LR's non-planning & other cities reforms (not more taxes)

So now we see these articles in the Gazette today that would pretty much confirm our point that LR city hall is essentially letting the LR city center shift westward and has no plan how to deal with it.

The first article was on the front page of today's Gazette, titled:

Parkway signs blur directions

In short, it says that we have a street with 2 names and signs are on the road west of 630, possibly in the wrong place....and the city has no idea of the problem. More important, though, it has points in the story that show how not long ago that WAS the western boundaries of the city.

But Ed Willis, the president of Financial Centre Corp., who had a hand in the development of the commercial district just over 30 years ago, said the city’s stance on the signs is mistaken.

 “I think they got that in the wrong spot,” Willis said. “I don’t think [Chenal Parkway] starts until Autumn Road.”

 Willis said Financial Centre Parkway was named by the people who developed the area in 1980. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that Little Rock extended the developers’ road to Autumn Road.

Sorry, now today we have this story...

Signs down after 20 years in wrong spot
Removal eliminates mix-up for Chenal, Financial Centre
By Spencer  Willems

LITTLE ROCK -- LITTLE ROCK — After more than two decades in the wrong place, two dissonant west Little Rock street signs came down Tuesday.


So, it is a good idea to give an organization a half billion dollars that doesn't even know the right place to put their street signs....REALLY????

Now, on to the next story in the paper today, titled.......

Pulaski County JPs face district shakeup - Population shift to change boundaries

The gist of the story is that in that last 30 years much of the population of LR has exited the older center city and has moved out west. Now this might be good for the developers but as we now see, from the claims of the city that this has resulted in their asking for $500 million more in taxes, that it was not exactly what we would call "professional planning"!!!! And so now we must pay more to establish the city infrastructure out in the "new" west LR while fighting a loosing battle to try and maintain services and infrastructure in the depopulating eastern established city????

So, are these problems unique to LR and can they be addressed with better policies out of city hall....in short, yes. One only needs to look to a city that the mayor and city hall keeps citing, Conway. They have impact fees (and the builder's road cost are included in the fees) and more to the point, when they find themselves short on money, they believe in city hall reform, not higher taxes. A description of this can be found in another recent article in the Gazette, titled:

Report lays out savings for city, Conway finances at heart of study

This was a citizen committee that studied Conway CH policies and made suggested reforms that could save money, a couple of which were...

* Replace step-pay programs “with a merit increase program utilizing a performance evaluation system to support any potential merit increase.”

*  Establish an agreement with the local Advertising and Promotion Commission to allocate funds that go directly to the city, beyond debt service, to be divided between capital and operating costs for parks and recreational facilities.

* Charge nonresidents annual membership fees for using city facilities. 

Many of their suggestions are similar to those that the citizens of LR have been making to their city officials for years!!!! All the other recommendations can be found in the article link above.