Do Most Rural Arkansans Envy Little Rock? (Houston, Rudy: violent crime, how much)

[ArkansasTraveler]

Originally Posted by North Pulaski Player

Do Most Rural Arkansans Envy Little Rock?

Antie always went to Dallas to do her personal shopping... LR - hicks ville...

[Stormcrow73]

Originally Posted by northbound74

I was refering to metropolitan statistical areas (M.S.A.'s). Little Rock's is roughly 650k, and the 5 million was just a generic number I threw out to make a point. Maybe I should have used 2 or 3 million. On per capita crime stats for entire m.s.a.'s, I will admit ignorance.?

I think we're all a bit ignorant on that because that type of data is not widely available, if at all. Personally, I think it's a lot more relavent to the average American suburbanite who is the target audience of studies like these. Let's face it, the people who really have to put up the crime in our cities on a daily basis are not typically the ones reading criminology reports. They're too busy trying to make ends meet, regardless of what city it is they're living in.

Originally Posted by northbound74

When someone asked "Little Rock vs. Larger Cities", I say go for the larger city, because Little Rock has very similar crime issues and a lot of the other problems that much larger areas have. Might as well go for the better pay check, not have to scrape pennies, and have fun while you're at it. Why mess with a place that's culturally anemic?

I'm sure as he!! not scraping pennies here. Meanwhile, in the bigger city, I was having to drive about 1.5 hours to work one way, making over 25% more but affording less. Now..if Uncle Sam and the great state of Maryland had not been taking so much out of my paycheck, I might have been doing much better but the fact is, you make more, they take more... I net 90% of what I did in Maryland with a gross paycheck over 25% lower. Now add in the fact that my housing payment here will be 50% of the previous and property taxes are at least 25% lower. Think very seriously before you get those dollar signs in your eyes, it may backfire on you. And sure, there was a lot more to do culturally there, but when you drive as much as I had to so that my kids could live in a safe AND affordable (affordable being very subjective there) place, there's no time for all those great cultural things. If you're younger and single and don't have any kids and just renting then I can see why you'd probably make that choice to go a Chicago or a Dallas or Boston, etc. But, for me, I'd much rather live in a lower cost of living area where I can have money left over to travel to the culture while living close to work and still being able to let my kids go out in the yard or explore the neighborhood without too much worry. We all have different values, and LR isn't any fairytale, but cultural amenities do not equal quality of life when you don't have the time or the money to go enjoy those amenities.

[marmac]

I will bet-----in nearly every bigger city in the US--------that there is a higher percent of people who are envious of the people who are living out of the their city and making a living in a more rural area than there is rural folks " envious of the city folks".

[anynabiddle]

Originally Posted by cmcwilliams

I agree totally with your post. I grew up in the central Arkansas area(Little Rock/N Little Rock) and my experience was fine. And people do that everywhere. I am currently in Shreveport, La and the people here do the same thing! The talk so bad about Shreveport and talk sooooo good about the town adjacent(Bossier City) it's ridiculous! I mean seriously being a military brat, and being married to a guy in the military, I have traveled. I also had the luxury of going to college in the 4 largest city in this country, Houston, TX. And for all the small town people who think that life in these "Small Town they tink are cities(ie Little Rock, Shreveport, Jackson)" is soooooo bad or crime is sooooooo outrageous. Try living in Houston, New York City, Miami, Los Angelos, Hell, Dallas. I have visited all of these locations where their crime is way worse than it is here in small town america, and never felt threatend or unsafe. Truth of the matter is, just mind your business, dont go into drug infested parts of town and you are good. Get over it already....sheesh

Little Rock is dangerous have u seen the latested FBI stats. Little Rock is a more dangerous city than LA, NYC, Dallas, and Houston

[anynabiddle]

Originally Posted by North Pulaski Player

Why is it that people in rural Arkansas towns where the best local job is some factory paying $9.00/hour always the ones putting Little Rock down? Basically as long as you don't hang out in the ghettos(Southwest, Central/Roosevelt Ave, East LR), you will not be more likely to be a victim of violent crime than in your boondock town. When I first moved to the Little Rock area from East Arkansas, people spoke about Little Rock as if it was the wild wild west or something and that you had to duck for bullets everywhere you went. I haven't heard a gunshot the whole time I've lived here, and when you do hear about crime in LR, it involves dope dealers, crackheads, and wanna-be gangsters. Little Rock is just the typical urban sprawl city. And to the people that try to compare Little Rock to Fort Smith just because Fort Smith is the so called "second largest city in the state", Pulaski County is very fragmented, and even though the population of Little Rock proper is only 190,000, Pulaski County is nearly 400,000 and Little Rock is the social hub of all of Central Arkansas, so it is inevitable that everything will come through Little Rock (the good and the bad).

Its not the surrounding cities we dont like the main city is Little Rock because of this factor. Arkansas spends money on Little Rock and North Arkansas thats it. the state doesnt invest money anywhere else. only reason why SE Arkansas is getting a little attention is because the feds are stepping and and its in serious need. Im very very upset that the state government doesnt invest in any other parts of the state. Little Rock is growing and North Arkansas is growing now its time to see some tax dollar returns in southern Arkansas. I currently live in Texas but im from Magnolia. Only Magnolia and Texarkana is holding up a float in southern Arkansas because of its proxcemity to Texas, Dallas in particular. if it wasnt for Texans Texarkana and Magnolia economies would be collapsing like the rest of southern Arkansas. I dont too much like the Texas state government because it works in the intrest of the government but i will say this about Texas government atleast it spreads the wealth. Look at every region of Texas theres a major 4 lane highway of some kind in the area. 4lane highways can bring in a great deal of economic growth to an area. And the places that people are moving to from southern arkansas isnt Little Rock or NW Arkansas. The number one place they are moving to is Texas and i cant blame them Arkansas ranks 3rd behind California and Illinois for residence from other states moving to Texas

[bigtallredhead]

Originally Posted by cmcwilliams

I agree totally with your post. I grew up in the central Arkansas area(Little Rock/N Little Rock) and my experience was fine. And people do that everywhere. I am currently in Shreveport, La and the people here do the same thing! The talk so bad about Shreveport and talk sooooo good about the town adjacent(Bossier City) it's ridiculous! I mean seriously being a military brat, and being married to a guy in the military, I have traveled. I also had the luxury of going to college in the 4 largest city in this country, Houston, TX. And for all the small town people who think that life in these "Small Town they tink are cities(ie Little Rock, Shreveport, Jackson)" is soooooo bad or crime is sooooooo outrageous. Try living in Houston, New York City, Miami, Los Angelos, Hell, Dallas. I have visited all of these locations where their crime is way worse than it is here in small town america, and never felt threatend or unsafe. Truth of the matter is, just mind your business, dont go into drug infested parts of town and you are good. Get over it already....sheesh

I agree with yout overall point about people having unrealistic notions about crime there and in other similer places.

however, that also aplies to many big cities, too. Largly, as in Litle Rock, it depends on the neigborhood and also just how one behaves, who one knows, and how much sense one has. But there are no gurenties, either,, and some crime dose happen just about everywhere.
New York city as a whole actually now has a below average crime rate (Much lower then little Rock, Ar in fact.), -it got much better during the 90's under mayor Rudy Giuliani. -NYC still has some very bad neigborhoods, though, but not the city as a whole. Some small towns do have high crime rates. (some, -not most- but some definately do, -I have looked that up right here on city-data.)


-Emil.

[North Pulaski Player]

Originally Posted by anynabiddle

Little Rock is dangerous have u seen the latested FBI stats. Little Rock is a more dangerous city than LA, NYC, Dallas, and Houston

Moderator cut: nope

Originally Posted by anynabiddle

Its not the surrounding cities we dont like the main city is Little Rock because of this factor. Arkansas spends money on Little Rock and North Arkansas thats it. the state doesnt invest money anywhere else.

So basically you want residents of Northwest Arkansas and Central Arkansas to get taxed to death so that the state can build four-laned freeways and bypasses for towns with 3,000 people? One reason Arkansas have so many problems now is because of the state being so rural and it is difficult to better utilize services when people are spread out all over the countryside. I think that all school districts with under 750 students should be either shut down or consolidated into a larger school district. Paying superintendents $200,000 for overseeing a school district with 300 kids is a joke. Arkansas only has 3 million people and has more school districts than Texas!

[undertheironsea]

Originally Posted by North Pulaski Player

Moderator cut: nope

So basically you want residents of Northwest Arkansas and Central Arkansas to get taxed to death so that the state can build four-laned freeways and bypasses for towns with 3,000 people? One reason Arkansas have so many problems now is because of the state being so rural and it is difficult to better utilize services when people are spread out all over the countryside. I think that all school districts with under 750 students should be either shut down or consolidated into a larger school district. Paying superintendents $200,000 for overseeing a school district with 300 kids is a joke. Arkansas only has 3 million people and has more school districts than Texas!

So let's just bus kids in to places 30-50 miles away from their homes, when a lot of the "rural" school districts in this state are outperforming the larger ones? That's smart. And I doubt that the poster wanted to bring four-laned freeways to small towns, but would want state money used for higher pay for teachers in small districts, higher hourly wages for other workers, and road improvements (re-paved, not widened to 60 lanes). Those three shouldn't be too hard.

I tell you what. We'll just take ALL the small towns, make everyone move out of them, and become one giant urban area. Hey, we're all envious of the bigger areas anyway, so why not? Who wants no traffic and green pasture when we can have miles of blacktop, traffic, and aggrivation? Urban sprawl, that's the ticket!

Maybe we rural Arkansans enjoy our peace and quiet. What's so hard to believe about that? I'm not envious of Little Rock. I'm envious of how naive you are, thinking that we're all so jealous of the urban lifestyle, and underestimating the crime of an area laden with it.

[Stormcrow73]

Originally Posted by undertheironsea

So let's just bus kids in to places 30-50 miles away from their homes, when a lot of the "rural" school districts in this state are outperforming the larger ones? That's smart. And I doubt that the poster wanted to bring four-laned freeways to small towns, but would want state money used for higher pay for teachers in small districts, higher hourly wages for other workers, and road improvements (re-paved, not widened to 60 lanes). Those three shouldn't be too hard.

I tell you what. We'll just take ALL the small towns, make everyone move out of them, and become one giant urban area. Hey, we're all envious of the bigger areas anyway, so why not? Who wants no traffic and green pasture when we can have miles of blacktop, traffic, and aggrivation? Urban sprawl, that's the ticket!

Maybe we rural Arkansans enjoy our peace and quiet. What's so hard to believe about that? I'm not envious of Little Rock. I'm envious of how naive you are, thinking that we're all so jealous of the urban lifestyle, and underestimating the crime of an area laden with it.

Guys...Doug Eaton of state education department was in Green Forest last week to try to help them with their budget woes. This is one thing he had to offer:

"You don't have to have basketball to have an adequate education," he said. "Please don't go out and slash my tires."

"Skimming" only 10% of the athletic budget would give the school $31,000 of funds to devote to other things. That's a lot of books folks!!

See, the problem in Arkansas with schools isn't the level of funding, it's how the districts allocate the funding. Green Forest isn't the only school district in this state with wacked out priorities!

[cspradley]

The point I was trying to make with my post was that it is not all dangerous. The Heights is a nice area, nice enough that as a child my parent let me walk the streets alone. There are other parts that are good and there are parts that are bad. The problem is not Little Rock, it's people. Bad things can happen no matter where you live. My parents live in Lonoke and our house has been robbed/vandalized 4 times in the 21 years they have lived there. Does that mean it is dangerous? No, it just means that there are some stupid people alive. Yes, people do get shot there. But there are a lot more people who don't.