LITTLE ROCK — All the Bigs in the capital city pondering what to do with War Memorial Park should take a road trip to Nashville, Ark. That city may have the neatest, greenest, bestest city park in the whole state. It's called . . . City Park. (Just follow the signs once you hit the city limits.)
City Park has it all: Baseball fields, pavilions, an amphitheater for concerts and movies, walking trails, a playground for the kiddies, and trees, trees, trees. The park, which isn't much smaller than War Memorial, looks brand new, though most of the work was done about a decade back.
There's advertising on the scoreboardsin the baseball fields. And even some of the seats in the stands-with chairbacks!-were sold to sponsors. Those folks know how to finance the park's upkeep without hitting up the public.
Most impressive: The place is clean. Grass mowed. Trash picked up. Infield dirt raked. We even noticed a sign on a pavilion informing folks that some of the dogwood trees didn't make it, so they'd soon be replaced with crape myrtles.
Conclusion: It's fine to bring in that high-dollar park designer from St. Louis, but sometimes it pays to look for ideas in your own back yard. Especially when Arkansas is your back yard.
Editorial, Pages 106 on 10/28/2007