[Sam I Am]

Anyone see this on Channel 11 this morning? Russellville was named in the August issue of Money Magazine as the #10 Most Affordable Community in the nation - houses 1/3 the price of the national average! There's a video with some great footage too.

Very, very proud of our community!

Russellville: Top Ten Most Affordable Place to Live - todaysthv.com | KTHV | Little Rock, AR (http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=70402&catid=2 - broken link)

[Stormcrow73]

Originally Posted by Sam I Am

Anyone see this on Channel 11 this morning? Russellville was named in the August issue of Money Magazine as the #10 Most Affordable Community in the nation - houses 1/3 the price of the national average! There's a video with some great footage too.

Very, very proud of our community!

Russellville: Top Ten Most Affordable Place to Live - todaysthv.com | KTHV | Little Rock, AR (http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=70402&catid=2 - broken link)

Very cool! Now if you guys can get Pope to go wet so it can make the list of most affordable places in which a lot of people actually WANT to live! I'm kidding a bit...but you know what I mean. That wasn't meant to be mean-spirited.

[Sam I Am]

Oh, I know Storm...I think as Pope County progresses and pulls in new blood that Jay Winters (sheriff) will have a harder time keeping his one-man band going on. Liquor licenses are slowly coming in...but a ballot has yet to be seen. Could get defeated this next time, although this is the stronghold of conservatives in the state, I do believe! We need new industry in the area - this cost of living thing should certainly help at least make potential employers look again at the area...and a wet county would probably help even more.

[Stormcrow73]

I honestly think that's a cornerstone to a boom in the river valley. If Russellville had a concerted effort to get the county wet and add incentives to bring in new business, it would probably double in size in the next 10 years.

[Sam I Am]

Gawd, I hope not....sorry, but I'm struggling with the 30K+ now!

[Stormcrow73]

Such is the price of progress. You guys need to start working on things to actually improve the city in terms of traffic flow and such instead of just adding new exits (which I'm sure isn't a bad thing)! Bring more real business downtown, get a good parking plan in place, maybe a small trolley system that goes out into those neighborhoods off the corner of Arkansas and Main. The old "mall" just north of that corner would be a prime place for redevelopment. I'm pretty sure it's mostly dead right now right? The city should buy the land back and build some parking with a small park right there and incorporate a water feature. Just some off the off-the-cuff brainstorming....

[Sam I Am]

The mall is what it is...it's small, but certainly not dead. There's the clothing store (whatever it is, I never remember) and Bethany Osborne has a furniture and home furnishings place in there...Quizno's...some other home place, I think, and a bank. It's very, very small with no place to expand to.

Traffic flow can be bad since there's basically Arkansas Ave., Main, Parkway and the T-loop. Maybe you can count Skyline in there but I don't. It's a charming little town, and I live in one of those historic homes southwest of Arkansas and Main! A trolley would be cool, but I don't know that it could support itself. You gotta be able to see something...the tallest building we have is 3 stories...not a lot to see! We don't even have a bus line and only a couple of cab places. Parking is absolutely awful at the courthouse, but there is a good deal of on-street parking downtown and everything is within walking distance. The Depot has been revitalized - I think there are good things in store for Russellville! I also think there are lots of folks who wish it wasn't as big as it is right now that might resist growth, but it's such a beautiful town and really in a great location to NWA and Little Rock that it will catch it's share of folks if the businesses are here...which right now, they aren't...

[marygrant]

NO wonder it's so inexpensive.....most of us don't want to live next to a Nuke Plant!

[Bail_Khan]

I'd like to get a job as pipe welder at a nuke plant. Good to here about some place other than NWA for a change.

[Stormcrow73]

Originally Posted by marygrant

NO wonder it's so inexpensive.....most of us don't want to live next to a Nuke Plant!

Perhaps you'd be interested to know that many MILLIONS of Americans already live in close proximity to nuke plants. Most major cities in the Northeast are well within an affected zone if there were a major release or event.

High dollar cities such as New York, San Diego, Los Angeles, Boston, Philly, DC, and Chicago all have nuclear plants right in their backyard. If you're concerned with a nuke plant in close proximity, you're going to very seriously limit your options! Nuclear Power Plants and Nuclear Reactors It's not totally out of the question that you ALREADY live within close proximity to one.

The simple fact is that the nuclear industry is VERY tightly regulated. I would be MUCH more concerned about living in close proximity to standard manufacturing facilities than a nuke plant. For example, chrome plating facilities. How do you know how many chrome platers are within 10 miles of you? Those types of shops can REALLY mess up your groundwater and they aren't too tightly regulated compared to power generating facilities of any types and they're all over the place!