Hooters coming in May

[bigboyz05]

A Hooters restaurant should be open this spring. It will employ 100 in a space of 7,500 square feet. Texarkana's high traffic count, good economy and good demographics were factors for them wanting to locate here. It will be in the old Western Sizzlin building.

[dimebag1980]

A Hooters restaurant should be open this spring. It will employ 100 in a space of 7,500 square feet. Texarkana's high traffic count, good economy and good demographics were factors for them wanting to locate here. It will be in the old Western Sizzlin building.

[bigboyz05]

I see this as both a positive and a negative. Let me explain.

While all the growth is out in the Richmond area, State Line certainly does need all the business it can get. But you'd think they would want to put the Hooters near all the newer growth. That said, however, IHOP, Denny's, and Bennigan's are all located close by.

But I'm also a bit surprised that they're going to renovate a Western Sizzlin for such a major restaurant like Hooters.

I don't know, I see positives and negatives. But overall I think Texarkana needs more diversity and this will help that. This and the new strip club will also help to get rid of some of the old school prudishness that plagues Texarkana. The city is changing and diversifying, and I welcome it.

[dimebag1980]

Yeah that's true. I heard the strip club was going to be near the Adult Superstore on Hwy 108 on the Arkansas side. I hope Texarkana continues to diversify. We should look to Shreveport as an example.

[bigboyz05]

Don't get me wrong, dude, I love Shreveport. But with our race relations issues, don't look to us as an example. Sure we have Hooters and numerous strip clubs, and our nightclubs are open until 6 am while most cities' clubs close at 2 am... but that's entertainment. As far as race relations go, as much as I hate to say it, we're like old-school Birmingham.

And don't look to Shreveport as an example of anything EXCEPT how to build freeways. We have a great system of freeways for a city this size.

Again, I LOVE Shreveport but I'm being honest. The last thing I want for Texarkana is for it to become another Shreveport. Texarkana has its own identity and I hope it expands upon that.

[dimebag1980]

I hear what you're saying. I really had no idea race relations in Shreveport were that bad.

[bigboyz05]

Damn, really? Most definitely. We just can't seem to get along down here, which baffles me. Shreveport is 52% black while Bossier is about 24% black. There are a LOT of black people here, yet the two main races, black and white, just don't mix well here. It's amazing to me.

We have a lot of Mexican, Asian and Middle Eastern people here as well, and they all seem to get along with every race just fine. Except for the Asian businesswoman who was murdered a few weeks ago by a black teenager over near my office. Conflicts between blacks and Asians here aren't common at all. This was a robbery situation, so it wouldn't have mattered if the lady was white, black, Asian, Mexican... he'd have killed her anyway.