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Hmmm, lets see. I think that there are a few different things that LR could do.
1.Public Transport. While I would like to see the bus system expanded based upon future ridership, I really don't think that that will happen. The socio-economic status of most of the current ridership is not as conducive to growth of a commutative nature as it needs to be. The main use now seems to be travel for those who do not own a car, whereas it needs to be for those who merely do not want to use it to get to work. I think something that would work better for the situation would be train travel. Heavy rail/commuter train style. However, for this to materialize, there would need to be much more density in a somewhat linear alignment to downtown, or perhaps a dense area on the north side of the river.
2. LR/NLR merger. Frankly, while I think that the Argenta area has a lot of potential, as long as the infastructure is lacking, especially roads, there is not going to be very quick growth if the developers do not think that people will move there. This can be remedied with the use of some of LR's tax dollars. The LR and NLR riverfronts need to stop competing with each other but to work together to help accomplish a unified area. This will help the public transit in the area.
3. Downtown retail. Let people walk to the place that they need to shop instead of forcing them to drive out to WLR.
4. LR Research Park. Why was this not in plans five years ago????? This is the perfect place to have new upstart companies with a lot of innovation.
5. Colleges. Either we need another University or UALR needs to quickly improve a few different aspects of it campus. I too would love to see Stephens build a University, especially if it could be in the McArthur Park local. If that dos not happen, UALR needs to have a campus identity. I realize that they are a commuter school, and there is nothing wrong with that, but there does need to be more on-campus living. It also really needs to get rid of the "Pine Tree Tech" stigma. Its an kind of an ugly campus. (no offense)
Overall, the order in which these need to be accomplished depends upon which drives which. I personally think that if there were more jobs, then more innovation would come. Therefore, I think that the main the most important of these is the Tech Park. Unfortunately the current plans are for the 1st building to be done in 2013. Until that can be completed, I think that the best thing would be to add more retail to the downtown. Make it more desirable to live in a dense place.
Hmmm, lets see. I think that there are a few different things that LR could do.
1.Public Transport. While I would like to see the bus system expanded based upon future ridership, I really don't think that that will happen. The socio-economic status of most of the current ridership is not as conducive to growth of a commutative nature as it needs to be. The main use now seems to be travel for those who do not own a car, whereas it needs to be for those who merely do not want to use it to get to work. I think something that would work better for the situation would be train travel. Heavy rail/commuter train style. However, for this to materialize, there would need to be much more density in a somewhat linear alignment to downtown, or perhaps a dense area on the north side of the river.
2. LR/NLR merger. Frankly, while I think that the Argenta area has a lot of potential, as long as the infastructure is lacking, especially roads, there is not going to be very quick growth if the developers do not think that people will move there. This can be remedied with the use of some of LR's tax dollars. The LR and NLR riverfronts need to stop competing with each other but to work together to help accomplish a unified area. This will help the public transit in the area.
3. Downtown retail. Let people walk to the place that they need to shop instead of forcing them to drive out to WLR.
4. LR Research Park. Why was this not in plans five years ago????? This is the perfect place to have new upstart companies with a lot of innovation.
5. Colleges. Either we need another University or UALR needs to quickly improve a few different aspects of it campus. I too would love to see Stephens build a University, especially if it could be in the McArthur Park local. If that dos not happen, UALR needs to have a campus identity. I realize that they are a commuter school, and there is nothing wrong with that, but there does need to be more on-campus living. It also really needs to get rid of the "Pine Tree Tech" stigma. Its an kind of an ugly campus. (no offense)
Overall, the order in which these need to be accomplished depends upon which drives which. I personally think that if there were more jobs, then more innovation would come. Therefore, I think that the main the most important of these is the Tech Park. Unfortunately the current plans are for the 1st building to be done in 2013. Until that can be completed, I think that the best thing would be to add more retail to the downtown. Make it more desirable to live in a dense place.
1) Agreed.
I'd ride the bus a lot more if they came more often (every 30 minutes is NOT convenient) or had a few bus rapid transit routes, I could reach my destination faster by bus than by car and if they ran later at night. When gas goes up again, there will be a need for this type of public transportation.
I remember there being an article in the AR Dem. Gazette about Little Rock needing to get on the ball about bringing rail to the area. I would love to be able to hop on a train and visit Dallas, Atlanta, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Kansas City, etc. This could bring in a lot more tourists if the price was right and they could get here faster by rail than by car.
The only thing to really get public transportation to take off is to of course fund it. That would take a dedicated tax and these days people are SOOOO opposed to any new tax. I personally wouldn't mind paying a couple more cents when I go so shopping in order to fund it. A public-private partnership would also be nice. Studies have shown businesses are moving away from sprawled out cities/car-dependent cities. We need to build up our public transportation system in order to attract businesses. For every dollar you invest in public transportation, you normally get about a 5-7 dollar return.
2) I agree the cities need to stop competing with each other.
I live in NLR and love it. I sometimes feel guilty when I'm eating on the LR side of the river but I can't help it if they have some restaurants we don't.
3) A million times yes. I love the downtown area but a lot of the retail they have is mostly art...
I am a college student and don't have the money to buy the expensive art they are trying to sell. I like going downtown and walking around and I'd gladly spend my money downtown if it was stuff I could afford.
I like that little shopping center in WLR that has the IMAX movie theater but I'd love to do that same type of shopping in dowtnown LR rather than having to trek out to WLR to do that.
Of course NLR has some of the same stores inside the McCain Mall but I love going downtown, riding the trolley, etc.
REAL retail would be amazing downtown.
A grocery store is also needed to attract more people to live downtown.
More mixed used development would be great for downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock.
Last edited by PurpleLove08; 07-19-2009 at 04:06 PM..
Speaking of IMAX, there is talk of a new mixed-use development, (with retail) : ) on Clinton Ave. just west of I-30. I think that would be a great place for a SMALL theatre with an IMAX. I realize that just a few miles away is the Aerospace center, but frankly, I think that they would be best just to sell the rest of their site to P Tech. They could then more into the rivermarket area. Someplace that would be more conducive to shopping. It is too run down now, in a terrible area (crime), and isolated from just about everything.
Going back to the idea of colleges. I used google maps to look at the site just east of McArther park. There are already some, what appear to be office buildings, there. It seems like a great place to have a small post-grad school that would focus on one or two specific programs. Very visible from the Freeway and would bring bachelors degrees directly to the downtown area. Could also become a boost for main street.
Speaking of IMAX, there is talk of a new mixed-use development, (with retail) : ) on Clinton Ave. just west of I-30. I think that would be a great place for a SMALL theatre with an IMAX. I realize that just a few miles away is the Aerospace center, but frankly, I think that they would be best just to sell the rest of their site to P Tech. They could then more into the rivermarket area. Someplace that would be more conducive to shopping. It is too run down now, in a terrible area (crime), and isolated from just about everything.
Going back to the idea of colleges. I used google maps to look at the site just east of McArther park. There are already some, what appear to be office buildings, there. It seems like a great place to have a small post-grad school that would focus on one or two specific programs. Very visible from the Freeway and would bring bachelors degrees directly to the downtown area. Could also become a boost for main street.
Funny....I used to be pretty nerdy about this topic and I made maps of prospective college sites in LR using Google maps.
Just go to the "My Maps" section...and you can customize it by overlaying lines or polygons.
Basically what I did was look at the area of my university, and compared to potential locations in the downtown LR area--which as far as I'm concerned is the only place to put a high caliber school in LR. Downtown LR is actually physically pretty small, so it's a tall order... (The Heights area might be nice too, but it's too homogeneous. Farther west would wade into sprawl territory which simply isn't attractive.)
Two areas come to mind for colleges: directly east of Heifer/Clinton Center, which is currently a run down neighborhood but could be perhaps bought up cheaply. It would be contiguous to the great parklands of the Clinton Center and it's some 3-4000 ft from the River Market, which isn't that bad. The River Market would be huge on quality of life for the college.
Now imagine this all connected by a small light rail system that goes from the airport to the potential college to Heifer/Clinton park to River Market.
Another possibility would be what you mentioned, which I looked at too. Honestly not sure what that area looks like. The third possibility is converting MacArthur Park, which doesn't strike me as all that used. The Urban Studies dept at UALR studied putting a park over I-630, and that would add much need greenspace in this part of town: http://ualr.edu/minors/urbanstudies/uploads/2008/10/SoMa%20ESumrev10-8-08.pdf (broken link)
Sadly, the urban studies department doesn't exist anymore, which is just another bad omen...
Wow, I have made an epic fail. The building that is located across from McArthur Park is UALR Law. I guess that if a new Uni is going to be built downtown, it would have to be that spot east of Heifer. If this were to happen however, 6th street would need a major makeover. I have to drive it nearly every day as I work out at Falcon Jet. Its not too pretty and does not suffice as the small thoroughfare that would be required. All that being said, I don't want the south side of the river expanding east if the north side can't do so as well.
Funny....I used to be pretty nerdy about this topic and I made maps of prospective college sites in LR using Google maps.
Just go to the "My Maps" section...and you can customize it by overlaying lines or polygons.
Basically what I did was look at the area of my university, and compared to potential locations in the downtown LR area--which as far as I'm concerned is the only place to put a high caliber school in LR. Downtown LR is actually physically pretty small, so it's a tall order... (The Heights area might be nice too, but it's too homogeneous. Farther west would wade into sprawl territory which simply isn't attractive.)
Two areas come to mind for colleges: directly east of Heifer/Clinton Center, which is currently a run down neighborhood but could be perhaps bought up cheaply. It would be contiguous to the great parklands of the Clinton Center and it's some 3-4000 ft from the River Market, which isn't that bad. The River Market would be huge on quality of life for the college.
Now imagine this all connected by a small light rail system that goes from the airport to the potential college to Heifer/Clinton park to River Market.
Another possibility would be what you mentioned, which I looked at too. Honestly not sure what that area looks like. The third possibility is converting MacArthur Park, which doesn't strike me as all that used. The Urban Studies dept at UALR studied putting a park over I-630, and that would add much need greenspace in this part of town: http://ualr.edu/minors/urbanstudies/uploads/2008/10/SoMa%20ESumrev10-8-08.pdf (broken link)
Sadly, the urban studies department doesn't exist anymore, which is just another bad omen...
Sounds like you have put some work into it. Maybe you should join one of the development groups in Little Rock. One of the previous posters on another thread said that he tried to do that very thing and it he was rebuffed. If that is something that you really want to do, which I think is great and you do get rebuffed, start your own organization. I can help with that.
It is very legally complicated to start such an organization because you want to set it up so that you qualify for both state and fed grants. There are a lot of fed funds out their for development in technology and mass transit systems. If this is something you would be interested in doing, you should talk to Judge Thornton. He is a former congressman and I believe he has an office in UALR Law School across from MacArthur Park. He is one of the nicest people I have ever met and he will talk to anyone. All you need to do is walk into his office. He knows a lot of very important people, he being one of them.
I used google maps to look at the site just east of McArther park. There are already some, what appear to be office buildings, there. It seems like a great place to have a small post-grad school that would focus on one or two specific programs. Very visible from the Freeway and would bring bachelors degrees directly to the downtown area. Could also become a boost for main street
Speaking of IMAX, there is talk of a new mixed-use development, (with retail) : ) on Clinton Ave. just west of I-30. I think that would be a great place for a SMALL theatre with an IMAX. I realize that just a few miles away is the Aerospace center, but frankly, I think that they would be best just to sell the rest of their site to P Tech. They could then more into the rivermarket area. Someplace that would be more conducive to shopping. It is too run down now, in a terrible area (crime), and isolated from just about everything.
Going back to the idea of colleges. I used google maps to look at the site just east of McArther park. There are already some, what appear to be office buildings, there. It seems like a great place to have a small post-grad school that would focus on one or two specific programs. Very visible from the Freeway and would bring bachelors degrees directly to the downtown area. Could also become a boost for main street.
Yeah the IMAX has definitely seen better days. My girlfriend and I went there to see a movie and we were pretty dissapointed at how run down it had gotten. A good shampoo of the carpet would do wonders!
Oops, I see you figured that out, about the law school.
Quote:
Two areas come to mind for colleges: directly east of Heifer/Clinton Center, which is currently a run down neighborhood but could be perhaps bought up cheaply. It would be contiguous to the great parklands of the Clinton Center and it's some 3-4000 ft from the River Market, which isn't that bad. The River Market would be huge on quality of life for the college.
Now imagine this all connected by a small light rail system that goes from the airport to the potential college to Heifer/Clinton park to River Market.
You can't use my alma mater. The section over by the law school would be a great place. There is a pizza hut and a couple of run down houses. Tear down those things and put up another university there and revitalize MacArthur park. That would be great.
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