The world is divided into two kinds of people: those who live downtown and those who don't. That's not elitist propaganda; it's just a matter of fact.
Some people, like North Little Rock's Blake Hardcastle, 41 and a resident of the historic Argenta neighborhood, wouldn't choose to live anywhere else.
"I've always lived downtown everywhere I've ever lived except the home I grew up in," said the customer service manager for AT&T Mobility who followed a friend from downtown Little Rock into Argenta seven years ago. After two years in a duplex, he bought a home near Eighth and Willow streets.
Others, like 300 Third resident Troy Deal, 31, have tried subdivision living and found the condo experience to offer more freedom and flexibility.
Deal, a 39-year-old fundraiser in the healthcare industry, says he was drawn by the excitement of the condo project - a new highrise that offered skyline living. Now, he said, he's part of the reshaping and redevelopment of downtown and feels closely connected to the community.
"You can just feel the energy. People are excited about it and talking about downtown."
Maybe that makes living downtown chic, but ask anyone who lives there and they'll tell you that doesn't mean it's superficial.
"I've always been in love with older houses ... and this is just a beautiful area for architecture," said Tracy Rivers, 35 and an artist who rents an apartment carved out of one of the historic homes north of I-630.
Rivers' location is "convenient to every part of Little Rock," she said, including the Peabody Hotel where her husband works - and the airport, which she uses frequently. It's also convenient for shopping in North Little Rock, which is easier than fighting traffic out west, she said.
Like Rivers, Pamela Walker loves the character of the area. The 59-year-old has been on South Broadway near the governor's mansion for more than 30 years. Part of the faculty at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock law school, she also is an attorney who practices out of her historic home.
"The architecture drew me in," she said. "I just do not like modern houses. And if I were to build a house like I like, I couldn't afford it."
Of course, when she moved to downtown in the late 1970s, prices were very different than they are today, about $20 a square foot as opposed to $100 or more today.
Like the price of real estate, the neighborhood has changed a lot in the time Walker's been there.
She remembers a time when she would walk out to get the morning paper and find needles in the yard, evidence of the drug use then plaguing the area.
But a crackdown on crack houses helped, she said. Now landlords choose their renters more carefully.
What's kept her there, and what she finds most appealing about the area now, is the people, she said.
"I really really like the people and the neighborhood .... It's always been integrated - racially, age, and economically. It's always been a totally integrated neighborhood."
That diversity is what continues to hold Hardcastle's interest on the north shore as well.
"As Argenta grows, it makes for a richer community and neighborhood, and I love that," he said. "If I wanted a neighborhood where everyone had 2.5 kids, a family dog and white picket fence in the yard, I'd live in the suburbs."
Owning Gusano's pizzeria in the River Market wasn't the only thing that made Tim Chappell, 31, want to live in downtown Little Rock.
"I liked the lifestyle, being able to walk everywhere and not having to drive, being close to the excitement. That combined with having a business, it just made sense [to make downtown home]," he said.
At first, he lived in an apartment above the restaurant. Now he has a condo in 300 Third Tower. He said he's thrilled with "the excitement of living in a place that's young, and you don't know what will become of it next."
Chappell said he really can't think of one drawback to having a downtown address.
"It's a very exciting thing to be living and working down here."