Little Rock, a review. (North Little Rock, Conway: closing, subdivisions, living)

[bchris02]

Originally Posted by jenni-b

Yeah, hardly anybody seems to use that beautiful river walkway. Probably scared of getting jacked, thanks to all the people who talk trash about how bad crime is in this city. My kid and his friends run around that area all the time, though. Hopefully more people will realize what they're missing. I don't know what you mean about Kavanaugh, though. There are always people out there! I mean, we're not talking Manhattan levels of activity, but come on. I haven't spent much time in Allsopp Park itself, though, so I can't speak to that.

I agree about Kavannaugh. Sure, there isn't going to be a ton of activity up there when its 39 degrees out like today, but the place can come quite alive on a nice spring or summer evening.

[Stormcrow73]

I think my only comments on this review is that it helps to understand some context around Little Rock. Just 10-15 years ago, the area between the Capital and what is now the Clinton Presidential Library was dicey at best, downright dangerous at worst. It's likely if stx had done this same review 10-15 years ago, he would not have made it out of what is now the RiverMarket with his wallet. 10-15 years ago, Argenta was still called Dogtown (the nickname it earned years earlier by being the dumping ground for stray dogs from the southside of the river!) The point being that the turn around this city has experienced is tremendous.

We DO have professional sports: the Arkansas Travelers (TX league baseball champs) who of course stx would not have seen because it's winter. If you want to count them there are also the Twisters of AFL2 but again, their season is over. Alltel usually averages at least 1 event per week (I know because they won't stop spamming me about every single stupid little event they have). I'm not sure why stx made it a point to say we don't have professional sports teams when Dickey Stephens Park is pretty obvious and easy to find for someone who drove all over the area. Guess he missed that one...

[strumpeace]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow73

I think my only comments on this review is that it helps to understand some context around Little Rock. Just 10-15 years ago, the area between the Capital and what is now the Clinton Presidential Library was dicey at best, downright dangerous at worst. It's likely if stx had done this same review 10-15 years ago, he would not have made it out of what is now the RiverMarket with his wallet. 10-15 years ago, Argenta was still called Dogtown (the nickname it earned years earlier by being the dumping ground for stray dogs from the southside of the river!) The point being that the turn around this city has experienced is tremendous.

Excellent post!

Few cities have seen the dramatic turnaround that the LR riverfront has seen in the last few years. For a town the size of LR/NLR and with the very limited resources of LR/NLR, we have done quite well. No one here thinks LR is perfect; we see the problems with it daily. However, it's far removed from what is what just a few short years ago.

[jenni-b]

Definitely.

[lost479]

Originally Posted by strumpeace

No, they're not. Louisville's population is inflated because of city-county consolidation. The population of Louisville proper was 256,231 at the 2000 Census. The population of Memphis proper was 650,100 at that same time. (In fact, the population of Louisville proper is really not all that much bigger than Little Rock. And Louisville proper has shrunk dramatically over the last few decades; that, in part, necessitated the city-county consolidation.)

If you want to use the consolidated city-county population for Louisville-Jefferson Co., then you have to do the same for Memphis-Shelby Co. That's what we commonfolk call 'apples to apples'. The 2000 population for all of Jefferson Co. was 693,604, while the 2000 population for all of Shelby Co. was 897,472.

There's a reason why Louisville's population always has an * beside it whenever it's listed.

Get your facts straight.

Oh, and gosh, I've surprised myself by looking at the numbers. If Louisville proper only has 256k, and the county total is 693k, that would mean that only 37 percent of the county's residents reside in the city proper. That would make Louisville one of the most sprawling cities in the US. Yuck. Memphis and LR are much, much more compact.

Facts will get you everytime.

The Little Rock area doesn't have sprawl, huh? How about the sprawl extending into Saline County? Or how about the sprawl extending into Cabot? Or beginning to sprawl into Faulkner Co?

[strumpeace]

Originally Posted by lost479

The Little Rock area doesn't have sprawl, huh? How about the sprawl extending into Saline County? Or how about the sprawl extending into Cabot? Or beginning to sprawl into Faulkner Co?

Who said Little Rock doesn't have sprawl?

Certainly not me. I don't see where anyone else did, either.

What I wrote was that based on city-county population patterns, Louisville is more sprawling than Memphis or Little Rock.

Gosh, I love it when people respond to a post without actually reading the post first.

[bchris02]

Originally Posted by strumpeace

Who said Little Rock doesn't have sprawl?

Certainly not me. I don't see where anyone else did, either.

What I wrote was that based on city-county population patterns, Louisville is more sprawling than Memphis or Little Rock.

Gosh, I love it when people respond to a post without actually reading the post first.

Little Rock has some of the worst sprawl I've seen for a city it's size. It takes almost an hour to drive from Benton to Cabot. That's comparable to driving across the Houston metro. The difference is metro Houston has 5.5 million people while Little Rock barely has 650k. As I said before, if it wasn't for West Little Rock's growth balancing out the population loss inside the loop, Little Rock would be declining rapidly as more and more flee the city. Most people for some reason choose to live much farther out than necessary.

[Stormcrow73]

Originally Posted by bchris02

Little Rock has some of the worst sprawl I've seen for a city it's size. It takes almost an hour to drive from Benton to Cabot. That's comparable to driving across the Houston metro. The difference is metro Houston has 5.5 million people while Little Rock barely has 650k. As I said before, if it wasn't for West Little Rock's growth balancing out the population loss inside the loop, Little Rock would be declining rapidly as more and more flee the city. Most people for some reason choose to live much farther out than necessary.

Dude seriously...an hour? I can go from Maumelle to Hot Springs in just barely over an hour. Maybe, if you try to drive from Benton to Cabot during rush hour it will take you an hour. Try to go from Bush Intl on the north side of Houston to Clear Lake on the other side during rush hour and then tell me Little Rock is sprawling! Little Rock has plenty of sprawl, but to compare it to Houston? Come on now.


As for the second part of your statement. If Mr. Stephens or other investors would buy a bunch the stuff inside the loop, raze it, and put up new mid to upper middle class homes, not as many people would choose to live in WLR. If I had $10-15M to throw around, that's exactly what I'd do instead of knocking down some old stuff in downtown and trying to build new commercial but that's probably why I don't have that kind of money to throw around.

[Fasder]

OMG, anyone that compares driving in LR to Houston is living in a dream.

I lived in Houston for 12 years, and sometimes it took me 45 minutes to drive 8 miles, much less across town. Every city has it's high traffic patterns, but Houston is almost nonstop on traffic, sprawl, congestion, etc.

Try driving from Copperfield over 290 or I-10 to downtown for starters. Or even from Woodlands to Energy Corridor during rush hours ... and then come back and tell me that LR is worst than Houston.

Just for fun, here is nice little link stating the top 10 city/traffic congestion areas in US. (FYI - LR is not on the list).

INRIX National Traffic Scorecard

[bchris02]

Originally Posted by Fasder

OMG, anyone that compares driving in LR to Houston is living in a dream.

I lived in Houston for 12 years, and sometimes it took me 45 minutes to drive 8 miles, much less across town. Every city has it's high traffic patterns, but Houston is almost nonstop on traffic, sprawl, congestion, etc.

Try driving from Copperfield over 290 or I-10 to downtown for starters. Or even from Woodlands to Energy Corridor during rush hours ... and then come back and tell me that LR is worst than Houston.

Just for fun, here is nice little link stating the top 10 city/traffic congestion areas in US. (FYI - LR is not on the list).

INRIX National Traffic Scorecard

I wasn't actually comparing Little Rock traffic to Houston traffic. There is no comparison. There is a comparison however in terms of actual mileage from the farthest suburbs to downtown. My point is the sprawl that Little Rock has is appalling for a city its size. For example, its 25 miles from Benton to downtown Little Rock. Its only 31 miles, not much farther at all, from the Woodlands to downtown Houston. The difference is Houston's sprawl is very dense, while Little Rock's is very low density, exurban development.

Originally Posted by Stormcrow73

As for the second part of your statement. If Mr. Stephens or other investors would buy a bunch the stuff inside the loop, raze it, and put up new mid to upper middle class homes, not as many people would choose to live in WLR. If I had $10-15M to throw around, that's exactly what I'd do instead of knocking down some old stuff in downtown and trying to build new commercial but that's probably why I don't have that kind of money to throw around.

Be careful what you wish for. In doing this, they would probably build McMansion cul-de-sac subdivisions similar to those out in West Little Rock. What needs to be built is more affordable urban style living. The condos downtown are nice, but you have to be rich to live in them. Downtown needs some mid-range apartment options.