Something touched a nerve. Following the announcement that Arkansas Repertory Theatre was suspending operations due to financial difficulties, I wrote a column headlined "Wake up, Little Rock."
In that column, I asked if the problems at what's commonly known as the Rep might be a sign of a deeper stagnation in the state's largest city. Is this the canary in the coal mine? I also asked if Little Rock is still a place where the state's brightest young people want to live when they graduate from college. Since the column was published, I've heard from some of the city's top business leaders. These are people who have helped build Little Rock, had events put on in their honor, and had facilities named after them.
"Not only has there been stagnant job growth, there has also been stagnant leadership," one wrote. "There has been no vision, no dreams, no direction and no real effort to move our city to the next level. A few important pieces have come together, but there's a lot more that needs to be done. And it must be nonstop, not something we do every 10 or 15 years. The Rep announcement was just a sign of what the future may hold for our city. Too often in Little Rock, I see lots of excuses, lots of finger pointing, and lots of blame being tossed around. All of this is a result of the lack of leadership."
Another prominent business leader wrote: "Our challenges are symptoms of two larger issues that plague us. The first is leadership. The great cities in this country have dynamic leadership in all of the key sectors--government, business, community organizations, education. The second is the lack of a common agenda. We need an agenda for the city that everyone engages in, believes in, invests in and supports. I'm talking about everyone from the wealthiest people in town to the community activists. Years ago, Little Rock was led by a benevolent but paternalistic cadre of business and civic leaders who looked out for the best interests of the community. Those days are long gone.
"When you see what's being accomplished in places like Bentonville and El Dorado, there's no doubt that the private sector is leading the way. We don't have that here. Instead, we have lukewarm support from the private sector and too much backbiting. I'm proud to be a resident of Little Rock and an advocate for our city. If our leaders could get together for the common good, we would be well on our way to being the next great city."
There's no doubt that crime and public education are major issues. But businesses and residents already pay taxes to support public safety and education. Progress in those areas must come through policy changes at the local, state and federal government levels. My focus is on what the private sector can do to move Little Rock forward. People expect too much from government in Little Rock. It's time for the private sector to step up just as the Walton and Tyson families have stepped up for Northwest Arkansas and the Murphy family has stepped up for El Dorado.
My goal is to stimulate needed conversations, not to pile on Little Rock as residents of some other Arkansas cities are fond of doing. I've called Little Rock home since moving back to Arkansas from Washington, D.C., in 1989 and likely will spend the rest of my life in the city. My wife and I raised two sons here and had an excellent experience doing so. I've made clear that downtown Little Rock is on the verge of becoming one of the best neighborhoods in this part of the country for young, talented people to live and work.
There are facts that must be faced, though. When the 2020 census is conducted, Little Rock likely will have grown by about 40,000 residents from the 1980 census when the city had a population of 159,151. In the four decades prior to that, however, Little Rock grew by more than 70,000 residents from the 88,039 counted in the 1940 census.
Why has Little Rock only added about half as many residents in the past 40 years as it added in the previous 40 years? And, private-sector leaders should be asking themselves, what can we do about it?
In addition to electing government leaders who will make the policy changes needed to improve public safety and education, several things come immediately to mind. The first step is for real estate developers, who always have held an outsized amount of power in Little Rock, to focus on infill development rather than continued western sprawl. Downtown, as noted, is on the verge of being something special. Neighborhoods surrounding the city's two research-based institutions--the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences--should be so much more than they are.
Next, the private sector should vow to make far more significant charitable contributions to ensure that the city's cultural institutions are all they can be (the planned expansion of Arkansas Arts Center is a prime example of the kind of development that can help attract talent to the city) and to take the two aforementioned research-based institutions (UALR and UAMS) to the next level. If Little Rock really wants to be the next great Southern city, as Mayor Mark Stodola is fond of saying, improved cultural institutions and institutions of higher education are the path to success.
One man who moved to Little Rock from Tulsa wrote: "That primarily private-sector town is always amazing to me. The people there never stop asking themselves these questions: 'How can we do better? What do we want to be when we group up? Where do we need to put our energy and focus in order to reach the next level?' I hadn't been in Little Rock very long before it hit me. Civic leaders here looked around and said, 'This looks pretty good. We're OK.' And that's what the city is, in my opinion--just OK. The difficult and necessary part is harnessing the private sector and getting those people enthusiastic and pointed in one direction."
Let the conversation continue.
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Rex Nelson is a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Editorial on 05/20/2018