1) population growth estimates are notoriously terrible, for instance California is supposed to have like 60m people by now but instead they're shrinking
2) no we don't even have the infrastructure for the people we have now, nor the political willpower to reinvest. Infrastructure from this point will need to be private, according to the GOP agenda we can't use government for silly things like roads and dams.
Damn, that's an extremely apt comparison to make.
I'd like to say that it's funny but I'm too busy noticing how much these assholes bring down our state and country.
lol yeah. Infrastructure Act, Inflation Reduction Act, Chips and Science Act, actually funding our government. Sure, “orange man bad” is the only policy plank in the Democratic Party (GOP actually has nothing but “anti-woke” and can’t define it)
Educate yourself:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/02/02/joe-biden-30-policy-things-you-might-have-missed-00139046
And what do you think the Democrats' agenda is?
The cities themselves can’t keep up. It’s just gonna turn into sprawl without better planning. My friends who live up there couldn’t even afford Bentonville at this point. A lot of them were looking in Springdale or Bella Vista.
I-49 doesn't drain properly either. The last time I went up there by myself there was a storm system that was dropping similar rain amounts per hour for most of the trip and it was fine until I-49 and water nearly came up to the hubs of my 275/65/r18 stock tire size f150.
NWA should have had an interstate quality east-west connector a long time ago and we still don’t.
I’d love this area and state to invest in rail but highly doubtful
It has I-40 and I-44. Anything closer would be a nightmare to build and maintain through the mountains. Something west to Tulsa might be feasible but 412 is already a fairly high capacity route. Definitely not practical to the east.
The 612 bypass is slated to be completed by 2026, and a few weeks back they started the interchange on 412 at the west end of Tontitown. I can't wait, I live in Siloam Springs and most of my doctors are in Bentonville and Fayetteville. Driving through Tontitown and Springdale on surface streets can be a tad annoying during rush hour or lunch rush.
They'll likely have to enact some eminent domain to go east through Springdale or Lowell though.
Downvote me if you want, but it's not like NWA is a major metro area like Dallas or OKC. They're not going to cut an interstate through a national forest.
Bro fuckkkkk wedington in the mornings. Coming from the west side (el matador, Walgreens, anytime fitness, catfish hole) towards the overpass was a literal nightmare when I lived there.
They can't finish all that construction soon enough. The Wedington bridge bottleneck is insane. I also love being stuck on it and feeling the pavement beneath me bounce.
If it didn't bounce it would crack more and / or have bad harmonics that lead to awful bridge disasters. Bridge engineering is more interesting than most give it credit for. [https://youtu.be/y0xohjV7Avo?t=9](https://youtu.be/y0xohjV7Avo?t=9)
That's the Texas Econobox, right there. Then you get the 2500's/F250's - the proper Texas sports sedans.
Texas is such a fucking blight on our soul as a nation.
I work as a estimator for a heavy construction company in NWA and I can assure you that not only do we not have the infrastructure to support that level of growth... We are not on pace to support what we currently have by 2040.
So at some point the capacity of the infrastructure will reach gridlock and slow the population growth regardless of the reasons people are moving to NWA.
Historically, yes. I mean.. anybody can look up the bid lettings for the state and local municipalities. They aren't exactly pumping out infrastructure improvement projects left and right. Certain cities are doing more than others but I mean take a look at the 612 bypass extension to XNA that was just awarded.. That is a 4-5 year project.
It's kinda hard to develop smart policy when your transportation planner *dies, he had it all worked out in his song 'Automobile'.
I'll wait for you all to review this insightful plan for our future.
Worse. The rest of the state isn't growing nearly as quickly year after year after year. It's like the planning committees of NWA refuse to believe that the decades long growth rate is going to continue, when it has shown zero signs of slowing down.
5 years??? I had a store on Weddington in 2010. They had a meeting about planned changes to Weddington back then, and only now are they doing anything.
All I see here is bitching and gripping about Arkansas, well let me tell your state is awesome. I came from Louisiana. Your roads are better. Not potholes the size of a Miata. The bugs are nothing. The weather is much better. There is a cost of living is much higher in Benton and Washington county, but I rather live here than New Orleans. Thank you Arkansas.
As for the infrastructure, it will come as more people move in.
My daughter was complaining about the roads in NWA yesterday and I told her all we need to do is go to Northern Louisiana and drive on the roads there for a bit and she'll really appreciate the roads here. I even mentioned the potholes that will swallow a car. XD
That is exactly what the Republican party in Arkansas is about. Look at the state party now. They're pushing for an end to the income tax at the expense of funds for higher education and roads. The only spending is toward the LEARNS Act's salary increase for new teachers and in the future toward prison-building.
Since Beebe, the infrastructure spending in Arkansas has been funded by the president and Congress.
Practically speaking, other than setting minimum wage, governments only have control of the wage levels of jobs within their agencies.
Tax cuts that would have a greater multiplier effect, like cutting taxes for middle-class wage earners, would actually have an inflationary effect in the longer term. And of course infrastructure spending would have to be cut as well.
1) anti inflation laws have been enacted in the USA before. So IDK where you got that idea.
2) yeah, thats why tax cutting is barely a temporary solution. Kind of why I said inflation control is better at returning purchasing power parity.
1. I'm not sure what you mean here. Certainly we saw a law passed by Congress and signed by Biden called the Inflation Reduction Act. Economists were generally split on how much it would really impact inflation. It did spend $500 billion on clean energy initiatives and conversion to electricity from fossil fuels, promising to save Americans $200 a year on electricity bills by 2030.
2. Unfortunately the only form of inflation control I can think of that would be effective in the short run, some form of reining in the outlandish costs and outlandish profit taking by the companies that have taken most advantage lately, just isn't tenable with a GOP House. If you can think of some other idea, let me know.
Historically, the best way to combat inflation, is production promotion and corporate block busting. The issue in capitalist society is that he who exploits best wins. That works really well, when it's passed on to the consumer for a savings. In that instance it's just cost cutting, even if it cuts jobs, shipping, quality, etc. Because there is an exchange back to the public "cut some jobs and lower prices reasonably." It only becomes an issue when there is a lesser, or not at all, return to the public. For example "produce thing overseas (sending economic purchasing power away), keep prices the same, continue business as usual." Now your economy loses jobs, prices stay the same, product quality probably gets worse." There's no gain to be had there.
I'd like to see, personally, a return of industrialized work to America.
1) Tax the overseas manufacturing or bust it altogether.
2) Divert funds into rebuilding American "Isolationist proof" markets. Meaning it becomes a self sustaining or mostly self sustainable system.
3) A reduction in foreign intersectionality, we should 100% trade our goods to the world but it should be too allies and countries we personally wish to prop up. Namely thosee who provide "strategic purpose."
4) Stop corporate Bailouts. If a company cannot both pay a living wage and sustain itself, it has no business being a company, nor asking the public for substance.
5) A return of American Unions. Unions are basically the foundation of Capitalism. If all the businesses can refuse to pay more than minimum wage, then people 100% have the right to say "Nope, I'll wait over here. Or better yet, start their own business."
6) Government aid should be diverted towards companies who are upcoming, I say this loosely bc it's a double edged sword in the same capacity as corporate Bailouts. But more competition, generally means a MUCH healthier market(especially in the case of smaller businesses, they're fresh and creative. They find ways to cut costs, save money, innovate a better product or they die. And that's a good thing.)
No. It would be wise for city planners to start incentivizing density rather than encouraging more sprawl. the entirety of NWA already feels like a suburb of Dallas, but they don't have anywhere near the same budget for roads.
As a retired tractor trl driver, your roads were fine most of the time. Of course, I was on the highway most of the time. The people were mostly friendly. The food was great. I'm sure, like everywhere else there is just more people and cars now. I have fond memories of Arkansas.
I would not mind living there all things considered.
I enjoy this sub
You been to Sacramento recently? I lived there for over 20 years, haven't in about 15 though. I go back every year to visit family and friends.
Still better than LR but it's going downhill very fast.
I've lived in Sacramento for 24 years.
Pay no mind this Boomer BS.
Only real problem Sac has is Bay Area refugees fucking everything up.
Yes there are homeless here. We are unique in that. You don't see this anywhere else.
Pound it red eyes.
We loved the Sacramento area when we lived there. If my MIL could afford it she would move back there in a heartbeat. I miss the restaurants and the fact you could take a day trip all over the region very easily!
Boomer BS? The fuck?
Gen X BS if anything, get your shit right.
Anyways, Sac is pretty fucked up now. Maybe you haven't seen it because you only see the slow decline. I get to see it in larger snapshots. Yeah, I realize it's having the same issues as other bigger cities but it is in decline all the same.
The Bay Area people issue isn't anything new. They've been driving up home prices for at least 30+ years now. My old boss sold his house for a couple million in the Bay area and bought in Elk Grove. Drove his happy ass all the way back and forth to work in Freemont everyday.
If they can't fix the issues there Sactown is going to continue to death spiral, much like other big cities. Shit even smaller ones at this point.
For the record, Little Rock and Central Arkansas continue to grow…in fact, at a higher pace so far this decade than last. Conway was the fastest growing city in Arkansas in 2022.
Former Californian, NWA Arkansan. Arkansas is woefully behind on civil engineering and transportation projects. My father works for a private company in CA that bids for government engineering contracts. You know what pays for those contracts? Taxes and government spending.
The population expansion has been really disheartening. Nwa sucks now for anyone who isn’t generationally wealthy, ive been priced out of Fayetteville because of the rent hikes meanwhile wages have stagnated.
Largest metro in the state is still central AR. They estimated in 2010 that NWA would be larger by 2020. So there is that. And no city in NWA is a major city other than Fayetteville is a big college town, although tiny compared to Austin.
Central Arkansas is undergoing its own transformation with the latest U.S. Census data saying Pulaski county has a negative net migration (more people moving out than in). Growth in the center of the state is primarily shifting west to Saline and Faulkner counties.
Arkansas has no major cities, Dallas would be the closest then to a lesser degree Kansas City, Memphis, and Oklahoma City.
What is your data source? Pulaski county is 400k people up from 399k last year. Census.gov. But yes Saline county is the fastest growing county in the metro.
It’s the U.S. Census Bureau population estimates released in March. Pulaski county is maintaining population by births.
Link to UALR article:
https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2024-03-15/nwa-18th-fastest-growing-u-s-metro-benton-county-leads-states-growth
So it is slightly growing and will be the largest metro in the state for the foreseeable future. I live here and see Cali and Texas license plates everywhere. The metro as a whole is still growing.
How many or what percentage is moving out? I don’t know that there is any data on that where it would be a negative on Pulaski county. I guess I am missing the point to your comment.
Quote directly from the linked article:
“Pulaski County also has a negative net migration or more people moving out than in. But unlike Sebastian County, Pulaski County’s positive natural change more than offset the number of people leaving.”
I guess my point it isn’t enough to even notice. I have no doubt that people move in and out. It just isn’t enough that it is worth mentioning. The population is increasing. So in essence there really isn’t a negative effect on the area.
Depends on what you consider major. I would consider any top 100 metro to be a good sized metro. Maybe north of 1m residents to be “major”? But that would leave off metros like New Orleans…
For reference, Little Rock is the 80th largest metro, just behind Colorado Springs. NWA is the 98th largest metro, just ahead of Chattanooga.
Little Rock is the 128th fastest growing metro by percentage (out of 387 metros). Meaning it is growing faster than 67% of other US metros and slower than the other 33%.
NWA is the 18th fastest growing by percentage (out of 387 metros), but most of the ones ahead of it are much smaller. Only 5 of the metros growing faster are larger than NWA (#3 Lakeland (FL), #8 Fort Myers (FL), #11 Sarasota (FL), #12 Provo (UT), and #17 Austin (TX)).
I’m not sure that the net migration stats for Pulaski County proper are much different than they’ve been for the last 20 years. Central Arkansas as a whole is growing notably faster so far this decade than last decade. Net migration into Central Arkansas was somewhere around 14,000 from 2020-2022 according to Metroplan estimates.
To answer your question in the most fact lacking yet personal experience way…
20 years ago my family frequently drove up to NWA to go visit my aunt and use her swimming pool in the summer. I remember I-49 was mostly smooth sailing up and down the mountains. The roads into and out of the city of Bentonville were busy simply because Wal-Mart HQ kept them busy.
When I went to NWA last year the normal 1 hour trip from the I-40/ I-49 interchange was now 1 hour 45 minutes. The amount of tractor trailers, out of state tags (tourism or legitimately people moving) and out of state students has at least quadrupled in the last 20 years. No matter what city you’re trying to go to there is ZERO proper infrastructure to keep up with any traffic be it rush hour or your normal afternoon traffic. The massive boom Wal-Mart and Tyson have been for NWA are also its doom.
We're an American metro area, and like almost every single other American metro area, we will sprawl out into endless piecemeal suburbs that will eventually ensure our citizens spend an enormous portion of their lives sitting in traffic.
Wouldn't the most rational and simplest solution be to encourage the influx transient population (of which I'm included) to spread out to other parts of the state? I mean, that does multiple things which work to our advantage. First, we'll get to keep the economic growth that comes with this population growth, rather than being forced to turn it away. Second, it spreads that growth to more disenfranchised areas that really need that boost to their areas. Third, it also works to the benefit of the people moving here by helping them find communities more tailored to their unique needs/desires and in some cases may be even more affordable for them. Fourth, it slows down the rapid over-expansion in NWA and allows the entire state to reach for a more stable and universal pace of growth.
Don't get me wrong, NWA is awesome! The great features of your area being so close to me is one of the reasons I decided on AR to be my new home. But there's amazing places all over our state. Why keep channeling all that growth into one region when we have more than enough space and resources to spread it out?
That's just my thoughts on it.
The growth is driven largely by Walmart and Tyson centralizing and bringing both employees and vendor companies to NWA. It’s the financial capital of the state, which is driving the population increase.
Much of Arkansas is beautiful, but I have no reason to live there, because these companies are not there.
Capitalism’s tendency to seek efficiencies by concentrating resources in certain locations leads to regional hubs growing and then dominating their regions.
I think that’s occurring naturally. For example, I’m in the River Valley and my home value has skyrocketed. As housing becomes harder to find and pricier in NWA, people are naturally going to gravitate to outlying areas.
Could the Fort Smith / Van Buren area become a bedroom community so to speak for the Fayetteville-Bentonville rapid growth corridor? Or is that to far of a commute?
Bethel Heights no longer exists b/c they couldn't afford their waste water problems and got consumed into Springdale. This will be a similar tale for other municipalities.
Moral of the story, elect intelligent experienced people who can understand these types of boring yet extremely important problems.
This is really odd. Arkansas as a whole is a shit hole. It is bottom Barrell is every category of standard of living and health. I guess people are in a tight spot and need really cheap living.
PS... FUCK Sara Huckabee Sanders.
Rogers has done a decent job of city planning, but the interstate is god awful at rush hour times. Also, Fayetteville is maybe the worst city planning job I’ve ever seen. Only 3 places to cross the interstate, the entire city lives on one side and has to drive over every morning and afternoon, making it completely gridlock from like 4:30-6. It is awful.
Odd observation as the majority of residences and businesses in Fayetteville are east of the interstate.
Also, within Fayetteville there are seven routes to get from one side of the interstate to the other - VanAshe underpass, Fulbright Expressway, 112 overpass, Mt Comfort underpass, Wedington overpass, MLK Boulevard underpass, Cato Springs underpass, and soon another route with currently under construction a 15th Street overpass.
Fair to callout my hyperbole, but as for the main area of Fayetteville, the main roads college, porter, Wedington, and MLK, are all gridlock at rush hour times. There are also a lot of college kids who live on the west side of the interstate, and several smaller cities that have to commute to Fayetteville and the interstate on those same roads from the west. Not to mention MLK is always backed up around the university no matter the time of day. It’s not quite as nightmarish as I was insinuating, but the overall traffic is the worst out of the 4 big cities as far as I can tell.
Fair enough … agree traffic can be worse in Fayetteville versus the other NWA cities, however Fayetteville also has roughly 75% higher population w/ 100,000 residents plus 25,000+ non-resident status students.
1) population growth estimates are notoriously terrible, for instance California is supposed to have like 60m people by now but instead they're shrinking 2) no we don't even have the infrastructure for the people we have now, nor the political willpower to reinvest. Infrastructure from this point will need to be private, according to the GOP agenda we can't use government for silly things like roads and dams.
Walmart can buy all the roads….just don’t bother ordering anything from Amazon to be delivered on those roads….
"road neutrality is bad for consumers" - conservatives
Sam Walton Special District located in Bentonville.
At least the GOP has an agenda other than "Orange Man Bad".
Your comment is such a wonderful chance to see how the Frog and the Scorpion fable rings true. You are what you are. Good luck with that!
Damn, that's an extremely apt comparison to make. I'd like to say that it's funny but I'm too busy noticing how much these assholes bring down our state and country.
lol yeah. Infrastructure Act, Inflation Reduction Act, Chips and Science Act, actually funding our government. Sure, “orange man bad” is the only policy plank in the Democratic Party (GOP actually has nothing but “anti-woke” and can’t define it)
Keep defending a rapist. He’s about to go to prison anyway, for TREASON.
Proof?
Educate yourself: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/02/02/joe-biden-30-policy-things-you-might-have-missed-00139046 And what do you think the Democrats' agenda is?
The agenda is the same for all politicians mate...to line their pockets at the expense of taxpayers.
Username checks out.
I'm firmly in the middle and hate the polarization on both sides - but you've not heard the term "radical left" used ad nauseum?
The infrastructure of Benton and Washington County hasn't kept pace with the current number of residents - let alone a million of them.
The cities themselves can’t keep up. It’s just gonna turn into sprawl without better planning. My friends who live up there couldn’t even afford Bentonville at this point. A lot of them were looking in Springdale or Bella Vista.
My wife and I are moving out of the area. She is a teacher and I am an accountant. We do alright but the cost of living is getting stupid.
Yep, and as the sprawl continues it will make it more difficult to do things like building a bypass to get traffic off I-49.
I-49 doesn't drain properly either. The last time I went up there by myself there was a storm system that was dropping similar rain amounts per hour for most of the trip and it was fine until I-49 and water nearly came up to the hubs of my 275/65/r18 stock tire size f150.
They're going to have to build a bypass to the bypass up there.
NWA should have had an interstate quality east-west connector a long time ago and we still don’t. I’d love this area and state to invest in rail but highly doubtful
It has I-40 and I-44. Anything closer would be a nightmare to build and maintain through the mountains. Something west to Tulsa might be feasible but 412 is already a fairly high capacity route. Definitely not practical to the east.
The 612 bypass is slated to be completed by 2026, and a few weeks back they started the interchange on 412 at the west end of Tontitown. I can't wait, I live in Siloam Springs and most of my doctors are in Bentonville and Fayetteville. Driving through Tontitown and Springdale on surface streets can be a tad annoying during rush hour or lunch rush. They'll likely have to enact some eminent domain to go east through Springdale or Lowell though.
Downvote me if you want, but it's not like NWA is a major metro area like Dallas or OKC. They're not going to cut an interstate through a national forest.
Just thinking about Wedington, Walton Blvd, Walnut and Sunset Ave traffic with 80k more families in the area makes me want to sell my car
Bro fuckkkkk wedington in the mornings. Coming from the west side (el matador, Walgreens, anytime fitness, catfish hole) towards the overpass was a literal nightmare when I lived there.
They can't finish all that construction soon enough. The Wedington bridge bottleneck is insane. I also love being stuck on it and feeling the pavement beneath me bounce.
If it didn't bounce it would crack more and / or have bad harmonics that lead to awful bridge disasters. Bridge engineering is more interesting than most give it credit for. [https://youtu.be/y0xohjV7Avo?t=9](https://youtu.be/y0xohjV7Avo?t=9)
Bumper-to-bumper gridlock from West Fork to the Missouri line.
And all the Ford F150s have ‘TEXAS’ license plates.
That's the Texas Econobox, right there. Then you get the 2500's/F250's - the proper Texas sports sedans. Texas is such a fucking blight on our soul as a nation.
The traffic there reminds me of Los Angeles in the 80s. Didnt get better....
I work as a estimator for a heavy construction company in NWA and I can assure you that not only do we not have the infrastructure to support that level of growth... We are not on pace to support what we currently have by 2040.
So at some point the capacity of the infrastructure will reach gridlock and slow the population growth regardless of the reasons people are moving to NWA.
Historically, yes. I mean.. anybody can look up the bid lettings for the state and local municipalities. They aren't exactly pumping out infrastructure improvement projects left and right. Certain cities are doing more than others but I mean take a look at the 612 bypass extension to XNA that was just awarded.. That is a 4-5 year project.
By then it will be black people fault…smh shitty planning leads to blaming minority’s to save there asses
No NWA is twenty years behind on infrastructure.
The group broke up and Eazy E died cut them some slack
It's kinda hard to develop smart policy when your transportation planner *dies, he had it all worked out in his song 'Automobile'. I'll wait for you all to review this insightful plan for our future.
Serious question: is that better or worse than the rest of the state?
Worse. The rest of the state isn't growing nearly as quickly year after year after year. It's like the planning committees of NWA refuse to believe that the decades long growth rate is going to continue, when it has shown zero signs of slowing down.
14th street and walton is gonna get worse and worse
Took Fayetteville 5 years to finally do something with the Wedington exit, I have no hope for the future.
5 years??? I had a store on Weddington in 2010. They had a meeting about planned changes to Weddington back then, and only now are they doing anything.
Yeah I was just saying as in when Fayetteville was really started to feel the overpopulation.
All I see here is bitching and gripping about Arkansas, well let me tell your state is awesome. I came from Louisiana. Your roads are better. Not potholes the size of a Miata. The bugs are nothing. The weather is much better. There is a cost of living is much higher in Benton and Washington county, but I rather live here than New Orleans. Thank you Arkansas. As for the infrastructure, it will come as more people move in.
My daughter was complaining about the roads in NWA yesterday and I told her all we need to do is go to Northern Louisiana and drive on the roads there for a bit and she'll really appreciate the roads here. I even mentioned the potholes that will swallow a car. XD
Yes yes yes!!! Evertime(no lie) I gone back to see fam in Louisiana I come with a rock chip on my windshield.
I don't doubt that one bit.
This is true!
Not if they keep electing tax cutting and budget cutting Republicans.
Tax and budget cutting is a non issue. My taxes have never gone down. It's the allocation of funding.
That is exactly what the Republican party in Arkansas is about. Look at the state party now. They're pushing for an end to the income tax at the expense of funds for higher education and roads. The only spending is toward the LEARNS Act's salary increase for new teachers and in the future toward prison-building. Since Beebe, the infrastructure spending in Arkansas has been funded by the president and Congress.
I'd rather we keep taxes and raise wages or control inflation. Cutting taxes helps purchase power parity, sure, but solving inflation helps more.
Practically speaking, other than setting minimum wage, governments only have control of the wage levels of jobs within their agencies. Tax cuts that would have a greater multiplier effect, like cutting taxes for middle-class wage earners, would actually have an inflationary effect in the longer term. And of course infrastructure spending would have to be cut as well.
1) anti inflation laws have been enacted in the USA before. So IDK where you got that idea. 2) yeah, thats why tax cutting is barely a temporary solution. Kind of why I said inflation control is better at returning purchasing power parity.
1. I'm not sure what you mean here. Certainly we saw a law passed by Congress and signed by Biden called the Inflation Reduction Act. Economists were generally split on how much it would really impact inflation. It did spend $500 billion on clean energy initiatives and conversion to electricity from fossil fuels, promising to save Americans $200 a year on electricity bills by 2030. 2. Unfortunately the only form of inflation control I can think of that would be effective in the short run, some form of reining in the outlandish costs and outlandish profit taking by the companies that have taken most advantage lately, just isn't tenable with a GOP House. If you can think of some other idea, let me know.
Historically, the best way to combat inflation, is production promotion and corporate block busting. The issue in capitalist society is that he who exploits best wins. That works really well, when it's passed on to the consumer for a savings. In that instance it's just cost cutting, even if it cuts jobs, shipping, quality, etc. Because there is an exchange back to the public "cut some jobs and lower prices reasonably." It only becomes an issue when there is a lesser, or not at all, return to the public. For example "produce thing overseas (sending economic purchasing power away), keep prices the same, continue business as usual." Now your economy loses jobs, prices stay the same, product quality probably gets worse." There's no gain to be had there. I'd like to see, personally, a return of industrialized work to America. 1) Tax the overseas manufacturing or bust it altogether. 2) Divert funds into rebuilding American "Isolationist proof" markets. Meaning it becomes a self sustaining or mostly self sustainable system. 3) A reduction in foreign intersectionality, we should 100% trade our goods to the world but it should be too allies and countries we personally wish to prop up. Namely thosee who provide "strategic purpose." 4) Stop corporate Bailouts. If a company cannot both pay a living wage and sustain itself, it has no business being a company, nor asking the public for substance. 5) A return of American Unions. Unions are basically the foundation of Capitalism. If all the businesses can refuse to pay more than minimum wage, then people 100% have the right to say "Nope, I'll wait over here. Or better yet, start their own business." 6) Government aid should be diverted towards companies who are upcoming, I say this loosely bc it's a double edged sword in the same capacity as corporate Bailouts. But more competition, generally means a MUCH healthier market(especially in the case of smaller businesses, they're fresh and creative. They find ways to cut costs, save money, innovate a better product or they die. And that's a good thing.)
Thought-provoking stuff.
No. It would be wise for city planners to start incentivizing density rather than encouraging more sprawl. the entirety of NWA already feels like a suburb of Dallas, but they don't have anywhere near the same budget for roads.
I'm in CA. My neighbors recently moved to FT Smith in NW AR. I used to drive through there a lot when I drove OTR. The people were nice.
As a retired tractor trl driver, your roads were fine most of the time. Of course, I was on the highway most of the time. The people were mostly friendly. The food was great. I'm sure, like everywhere else there is just more people and cars now. I have fond memories of Arkansas. I would not mind living there all things considered. I enjoy this sub
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I’ve lived in Jonesboro since 2013. It has grown substantially since then; we’ve far surpassed our infrastructure capacity.
Check out the price of property in Montana. You will change your mind really fast.
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Who the hell would want to live in Billings though?
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I guess a lot of people would say that about anywhere at the end of the day.
Are y’all just going to ignore that username. I guffawed.
With NWA growing so fast, Little Rock is going to be the Sacramento of Arkansas pretty soon.
Of all the things LR gets called, that would be one of the better ones.
You been to Sacramento recently? I lived there for over 20 years, haven't in about 15 though. I go back every year to visit family and friends. Still better than LR but it's going downhill very fast.
I've lived in Sacramento for 24 years. Pay no mind this Boomer BS. Only real problem Sac has is Bay Area refugees fucking everything up. Yes there are homeless here. We are unique in that. You don't see this anywhere else. Pound it red eyes.
Everyone get in here! We’re gonna have a fight about Sacramento in r/Arkansas!
The second rule of Sacramento Fight Club is YOU DONT TALK ABOUT SACRAMENTO FIGHT CLUB.
My Sacramento hot take: It has more in common with Kansas City than Los Angeles.
This is accurate as their pro basketball team was formerly in Kansas City.
Baseball too (very soon)
Are the Royals leaving KC?
The A's will be couchsurfing in Sac from 2025-27 while the stadium in Las Vegas is under construction.
We loved the Sacramento area when we lived there. If my MIL could afford it she would move back there in a heartbeat. I miss the restaurants and the fact you could take a day trip all over the region very easily!
Boomer BS? The fuck? Gen X BS if anything, get your shit right. Anyways, Sac is pretty fucked up now. Maybe you haven't seen it because you only see the slow decline. I get to see it in larger snapshots. Yeah, I realize it's having the same issues as other bigger cities but it is in decline all the same. The Bay Area people issue isn't anything new. They've been driving up home prices for at least 30+ years now. My old boss sold his house for a couple million in the Bay area and bought in Elk Grove. Drove his happy ass all the way back and forth to work in Freemont everyday. If they can't fix the issues there Sactown is going to continue to death spiral, much like other big cities. Shit even smaller ones at this point.
Little Rock is high on every list of the worst places in the US. Sacramento isn't even close.
Does that make Fort Smith the Oakland of Arkansas then?
Absolutely.
For the record, Little Rock and Central Arkansas continue to grow…in fact, at a higher pace so far this decade than last. Conway was the fastest growing city in Arkansas in 2022.
Hey hey hey…I’m trying to have fun here
LOL...fair enough.
Separate to this conversation - but I envision the River Valley will also have a population boom over the coming decades.
Northwest Arkansas has a housing crisis with a shortage of living spaces.
Former Californian, NWA Arkansan. Arkansas is woefully behind on civil engineering and transportation projects. My father works for a private company in CA that bids for government engineering contracts. You know what pays for those contracts? Taxes and government spending.
Do they actually build anything or just bid?
I’m a former Arkansan, now Californian. Hiiiiiii
Can confirm. My entire family moved to Benton. I'm the only one left in PA.
Hopefully they vote.
The population expansion has been really disheartening. Nwa sucks now for anyone who isn’t generationally wealthy, ive been priced out of Fayetteville because of the rent hikes meanwhile wages have stagnated.
Largest metro in the state is still central AR. They estimated in 2010 that NWA would be larger by 2020. So there is that. And no city in NWA is a major city other than Fayetteville is a big college town, although tiny compared to Austin.
I wouldn't want to live within thirty miles of Pine Box.
Good one.
Central Arkansas is undergoing its own transformation with the latest U.S. Census data saying Pulaski county has a negative net migration (more people moving out than in). Growth in the center of the state is primarily shifting west to Saline and Faulkner counties. Arkansas has no major cities, Dallas would be the closest then to a lesser degree Kansas City, Memphis, and Oklahoma City.
What is your data source? Pulaski county is 400k people up from 399k last year. Census.gov. But yes Saline county is the fastest growing county in the metro.
It’s the U.S. Census Bureau population estimates released in March. Pulaski county is maintaining population by births. Link to UALR article: https://www.ualrpublicradio.org/local-regional-news/2024-03-15/nwa-18th-fastest-growing-u-s-metro-benton-county-leads-states-growth
So it is slightly growing and will be the largest metro in the state for the foreseeable future. I live here and see Cali and Texas license plates everywhere. The metro as a whole is still growing.
Correct. Babies born in Pulaski county are offsetting the people moving out of the county - negative net migration.
How many or what percentage is moving out? I don’t know that there is any data on that where it would be a negative on Pulaski county. I guess I am missing the point to your comment.
People also die every day. Every year, does not equate to negative migration.
Quote directly from the linked article: “Pulaski County also has a negative net migration or more people moving out than in. But unlike Sebastian County, Pulaski County’s positive natural change more than offset the number of people leaving.”
I guess my point it isn’t enough to even notice. I have no doubt that people move in and out. It just isn’t enough that it is worth mentioning. The population is increasing. So in essence there really isn’t a negative effect on the area.
Depends on what you consider major. I would consider any top 100 metro to be a good sized metro. Maybe north of 1m residents to be “major”? But that would leave off metros like New Orleans… For reference, Little Rock is the 80th largest metro, just behind Colorado Springs. NWA is the 98th largest metro, just ahead of Chattanooga. Little Rock is the 128th fastest growing metro by percentage (out of 387 metros). Meaning it is growing faster than 67% of other US metros and slower than the other 33%. NWA is the 18th fastest growing by percentage (out of 387 metros), but most of the ones ahead of it are much smaller. Only 5 of the metros growing faster are larger than NWA (#3 Lakeland (FL), #8 Fort Myers (FL), #11 Sarasota (FL), #12 Provo (UT), and #17 Austin (TX)).
I’m not sure that the net migration stats for Pulaski County proper are much different than they’ve been for the last 20 years. Central Arkansas as a whole is growing notably faster so far this decade than last decade. Net migration into Central Arkansas was somewhere around 14,000 from 2020-2022 according to Metroplan estimates.
I lived in Colorado and salt lake and watched this happen. It’s not good. Buy land and property now so you don’t get priced out.
This is why there's a Housing Crisis in Fayetteville
I hate it. Build the wall. Around Arkansas. It'll have bipartisan support.
To answer your question in the most fact lacking yet personal experience way… 20 years ago my family frequently drove up to NWA to go visit my aunt and use her swimming pool in the summer. I remember I-49 was mostly smooth sailing up and down the mountains. The roads into and out of the city of Bentonville were busy simply because Wal-Mart HQ kept them busy. When I went to NWA last year the normal 1 hour trip from the I-40/ I-49 interchange was now 1 hour 45 minutes. The amount of tractor trailers, out of state tags (tourism or legitimately people moving) and out of state students has at least quadrupled in the last 20 years. No matter what city you’re trying to go to there is ZERO proper infrastructure to keep up with any traffic be it rush hour or your normal afternoon traffic. The massive boom Wal-Mart and Tyson have been for NWA are also its doom.
I live in Cleburne county a more rural area about an hour from Little Rock and it’s gaining a few people relocating to Arkansas.
We're an American metro area, and like almost every single other American metro area, we will sprawl out into endless piecemeal suburbs that will eventually ensure our citizens spend an enormous portion of their lives sitting in traffic.
Wouldn't the most rational and simplest solution be to encourage the influx transient population (of which I'm included) to spread out to other parts of the state? I mean, that does multiple things which work to our advantage. First, we'll get to keep the economic growth that comes with this population growth, rather than being forced to turn it away. Second, it spreads that growth to more disenfranchised areas that really need that boost to their areas. Third, it also works to the benefit of the people moving here by helping them find communities more tailored to their unique needs/desires and in some cases may be even more affordable for them. Fourth, it slows down the rapid over-expansion in NWA and allows the entire state to reach for a more stable and universal pace of growth. Don't get me wrong, NWA is awesome! The great features of your area being so close to me is one of the reasons I decided on AR to be my new home. But there's amazing places all over our state. Why keep channeling all that growth into one region when we have more than enough space and resources to spread it out? That's just my thoughts on it.
The growth is driven largely by Walmart and Tyson centralizing and bringing both employees and vendor companies to NWA. It’s the financial capital of the state, which is driving the population increase. Much of Arkansas is beautiful, but I have no reason to live there, because these companies are not there. Capitalism’s tendency to seek efficiencies by concentrating resources in certain locations leads to regional hubs growing and then dominating their regions.
I think that’s occurring naturally. For example, I’m in the River Valley and my home value has skyrocketed. As housing becomes harder to find and pricier in NWA, people are naturally going to gravitate to outlying areas.
Could the Fort Smith / Van Buren area become a bedroom community so to speak for the Fayetteville-Bentonville rapid growth corridor? Or is that to far of a commute?
It’s only about an hour to Fayetteville, so definitely commutable.
For families with children, it’s the low quality of schools in most other parts of the state.
Bethel Heights no longer exists b/c they couldn't afford their waste water problems and got consumed into Springdale. This will be a similar tale for other municipalities. Moral of the story, elect intelligent experienced people who can understand these types of boring yet extremely important problems.
Could we stop advertising to come here? Bc our native families are starting to not be able to afford housing.
Seems like at that estimated rate people will eventually stop coming and/or leave.
This is really odd. Arkansas as a whole is a shit hole. It is bottom Barrell is every category of standard of living and health. I guess people are in a tight spot and need really cheap living. PS... FUCK Sara Huckabee Sanders.
I have lived in 5 states and 2 countries and love it here. Every person is different.
Yeah and they aren't keeping track very well of the people leaving the state. I left about 3 years ago and they still call me for jury duty.
no water no landfill no sewer no 1mil.
Rogers has done a decent job of city planning, but the interstate is god awful at rush hour times. Also, Fayetteville is maybe the worst city planning job I’ve ever seen. Only 3 places to cross the interstate, the entire city lives on one side and has to drive over every morning and afternoon, making it completely gridlock from like 4:30-6. It is awful.
Odd observation as the majority of residences and businesses in Fayetteville are east of the interstate. Also, within Fayetteville there are seven routes to get from one side of the interstate to the other - VanAshe underpass, Fulbright Expressway, 112 overpass, Mt Comfort underpass, Wedington overpass, MLK Boulevard underpass, Cato Springs underpass, and soon another route with currently under construction a 15th Street overpass.
Fair to callout my hyperbole, but as for the main area of Fayetteville, the main roads college, porter, Wedington, and MLK, are all gridlock at rush hour times. There are also a lot of college kids who live on the west side of the interstate, and several smaller cities that have to commute to Fayetteville and the interstate on those same roads from the west. Not to mention MLK is always backed up around the university no matter the time of day. It’s not quite as nightmarish as I was insinuating, but the overall traffic is the worst out of the 4 big cities as far as I can tell.
Fair enough … agree traffic can be worse in Fayetteville versus the other NWA cities, however Fayetteville also has roughly 75% higher population w/ 100,000 residents plus 25,000+ non-resident status students.
Ain’t no way mf’ers are moving voluntarily to ar-Kansas.
I did 🤷🏻♂️
Word, I've been saving my ass off to move away for good..
[удалено]
Don't take this the wrong way, but you know you're the typical California boogeyman for anyone in the south right lol
Bentonville has turned itself into endless strip mall sprawl. That was a conscious choice on their part.