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  #21  
Old Posted Jan 17, 2021, 5:15 PM
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that map is a bit of a joke, really. if you look at Google Earth, Little Rock has a lot of open space, yes, but it's also got some nice density and good height. that map makes it look like one big parking lot.

and having a lot of surface parking is hardly unique to Little Rock. look at other cities of similar size: Des Moines and Boise are almost identical in population to Little Rock (both city and MSA), and all three have quite a few parking lots scattered in their city core. taking a quick tour on Google Earth shows three downtowns of roughly the same footprint and plenty of areas left for new development.

Des Moines probably has the best combination of height and density of the three, but still has room to grow, particularly on the edges. give these three small cities time and those empty lots will eventually be converted into more dense developments as the needs arise.
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  #22  
Old Posted Jan 17, 2021, 6:25 PM
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From Google Maps, Little Rock looks much worse than Boise and Des Moines.

There's probably no easy answer. But getting rid of parking minimums would be a start. Any progress would help build a walking culture and create an upward cycle.
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  #23  
Old Posted Jan 17, 2021, 6:45 PM
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I spent a Little Bit of Time in Little Rock... liked it overall. Pretty area, hilly and green... had a good time kayaking and fishing on the river and drinking downtown at some brewpub. Close to the Ouachitas and Ozarks.

Its natural location has a lot more going for it than other cities in the region: Dallas, Tulsa, Jackson, Memphis, OK City, Shreveport
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  #24  
Old Posted Jan 17, 2021, 7:09 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pj3000 View Post
I spent a Little Bit of Time in Little Rock... liked it overall. Pretty area, hilly and green... had a good time kayaking and fishing on the river and drinking downtown at some brewpub. Close to the Ouachitas and Ozarks.

Its natural location has a lot more going for it than other cities in the region: Dallas, Tulsa, Jackson, Memphis, OK City, Shreveport
The Ozarks/Ouachitas are a really scenic area - Ozarks to the north of the Arkansas River valley and the Ouachitas to the south. Tulsa is also in a scenic hilly area on the "other side" of the Ozarks/Ouachitas. Agree about the other cities on your list though.
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  #25  
Old Posted Jan 17, 2021, 11:56 PM
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Little Rock, isn't that where Bill Clinton went buck wild in the governor's mansion? That's probably what the city is best known for.
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  #26  
Old Posted Jan 18, 2021, 3:41 AM
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In situations like this, the city-owned land should be, quite literally, given away. Let the 'buyer' build what ever they want but they have to start building within a year and completed within 3 or suffer VERY heavy penalties.

Nothing should be off bounds...............SFH, row homes, condos, apts, low income & seniors housing, student residences, college campuses, offices, parks, community gardens, urban agriculture.................ANYTHING is better than nothing and as the area develops it will build upon itself from other developers as the population and pedestrian traffic increases.
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  #27  
Old Posted Jan 18, 2021, 4:54 AM
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Originally Posted by ssiguy View Post
In situations like this, the city-owned land should be, quite literally, given away. Let the 'buyer' build what ever they want but they have to start building within a year and completed within 3 or suffer VERY heavy penalties.

Nothing should be off bounds...............SFH, row homes, condos, apts, low income & seniors housing, student residences, college campuses, offices, parks, community gardens, urban agriculture.................ANYTHING is better than nothing and as the area develops it will build upon itself from other developers as the population and pedestrian traffic increases.
If nothing is off bounds and fines are very heavy, they might just build a billboard, or lay a layer of sod and call that a park while they wait for a better opportunity to come around though.
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  #28  
Old Posted Jan 18, 2021, 11:32 AM
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Originally Posted by BG918 View Post
I’ve been to Little Rock numerous times. The riverfront portion of downtown is very nice and vibrant. There is a streetcar that runs through this area and connects across the river to North Little Rock.
Are there future plans to make this more than a novelty tram? It looks like they want to connect it to the airport, and could run a light rail line off to the north past the existing tram depot. It they expanded the loop further through downtown to connect to the train station and capitol, south of downtown, and ran a light rail line to the university, you might see a transit culture emerge.

Looking at the schedules on some of the bus stops is bleak. No wonder everyone drives.
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  #29  
Old Posted Jan 18, 2021, 4:08 PM
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Little Rock's transit system gets around 2.6 million boardings per year. 2.6 million! That's less than 4 boardings per capita. Transit mode share was 0.57% in 2010. Compare that to other urban areas with 700,000 people, Winnipeg and Quebec, which each get around 70 million transit boardings (100 boardings per capita) and mode shares of 11-13%.

As I said in another thread, if the USA wants to revitalize its downtowns and stop the suburbanization of its inner cities, it needs to get more people onto transit. How can you stop suburbanization in the outskirts when you can't even stop suburbanization in the centre? If people rely too much on their cars, it will be reflected in the built form, even the built form of the inner city. You need to get more people onto buses, reduce the demand for parking.

Transit ridership of other similar-sized cities in US in 2019:

Akron: 5.0 million
Des Moines: 4.4 million
Greensboro: 3.4 million
Oklahoma City: 3.0 million
Knoxville: 2.8 million
Columbia: 2.7 million
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  #30  
Old Posted Jan 18, 2021, 4:33 PM
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Originally Posted by dc_denizen View Post
bit odd though for a state capitol to have so much parking.
Not really. I've been to state capitols all over the country and they have quite a bit of parking but land is more of a premium in most of their respective cities so it's either garages or below grade. Or further away.
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  #31  
Old Posted Jan 18, 2021, 4:44 PM
Buckeye Native 001 Buckeye Native 001 is offline
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Yeah, it's pretty bad in Arizona as well, where seemingly every other building in the capitol corridor is a parking garage. Then again, when you cluster all your state government buildings in one area in a city heavily dependent on the car, the elected officials and bureaucrats have to park somewhere.
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  #32  
Old Posted Jan 18, 2021, 5:08 PM
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Originally Posted by Double L View Post
If the economy is good, then the only conclusion you can come to, is that the locals just don’t like their Downtown and don’t want to improve it, so they don’t move there, nor open businesses there.
Thats what it tells me as well. Downtown isn't relevant. The economy is somewhere else on the fringes. People need a reason to be downtown. Invest in the water front... make it appealing for millenials and younger then they will want to live downtown, then businesses will want to employ downtown.
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  #33  
Old Posted Jan 18, 2021, 5:28 PM
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Originally Posted by ATXboom View Post
Thats what it tells me as well. Downtown isn't relevant. The economy is somewhere else on the fringes. People need a reason to be downtown. Invest in the water front... make it appealing for millenials and younger then they will want to live downtown, then businesses will want to employ downtown.
I tend to think if you build it, they will come. People tend to value living in a walkable environment (not on a freeway exit), even in Little rock

My guess is that the capital just isn't there, and developers are simply not realizing that building on these lots is an option, one which could support higher returns than another complex at the west end of town. Market failure based on wrong assumptions
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  #34  
Old Posted Jan 19, 2021, 12:01 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by biguc View Post
Are there future plans to make this more than a novelty tram? It looks like they want to connect it to the airport, and could run a light rail line off to the north past the existing tram depot. It they expanded the loop further through downtown to connect to the train station and capitol, south of downtown, and ran a light rail line to the university, you might see a transit culture emerge.

Looking at the schedules on some of the bus stops is bleak. No wonder everyone drives.
I was thinking the same thing! Mall to university to capitol to downtown to library to airport is a pretty natural transit corridor....
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  #35  
Old Posted Jan 19, 2021, 2:35 AM
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Originally Posted by badrunner View Post
Little Rock, isn't that where Bill Clinton went buck wild in the governor's mansion? That's probably what the city is best known for.
Pretty sure the one thing Little Rock is known for is what happened to that high school during desegregation.
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  #36  
Old Posted Jan 19, 2021, 3:21 AM
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Originally Posted by Buckeye Native 001 View Post
Yeah, it's pretty bad in Arizona as well, where seemingly every other building in the capitol corridor is a parking garage. Then again, when you cluster all your state government buildings in one area in a city heavily dependent on the car, the elected officials and bureaucrats have to park somewhere.
I'm a tourist in Phoenix right now for the first time and thought I'd walk to the Arizona State Capitol from my hotel by Chase Field. It was a neverending 35 minute walk down a giant promenade of government buildings that never seemed to end: Phoenix, Maricopa County, Arizona Executive Agencies, Arizona State Capitol. A unique setup, but definitely longer than I expected.
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  #37  
Old Posted Jan 19, 2021, 3:49 AM
Buckeye Native 001 Buckeye Native 001 is offline
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Longer for sure, and detached from the rest of Downtown Phoenix.
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  #38  
Old Posted Jan 30, 2021, 6:08 AM
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Originally Posted by Doady View Post
Little Rock's transit system gets around 2.6 million boardings per year. 2.6 million! That's less than 4 boardings per capita. Transit mode share was 0.57% in 2010. Compare that to other urban areas with 700,000 people, Winnipeg and Quebec, which each get around 70 million transit boardings (100 boardings per capita) and mode shares of 11-13%.

As I said in another thread, if the USA wants to revitalize its downtowns and stop the suburbanization of its inner cities, it needs to get more people onto transit. How can you stop suburbanization in the outskirts when you can't even stop suburbanization in the centre? If people rely too much on their cars, it will be reflected in the built form, even the built form of the inner city. You need to get more people onto buses, reduce the demand for parking.

Transit ridership of other similar-sized cities in US in 2019:

Akron: 5.0 million
Des Moines: 4.4 million
Greensboro: 3.4 million
Oklahoma City: 3.0 million
Knoxville: 2.8 million
Columbia: 2.7 million
As long as it's easy and cheap to drive and park, nobody with options is riding the bus in smaller cities, especially in the South.
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  #39  
Old Posted Jan 30, 2021, 9:07 PM
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Originally Posted by KB0679 View Post
As long as it's easy and cheap to drive and park, nobody with options is riding the bus in smaller cities, especially in the South.
I live in a suburb, where it's not only easy and cheap to drive and park, the built environment is built for driving, parking is free. And the transit system in this suburb gets 60 million boardings annually. If a suburban wasteland like Mississauga can do it, then Little Rock can do it easily.

Nobody with options? That is the entire problem with places like Little Rock. Transit is not even option. No one has options. People have no choice but to drive. Give people the option, and if even 8% or 10% take it, even that would make a huge difference for the development of Little Rock's downtown.
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  #40  
Old Posted Jan 30, 2021, 10:49 PM
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would it?
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