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Fort Smith, AR


Aporkalypse

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I very much agree with the quote - Ft. Smith is losing its young professionals.

Hello, new to the forum, somewhat new to Fort Smith. My husband and I moved here in the late summer. He has his MBA, and an undergraduate degree in Physics, 5 years experience running his own property management company, 1 year experience in Banking, and one year experience in Financial Advising - and he can't find a job here. He has been on so many job interviews, with the big companies, small companies, etc, it is getting absolutely ridiculous. It took me 5 months to find a job, and I am an attorney - and I actually do have some connections with the city.

I have always called Fort Smith home, although as an army brat, I never actually lived here before - lived all up and down the Northeastern coast as well as a few foreign countries. I was excited to move here, to be near extended family, but now, it is just sad - the town is really dying.

It is not just the lack of shopping, or the restaurants either, the demographics are shocking. Only around 16 percent of Sebastian county has an education higher than a high school diploma.

While Garrison Ave is great, and the historic district is promising, Rogers Ave really needs to be cleaned up for lack of a better word. Perhaps some of the higher traffic stores or restaurants should be moved to Phoenix.

And what is with the no sidewalks??

Anyway, I am happy to be here, but I do not know how long I will be staying.

Edited by bchris02
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Real universities have people from all over the state and even nation. UAFS is slowly getting people from outside Northside, Southside, Van Buren, Alma, and Greenwood, but its nowhere near where it should be as a 4-year university.
Edited by FSN17
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As for the points regarding UAFS, it's a local commuter college and always will be. It will serve an important role for the community but it's going to be a lot like a smaller UALR, where few students live on campus or commute more than 30-40 miles. It's not going to be a flagship school like UA or even a school like UCA or Ark Tech which is probably half commuter and half on-campus. The importance of UAFS is really that all of the students don't have to transfer to UA or central Arkansas, where they might like it and stay, to get a 4-year degree. Still, degree offerings are very limited and will never have the breadth that UA or even UCA or UALR offer.
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You seem pretty certain in your opinions. Any reason why? It just seems odd people are already certain or have already determined the future of a school that has been a four-year university for less than five years, has more students than Ark Tech, more on-campus housing than UALR and has expansion plans to create 2,000 additional on-campus rooms, yet it will never reach the lofty heights of an ATU, UALR or UCA (which only had 2,100 on-campus rooms just a few years ago). I give up.

BTW, there isn't a single university in Arkansas anywhere close to half on-campus population. Even UA only has 26% on-campus students (4,300 out of 17,000 enrollment).

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  • 4 weeks later...

The US Bureau of Labor listed Fort Smith as the top 5th city in job loss last year. I know it's already been discussed, but news like this should send the labor department and states into a panic. This situation will only get much worse and some areas of the country may end up in third world condition if something isn't done.

FORT SMITH JOB LOSS FIFTH WORST IN AMERICA

HOWEVER, ROGERS DOESN'T FIND ITSELF ON A QUESTIONABLE LIST OF "TOP FIVE CITIES." THE US BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS RELEASED IT'S LIST OF THE FIVE AMERICAN CITIES WHICH LOST THE LARGEST NUMBER OF JOBS LAST YEAR. DETROIT SITS ATOP THE LIST, FOLLOWED BY ST. LOUIS, FLINT MICHIGAN, DAYTON OHIO -- AND FINALLY, NUMBER FIVE -- FORT SMITH -- WHICH LOST JOBS BECAUSE WHIRLPOOL DECIDED TO SHIFT PRODUCTION THERE TO A PLANT IN MEXICO.

http://arkansastonight.com/archives/2007_01_01_archive.html

These Whirlpool jobs are going to be tough to replace. It's not a good time to be dependent on manufacturing.
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The US Bureau of Labor listed Fort Smith as the top 5th city in job loss last year. I know it's already been discussed, but news like this should send the labor department and states into a panic. This situation will only get much worse and some areas of the country may end up in third world condition if something isn't done.

FORT SMITH JOB LOSS FIFTH WORST IN AMERICA

HOWEVER, ROGERS DOESN'T FIND ITSELF ON A QUESTIONABLE LIST OF "TOP FIVE CITIES." THE US BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS RELEASED IT'S LIST OF THE FIVE AMERICAN CITIES WHICH LOST THE LARGEST NUMBER OF JOBS LAST YEAR. DETROIT SITS ATOP THE LIST, FOLLOWED BY ST. LOUIS, FLINT MICHIGAN, DAYTON OHIO -- AND FINALLY, NUMBER FIVE -- FORT SMITH -- WHICH LOST JOBS BECAUSE WHIRLPOOL DECIDED TO SHIFT PRODUCTION THERE TO A PLANT IN MEXICO.

http://arkansastonight.com/archives/2007_01_01_archive.html

Edited by bchris02
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Fort Smith is already pretty close to third world condition in many areas. It is getting worse and will only continue getting worse as long as we have an elderly, rural, and blue-collar population that is unwilling to accept change. As long as they can live like its 1950 and we have a mayor that jumps up and down exclaiming "Wheeeee!", they will be happy.
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The US Bureau of Labor listed Fort Smith as the top 5th city in job loss last year. I know it's already been discussed, but news like this should send the labor department and states into a panic. This situation will only get much worse and some areas of the country may end up in third world condition if something isn't done.

FORT SMITH JOB LOSS FIFTH WORST IN AMERICA

HOWEVER, ROGERS DOESN'T FIND ITSELF ON A QUESTIONABLE LIST OF "TOP FIVE CITIES." THE US BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS RELEASED IT'S LIST OF THE FIVE AMERICAN CITIES WHICH LOST THE LARGEST NUMBER OF JOBS LAST YEAR. DETROIT SITS ATOP THE LIST, FOLLOWED BY ST. LOUIS, FLINT MICHIGAN, DAYTON OHIO -- AND FINALLY, NUMBER FIVE -- FORT SMITH -- WHICH LOST JOBS BECAUSE WHIRLPOOL DECIDED TO SHIFT PRODUCTION THERE TO A PLANT IN MEXICO.

http://arkansastonight.com/archives/2007_01_01_archive.html

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I know people didn't like me making the possible similarities with Pine Bluff. But hearing stuff like that really reminds me of when things started going down for pine Bluff. All I'm saying is Ft Smith really better watch out. Obviously Pine Bluff didn't plan to be in it's current situation either. The bad thing is if the people are so conservative and set against change they might allow the city to slide to a point where the damage is done.

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I know people didn't like me making the possible similarities with Pine Bluff. But hearing stuff like that really reminds me of when things started going down for pine Bluff. All I'm saying is Ft Smith really better watch out. Obviously Pine Bluff didn't plan to be in it's current situation either. The bad thing is if the people are so conservative and set against change they might allow the city to slide to a point where the damage is done.
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I know people didn't like me making the possible similarities with Pine Bluff. But hearing stuff like that really reminds me of when things started going down for pine Bluff. All I'm saying is Ft Smith really better watch out. Obviously Pine Bluff didn't plan to be in it's current situation either. The bad thing is if the people are so conservative and set against change they might allow the city to slide to a point where the damage is done.
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People don't realize how important Pine Bluff once was. At one point it was probably equal to Ft Smith in importance and basically tied for 3rd in Arkansas and several notches above towns like El Dorado and Fayetteville that were important at that time.

Like you said, nobody in Pine Bluff never wanted this to happen or saw it coming.

The "brain drain" Ft Smith is having is probably pretty comparable to what Pine Bluff had, losing most of its educated class to Little Rock and Memphis.

The only way to reverse it, of course, is to bring in high-end jobs.

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Do demographics play a role in it as well? I believe Pine Bluff has a dominant African-American population while Fort Smith is dominated by white blue-collar evangelicals. I do know lack of diversity is not good for a city, no matter the demographics.

I notice both cities score very low in education and percentage of population with college degrees, and they both lose most of their 20 year olds.

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Do demographics play a role in it as well? I believe Pine Bluff has a dominant African-American population while Fort Smith is dominated by white blue-collar evangelicals. I do know lack of diversity is not good for a city, no matter the demographics.

I notice both cities score very low in education and percentage of population with college degrees, and they both lose most of their 20 year olds.

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