[Downtown LR outside the River Market area]

Oh, I'd love to take the train for a real trip (I don't count short trips in the Northeast). In fact, the City of New Orleans often has specials for $50 one way between Memphis & New Orleans. It would be a great way to see the Delta. However, the timeliness issue is important.

I enjoy lazy travel from time to time... but I want it to be my decision to take things slow -- not someone else's. Some family of a friend recently took the Texas Eagle down to Dallas. It was supposed to arrive in Malvern around 3 am. It finally showed up at 11 am. I can't even imagine.

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

[Downtown LR outside the River Market area]

I know what you mean about the idea of new construction in an historic area not needing to necessarily fully emulate all of its neighbors. The key is for it to be a good complement to everything around it. There's a newly constructed house south of Parris Towers on Broadway on the east side of the street, and it sticks in my mind because it has certain architectural details that echo much older homes. The house itself, with its brick exterior and curving roofline, would never be confused with some of the more historic homes surrounding it, but it has a look which fits the neighborhood. And its lawn is in keeping with the size of other residential lawns around it.

That said, I'd be somewhat surprised to see a Walgreens that looked almost exactly like every other area store, with the exception of its proximity to the street and sidewalk (and probably a resulting lack of extraneous signage). I'm thinking brick is almost guaranteed to figure into the exterior, possibly a red brick like the one used for the Benton store.

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.

[The River Market]

I think it will be my favorite building in the River Market. I can't wait to go in it.

On a slightly different note, driving from the airport to the River Market tonight, I saw a large interstate sign notifying drivers of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. Anyone ever seen such a sign for University of Arkansas at Little Rock? I might add that UALR provides IT support and transcripts the Clinton School Students.

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.

[Little Rock Projects List]

Umm...WOW. We'll have to take this elsewhere, but I can tell you that it is definitively NOT b.s. to expect accountable results. Those of us in the workforce are measured by it, daily, monthly, bi-annually, annually. There are many means to measure achievement, but it MUST be measured and people MUST be accountable for that. This is a basic tenet of any successful operation. How on earth taking tests and measuring the progress stunts creativity and real learning is absolutely beyond me. It's hogwash.

White WLR folks??? Oh my....

And merit pay...if it's so misguided, should the bonuses my company offers to me be abolished? I have several people who work for me and their productivity or lack thereof, impacts me greatly. Is school impossibly different. The answer is no.

It would seem that only a fool would say that someone else (not themselves) did not want progress in their initiatives and the areas of their responsibility. Well done.

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.

[Little Rock Projects List]

"Everyone in the district hated working for him?' I don't think so. So far the the chief financial officer of the LRSD , another administrator and one of the high school principals has joined Dr. Brooks. I wonder how many teachers will join Dr. Brooks?

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.

[Little Rock Projects List]

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.

[Hillcrest and the Heights]

According to the Arkansas Times, a European-style cafe by the owner of Boulevard Bread Company in the Heights will be going into that unique building that once housed the wallpaper company at Markham and Kavanaugh. It will be a bohemain-type cafe and wine bar at night.

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).

[Little Rock Projects List]

Here's a pdf file from Boyd Homes website with many new residential projects in the downtown and Quapaw Quarter areas.

http://www.boydhomesinc.com/images/NewConstrRenov_C.pdf

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

[Arkansas Roll Call]

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.

[Everything Conway]

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?