UO > Community Profile > Little Rock, AR

It was November 3rd, 1992. The nation’s spotlight shone and throngs of supporters cheered on the lawn and brick walk of the Old State House in Arkansas’ capital as William Jefferson Clinton appeared. Arkansas’ favorite son was the new President of the United States, creating an instant notoriety for his home town.

Now, 12 years later and half a mile east on the same street (part of it named for him), the revelry has returned to Little Rock as the Clinton Presidential Center and Park opens this month. The gala round of activities is set to include visits from former U.S. presidents and foreign dignitaries.

Balanced on a pedestal, the glass-clad rectangular building is a beacon on the bluff above the Arkansas River. It’s not far from the small outcropping that inspired the name given to the city by French explorer Bernard de La Harpe in 1722. The building’s form represents a kind of glass bridge symbolizing the theme of the Clinton administration—“Building a Bridge to the 21st Century.”

Besides chronicling the 42nd president’s life with exhibits and interpretive stations, it holds the largest archival collection in American presidential history. Bridging old and new, the historic 1899 rail station nearby has been restored as the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. The project has even brought new life to an abandoned rail bridge, now restored as a walkway across the river to North Little Rock, a “satellite” city currently experiencing its own renaissance.

The Clinton library/museum is anything but a stand-alone attraction. “It was a conscious decision to put it near I-30 and I-40

(they converge near downtown just north of the river) which carry one of the greatest numbers of vehicles in the country,” says Scott Carter, the public relations manager for the City of Little Rock. “The library is near hotels and entertainment venues—something to do at night.” True Clinton devotees can visit “historic” Clinton sites, including his favorite McDonald’s at 701 Broadway St., on self-guided tours using brochures available at the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Carter is convinced that it’s also one of two keystones that have brought abundant life back to a once-languishing downtown. The other: River Market Entertainment District, a $3.5 million dining/shopping/culture/entertainment complex that opened in 1996. It’s a neighbor to a long-time farmers’ market and Riverfront Park, a grassy refuge with a 6,000-seat amphitheater. Thanks to the Clinton pedestrian bridge, Little Rock should soon become a link in a projected Millennium Trail stretching from Pinnacle Mountain State Park ten miles west to the Little Rock National Airport on the eastern edge of the city.

According to Carter and others, the River Market started the domino effect. The buzz of activity was music to Bill Clinton’s ears when deciding on a building site. A flurry of new downtown dwellers in renovated lofts and new apartments made it an irresistible locale for new business buildings, new and rejuvenated hotels, and the transformation of two old manufacturing facilities into a downtown public library and the Museum of Discovery, transplanted from a less-trafficked neighborhood.

The Downtown Partnership, an organization that expedites central city revival, reports that more than 41,000 workers now live downtown. Downtown upstarts also include state-of-the-art venues for two major corporations, a new banking/hotel complex and extensively upgraded buildings for several long-time downtown banks.

A vintage attraction, Riverfest Arts and Music Festival, started in 1978 by the Junior League, has seen monumental growth. The end-of-May event has spilled across the river to North Little Rock and was recently named one of the Top Events for 2005 by the American Bus Association, a trade organization for tour operators.

In the words of David Gerson, DO, a born-and-bred New Yorker, Little Rock has become “a little big city,” free of the Big Apple frenzy but more than adequately endowed with big-city amenities. “It also doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg for theater tickets or to go to museums,” he says.

Little Rock’s cultural scene includes a symphony, ballet company, chamber orchestra, Broadway theater series, repertory theater, and several community arts groups. Visitors to The Arkansas Art Center can see works by the Old Masters and a large collection of drawings. And, on the west side of the city, surrounded by gardens, the unusual Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts presents music and drama in a pristine setting, offers summer arts camps for kids in grade and high schools, and hosts a month-long eclectic arts festival throughout June.

Back in town, the city’s quieter historic neighborhoods make it “a little dated, but there’s something nice about that,” says Gerson. They, too, are making a comeback as more and more families move into inviting homes on tree-lined residential streets, including quiet areas of the venerable Quapaw Quarter (named for an early Indian tribe.) One Quapaw area, MacArthur Park, is named for the family of the fabled World War II general born there while his military father was stationed at the then Federal Arsenal. The Quarter’s mix of Greek Revival, Steamboat Gothic, Edwardian, and Victorian styles is a nostalgic reminder of bygone gracious lifestyles.

Gerson laughingly says he came to the once-sleepy city because of “a powerful mother-in-law. My wife’s parents retired to nearby Hot Springs, and I interviewed here to appease them.” But, he adds, “On a serious note, it wasn’t my mother-in-law who got me to come here. It was the opportunity. She got me to think about it.”

A physician with Baptist Health Family Clinic operated in Cabot, a northern suburb, by Baptist Health Medical Center, the state’s largest not-for-profit health-care facility, Gerson happily practices “the kind of medicine I want to do and have a family life. I get to see my kids (three and five), get to wake them up and put them to bed.”

Family life, in fact, has become much more tranquil for thousands of Little Rock residents, thanks to a coordinated attack on neighborhood problems spearheaded by Mayor Jim Dailey. A businessman with an unassuming personality, he’s less well known than the dynamic father-son Daley dynasty in Chicago, but his goal, says Carter at City Hall, is ‘Everyone Working Together.’ “He’s a consensus builder and wants everyone to have a say, but he’s not going to back down on the things that are important to him. If he feels that a certain direction is the right way for the city to go, he’s out campaigning for it.”

What’s been important to Dailey is reclaiming neighborhoods as a matter of city pride, but also as a major step in creating a business-friendly atmosphere. His strategy incorporates more than 45 community blueprints such as Targeted Neighborhoods, Neighborhood Alert Centers, Board and Secure Day, and various youth programs, including a community outreach strategy last year to find 450 summer jobs for high schoolers.

Twice a month, the mayor and key department heads meet to target specific small areas where residents have voiced significant complaints. “What we’ve found,” says Carter, “is that where there’s crime, there are a lot of other issues. Instead of doing a crime sweep, we do cleaning up as well. And the work is coordinated.” Carter admits there are no hard statistics on results, “but neighbors who rarely have good things to say about City Hall are telling us their areas are looking better.”

In the 1990s, Neighborhood Alert Centers, a.k.a. mini city halls, were set up in transitional neighborhoods. The plan was to close them down when problems had been solved, but they’ve become popular meeting places. “Now,” Carter says, “you can’t even mention trying to close one down without the people clamoring against it.”

Board and Secure Day brings together city employees and volunteers to rehab—or demolish—eyesore houses in targeted neighborhoods.

All of the above programs gained international recognition when a Little Rock resident signed on as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala. After hearing her outline of the neighborhood improvement steps, the leaders of the Guatemalan city adopted several of the plans themselves.

On the tell-it-like-it-is side, the mayor doesn’t make promises he can’t keep because of budget problems. Carter’s current favorite tale is about the neighborhood association (one of the city’s 140 such groups) that requested a traffic light at a problem intersection. No money, said the mayor, but he put it on a to-do list. Then a previously passive resident, Molly Irvin, turned into an activist, lobbying, organizing a pressure group, and even raising money to hurry things along. The neighbors held a block party when the light was finally installed. “Miss Molly” became a local heroine, but the big reward came when Neighborhoods USA, a national organization, named Pennbrook/Clover Hill the Neighborhood of the Year.

Today’s spirit of cooperation is not limited to City Hall, the Downtown Partnership, and neighborhood organizations. It’s the same among doctors, says James A. Tanner, MD, an ob/gyn and the chief of staff at Baptist Health Medical Center. “This is a very collegial community, and that’s something you don’t find in some places. It’s really a benefit when you bring in a young doctor.

“It’s also a family-oriented community,” says Tanner, who was born and grew up in Little Rock. “I went to college out of town and lived in other places, but (back home) my wife and I are really in a beautiful place with a lot of recreation areas that are close.”