Walls99

I had been wondering when that area was going to finally get developed. I recall there being a big deal being made about all of the stuff that was going in that center, and yet years later all that is there was a Cane's (which I love) and a bank (as if we needed more of those). Hopefully this will spur further development on that property.

Delta will finally be adding a long-awaited second destination to LIT, however it will not be a Western gateway as had been speculated. LIT will see daily flights aboard a Delta Connection E-175 aircraft to New York-LaGuardia beginning in May of this year. In the span of only a few months, LIT has gone from zero daily flights to New York to two on two airlines. An interesting development to say the least. Additionally, Allegiant is returning seasonal service to Los Angeles (LAX), Destin-Ft. Walton Beach (VPS), and St. Petersburg-Clearwater (PIE) beginning in late May and early June. No information regarding aircraft type or daily frequency, but based on Allegiant's business model and patterns at LIT, these returning routes will likely be two or three flights per week on A319 aircraft. Although only seasonal, Allegiant had indicated in the past that these three routes formerly served at LIT would not be reinstated after their last seasonal round had ended. This is a nice change of heart from Allegiant.

I'm sorry, but the fact that they felt the need to blame "lack of parking" as a reason for their demise is laughable. I agree that if they want 50 spaces readily available at the front door, they would be much better suited for a suburban location instead of an urban one. And not to mention that like half of downtown was decimated for surface parking lots that sit mostly vacant (a horrific use of space; infill projects are greatly needed downtown), so it's not even like downtown lacks parking spaces.

I agree. Now it's time to start actually illuminating the streets downtown at night. It's one of those things I've always noticed about LIttle Rock is how dark our downtown is in most places. Street lights, when done well, create a sense of place and beauty that lacks in many parts of downtown. Not to mention many people will feel safer with the extra light on their evenings downtown. Not that I think downtown is unsafe, but like Rex said in the column about lighting the bridge "perception is reality."

Looking at the airport Wikipedia article (yes, I do that...don't judge) and noticed many route changes that I had not heard anything about previously. According to Wikipedia, Allegiant has canceled all routes out of LIT except for Orlando-Sanford, although it is being downgraded to seasonal. This means no more flights to Los Angeles, Destin-Ft. Walton Beach, and St. Petersburg-Clearwater. I also noticed that AA will be terminating the seasonal service to MIA in March, just a few months after it begins service to LGA. Can anyone confirm these changes?

After all this time, the return of non-stop service to New York has arrived. AA announced daily non-stop service to LGA beginning in November. The route will use the E175 aircraft. This will bring AA’s destinations out of LIT to seven! (DFW, ORD, CLT, MIA, DCA, PHX, and LGA) Meanwhile, Delta continues to underserve LIT with only one route! Unthinkable. http://clintonairport.com/airlines-flights/new-york-city/?fbclid=IwAR0VqhzaqYebgGQtsS4FKLfx-zZb3cQS0imDIg6_T3_JoxftKvSaFDykccQ&fs=e&s=cl

Based on the recent light shed on their severe undercounting in the state of Arkansas, how reliable are these numbers? Why the sudden population decrease?

The vacant lots that plague downtown are simultaneously an eyesore and a travesty. Downtown Little Rock, while seeing dramatic improvements in crime rate in the last 20-30 years, still has a long way to go with regard to living up to its potential. The River Market and South Main districts are a start, but they seem to only be active and vibrant at nights and on weekends. Downtown Little Rock just seems sort of dead elsewhere even during the week. I recently took a trip to Knoxville (comparable in size to Little Rock and with a downtown along a major river), and I was blown away with how active and lively their downtown was on a Thursday night! Now Knoxville does have other factors going for it like the fact that it is a college town, but I never saw a single vacant lot anywhere in their downtown area. Every lot was used with a purpose whether a parking deck, mixed use buildings, offices, apartments, hotels, and parks/green spaces. I want that so badly for Little Rock, but I am not sure how or if we will ever get our downtown back. It seems as though many in the metro are too willing to stay out in Chenal, Maumelle, Sherwood, Conway, Cabot, and Saline County, than invest in having a booming central business district. For so long, the culture of the city was to avoid downtown that despite the efforts to revive parts of it, it might be too late.

There will be a temporary new non-stop route between LIT and PHX on American Eagle. According to the airport website, the route will only be operated from December 17 thought January 4. Not even one month! Not sure if that could imply a future permanent, or at least seasonal route, would happen once the uncertainty due to Covid-19 is over.

Grub’s has closed their Rodney Parham location according to their post on Facebook. However, in that same post, they announced that Gusano’s would be returning to Little Rock at that Rodney Parham location.

Nike is consolidating their locations in the central Arkansas market to the location at the Outlet Mall. The store in the Promenade was technically an outlet store anyway; no sense in having two outlet stores 15 minutes away from each other, especially given the trajectory of brick-and-mortar retail that was going on before the large shutdowns and economic downturn of the last three months.

I don't know if it's because I don't want it to happen or if I simply cannot fathom it, but I have a very difficult time seeing Faulkner County becoming its own MSA along with Conway County (at least not anytime in the near future). Anecdotally speaking, I think the city of Conway is too closely related to Little Rock and Pulaski County in terms of commuters, economy, distance, etc. to be considered a separate entity. The addition of Conway County into the LR-NLR-Conway MSA would be a welcome addition, and I could definitely see that happening. White County seems like a bit of a stretch at this point, but I would not complain if it happened. Adding Jefferson County would be a short-term population gain, but they are shrinking so quickly that I do not even want them because they would drag our numbers down.

I've always gotten that impression that people tend to compare Little Rock to Jackson and Shreveport rather than to the better comparisons that you mentioned. I would be all for a combined city-county municipality, however reuniting with NLR and annexing Sherwood (which is basically NLR anyway) would be a fantastic start and I for one would never complain if that happened. There are little drawbacks to this, as it would "instantly increase" Little Rock's population from 200,000 to almost 300,000. This would be much more attractive to businesses that see a larger central city and fewer competing smaller municipalities as well. I do fear, however, that there would certainly be a large push back to this, mostly from the north side of the river. They would be hesitant to give up that "identity" and local control on the north side of the river (one example of this I can think of is the "Pulaski County" branding of Simmons Bank Arena since technically it is in North Little Rock). Are there any active people with proposals talking about this? Would Mayor Scott be on board? I interact with several people from around the country who visit Little Rock fairly frequently. They do not understand why Little Rock and NLR are separate cities (and I agree with them!) and they usually just refer to everything as Little Rock, and I do as well.

KATV is reporting that the Little Rock Club on the top floor of the Regions building will be closing permanently. They cited never fully recovering membership after the 2008 crisis and now not being able to meet as reasons for closure. Another one bites the dust.

I would be shocked if La Madeleine closed but Genghis Grill wouldn't come as a shock at all. A source tells me that the Genghis Grill in Birmingham closed not too long ago as well.

Yes, this route has been seasonal for a couple of years now. I do not understand why Delta refuses to add any more service to LIT other than ATL. Especially for those traveling west out of LIT, Delta really just isn't even an option. Delta operates nearly a quarter of all LIT passengers, and I'd say 95% of that is to ATL. They could easily expand their market share here with a route to their western hub in SLC or even MSP. Pretty much the only options for traveling west out of LIT are AA to DFW, SWA to PHX or DAL, or United to IAH or DEN (on a CRJ-200).

Have there been any confirmed tenants for this development (other than the reasonable speculation of a Raising Cane's)?

Are there any updates for year-to-date passenger numbers for LIT? I know that there has been significant growth but haven't seen any reports of actual numbers in recent months.

I don't drink coffee, but I find this incredibly disappointing. It always looked full and was a trendy spot to say the least. I know of several people from out of town who mention that it is one of their favorite places in town. Sad.

I would think that Jefferson County has a decent likelihood of being incorporated into the Little Rock MSA in the near future if current trends continue. It is easily the next county in line for potential addition. Perry and Grant counties were added most recently, but their small relative sizes barely put a dent in the overall population of the MSA. After Jefferson, there really aren't any other contenders for addition. It is the only county directly adjacent to Pulaski that is not in the MSA, and it is directly connected by interstate. The only other possible counties would be White County or even Conway County but those are very unlikely.

The Little Rock Wikipedia page has the 2018 population estimate for Little Rock proper at 200,655. Can anyone find a source for this? Major milestone for the city if true.

Based on personal experience, it usually decently busy whenever I have gone to see a movie there. I tend to not go to this theater unless it is for the specific purpose of the IMAX theater or if I am already at the Promenade anyway.

My point exactly. One thing that Little Rock is lacking, in my opinion, is a centralized upscale retail center. The problem we face is that all of our retail is so spread out among different decent shopping centers (Park Plaza, Midtowne, Gateway, Shackleford Crossings, Promenade, McCain, etc.). It isn't that any of these are bad, but I would have preferred if Little Rock had done some better planning and maybe thought about going all in on a large, upscale center that would have been a combination of all the amenities of the above centers. I recall a recent visit to Des Moines (similar in size and importance to their respective state) where they had done exactly that. Their center was a combination indoor-outdoor mall featuring a movie theater, Apple Store, Cheesecake Factory, among other things. I was very impressed by it and have wished there was something like that in Little Rock ever since.

Sounds like another WLR strip center trying hard to not sound like a strip center...as if there aren't any of those around

I couldn't agree more with this! Our streetcar system in place now in the River Market is a joke compared to this, and that's how most people perceive it. I am all for upgrading our River Rail to be on par with this type of street car system (although maybe not quite the same capacity for the moment). A system that is modern, clean, efficient, convenient, and practical for getting from point A to point B would be a huge benefit for Little Rock. The general trend now among young people has been one of moving back downtown and revitalizing it, and I love this new trend. As a person who is considered young and grew up and have lived in Little Rock my whole life, I find this type of system incredibly attractive. The idea of being able to live and work downtown and have this type of system to get me from home to work to a restaurant or park or event at Verizon (Simmons? Alltel? who knows anymore...) would be incredible. I think that it would also be crucial for the system to extend to the airport (through East Village) and down Main Street at the minimum. Alas, the big problem to overcome would be getting the money to fund the upgrades that would be needed, and based on the insane rejection of a millage in Little Rock to further fund the public school system to build the new SW LR high school, I have a hard time seeing voters approve any sort of MAPS3 proposal as in OKC (which is booming population wise, has a thriving downtown district, and pro basketball team so what could they possibly have to teach Little Rock? *sarcasm*).