Arkansas Blog

Hope the people coming to Arkansas for the national conference on recreational trails are treated nicer than the Rainbow People were a while back.....please, no frisking!

I think the Library agenda is presently full with creating the rooftop garden and the wildlife refugee on the land surrounding the Library.

Nice photo art with the usually brown Ark River, several hundred yards away, running blue under the Library.

Who's Gene?
(Pfeifer?)

Actually, that's the reflecting pool/fountain out in front of the Library.

I still think that derned bridge will rust and fall in the river before the Clinton folks do anything about it. I'll still probably pedal over there and see what's up, before I get the bum's rush for being a stinky old cyclist ;-)

Yes elwood, if the river did run under the side of the library it would be a great fishing spot.

And

Durango, I expect the Gene would be Pfeifer. Gene had some warehouses or other land condemmed for the library AND Gene has aided the River Trail. Gene gave 100 acres up between the Big
dam Bridge and Burns Park for the trail.

When I expressed my thanks for his 100 acre donation he said well it wasn't as nice as it seems since it was flood prone and only good for hay plus they ran a spur trail up to his commercial development it joins.

And

Death, we will treat these people better than the rainbow people since a lot of these will be biking and hiking doctors, lawyers, engineers. Not shifty types like the rainbow (except the lawyers), plus these people will rent hotel rooms instead of pitch tents in forests.

See if the rainbow people would just spend big bucks they could be treated as nice as the Harley riders in Eureaka.

And finally, I want them to put in a snowmobile trail here. That bike trail sure got hot last summer.

The Rock Island bridge conversion has been on the agneda since at least 2003 when the library's construction promised the conversion of the bridge then.

That photograph is amazing. Who took it?

As I recall, Gene's gift to the North was for an equestrian trail...

He did donate land for the equestran trail just last year and all of the land West of Burns park where the current River trail and campbell lake trails run today years and years before that.

With all due respect to those personally invested/excited about the bridge getting completed (including Gene who I think we all know is extremely personally invested/obsessed with the issue), as best I can tell the Clinton Foundation is working on HIV/AIDS treatment all over the world, climate change in the world's 40 biggest cities, addressing childhood obesity throughout the country, etc. (all while having transformed Little Rock's economy with the Library). It isn't too surprising that the bridge/river trail hasn't been their most pressing issue.
I'm not in any way suggesting they shouldn't keep their commitment...but I think those of us here who are singularly focused on this one issue might be wise to keep it all in perspective before we get too worked up that this project isn't happening as quickly as it appears everyone hoped it would and as fast as we'd like it to. They continue to say that they're going to do it (and I think I recall they just recently confirmed that it will happen)...I would think that means that they will. Maybe I'm wrong (and I might be)...but given the combination of assurances that it will happen along with the continued diligence of those invested in the issue, I can't imagine it not happening.
Seems that it makes most sense to carefully walk the line between advocating/promoting and insulting/condemning. If the goal is to actually get the project done...attract more flies with honey...