Shreveport, Jackson and Little Rock

[Aporkalypse]

Little Rock's the smallest of the three:

2000 Census:

Little Rock: 183,133

Shreveport: 200,145

Jackson: 184,256

Little Rock is a small city.

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Metropolitan areas (wikipedia):

Little Rock: 610,518

Jackson: 522,580

Shreveport: 378,331 (whoa)

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But I always think MSAs are distorted, especially for little rock, since you're likely to pass farms and forests traveling 30-45 min. to little rock.

So, let's look at the densities for the cities:

Little Rock: 608.5/km

[dimebag1980]

Downtown Little Rock is directly across the river from downtown North Little Rock, whose urban core is every bit as dense. In fact, NLR is probably more urban and dense than Little Rock. Add that 60k in population and your core city becomes almost 250k.

Almost exactly the same scenario here. The only difference is, downtown Bossier isn't as dense since most of it was lost to a fire long ago. But adding Shreveport (200,000) and Bossier (60,000,) which are directly across the river from one another, makes for basically one city of 260,000. This is why Little Rock-North Little Rock and Shreveport-Bossier City are often compared to one another.

[Aporkalypse]

Almost exactly the same scenario here. The only difference is, downtown Bossier isn't as dense since most of it was lost to a fire long ago. But adding Shreveport (200,000) and Bossier (60,000,) which are directly across the river from one another, makes for basically one city of 260,000. This is why Little Rock-North Little Rock and Shreveport-Bossier City are often compared to one another.

And honestly, they are pretty comparable.

[dimebag1980]

And honestly, they are pretty comparable.

Very true. The only real main differences I see between the areas are the fact that Little Rock has a taller skyline, has more metropolitan population, has more suburbs, and is a capital city.

When I saw this photo, posted recently by skirby in the Arkansas forums, reminds me a lot of a photo I recently took at the Boardwalk in Bossier. Mine isn't quite as urban-looking, but the construction sign with the skyline in the background is where I saw the similarity. Of course these photos also show the clear difference in size between the Shreveport and Little Rock skylines.

Skirby's pic (Little Rock-North Little Rock)

My pic (Shreveport-Bossier City)

[TBurban]

Those are awesome photos Shreveport and Little Rock all have a signature tower. By that I mean that its one tower that stands above all the others, that really tops off the skyline. Both cities signature towers are great looking, very impressive for cities those sizes

[NCB]

Great shot of the Shreveport skyline, Brian! One thing that I've always liked is that the Shreveport skyline looks pretty dense from nearly every angle. It may not be as tall as Little Rock, but I prefer the density of Shreveport's skyline over the more spread out Little Rock skyline. Though I still have to give the overall edge to Little Rock because of height.

[bigboyz05]

Thanks for the nice pics everyone! I like the fact that Shreveport is dense as well. I haven't been to L.R. in ages! I'm gonna have to get myself up there and look around.

[richyb83]

Thanks for those pics , I enjoyed all of them !

I have always been impressed with Little Rock's Skyline.They have some tall bldgs. for their size. It's almost not fair to compare both of them bec. LR is Arkansas's largest city, centally located in the State.

Shreveport is Louisiana's third largest city, in the NW part of the State. But I do like their density. And the high-rise casino hotels(not shown in most pics) are away from the CBD.

Another Capital city I have been impressed with a nice Skyline with height & density for it's(similar) size of pop. 194,000 is Des Moines Iowa.

[Spartan]

Actually, Little Rock is quite a bit larger than the other two. The City populations you list are valid, but not for population comparisons. City annexation laws aften vary by state and do not alow for a good comparison

MSA			Pop		 Change	Percentage

Little Rock	583,845	 70,728	1.3%

Jackson		440,801	 45,405	1.1%

Shreveport	 392,302	 15,972	0.4%

The problem with MSA and city populations is that they are based upon artificial boundaries, which can slice up what actually makes up a city. For example, Little Rock and North Little Rock are not the same municipality but they are the same city (bulit up area with a definable central core: Littlte Rock).

So, another way to compare them is by their urban area population, which is put out by the Census, but does not conform to political boundaries. It is not a parfect measure, but it is the best that we have. Unfortunately the Census site appears to be down today (at least at the time of this post), but I will try to post the Urban area statistics later. I think you can see what I'm getting at though. Little Rock is definately a larger city than the other two.

[dimebag1980]

Spartan,

I'm not sure where your information is coming from, but what does it say about Baton Rouge? Would it have been a better fit with Shreveport and Jackson, or is it along the same lines as Little Rock. Not as much of a skyline as Little Rock, but would the population compare more to Little Rock or Shreveport and Jackson?

Thanks.

[bigboyz05]

I think Baton Rouge's population is more comparable to Little Rock.

[dimebag1980]

I think Baton Rouge's population is more comparable to Little Rock.

That's kind of what I was thinking.

I guess Shreveport and Jackson are just kind of stuck down here in our own little area. Shreveport's metro population likely would be right on par with Little Rock's and Baton Rouge's had the oil business not dropped off here in the mid-80s. The suburbs of Shreveport, many of which are just now beginning to grow again, used to all have at least 10,000 residents.

[NCB]

Spartan,

I'm not sure where your information is coming from, but what does it say about Baton Rouge? Would it have been a better fit with Shreveport and Jackson, or is it along the same lines as Little Rock. Not as much of a skyline as Little Rock, but would the population compare more to Little Rock or Shreveport and Jackson?

Thanks.

I'm not sure if the populations Spartan listed were CSA's or MSA's, but Baton Rouge's CSA population had surpassed 750,000 in a 2004 estimate, and that number is probably closer to 900,000 now after Katrina.

[DMRyan]

Another Capital city I have been impressed with a nice Skyline with height & density for it's(similar) size of pop. 194,000 is Des Moines Iowa.

I've always thought there were some similaraties between Des Moines and Little Rock, and they look pretty similar in how they've developed. Pretty comparible skylines too, if you ask me.

Out of the three cities compared, Little Rock defintely takes the cake. The Rock has an eye-catching skyline that has gotten better in recent years. There's still some filling in to do, but it's the most picturesque of the three. Shreveport seems pretty surprising for a smaller city too. After following a few development threads, it looks like Shreveport is looking much better from the ground level too. It's been about 4 years since I was last there, and parts of downtown looked very desolate and rundown. That was about the time the casinos had just opened up though.

I usually like rooting for the underdog, but I'm not even giving Jackson a sympathy vote on this one. For a state capital and city of that size, the skyline is very underwhelming, with nothing new in how many years? Very dissapointing, and it makes me wonder if there's even a urban renaissance going on there similar to the other two cities in this poll.

[johnnydr87]

I like Iowa a lot, so the comparison works well for me.

Shreveport, LR, and Des Moines all have the luxury of being on rivers. Although the ones in DM and Shreveport don't look navigable.

[dimebag1980]

I've always thought there were some similaraties between Des Moines and Little Rock, and they look pretty similar in how they've developed. Pretty comparible skylines too, if you ask me.

.images snipped for reply.

Out of the three cities compared, Little Rock defintely takes the cake. The Rock has an eye-catching skyline that has gotten better in recent years. There's still some filling in to do, but it's the most picturesque of the three.

No doubt. Even being from Shreveport, of these three cities, I'm most impressed wth Little Rock's skyline so it got my vote.

Oh, and I'd seen Des Moines' skyline in photos before but had honestly forgotten it looked so good. Wow... I'm very impressed. And population-wise (city,) I believe Des Moines is quite a bit larger than Little Rock... so for Little Rock's skyline to come so close is pretty amazing in itself.

Shreveport seems pretty surprising for a smaller city too. After following a few development threads, it looks like Shreveport is looking much better from the ground level too. It's been about 4 years since I was last there, and parts of downtown looked very desolate and rundown. That was about the time the casinos had just opened up though.

Yeah, downtown used to be a pretty sad place. These days it's only like that on Sundays, since no one is down there working or drinking. This last Sunday I got chased off by a bum again, because I was taking pictures on his turf. Hell, how was I to know he owned that square of bricks? Sheez... That kind of thing seems to only happen on Sundays. The only area of downtown that's still busy on Sundays is the riverfront. That area truly never sleeps thanks to the casinos.

Oh, and next time you're here, check out the Bossier City riverfont. Even they've got it going on over there (I say "over there" like I don't live on that side of the river myself because I'm a total goob...)

[dimebag1980]

I like Iowa a lot, so the comparison works well for me.

Shreveport, LR, and Des Moines all have the luxury of being on rivers. Although the ones in DM and Shreveport don't look navigable.

I'm not sure about Des Moines, but the Red River through Shreveport became navigable again in the mid-to-late 90s. Before then, it hadn't been navigable since about the turn of the century. Just south of Shreveport there is even a rapidly growing Port complex (the Port of Shreveport-Bossier,) and now plans are underway to make the river navigable all the way up to Texarkana.

[johnnydr87]

To Texarkana? Whoa...

I didn't know the red river had it in it.

[dimebag1980]

To Texarkana? Whoa...

I didn't know the red river had it in it.

believe it or not...

It's just one of those things that will take time and is being done in phases... and slowly. There is actually a new 'Red River Waterway' Visitors Center that just opened in downtown Shreveport with a river overlook and tons of information about the waterway. It gives information on the project up to this point, along with a little glimpse of what the future holds.

The majority of traffic along the Red River will be barge traffic, as the large ships obviously don't come this far north. As of right now, barge traffic is high between the south Shreveport port and the mouth of the river in south Louisiana.

[Spartan]

I guess if New Orleans can't fix its ports then these river cities will have to pick up the slack. All of that stuff has to get out of here somehow.

[DMRyan]

There are two rivers that run through downtown Des Moines, but neither are navigable because they are either too shallow or have a series of dams that would block off boat traffic. We're in the early stages of fixing the dam situation as a part of our $60 million dollar riverwalk project, to allow small boat traffic to navigate the river, but nothing on the order of having barge traffic. Des Moines proper isn't too much bigger than LR, it is estimated to be around 200,000 people, in a metro of about 525,000, so Little Rock metro is the bigger of the two.

Thanks for the info on Shreveport SBCmetroguy. I would love to see how the downtown looks now, and would be eager to see some skyline shots of the city when the convention hotel is complete. We have a couple of mid-rise towers in the works for downtown Des Moines, but the last sizable highrise of around 20 floors was built in 1997. We're getting the ball rolling on a potential high rise hotel project for our new convention center/arena, but that is still a few years off from becoming serious.

Going back to the Little Rock and Des Moines comparisions, I think that both cities look relatively comparible size wise (going beyond the skylines), and I know what both cities have done with their downtowns. I am an urban planner for the City of Des Moines, and I know we're pretty envious of Little Rock's trolley system, among the other things that have happened downtown recently. We are starting to talk bus rapid transit to connect to the suburbs up here, but we don't really have a traffic problem that would absolutely warrant mass transit. Having a trolley system in downtown should be an option though.

Great learning more about these smaller regional cities, keep up the good work repping your towns guys.

[johnnydr87]

Going back to the Little Rock and Des Moines comparisions, I think that both cities look relatively comparible size wise (going beyond the skylines), and I know what both cities have done with their downtowns. I am an urban planner for the City of Des Moines, and I know we're pretty envious of Little Rock's trolley system, among the other things that have happened downtown recently. We are starting to talk bus rapid transit to connect to the suburbs up here, but we don't really have a traffic problem that would absolutely warrant mass transit. Having a trolley system in downtown should be an option though.

The Clinton Library has helped get the ball rolling with these projects indubitably. Every major city needs its Clinton Library. There's an architect on the AR forum who praised the urban development in Des Moines, Iowa, for truly keeping the city's character in planning. My personal beef is that you guys have an Apple store (right?) and Little Rock doesn't! I believe your Apple is in the smallest, most isolated metro of all the Apple stores.

[DMRyan]

Smallest metro with a Cheesecake Factory too, for whatever that is worth. It's a nice feather in the cap, but I'm more of an urban-downtown type guy.

[NCB]

I guess if New Orleans can't fix its ports then these river cities will have to pick up the slack. All of that stuff has to get out of here somehow.

Most of the slack would go to Baton Rouge at that point, which could definately handle the increase in traffic. But actually, the entire Port of South Louisiana, which is based just upriver from New Orleans, and is the largest port in the world in terms of raw tonnage, is coming back very strong and very quickly. The port is actually doing extremely well post-Katrina, with really no problems at all.

And Brian, I'm glad to hear about the possibility of the Red River becoming navigable up to Texarkana! Though parts of the Red River are very shallow around Texarkana, and sandbanks are everywhere.

[richyb83]

DMRyan, I am also impressed with the system of Skywalks in Downtown Des Moines !

Nate, I am so glad to hear the ports coming back strong in south Louisiana.

Also, thanks for that info Brian about the growing port complex south of SBC.