Paul Page Dwellings

A ½ penny for our city will benefit every neighborhood in Little Rock.  A ½ penny will generate an estimated 22 million dollars for City Parks. Those 22 million dollars could be used to finance a bond that would make “City in a Park”a reality, now!  One-fourth of the penny would be for capital and the other fourth for operations and maintenance. The capital would be for a limited campaign to upgrade all our parks, including the Zoo and Bike Trails. The O/M would continue to be devoted to upkeep now and in the future. The 2001 Master Plan for Parks would be the roadmap, the promise to every citizen that they would gain from this quality of life issue.

The obvious value to a “City in a Park”, that includes a eight-block strategy for walkable neighborhoods is a quality of life, a quality of health, a quality of family life! These amenities attract economic activity. They help bind the community together!

In the UALR racial attitudes studies, trust in city government is faltering in less affluent neighborhoods. City in a Park + ½ Penny is a way to restore some of that community trust. Rebuilding our Parks is unifying and welcome by most. The trust gap needs to be mended. In the UALR study Whites and African Americans responded overwhelming, (80%) that we can make the community better, which bodes well for a ½ penny for Parks and our City.

The EPA has decided that CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases pose a danger to the public. Will the Congress or the EPA take responsible actions? Legislation or Regulation seems more likely now. Instead of Cap and Trade or a Tax of some form, I prefer to be proactive.  Little Rock and our surrounding region could offset our transportation, agricultural and buildings carbon emissions.

We could use Density, to offset our CO2 emissions. Recent studies in New Urban News show that people who live in cities and near transit generate substantially lower greenhouse emissions. A study by the International Institute for Environment and Development looked at 12 cities, and found that city dwellers generate far fewer CO2 than folks who live in the suburbs or rural areas. Households that live near transit produce 43 percent less greenhouse gases and those in central business districts produce the least emissions of all.

If Little Rock could embrace the benefits of Density in our urban core and public transit in its aggregate, then we should use Density to aid in lowering our CO2 emissions in our City and Region. In a concentrated core we could live healthier, more productive lives and contribute locally and globally.

A strategy to reintegrate downtown, using a transit investment, as a catalyst for economic development and place making to shape our community.

• Main Street-3^rd to 17^th Street, then 6^th Street or Capitol Street to the State Capitol
• 150 Blocks of potential development
• Takes in 3 blocks either side of proposed transit line, Walkability
• Connects and takes full advantage of Government  workers, buildings to create workforce housing, leading to more retail
• Government, Business Leaders, Health, Cultural and Civic Institutions would be connected
• Turn Greyscape,(surface parking) to Offices,  Housing, Retail Amenities
• Would create a strong political collaboration
• Re-populate downtown,  preserves schools, tax base, decreases commutes, increases our use of our existing infrastructure
• Take advantage of  our current President’s agenda to help Urban areas and infrastructure needs to bolster the economy
• Careful planning and collaboration among developers, government agencies, and community groups can build trust and acceptance of downtown transit
• Help stabilize and promote surrounding areas in central  Little Rock, thus benefiting neighborhoods and decreasing safety concerns
• A vibrant downtown will attract more sustainable economic activity

We should, in spite of current economic  turmoil continue to link our network of  urban communities downtown. Increased interaction between pedestrians, promoting healthier lifestyles and encouraging economic activity by using sidewalks, riding CAT buses and pedaling our bikes, we can connect and commute in our urban communities.

We need to accommodate those who use our public buses with additional shelters in our downtown neighborhoods. We need to clearly  paint our Master Bike Plan lanes and safety boxes. We need to provide more sidewalks to our citizens and promote trails that connect our downtown, such as the Museum Art and Heritage Trail, that links River Market to MacArthur Park. Our trolley system needs to be more linear, linking the central business district to the nearby historic neighborhoods. Linking civic, cultural and historic institutions provides added opportunities for showcasing downtown Little Rock. A neighborhood trolley would help rehabilitate existing homes and promote urban infill. Trolleys in existing neighborhoods, especially with historic and tourist locations give visitors enhanced images of our community. A more linked trolley can promote and educate all of us about public art.

Economic development, strengthened communities, preventing urban sprawl, creating an urban workforce around mixed housing, using linked transit in our existing downtown neighborhoods is necessary. We are the critical component to promote this lifestyle.

The seduction of Dwell magazine, modern, hip, design oriented is appealing, but not always affordable. Re creating historic modernism can be expensive, How can we thoughtfully engineer and design affordable homes? It is a problem that confounds me.

We have been conditioned to think, and in turn buy homes based on quantity (sq.ft.), not quality. Strangely, we possess this thinking with food too. A home should be a shelter, a place to raise a family, to be connected to our neighbors.

Demographics are rapidly changing, note our recent election, families are smaller, desire for modest-quality built homes will grow, 60 million new homes are projected to be built in the next 30 years. Simplicity and moderation are appropriate now. We can and should be able to accommodate good design and affordability.

Local CDC’s are building well built green affordable homes. Rehabilitating existing homes is certainly a green, cost-effective approach to affordable housing.

We must think smaller, while remaining creative and sustainable. If you build inexpensively look for others who share your passion. The challenge is before us.

Page Wilson, LEED AP PaulPageDwellings.com

Hot, Flat, and Crowded, no, not the book, but our future Little Rock urban core. Collaboration and civility, with a good dose of ideas, innovation and leadership can move our central core toward 2030. The same old answers to today’s housing and developments, only produce the same old  results. As they say in Texas: “If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’ll ever get is all you ever got.”

There should  be reform or updates of our land use guidelines. Preservationists, City Planners, Developers, Investors, Urban Eclectics and Greens will all lose together by continuing to coast along, the same old approach is no longer viable. It is almost 2010, we need to think and plan for 2030+.

I personally like to juxtapose the old against the Green Modern materials available today. Both old structures and modern techniques and materials are sustainable models. Competing visions keep us Hot and Flat, what we all desire is a Crowded Urban Core.

Our urban core has a impact on our whole city, our schools, our businesses, our civic and cultural institutions, our community. It is time for compromise, reconciliation, and progress! Our President-elect emphasizes, “ every second, every minute, every hour, every day counts.” We do not have the luxury to waste time.

We buy food based on how many calories we can purchase with a dollar. Maybe that is why  most of us are on and off diets so often, quantity does not relate to contentment. We buy homes based on the notion that the more square feet we get for the dollar, the better we are financially, and socially within our peer group. Our convulsion to Quality enters our decisions about food, housing, water, even crime, where we think Quantity ( more jails) is the answer, not Quality, (prevention).

Walking around old Downtown Little Rock recently, with a local architect, we both noticed there are still plenty of Quality buildings available, the ingredients missing seem to be parking, affordable housing and people on the street,(Quantity). A redirect , with urgency to improve the interior of the city would greatly improve the lives of  everyone. Maybe it is time to try to MATURE Little Rock, instead of continually expanding city services and infrastructure.

In 1890, around City Park, (MacArthur Park) and Downtown there was a architectural boom, maybe after 120 years we should try, with urgency to produce Quality in old downtown Little Rock again.