posted by locally47wine

Some of my family still live in Fort Smith and the growth is in the Chaffee area- as it is right in the heart of the I-49 corridor to Hot Springs, Texas/Louisiana. The city is growing outward, but as you said the population is very stagnant.

The loss of jobs in the manufacturing industry hurt Fort Smith drastically in the 2000s. They still have not fully recovered from it. The JSF-35 contract at the National Guard base is promising, but it still needs an injection of population/cash in the form of infrastructure for I-49, a port to transfer cargo to air/road/rail/water on the intersection of I-40/I-49 and Arkansas River(leads to the Mississippi River), a powerplant/auto plant, OR become a regional medical hub. Without one of these major developments, it will continue to be stagnant.

Right now, the biggest knock is that the water bill just keeps piling up due to violation of EPA standards since the 80s or 90s and it literally is taxing the population of 88k people to death. City development is muzzled by the millions or hundreds of millions that are due to the violations. You're seeing the city cut some corners on lighting and maintenance in order to not continue passing more of the buck to its citizens. Overall being nearly 40 years old, I've always said the town has potential. It is a good city, but I sure hope it figures out how to turn things around otherwise it will always continue to be the city that had so much potential to me.

I live and work in Fort Smith. Supposedly the town had the opportunity to be the home of University of Arkansas, but the town passed on that opportunity. Fort Smith is mostly a sleepy town. NWA is so close to Fort Smith, that you're just a quick drive away from any concert held at AMP, JJ's, or Majestic.

[eddie gein]

Originally Posted by weezerfan84

I live and work in Fort Smith. Supposedly the town had the opportunity to be the home of University of Arkansas, but the town passed on that opportunity. Fort Smith is mostly a sleepy town. NWA is so close to Fort Smith, that you're just a quick drive away from any concert held at AMP, JJ's, or Majestic.

I don't know if Ft. Smith "passed" on the University or not but the state put out bids for cities to offer land to situate the University and Washington Co (Fayetteville) and Batesville were the two that brought viable bids. Apparently anybody in the state could have made a bid. This was around 1870

Glad Fayetteville got it although I'm still amazed that they did considering the difficulty getting to Fayetteville for about the next 120 years. LOL.