Russell0931

Land is being cleared now for the new housing developments in Chaffe crossing. This will add over 100 new houses on the east side of town. Should be in the 150-200,000 range. As for the negative posters...I 540 is open in both directions and nobody is forcing you to endure your apparent misery here. I think if I were that miserable that I had to come on a message board and slam the city I lived in every chance I got, I would do something about it...like move

According to an article in yesterday's Times Record, Fort Chaffee is making a bid to become a full time Army National Guard Reserve post. If successful, Fort Chaffee will become home to 3,000 soldiers on a year round basis. This would mean not only 3,000 more people in our community, but also their families living, shopping, dinning, etc in Fort Smith. The article says the economic impact would be greater than landing a Toyota plant.

Well I have to admit that there are numerous restaurants in Fayetteville that Fort Smith does not have such as Noodles, Red Robin, Fudruckers, O'Charleys, and on and on...Ft Smith doesn't have all of the chains but tends to have a pretty good mix of locally owned and operated eating places. One of the most appealing aspects of NWA to me anyway is that there are areas that are asthetically pleasing, such as around NWA mall in Fayetteville and even more so around the new mall in Rogers...When I lived in Bentonville in 1997-1998 that area was a cow pasture...It is incredible how fast that area has changed. I am glad for NWA...Makes you wonder why all of this growth happened and how it got started. Geographically, it seems like Fort Smith is the city that should have taken off. i mean we are right here on the Arkansas River, I 40 goes just north of the city, we had the airport before Fay, rail, etc...What would NWA be like today if Sam Walton had been from Fort Smith??? I think it all goes back to city leadership from long ago..We focused on bringing in the factories which worked ok until companies started shifting production to countries with cheaper labor and now we are left with a loarge blue collar workforce that is running out of jobs and with no education. In other words, we put all of our eggs in one basket...We have fumbled away opportunity for at least the past 100 years in my opinion.

Another thing I forgot to address in my first post is the city government. Unlike many cities, we have a city administrator that essentially acts in the role that most other citiy mayor would. Sure we have a mayor, a clown, but nonetheless a mayor. We have recently had a change in city administrators. The previous fella had a problem with the alcohol. Our fair city also recently spent upwards of $2 million to hire a consulting firm to tell them what "is wrong with our city"...why aren't we growing like NWA...well who is? Anyway they paid this company all this money to tell them what I and many others could have told them for free...It's about quality of place...people's perceptions like I said before that the city is old, dirty, etc...To some degree, I think we owe some of this to the State of Arkansas...the main entrance for most into the city is I540 from the north crossing over the Van Buren River Bridge. We have this nice new I40 all across the state, but as soon as you hit 540 it turns into this awful road with trash everywhere...I mean when the state mows in the Summer, they literally just mow the trash, shredding it into hundreds of pieces. The main drag in Fort Smith is Rogers Ave. This is also Hwy 22 so guess what, the state maintains it. bad idea...I can't tell you the last time it was repaved. the sidewalks are crumbling, street lights look like they are barely hanging onto oles that are 35 years old, weeds grow out of the median, etc... to me these are the little things that the state could help with that represent quality of place. just sprucing up a few things could totally reverse this idealogy. Please excuse my rambling post but there are just so many issues I feel we could cover with regards to Fort Smith.

I'm a new poster who has lived in Fort Smith or near Fort Smith most of my life. i have also lived in Bentonville for 1 year, Little Rock for one year and Conway for 2 years before moving back to Fort Smith. I have noticed that most of the pics posted on here are of Downtown Fort Smith. While the city tries to focus on this part of town and has for years, the growth is to the East and South. We have several new restaurants set to open within the next few years along with at least 2 major shopping centers (one anchored by target and the other by the city;'s 3rd Wal Mart Supercenter)...Both will be highly visible from I540...I'll try to post some pics of the more modern areas of Fort Smith soon. Many folks perception of Fort Smith is that it is a "dirty" city, and some parts of town are. However, we have some better parts of town and have a fairly good standard of living at a lower cost that other progressive parts of the state. Also, we have some good schools and a growing college. Keeping our best and brightest students at home or getting them to come back to Fort Smith after they leave may be a key in determing our future.