Little Rock, a review. (Norman, Colt: neighborhoods, live, young professionals)

[Fasder]

Wrong. I considered it. The highs ranged from the mid 50s to mid 60s with subshine the days I was there...hardly cold.

I referenced "Season's", as in Winter compared to Summer. Do a write up in Spring, as this weekend or anytime from now until Oct/Nov.

However, most folks that live in Arkansas for any length of time tend to be thin blood compared to say someone from northern states. You will find people in Little Rock and Dallas bundled up in heavy coat, gloves, and fur hat at 40. In St Paul, you will find people walking around in shorts and t-shirt at that same temp.

Jan/Feb in central Arkansas, is the worst time to do a review, as the state in general is not known for being a cold weather state.

[Ashley614]

Originally Posted by stx12499

It can be hard to review a place in three days, but it sure is much easier when you drive over 400 miles throughout one city. Indeed that is what I managed to do in three days. I had a heck of an offer in LR, and I had to check out the whole town. That said, while I think LR may be a little underrated, it mostly deserves the reputation it gets.

1) Downtown. I was quite surprised by some of the height in the highrises, but I was appalled at the lack of pedestrian activity on two warm business days. Also, the level of surface lots and car culture in LR is disgusting. Honestly, there wasn't much of anything in the downtown area that was impressive. The Little Rock Arts center was ok, and probably the thing that impressed me most about downtown was the Weekend Theatre, where I went to a show. Other than that, it feels very empty. To the west of downtown, lies the caitol area, which I found to be very disappointed and not as picturesque as many capitol cities I have seen. That said, the quapaw historic district was nice and I saw some great revival homes there. I also enjoyed the bluffs just to the west of downtown.

2) RiverMarket. Outside Hillcrest, this is the highlight of Little Rock. Still, the dirth of nightlife in this district on BOTH a thurs and fri was disheartening. Piano bars seems to be the thing in this district, and Willy D's is the big spot. I thought the Clinton Libray was very nice, and I enjoyed how LR was trying to take back the riverfront. There is much more work to be done though. The River Market itself looks cooler from NLR across the river than it is in person. It is kind of cute, but it is very small and closes early. The coffee shop there kicked me out by dinner time on Wed due to closing! The highlight of this district for me were the historic hotels, and I found the Peabody to be almost as nice as the one in memphis. With regards to the trolley, I rode its entire loop and only one other person got on the whole time. You can tell that downtown's residential district is located along its route, and I though the two midsized condo towers downtown looked very nice. I also took my car and the trolley into North Little Rock.

3) North Little Rock. This seems to be a town stuck in circa 1970's. It seemed very dated almost every where I drove, and there was no pedestrian activity, even in the Argenta district. The bars in that area were also dead on a Friday night. While Argenta is cute, with a couple artsy shops and a neighborhood association, I didn't find it to be compelling to an urbanite. It felt more like a quaint town trying to reinvent itself. That said, I thought the townhome developments looked nice along the trolley route, even if they were a bit cookie cutter. heading further north, there is a small hood in NLR, followed by a 1960's ares suburban area known as Park Hill, which had a small historic area that was fairly dead although it had a few retail options. It seemed the nicest homes in NLR from a historic perspective were around the Old Mill, which I thought was cool. Sherwood looked like your basic small town suburb with basic strip retail. Lakewood and the the mall area seemed ok.

4) Hillcrest and the Heights. I am grouping these together, because I don't see much diffence. Although these dsitricts are the highlight of LR, I was very unimpressed. The retail along Kavanaugh is so spread out that it is hard to give the area an urban feel. I did thouroughly enjoy the homes and the topography heading up towards reservoir park, which had a more upscale historic feel than anywhere I saw in LR. The restaurants I ate at in Hillcrest were ok. Leo's Greek Castle was ok, and while not authentic Greek (super Americanized in there), I enjoyed the food. I also noticed the servers in that area to have a bit of the hipster vibe I yearn for in any city.
That said, this entire area after dark was almost completely dead, and since I was staying at a hotel nearby downtown, I made it to this area all three nights to check it out, and by 9, almost the entire street of Kavanugh was dark, with no pedestrian activity, or even runners or people walking their dog (and the temp was easily in the 50s or 60s).

5) East of Broadway and the South End. Although LR south of 630 and east of broadway has virtually no retail, I did enjoy that some of the historic Victorian mansions in that area were being fixed up. I also noticed two rainbow flags in that area, which I thoght to be a good thing for Arkansas. I will talk about the seedy, yet hipster odd nightlife scene at Midtown Billiards in this area shortly.

6) Central and SW Little Rock. The area located around Central High, although once probably very nice, reminded me of a dirty south rap video. I was very suprised to see the amount of thugs and low riding, candy painted donks that I did in LR. Lots of caddys with 22 inch rims, and plenty of boarded up houses. I didn't think the ghetto was too bad, but I think for a city of Little Rock's size, it certainly was. I didn't log nearly as many miles in this hood as others, but the appaling lack of retail or businesses in this area was disgusting. SW Little Rock had a more dated 1960's suburban feel, complete with some ethnic shopping strip malls catering to African Americans and Hispanic. I though this area was ok, amd I did manage to find a wonderful and authentic taco trailer where I had a nice Gordita Also, I went to a very redneck country bar called Electric Cowboy. This is actually a chain out of Texas, and they even have a location in Louisville, where I now reside. The location in LR was an interesting display of redneck meets wanna be thug culture. The MMA fight that night featured a white versus a black fighter, and I was appalled by some of the commentary I heard from some of the white patrons. Little Rock is definitely very much in line with the DEEP south.....


7) East LR/Airport. This was a very run down, decrepid old African American neighborhood full of boared up houses, urban prairie, and light industry. Enough said. Also, this was a very tiny airport. I thought it was funny the car rental lady at Alamo got rude with me. She said she needed to see an flight itenerary. I told her I have traveled across the world and only seen this one other place. Oh well.

8) Chenal Valley. This is the southern well too do, see and be seen, country club/big church going suburb of LR. I was shocked at the apraw in this area and how far it spread down Chenal Pkwy. It was clear the poeple in this area wanted nothing to do with the city. For typical chain retail, I actually found Chenal to have decent big box stores. However, the retail scene in LR is sorely lacking. The lifestyle center, promenade at Chenal, looked like it was still under construction the day I was there, and it was very small and virtually dead. Very few good stores were open, and I was suprised to see LR didnt even have a Jcrew yet, altough a coming soon sign was up.

9) Midtown. This area runs along a spine up and down University and hosts many of the medical professionals in the community who do not live in Hillcrest. It was your typical 1950's ranch home style area, and the retail scene in this area was very underwhelming as well. The people who interviewed me took me to Cantina Laredo, which I found to be underwhelming tex mex food. I kind of decided that the foodie scene in LR, while better than many smaller mid american cities like Peoria, couldn't hang with the midsized cities of the south and midwest. The Universty Mall was reduced to an empty sign and what must have been 50 acres of unsightly gravel and fencing. The Park Plaza Mall, while seemingly nice, has very few good retail options. I did like its 3 story layout. The Univ of Ark at LR is a dumpy suburban campus with no life at all and strictly a commuter school. enough said on that too.

Although I went to bars wed, thurs, and fri, I want to detail more of my nightlife experience on Thurs. You have already read about the peculiar Electric Cowboy, but I wanted to catalogue the life at some of the other bars in town. The night started at Creegan's in Argenta, which was completely dead. This is no exaggeration, there was my party and 4 other people in the whole bar. Walking out and noticing the smallish Alltell arena, I thought that this area must be dead except on event nights at Alltell (which must be rare given there are no major college or pro teams anywhere nearby).
We next went down to River Market. This is the only walkable bar district in town, and despite the lack of cars, this was the only area in all of the metro where I saw pedestrian activity after dark. Chip N dales had an event going on, so all the bars (which had people) were full of guys. Big Whiskey's seemed to be the most tolerable place for us and had by far the most professional crowd. It seemed like a lot of after work people and was a pretty good time. After that, I was appaled by some of the things I saw in LR. By 1030, virtually everybar on President Clinton was dead, but Ernie Bigg's and Willy D's still had at least a few people. My hosts and I were having a martini when we were approched by a peculiar southern sounding lady in a cast and wide gap teeth. I couldn't understand her so we kind of brushed her off, but she said "did ya hear?" I was like "What?" She then proceeded to tell me that a girl was getting kicked out of the bar for giving a bj to a guy in the bathroom. I didn't believe her, but sure enough, as I walked towards the bathroom, she was getting escorted out. I asked the bartender about it, and he said she was well known around town, and had done the same thing in another bar last week! WOW. At this point, I am trying to be nice to my hosts, who are trying to recruit me for a professional job, but I was quite appalled. They thought it was funny, and I guess it was. We had a couple more drinks, and our host DD drove us to Midtown Billiards because the other bars were closed (the 2 am closing time seems so early to me). Midtown Billiards was a trip. It was a very dirty dive bar but it had a bit of a hipster feel that I kind of liked. You know, the kind of place that sells 2 dollar tall PBRs. Ok, I can hang with that. I saw the server I was hitting on earlier in the night at electric cowboy in there. I also saw about a half dozen people there i recognized seeing that day....must be a very small town for the nightlife scene. Midtown was the most diverse place I saw in LR. It was thugs, hipsters, white black, and even a black transvestite who must have been on some trippy drugs. It was actually good to see this diversity together in LR, and hey, Midtown had some sweet and dirty good burgers.

All in all, LR does have some culture, but it was a culture shock for this Chicagoan now living in Louisville. I don't think I will be taking the job, but I was asked to review the city by jbchris. I don't think LR has enough of a professional vibe for me, and certainly not enough good restaurants and an urban, pedestrian culture.

Yeah......hmmm..... we are probabably no where near ready for someone as sophisticated and omnipotent as yourself. So you didnt like Little Rock by mile #1, and yet you drove around for 399 more miles just to make sure? Yep, we could sure use some of that brain power down here.

[North Pulaski Player]

I think that you gave a fair review of the Little Rock Metro, although you did visit at the worst time of the year. Highs in the mid 40's is not considered "warm" to us, so that may explain some of the lack of pedestrian activity, but like most Southern cities, we are not big into public transportation and depend very heavily on our own vehicles. It sounds like you visited most of the metro area, and although it didn't suit your tastes I'm glad that you gave it a chance because I think that if more people did, 90% would find themselves liking the area.

[stx12499]

Originally Posted by Ashley614

Yeah......hmmm..... we are probabably no where near ready for someone as sophisticated and omnipotent as yourself. So you didnt like Little Rock by mile #1, and yet you drove around for 399 more miles just to make sure? Yep, we could sure use some of that brain power down here.

It is these kinds of sayings that reflect VERY badly on your area, and I think your response says more about LR than my review. Those harsh words against me are unneccesary and uncalled for. Also if you note, I gave the area a fair and balanced review with no fluff involved, as others have said. I have reviewed lots of cities this way, and will continue to do so. By the way, I took a job in Orlando today.

[ridicter]

Originally Posted by stx12499

It is these kinds of sayings that reflect VERY badly on your area, and I think your response says more about LR than my review. Those harsh words against me are unneccesary and uncalled for. Also if you note, I gave the area a fair and balanced review with no fluff involved, as others have said. I have reviewed lots of cities this way, and will continue to do so. By the way, I took a job in Orlando today.

I agree that her statement was ridiculous for various reasons, but you sure are starting to become self righteous and pompous.

[bchris02]

Originally Posted by stx12499

It is these kinds of sayings that reflect VERY badly on your area, and I think your response says more about LR than my review. Those harsh words against me are unneccesary and uncalled for. Also if you note, I gave the area a fair and balanced review with no fluff involved, as others have said. I have reviewed lots of cities this way, and will continue to do so. By the way, I took a job in Orlando today.

The thing is that Little Rock has a very horrible national perception. Detroit is the only place I can think of that it's mention brings up more negative images than Little Rock for people who haven't been here. Most people who come here are pleasantly surprised that it's not the third ring of hell filled with wannabe gangsters and toothless hillbillies they have all heard it is. Most people, including you, come to Little Rock with that perception. Differences most people are able to see the "good" things the place offers (natural beauty, clean air, low traffic, slow pace of life). As a young urbanite you aren't interested in those things, so while even you admit Little Rock isn't quite as bad as it's perception, the way of life here is the opposite of everything you love. The rural South isnt for everybody and people around here get defensive when you tell them that. Good luck in Orlando. I heard they are more sophisticated and edumacated down there.

[PurpleLove08]

Orlando?
Have fun with all the tourists in the summer time.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/orlan...e-explain.html

^^Did you have a different experience from this poster in the downtown area?

[bchris02]

Originally Posted by LiveTodayLez08

Orlando?
Have fun with all the tourists in the summer time.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/orlan...e-explain.html

^^Did you have a different experience from this poster in the downtown area?

Orlando is "hip" and Little Rock is not. Plus, anybody can admit Orlando has more for the young and restless despite how cookie cutter it is, and Little Rock offers more for somebody wanting to settle down. I imagine the OP will be longing for a place like Little Rock in 25-30 years.

[strumpeace]

Originally Posted by ridicter

I agree that her statement was ridiculous for various reasons, but you sure are starting to become self righteous and pompous.

You should read some of his posts on the Louisville board. Others who post there routinely tell him the same thing. And he's quite defensive whenever someone writes ill of the Ville. (See the 'Help for a fun date' thread for some ridiculous banter.)

Classic.

And after all the urban hipster talk, he takes a job in cookie cutter hell -- Orlando. I had to laugh when I read that. What's next -- Las Vegas? I hope he's as good a rep for the Orlando Chamber of Commerce as he is for the Louisville one.

[stx12499]

Originally Posted by strumpeace

You should read some of his posts on the Louisville board. Others who post there routinely tell him the same thing. And he's quite defensive whenever someone writes ill of the Ville. (See the 'Help for a fun date' thread for some ridiculous banter.)

Classic.

And after all the urban hipster talk, he takes a job in cookie cutter hell -- Orlando. I had to laugh when I read that. What's next -- Las Vegas? I hope he's as good a rep for the Orlando Chamber of Commerce as he is for the Louisville one.

You clearly know NOTHING about Orlando. There are more young professionals and urban hipsters in three blocks of downtown Orlando than ALL of metro Little Rock. Sorry, your city doesn't measure up, and I stand by it. I actually prefer Louisville to Orlando, but Orlando is a very SWEET city despite the sprawl on its outskirts.