The Downtown Little Rock Partnership has expanded its ambassador program to the River Market District, meaning residents and visitors in the area can now get directions or other assistance from one of four yellow-uniformed employees.
Ambassadors began strolling the River Market streets Monday, said Gabe Holmstrom, the nonprofit's executive director. The program started in February 2017, when the organization hired two people to provide assistance and report maintenance issues in the city's central business district around Main Street.
"We want people to know that this is probably the safest place in the entire city," Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said of the downtown area at a news conference Thursday afternoon at President Clinton Avenue and Saint Vincent Plaza.
Tim Heiple of the River Market Neighborhood Association said the effort to bring ambassadors to the area began in the spring, when at-large City Director Dean Kumpuris asked residents for ideas on how to improve the district.
"After a lot of discussion and arguing, we decided the ambassadors program, if we could afford to expand it to the River Market, would do the most good," Heiple said.
Three new employees and one current ambassador, 36-year-old Aaron Clark, will cover two 80-hour time slots in the area, Holmstrom said. He said the River Market ambassadors' schedules are subject to change based on the needs of businesses.
River Market ambassadors will cover the blocks between Cumberland and Sherman streets, Holmstrom said. Their responsibilities include helping people find destinations and walking them to their cars. When not assisting citizens, ambassadors are to look for maintenance issues such as graffiti, broken windows, trash and street lights that are out. They can be flagged down on the street or reached by telephone at (501) 831-0465.
The expansion's cost totaled $100,000. Half of that money came from the city, including revenue from River Market parking meters. River Market business and property owners raised $50,000 to match. The city contributes about $190,000 to the Downtown Little Rock Partnership each year, Heiple said.
Donors included the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, the Clinton Presidential Center, the Central Arkansas Library System, the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, Stone Ward advertising agency, the Museum of Discovery, the Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, development company Newmark Moses Tucker Partners, Gus's Fried Chicken and Ernie Biggs piano bar.
"A lot of these business owners, they'll travel and they'll look at other downtowns," Holmstrom said. "They had seen what was going on on Main Street, and they wanted something similar over there."
Similar programs have been used in downtowns of cities that include Nashville, Tenn., Austin, Texas, and Mobile, Ala. The Argenta District of North Little Rock also has an ambassador program.
One of the new ambassadors, 53-year-old Jeff Roper, said he looked forward to giving passers-by directions to one downtown Little Rock street in particular.
"I'm waiting for someone to ask me this question: 'Excuse me, sir, how do I get to Broadway?'" Roper said. "And my answer, of course, is practice, practice, practice."
Metro on 09/21/2018