Arkansas Blog

I like the Strong Mayor title. You should continue to call Stodola that no matter the outcome of the election.

Hey Max,

What about the loudspeakers at the carwash and at Sonic?

I was most concerned with traffic turning left into Sonic and slowing traffic but during rush hour few from downtown seem to be going to Sonic.

I am waiting for the death of a whole family, but probably one at a time, because of the gate entrance on that blind curve half way up Cantrell Hill.

What idiot approved a access curbcut on a blind downhill curve? That will be one big mushroom cloud when a semi from Kroger barrels down that hill and some resident trys to stop for a left turn off Cantrell. I guess the problem will be self correcting. Anyone dumb enough to live there would not be bright enough to enter or exit safely.

ARK. BLOG: Could be worse. Would have been worse with a traditional Sonic design than what emerged as a result of neighborhood opposition.

What happened to Pfeifer who had been absolutely opposed to this change? Does anyone expect him to file suit to overturn the decision? I guess RPM's political influence was greater than Gene's.

Is that your house? From now on when I can't sleep at 2:00 a.m. and I get up to get the car washed and grab a large cheesy Tator Tots and 84 ounce Strawberry Peach Limeade Guzzler (without the whipped cream) chaser from Sonic I'm going to turn my radio down. Sorry bout that.

Strong Mayor Stodola. That is funny. That should stick.

What's funny to me is that, at last look the last time I was on Highway 10, the only businesses that occupy that Bella Rosa strip mall are Jim's Razorback Pizza, the pizza place's lounge where you can hang out and watch TV, and Rector Phillips Morse, who I believe is the developer. Nothing else but vacant office buildings in an entire (and fairly large) strip mall. Little Rock development at its finest.

Adcock has NEVER been for any neighborhood except her own in Southwest Little Rock. In every other business case, she will side with the developer over the people who live in the neighborhood. Check her record. It is abysmal. But she keeps returning to the Board election after election. The other four are also developer/business friendly. Michael Keck keeps returning to the board election after election. Kumpuris, same song. B.J., should I say more? Obviously we see the way Stodola leans. Maybe he can have a few more drinks bought for him at the Faded Rose in Riverdale while he does the businessman's bidding.
I did think Fortson was bigger than all this. Guess not. Allied with his business buddies, too.
I hate gubmint.

Max and CH both have good points regarding the Sonic and that blind turn on Cantrell...

I go through that corridor about a hundred times a day. When leaving downtown I might get stuck from some bozo sliding off the road into that same telephone pole over and over by the railroad bridge, to some bozo stopping traffic to get a damn Route 44 where there is no turn lane (who needs that much fluid, by the way?!), to some bozo trying to make the illegal turn at Mathis Tire, to some construction on that weird gate or some routine maintenance...

Not to mention the traffic from Alltel...

Pizza. We're all taking the bait. That's a red herring. What about the water? Lake Maumelle and all that. Remember Ferguson et al. It's always about food or drink when you get down to it. Well there's sex too but you can go 4 days without sex but not without water. I did it once. True. Went four days without sex. Well, more like three and a half but still. Sure, was rough but I could never go that long without water. Pizza? I could go a week easy without Pizza. I mean good Pizza too.

The point is what about Lake Maumelle? We can't let that recede into the back pages of the blog an therefore the public mind.

It would be funny if it weren't so sad. Time after time: Developer runs and idea up the pole to gauge the opposition. City board asks the neighbors if they can reach a "compromise" (because compromise is always good, you know). Neighbors agree to some restrictions because the board basically tells them compromise or get run over. Then later the board comes back and waives the compromise. Neighborhoods need to learn to say no and make the board run it over them or back down. The board will probably still side with the developers, but then we can vote them out!

(Instead, we keep coming back like Charlie Brown believing that *this fall* Lucy really *won't* pull the ball out from under us.)

And they wonder why we never vote for any tax increases, bond issues, etc. Who would give these self-serving, pompous, charlatans any more power or influence?

Are you listening, Strong Mayor???

My friend Willie Makeit and I were talking just today as we passed the pizza joint to get to a better pizza joint farther west about how, for as long as we can remember, Pulaski County and its cities have been run like a big plantation: one or two "planters" at the tip of the pyramid, a couple dozen mule-riding field bosses to carry out the planters' orders, and the rest of us field hands pickin' the crops, shakin' the bush, boss, and payin' our taxes to keep the whole plantation well-oiled.

After generations of this, we find the plantation's schools destroyed and the plantation itself and the biggest city on the plantation now in bankruptcy.

Shakin' the bush, boss.

It's a very simple truism I have been noting for years. North Little Rock government likes its citizens. Little Rock government dislikes its citizens. That explains it all, 100%....just watch and test the theory. Go to a NLR city council meeting. In person. Feel the warmth even on difficult agenda items. Go to LR city board meeting. In person. Feel the disdain on every issue. Watch the LR board spend 30% of its meeting congratulating itself in one way or another. Go back to NLR and try to find them congratulating themselves maybe once every three months. One group is serving the community. The other group is posturing and paying off debts. Cynical observations, but all borne out by the passage of time.

Wow, that's a whole bunch of Board meetings to go to and observe and keep stats to boot. Like going to a ball game or something and keeping score and never leaving your seat to grab a beer or ballpark dog. "Hey, honey, whataya say we go down to the NLR Council meeting tonight. C'mon, will be fun. Mayor Hayes is going to use that new gavel the Chamber gave him." I' think I'll just take your word for it.

Its aggravating that Jim R. Pizza knew the restriction on hours when he chose to open shop there. Then he whines that he may go out of business if he can't get the extra hours that he knew he wasn't entitled to in the first place.

Does he have hotdogs on his menu? He must, since he looked at the board and recognized a couple of prime weenies there.

If the 6 approving Board members had a pair of traditional weenie attachments amongst them, they would have stood firm. Then Jim R. Pizza could relocate, and the cheap, vacant, eyesore shopping center could be bulldozed and replaced with something else, something pretty like a drive-in bank or another Sonic or something . . .

Corruption at all levels of government is the reason the common people strongly support Ben Laden. Your leaders lie to you because they are afraid for you to know the truth. If only we had leaders like that here.

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened."
Sir Winston Churchill