abdintp

Wouldn't the decision to take things slow be yours just by making the decision to take Amtrak? And it's really not all that bad that it goes slowly; I take the train from home in LR to school in Chicago every time that I'm making the trip (and the other way around). The train is always late, but it's relatively dependable in its lateness, and rather than going to the station and waiting for the train, you're supposed to call Julie (Amtrak's automated phone service woman thing). Don't get me wrong, though, I would love higher-speed service and dedicated ROW for Amtrak trains (almost nothing could make me happier). Nothing was more depressing than coming home to Amtrak from a semester in Paris where I took the TGV several times, and coming home to the CTA and (even sadder) the CAT bus, after RATP and the M

I'm pretty sure the Walgreens will look just as any of the others, just not set back as far. At least, that's the case for almost all the Walgreens in Chicago: still ugly, but at least more pedestrian accessible.

I've never thought about there not being signage (is that a word?) directing people to UALR, but there definitely should be, esp. from the University exit at I-30.

We should stop this. It's quite off topic. All I was trying to demonstrate is that this isn't as simple an issue as EJC makes it to be.

OK, I'm pretty sure Brooks brought in at least one of those people, and of course they're going to be willing to leave their jobs for a higher-paying one. Naturally, I was hyperbolizing when I said everyone hated him. However, I went to school (recently) in the LRSD, my mom is a counselor at another school, my aunt teaches at yet another, and they/I don't know a SINGLE teacher who liked Dr. Brooks. Not a one. I remember my teachers ranting about him when I was in school there. Black and white. Also, I would say to anyone reading this that EJC's comments are highly biased, and that Dr. Brooks and the white WLR folks' "progress" is BS and is far from what the people who are actually doing the work to educate kids in our district want. Giving teachers tests to teach to may mean students do better on tests, but at the total loss of creativity or real classroom learning. Furthermore, paying some teachers for having high-performing students creates animosity at schools. I'm not saying there's a right side to this argument, I'm just saying only a fool would think that Dr. Brooks wanted progress.

How is acceptance/ enrolment supposed to work for this school? Also, what a slap in the face to the LRSD, and all their efforts to get Roy Brooks out of LR. I guess other teachers/ administrators in the district don't have to deal with him any more. However, part of the reason they wanted to get rid of him so much is HE IS A TOTAL JACKA**, and everyone in the district hated working for him, so I say good luck to the kids and teachers at this new school.

That's sweet! And 2 blocks or so from where I live when I'm home. It's so good that Boulevard is doing well; anyone who hasn't been there definitely needs to check it out (Heights or Rivermarket).

That's pretty intense. I had no idea there were that many projects recently/ underway in the QQ.

I imagine all of these areas will experience multiple slowdowns and booms before they reach 100,000, but I would say that both Conway and Fayetteville have big advantages since they're college towns. UA and Hendrix and UCA aren't really going anywhere. I think, however, that a lot of the draw of these towns is affordability and availability of space, and I don't think either of those can be upheld much longer until these cities (and LR too) learn to enforce some kind of structure on how the city grows, not necessarilly anything drastic like only allowing dense, mixed-use development, but an implementation of some pattern of street building, and house spacing, to limit the random nature of the sprawl that's going up now.

abdintp, #36, I think. Born and raised in LR, but live in Chicago. Next year in Paris and Istanbul. Still, my heart's in Arkansas.

Just curious, what do non-college-affiliated Conway residents think of the urban village that Hendrix is building? Are they excited, would they have preferred that the college work with the city in redeveloping the actual downtown rather than just creating it's own, artificial downtown, do they see it as an encroachment on their own style of city building, etc? I certainly see where Hendrix is coming from, but the school is only 6 or 8 blocks from downtown, and that area has a lot of potential, IMO. Any thoughts?