[inovermyheadd]

I lived in Arkansas for 12 years before moving to New Orleans for Graduate School. Arkansas is a wonderful place! Coming from Minnesota, you will find lots of opportunities for outdoor activities (if you are into that). Yeah, Little Rock has an insanely high crime rate, according to the statistics, but every city has its dangerous parts. The crime in Little Rock is not rampart, having many areas that are very safe.

Little Rock Central is a nationally ranked school offering a wide variety of educational opportunities for its students. I am from Cabot, which previously mentioned, boasts some of the best schools in the state. It is a quiet town with a large military family community.

Cultural opportunities are growing in Arkansas with the influx of people coming into the state due to part to Walmart's success. You can listen to great music in little rock and even in places like mountain view to listen to country roots music. Little Rock also has a great restaurant community.

Spanish culture would be much more prevalent in northwest Arkansas, in comparison to central.

[Qtipper]

Hey watts,
Thanks for this question. It's been so helpful. My husband is already living in Arkansas. He just moved about a week ago. He is currently living on the AFB.

I have done an extensive amount of research on the area. That being said, you can never learn the TRUE life stuff until you talk to the LOCAL people!! So, thanks everyone for you input.

And, if you are willing to give some more, tell me WHY do a lot of folks in the LR area put down the PCSSD (Pulaski County Special School District?)

We were really interested in Sherwood after having visited the area. But, everyone locally we talked to said "Choose CABOT over SHERWOOD because of the PCSSD." But, noone gives any real reason for it.

I will tell you that our outside temp is 0 today and the windchill is -25 below, so I am REALLY looking forward to some milder temps...you too watts?

Blessings~
Qtipper

[DreamChaser]

Again...BRYANT is an excellent city. It's a little exclusive but let's face it, that weeds the bad seeds out. As far as Little Rock and safety is concerned, stay out of southwest Little Rock and you'll be fine. It's very easy to see which part of the city is bad. Good luck in Arkansas, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!

[Qtipper]

Originally Posted by DreamChaser

Again...BRYANT is an excellent city. It's a little exclusive but let's face it, that weeds the bad seeds out. As far as Little Rock and safety is concerned, stay out of southwest Little Rock and you'll be fine. It's very easy to see which part of the city is bad. Good luck in Arkansas, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!

It's too far from Jacksonville which is where my husband will be working. Otherwise Bryant looks lovely!

[windyweatherford]

I was just in Jacksonville Ar. yesterday. It has a much higher poverty level and very transient population. I also lived in Little Rock and North Little Rock. My niece and my daughter were both beat up by other students because of their race. It was a nightmare. By the way my daughter was only in the 3rd grade. This is the experience I had along with some of my friends. There are some good private schools to choose from. I live in Hot Springs now but am familiar with Cabot. A safe place to live and near Little Rock for shopping and fun. Most folks really don't want to say what the problems are but the local evening news can be very informative. I personally love a mix of race and culture in the places I live. I think we all just really want our children to be safe no matter where we live.

[SouthernGypsy]

I'm sure a few people wont like this but you said no one will really point out the problem... Well, there really isn't anything wrong with the PCSSD as long as your not a racist. That's everyones big beef with them, much of the PCSSD, particulary the Sherwood area, was very "white middle-class" until a few years back but were forced to consolodate and intergrate to even things out. I went to Sylvan Hills myself, granduated in '87 and can't conceriously remember even seeing a non-white person at our school until the 5th grade. But when we did we had NO problems with them. They were a nice family from the AFB. Within a few years we had many more and still no problems. One of my best friends to this day is a black friend I first meet in Jr. High there. Many people didn't like the idea of the blacks moving it (they were OK with the families from the AFB but totally flipped when the PCSSD was ordered to start bussing by the courts) and many moved to Cabot, also know as the "White Flight" destination of choice. I don't mean everyone of course, I'm only speaking of a % of the people. Problem is that people, including black families, are getting more prosperous and are now also moving up there as well (guess they'll leave and go to Beebe next). Sherwood which used to be almost all white now has a good % of other ethnisities.

North Little Rock in general is one of the nicest towns I've ever been to or lived in and I've lived many places having been in the military myself. Jacksonville suffered for awhile when the jobs at the AFB were cut back and got a reputation for having a lot of transients as someone called them that moved in around that time but Jacksonville is now on a serious rebound and this time it's NOT reliant upon the AFB, the town itself has found a way to start growing and prospering again. They have a fairly new hospital with a great reputation, new shopping centers and resturants are going up seemingly daily, and the ethnic mix is pretty even, partially because of the AFB - Remember in the military the only color is green (or in the case of the Air Force blue). There schools are improving and new, nice average middle class family housing is springing up all over the place.

Don't let anyone convenice you that you shouldn't live in Jacksonville near your husbands work just because of some pre-thougt idea left over from the past.

I now live in Batesville on a small horse ranch but would have no issues with Jacksonville or North Little Rock if I were to need to move back to that area. My wife is a teacher and has worked for the PCSSD in the near past and says any concern about that district is either unfounded, or founded by concerns over things that you would hope people in the new mellinia would not be concerned by.

Oh, and someone who mentioned a kid getting beat up because they were different, I'm wondering what kind of a beating we're talking about (serious or just kid stuff) if it's kid stuff that happens everywhere to some extent. Kids pick on kids who are different and that's happend since the first school in history opened it's doors. If it wasn't the color of their skin it'd be the size of their ears. If it was something more serious the important thing is to let the RIGHT people at school know about it (complaining on an internet message board probably wont help too much so I hope they let someone at school know) so they can do something about the kids who did it. Remember (and this is fact) schools in the most poverty-ridden gand-infested areas of the worst school districts in America have prodoced Senators, and at the same time some of the nicest, small town, wonderful school districts in places where every neighbor waves as you pass them in your car, have produced serial killers. A couple of bad eggs (or just plain idiots) don't mean the schools themselves are bad or failed in any way. My wife is now a teacher at a highly reguarded school here in the country but has also worked in the PCSSD, a gang-area of Little Rock when she was a new teacher, the Bryant school district just before we married and says no matter how good the teacher and school is they can not, no matter how hard they try, over-ride some of the idiotic ideas (such as racisum and intolerance) sometimes put into a childs mind by their own parent(s). Kid's generally look up to their parents and that's a hard thing to overcome, even when the ideas being passed to them by their parents are just plain wrong.

[watts]

Thank you for all the responses!

We are visiting Little Rock soon. My husband was down for work a few weeks ago, went on some home showings and we have narrowed down the cities/neighborhoods in which we want to live. Your thoughts?

~ Maumelle
~ Chenal
~ Conway
~ Cabot
~ Greenbrier

My husband has the option of basing his office out of three different cities ~ Little Rock, Conway or Chenal.

I've done a lot of research on Maumelle and really like what I've seen so far. The others I am not very familiar with but hopefully will be soon.

S&J

[windyweatherford]

I rented in Maumelle for a few months until I purchased a home. It can be a very nice area and may hold it's real estate value. Probably get to know people quickly there. Close enough to shopping in Little Rock and easy access to the interstate. I think it would be a very nice place to make a move to. Good Luck.

[Check123]

Graduate school in New Orleans? Yikes!

Originally Posted by inovermyheadd

I lived in Arkansas for 12 years before moving to New Orleans for Graduate School. Arkansas is a wonderful place! Coming from Minnesota, you will find lots of opportunities for outdoor activities (if you are into that). Yeah, Little Rock has an insanely high crime rate, according to the statistics, but every city has its dangerous parts. The crime in Little Rock is not rampart, having many areas that are very safe.

Little Rock Central is a nationally ranked school offering a wide variety of educational opportunities for its students. I am from Cabot, which previously mentioned, boasts some of the best schools in the state. It is a quiet town with a large military family community.

Cultural opportunities are growing in Arkansas with the influx of people coming into the state due to part to Walmart's success. You can listen to great music in little rock and even in places like mountain view to listen to country roots music. Little Rock also has a great restaurant community.

Spanish culture would be much more prevalent in northwest Arkansas, in comparison to central.

[ktg]

benton is a county not a school district. bentonville schools are great but, too far from LR
as for the sports fan in you ...well you will have to change who you are
root-en for or stay home! that's just the way it is..sorry.