Ridiculous development proposals in your city

[bigboyz05]

What is the craziest thing ever to be proposed to be built in your city? This one man came to Texarkana talking about knocking down a section of downtown to build an amusement park. That didn't go over well with city officials. Another proposal we've had wasn't ridiculous but, more disappointing. This guy who claimed to run a company called OSI in Dallas, wanted to open up a complex here that would consist of a computer manufacturing plant, call centers and two 16 story towers. This development was supposed to create more than 12,000 jobs. He wanted to start construction before paying for the land. Of course city leaders wouldn't agree to that and after doing more research the city found out quite a bit of info and it wasn't good. When trying to contact OSI to speak to this guy the phone was disconnected. On top of that this man had run ins with the law concerning bad checks. Needless to say the whole thing was a sham. A lot of people were angry and one guy even said that if he ever showed his face in Texarkana again he would string him up like a slaughtered hog.

[Mith242]

I can't say I've heard of anything quite like that happening up here. Depending on your views I imagine people find the way the current city council to be ridiculous. Fayetteville has a lot of strict building codes and such. I'm sure there are some people that don't find them very favorable.

[mcheiss]

Rogers has had a proposal by the Pinnacle Group to build 2 twin 16 Story Office/Mixe-use towers. These haven't ever been taken to the Planning Commission, but the Pinnacle Group is waiting for the Perry Road Interchange to be completed first, before anything else is done.

[Aporkalypse]

In Little Rock no doubt some of the bridge designs for the railroad bridges bordered on the preposterous, large hotels suspended over the river, a massive tower and observation platform, etc. Anyone that saw the Ark Times at that time knows what I mean.

In NWA, I still think it's light rail.

[mcheiss]

In Little Rock no doubt some of the bridge designs for the railroad bridges bordered on the preposterous, large hotels suspended over the river, a massive tower and observation platform, etc. Anyone that saw the Ark Times at that time knows what I mean.

In NWA, I still think it's light rail.

I wouldn't say the light rail is ridiculous.

[Aporkalypse]

I wouldn't say the light rail is ridiculous.

I still would.

In a place with an almost nonexistant bus system, it doesn't make much sense. The budget drain we're talking about is massive, even for a place like Dallas County (which has almost as many people as all of Arkansas by itself). Looking at that rail line, it is at least as long as one of the 2 currently running DART lines here (they are about to add a third).

Build some bus stations in the 4 key cities and run enough routes for people to get most areas in the city easily (which doesn't exist now). If the demand is there for that, light rail will work eventually. If there's no demand for buses, then light rail will be useless. To make rail work, you have to have a bus network to take people where they need to go once they get off the train.

[mcheiss]

I still would.

In a place with an almost nonexistant bus system, it doesn't make much sense. The budget drain we're talking about is massive, even for a place like Dallas County (which has almost as many people as all of Arkansas by itself). Looking at that rail line, it is at least as long as one of the 2 currently running DART lines here (they are about to add a third).

Build some bus stations in the 4 key cities and run enough routes for people to get most areas in the city easily (which doesn't exist now). If the demand is there for that, light rail will work eventually. If there's no demand for buses, then light rail will be useless. To make rail work, you have to have a bus network to take people where they need to go once they get off the train.

I think the bus system is taking off up here, just not a lot of people know about the service.

Give it some time, and I'm sure it will be skyrocketing.

[Aporkalypse]

I think the bus system is taking off up here, just not a lot of people know about the service.

Give it some time, and I'm sure it will be skyrocketing.

For it to really be an effective service, you need to have bus stops so that anyone in the cities can easily walk to a stop within a few blocks. Once that is done, the people will come. Nobody will ride it if they only stop a few places in each town. I think the Hispanic immigrants will fuel the need for mass transit up there, so you have to go to the places they live and work.

It's drastic how much more extensive CAT is compared to Ozark, and how extensive DART is compared to CAT. You can get away without a car in Dallas, in Little Rock you really need to live in certain parts of town, in NWA right now you have to choose to live near bus stops. If you are serious about mass transit, you can't let ridership dictate service, if you do you'll never have significant ridership.

[Mith242]

For it to really be an effective service, you need to have bus stops so that anyone in the cities can easily walk to a stop within a few blocks. Once that is done, the people will come. Nobody will ride it if they only stop a few places in each town. I think the Hispanic immigrants will fuel the need for mass transit up there, so you have to go to the places they live and work.

It's drastic how much more extensive CAT is compared to Ozark, and how extensive DART is compared to CAT. You can get away without a car in Dallas, in Little Rock you really need to live in certain parts of town, in NWA right now you have to choose to live near bus stops. If you are serious about mass transit, you can't let ridership dictate service, if you do you'll never have significant ridership.

I guess it depends on where in NWA you mean. I won't say it's easy but I do know people here in Fayetteville who don't believe in having a vehicle and are able to get around okay. But you might have to give up easily going to some areas of the city. But more is needed to be done about mass transit up here. I still say light rail is something that should at least be looked into for the future. It doesn't really need to be built now though. While I still like the idea I'm a little more hesitant that money will ever be around for it. That's some big road projects we'd have to give up for it. Not sure if enough people are ready to do that just yet.