These days it seems that few people want anything to do with compromise. And it's not just Tea Party folks. Imagine, if you can, somebody giving a strong, prime-time, before-the-candidate speech on the virtues of being pro-life at the Democratic National Convention. Heat up the tar, gather up the feathers.
Same can be said about any number of causes, at any number of political events. At one recent event, Hillary Clinton was booed for saying something nice about charter schools. When Donald Trump tried--he tried, bless him--to sound apologetic about some of the things he said during the primaries, his supporters openly laughed at him. Compromise? We don't need no stinkin' compromise!
Until we do. And the waters calm. And people come and reason together. And things get accomplished.
For the first and best example, take the I-30 Split Diamond Plan put together to improve the bridge between Little Rock and North Little Rock. When the mayors of both of those cities, and the county judge, and folks at the Clinton Presidential Center and the Downtown Little Rock Partnership and the Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Central Arkansas Library System and the Little Rock Regional Chamber and . . . . Whew. When all these different people and outfits agree on something, maybe it's not all bad. Not at all.
Dozens of changes have been made by the engineers in the last few months, given the controversies when some plans came out last year. Traffic on Second Street in downtown Little Rock should be reduced, somebody trying to get to the airport from west Little Rock won't have to drive through a maze of one-way streets (dodging kids and streetcars the whole way) and the area from the Historic Arkansas Museum to the Clinton Presidential Center should be one big park soon enough.
So let's do this. And with a minimum of lawsuits, please. The opposition, such that it is, is already talking about going to the courts, and complaining about the costs of the project. It is past time for some in Little Rock to stop being so litigious when they don't get their way.
And it's not as if getting the lawyers involved ever made any government project cheaper.
(A quick word to those in the know at the state Highway and Transportation Department: The video of what the new highway over the river would look like--the artist's take seen in 3-D--is fantastic. Gentle Reader can find the 8-minute video at the department's website, by clicking on the Connecting Arkansas Program link.)
Another compromise, this one over at Little Rock's city hall, is only a proposed compromise. For now. Until the board of directors gets a chance to do the right thing at its next meeting. (Let's keep the good thought.)
There was a simple, and simplistic, proposal to require new Little Rock cops to live within the city limits. Which would narrow the number of applicants at a time when it's difficult enough to get people to want to police our cities. Why would any responsible "leader" in city government want to make it more difficult to hire the best, especially at police HQ?
A compromise appears to be in the works. And, of course, it comes from city manager Bruce Moore, who knows how to do these things. He would have the city create an incentive program that would give extra money to new full-time city employees if they move to Little Rock and promise to stay with the city for at least two years.
Incentive. Not mandate. Fair enough. Responsible enough.
But will it be enough for the board of directors? Let's hope.
We're not done yet. Another compromise has been reached in the matter of transportation in central Arkansas, and with the coming work at the Broadway Bridge, none too soon.
The bridge could close as soon as next month, rerouting as many as 25,000 cars a day to other streets in downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock. So, as requested by engineers who can smell a thousand headaches coming for the next six months, the Rock Region Metro has promised to shut down the downtown streetcars during the morning and evening rush hours.
Thank the heavens. And the engineers.
It's going to be traffic torture for workers and visitors in the downtown areas until the Broadway Bridge is replaced. It would only be more so with the streetcars taking up most of the street.
You see, compromise isn't a dirty word. Sometimes it can be a most pleasant one.
Now let's see if the rest of us can teach that to the feds.
Editorial on 09/04/2016