astrife

A house within city limits is not a right; it is a benefit you gain if you can afford the real estate there. If you cannot afford this benefit and must commute twenty minutes to work everyday, then so be it. It is not the government's responsibility to come in and force the market in an artificial direction. This country is so prosperous precisely because the government kept its hands out of economic areas it had no expertise regulating. Also I did not say that the low income people should be ignored, but rather that the particular location of their homes (whether it be in the city limits or outside) is not something that is of such dire importance to the low income population's well being that the government needs to step in.

I agree whole heartedly. Market forces in general work these problems out on their own. Like you mentioned earlier: if housing prices are too high for most of the people in the market to afford the market will adjust and the prices will go down. This might sound harsh, but I really have no problem if in the future Goshen or one of the smaller nearby communities becomes the place where low income people with jobs in Fayetteville live. That's how it works for city workers in Manhattan (although there is still is a push for affordable housing there via rent control and what-not, but market forces overtime usually win considering the median price for an apartment in Manhattan is like 850,000 right now), and I don't feel my city taxes should go to subsidizing other people's mortgage payements when there is affordable housing fifteen or so miles away in another area. I don't feel it is anyone's right to live within a particular city. If Fayetteville ever gets really serious with subsidizing affordable housing with my city taxes then I will move to a nearby city like Springdale, Rogers or Bentonville that isn't so searious about affordable housing. Speaking of opting out of a government for tax purposes it almost seems like a good idea to move to Texas where a state income tax is unconstituitional while Arkansas deems it necessary to tax 7% if your in the top bracket. If you make enough it seems like moving to Texas might be a very wise financial move.

Actually I think NWA as a whole will be a big step up for someone coming from Bangor. The city's population is only 31,473 according to wikipedia. From the pictures on wikipedia it seems like the town has more of an urban feel than towns of a similar size, but I think this is probably related to the fact that the city is so much older (incorporated in 1834) than most towns and its infrastructure was developed before the advent of the automobile (which would cause the city to be more densely populated).

I know that "affordable housing" is an ideal that many towns and cities across the nation have policies to aid, but to me that seems to be flirting a little too much with socialism. I don't think that the government (ie. the fayetteville city council) has the responsibility or the authority to tell a developer that the house they build on a piece of land they own can only be worth so much.

The Hendrix President sent out an e-mail today saying that the target enrollment for the future is 1300 (I was a little off). And BIG NEWS: A committee is being formed to analyze the prospects for adding a FOOTBALL team back to the Hendrix Athletics department in the coming years.

The enrollment figure of 1500 is longterm. I think they said it will be there probably by 2013, and I said 50/50 instate/outofstate because it goes back and forth from year to year. I believe two years ago the majority of the student body was from out of state, but it flip flopped back again with the increased freshman class.

Actually Hendrix is in the process of growing significantly. I believe I read in a press release somewhere they are wanting to top out at 1500 students, which is 500 more than there is currently. Last years freshman class was 400 kids which was something like a 40% increase from the previous year. Most liberal arts colleges hover around the 1500-2000 mark, any bigger than that and the advantages of going to a liberal arts college diminish. Right now it's roughly 50/50 for instate/outofstate, but I'm betting in the coming decades a much bigger majority of these kids will be coming from out of state. Adding the lacrosse team has aided significantly in recruiting student athletes from the West Coast and North East.

I cannot help but laughing at that.

Yes, there are problems with US News and World Reports, but it does incorporate ways to rank education quality. This entails retention, graduation rates, and alumni support which is shown to be a direct link to a students satisfaction with a school. Funding despite what you think, also plays a key factor in the quality of faculty, facilities, and support services which directly affects educational attainment. It's better than nothing is what I tell people.

You do realize that he's right in saying the UA as a whole at best is an average flagship state school. You are defending it based on your own emotional attatchment to it. Look at US News and World Report and you'll see its in the third tier of National Universities. There was an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that said the UA was underfunded by roughly 30 million dollars a year; that's pretty bad. While I can see how you feel about your alma mater; it's not an educational powerhouse like the University of Michigan or anything is.

That comment about Paula Marinoni could not be farther from the truth. I have been a family friend for over 10 years and I can attest to the passion this lady has for preserving some of the historic aspects of our city.