MacArthur Park Seeking Class A Designation

[johnnydr87]

edit:/// this should probably go under the Downtown Outside the River Market thread. Can you move it, Architect?

Today, July 23, a Little Rock park group will get $150,000 as the first step in a multi-million-dollar redo. It may not seem like much, but consider this: There's not a single person in the group on the City Board of Directors.

That's not a non-sequitur. War Memorial Park, which is getting $1.225 million, has City Director Stacy Hurst as its champion. Riverfront Park, which has undergone a transformation in the past few years thanks to a mixture of public and private funds, has Director Dean Kumpuris. A tremendous amount of energy has gone into planning and reshaping those parks, directed from the top down.

[hogwash]

I tend to disagree. If there is one thing LR citizens don't like, its paying for things. Paying for things like adequately staffing city departments. I'm still amazed the city only has a 1/2 cent sales tax when LR enjoys such a large retail trade area. I realize sales tax is regressive, but I think it has equitable aspects as well, such as taxing those that use our streets and services during work hours but refuse to live here. They shouldn't get off scott-free.

I'm just not sure how something like this could be financed without some sort of new revenue stream and Public Works and the like are already licking they're chops to get a piece of any new sales tax that might be put to a vote once the economy turns around.

[johnnydr87]

I'm pretty ignorant as far as tax code goes. What you say makes sense.

On a side note, I'm not sure how much weight the UALR Urban Studies program threw around, but it was discontinued by UALR a few months ago. Pretty tragic in my opinion. It really helped set up the vision for the city. http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleVi...7d-2310634d0127

I would hope, based on my activist experiences, that a group of "concerned citizens" ultimately has the endurance and depth to bring this project to fruition. Then again, this is a different situation than what I tend to consider "grassroots."

LR needs great parks!

[hogwash]

It doesn't say a whole lot for being urban oriented when Arkansas' urban university cuts its urban studies program does it?

[Arkansasfiddler]

I went to the Lafayette Building downtown at lunch today. The Little Rock Downtown Partnership is located up on the third floor, but they have a model and masterplan on display in the firs floor lobby for the MacArthur Park and the surrounding neighborhood. Anyone can walk in and take a look at it. Looks like exciting stuff. I encourage anyone to go see it. The masterplan for the surrounding neighborhood looks very similar to the plan laid out by the task force that came and did a presentation last week.