masons_dad1

Anybody else notice Kirkland's and Orange Julius/Carvel are closed in Northwest Arkansas Mall? Should be some more clothing stores replacing them pretty soon.

You must have misread my posts. I never said Fayetteville didn't have decent entertainment, practically every town the size of Fayetteville does. I have to admit though I liked Dickson Street more when Cheeburger Cheeburger was still open, it was a great 50's style diner. My posts actually refer to the Fayetteville (metro) as indicated by the Forbes report. Your comments would be better served by directing them to the Forbes people who rated Fayetteville's (metro) Culture & Leisure pretty low on the list. I mean come on, Fayetteville (metro) being ranked 198 for Culture & Leisure on a list of 200 metros is nothing to brag about. It's actually sad that Fayetteville (metro) ranked so high on the list only to have such poor rankings in Colleges, Culture & Leisure and Educational Attainment. Forbes may salute Fayetteville (metro) for being a cheap place to do business, cost of living and job growth, but the Forbes report also exposes Fayetteville (metro) as very lopsided.

I don't know anything about North or South Dakota or why anyone would want to live there except for ranchers. Kansas City is much larger, has so much more culture and leisure and professional sports, top 15 college program, better education, slightly higher cost of living than Fayetteville, BUT it's still ranked 95 on the Forbes list because of lower job & income growth, higher cost of doing business and higher crime than Fayetteville. I'm actually surprised that Springfield, MO isn't in Fayetteville's slot with the 5th lowest cost of doing business, top 50 college program, nearly as low cost of living as Fayetteville, and respectable job growth and net migration. The only drawbacks to Springfield is it's limited culture and leisure (realistically more than Fayetteville) and it's crime rate (higher than Fayetteville). The quality of life here is great for people accustomed to it. People looking for more arts, live music, family fun, high quality entertainment, sports, and nightlife would consider any of the other top 50 metros having a higher quality of life than Fayetteville. Overall, the more expensive metros have much higher incomes that generally make up for the higher cost of living. The only drawback to many of the other metros is higher crime, which Fayetteville won't really have to worry much about since this metro is geared more for middle income business types than street thugs.

Which was my point in my bottom line. Fayetteville gets mentioned so much because it's a cheap place to live and do business, but that's really about all there is. That's all the Forbes list is for and if metros were rated for overall categories Fayetteville would fall down quite a few notches. You get what you pay for and you can't go much cheaper than the Fayetteville metro.

That's where you're wrong. Forbes mention of Fayetteville IS the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metro. The Forbes listing just uses the more prominent city's name for the metro. If I was taking shots it was at the entire metro for being put on a list simply for being a cheap place to live and do business. The fact is MOST of the top 50 metros surpass the Fayetteville METRO in a number of categories, including Colleges, Culture & Leisure, and Educational Attainment. If Forbes disregarded all the other categories other than Cost of Living and Cost of Doing Business then those categories should not even be mentioned. Bottom line: The Fayetteville METRO is like a Chevy Metro that's cheap, gets great gas mileage, but doesn't have any options like power steering, power windows and only has a cassette player. Whereas those other top ten cities are your Lexus, BMW, Mercedes and Cadillac Escalades. Sure they cost a lot more, but have so many more options and are more fun to drive.

While that sounds fine and dandy, the only reason Fayetteville even makes the list is for low "Cost of Doing Business" and low "Cost of Living"... Fayetteville isn't even in the same league as far as "Colleges, Culture & Leisure, or Educational Attainment." is concerned. Everything else is on par with the rest of the top metros, but in those 3 categories Fayetteville is so far behind it's not even funny.

Everyone is making "impact fees" sound like a disease that will drive away developers, but that is not the case. The first developer to build will have to pay impact fees for infrastructure improvements needed, BUT, any future developments that utilizes those improvements will have to pay it's share to the initial developer. So, in the long term developers will get back most of the impact fees they paid as long as growth continues. Correct me if I'm wrong.

That's exactly why man invented Tylenol!

I doubt there would even be a case. I think the argument would have to be more than "blocking natural beauty." I could see that being the case if Fayetteville had views of a national park or ocean. I think as long as the planned power poles don't pose any danger to anyone and don't infringe on the soil of anyone's personal property then there is no case.

Same old, same old. I think Sperling's should look for something else to do since it's obvious the NWA metro is always going to top his list. It seems he may have discovered something new for once by adding Crystal Bridges.

Maybe it'll finally get so bored and start building the Renaissance on it's own.

That all makes good sense, but at this point I'd be lucky to just become a homeowner. With mine and my wife's combined income we have the disposable income to buy a home and stop flushing our rent down the toilet and my credit isn't as bad as I thought after getting a decent interest rate on my new car. Now it's just a metter of coming up with the down payment for a home, which was gobbled up by the down payment and sales tax of my new car. It could be 2-3 more years before I save up a down payment for a house. By then I'll know better where I want to live and if I'm lucky some areas in NWA will still be affordable and still have potential for a high return on my investment.

Yes, thanks for clarifying that residents of Fayetteville are wealthy. And "jacking up prices" isn't necessarily a bad thing since property taxes are based on appraised value so it benefits the community in the long run. It also decreases crime in areas where "jacked up prices" discriminate against lower income people who are more prone to commit violent crimes. I don't live in Fayetteville so I really don't care if it's residents display their elitist nature. If and when I become a homeowner it will be in a moderately middle class neighborhood where family values are more important than property values.

I'm sure some owners just want to fix up their buildings with jacking up prices being an unconscious thought. The fact is renovations do increase appraised value of a property. In the case of the Old Train Depot the original red brick is much nicer than the coat of primer that was on their. They need to go ahead and give the rest of the building a new coat of paint of color that would accentuate the brick more than just primer alone.

The owners of those buildings feel the need to do something to justify jacking up prices, so stripping some 50 year old paint only makes sense. With all the new condos going up around town noone wants to be the ugly building on the block. It's much better than putting a fancy (but cheap) facade over the front of an ugly building like they're doing in some places.

Well that's good news for Fay'ville! I think Rogers is starting to run into some road blocks on some of the major developments. Maybe there will be more of a shift in Fay'ville's favor in the coming years. That's not to say Rogers won't get some more retailers, but some of the large-scale developments may have to wait.

That's bad. Dog lovers and animal rights activists around the country will be going after those responsible. If Nordstrom's is innocent their reputation is stained... if they're guilty they may be lucky just to stay in business. I never liked Nordstrom's anyway.

I don't know, but it makes me nervous about every product on the shelf now. What disease is next? I know people don't like frivelous law suits, but in this case I hope the culprit company pays. I could use the reimbursement for medical bills.

Looks like Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter has been tainted with salmonella. If anyone has a jar of those brands of peanut butter with serial numbers beginning with 2111 then it's infected with salmonella. There's already been 288 cases reported, but I have a feeling this number will shoot up into the thousands now that the recall has been sent out. Keep your tainted peanut butter and wait for the class-action suit to be filed against Con-Agra.

That's great news to hear the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks may open this year with the new money allocated to it. And "gardening up" the Square is a big plus, even though I think it already has beautiful gardens and trees.

I can understand a few historic houses being rendered in 3d, but a neighborhood of little monopoly houses in 3d seems like a waste. I would have preferred they rendered the Legacy and maybe the Renaissance over a bunch of houses.

That's probably where one of the UA students who developed these 3d buildings lives. It's too bad they only did a half decent job with the 3d buildings as it could have been really impressive. They should've saved time doing all those little monopoly houses and at least have done the Legacy. Not a bad little sampler, but hopefully they'll go back and finish it someday.

Here's a question about healthcare. Why is it that hospitals put signs up about having to pay up front before services will be rendered or signs about how this hospital sells services and products just like any other business and those services and products need to be paid for up front? The real question is why are there no menus posted listing what services and products cost like any other business?? If I want a hamburger the price is up on the menu. If I want a haircut or an oil change the price is plastered on the wall. Even the US post office and practically every business on the planet has prices listed somewhere. Law offices usually advertise their fees in the newspaper or phone book and have fixed fees for common legal services. SO how can hospitals and doctors offices expect payment up front without menus or without advertising their prices???

Honestly, I've never seen anything wrong with the Square. Maybe I didn't look close enough. I'm all for fixing up sidewalks where needed, but all the other stuff like benches and lampposts are excessive. The city should get some of the big projects like the Regional Park and the Botanical Gardens going before worrying about small cracks in the sidewalk.