Last Visit To Little Rock

From Showcase

The H. U. Lee International Gate and Garden is tacked onto the east end of the Statehouse Convention Center. I have nothing against either gates or gardens, in fact, I enjoy gardens, but this space offered little of the welcoming ambiance one normal associates with greenspace in the middle of a city. It was more about H. U. Lee and martial arts than about nature and plants.

When I returned home and did a little online research, the garden made a lot more sense even if it didn't suddenly become more appealing. According to the Arkansas Times, H. U. Lee founded the American Taekwondo Association, which meets annually in Little Rock. The Lee family and ATA members donated the $1.4 gate to the city. I don't really see how the gate itself could cost $1.4 million – I may be wrong about that, though – so I assume that part of the money went to defray the cost of constructing the garden.

If I understood more about Taekwondo and martial arts in general, perhaps I'd better appreciate the garden, but as I see it, the garden is a just about adulation of Lee and Taekwondo, including a bust of Lee and a large wall listing Taekwondo masters. I wonder if the city of Little Rock would build a tribute garden to me if I donated $1.4 million to the cause? We'll never know.

There are a few more photos taken in and around the Statehouse Convention Center and during set up for Showcase here if anyone wants to have a look.

Last Visit To Little Rock

Trolley Follies

I've got to admit that there's something appealing about honest-to-goodness, run-on-tracks streetcars in general, but these recent additions to downtown Little Rock are mainly just a costly nuisance.

Background: The Clinton Presidential Library is just a few block away from the Statehouse Convention Center – close, but too far for walking in the time I had available, so no photos. Before the library was built, that area on the edge of downtown was mostly just warehouses and boarded up buildings. (Some might say building the Clinton Library in a sleazy part of town was appropriate, but I couldn't possibly comment on that.)

Once the library location was approved, revitalization of the surrounding area began immediately. (Accusations of rampant land speculation by insiders prior to the official announcement are merely unsubstantiated rumors, probably generated by the sore losers over in North Little Rock.) Boutiques, bistros and art galleries are now open for business where derelict buildings once stood, though some of the new arrivals are having a tough time staying afloat.

The Central Arkansas Transit Company's “River Rails” Electric Streetcar division is part of this River Market revitalization, but problems abound. The geographic area covered is too small to be of much use to anyone and, consequently, ridership is anemic. Also, since there was no extra space available, the rails were laid right down the middle of a traffic lane. Part of the area covered consists of two-way streets with only two traffic lanes, so when the trolley stops, the traffic in that lane stops. Still, public transportation that doesn't go much of anywhere, few ride and actually increases traffic congestion is not a boondoggle. If you don't believe me, just ask the Little Rock city fathers.

The trolleys do make a token run just across the bridge into North Little Rock, probably just a clever ploy to con NLR into subsidizing part of the cost of operation.

Trolley Follies

2007 ACG Christmas Showcase

Jo and I spend the past weekend down in Little Rock participating in the Arkansas Craft Guild's Christmas Showcase. Attendance was down this year and so were our sales. Regardless, this was our last show until spring. (Yea!!!) It was also our last income until spring. (Boo! Hiss!)

It's purely coincidental that Jo's pots and my spoons ended up being featured on the show poster and had nothing to do with the fact she is co-chair of the show. (Hey, there's got to be some perks for an unpaid job that requires so much of her time and effort.)

A virtually empty hall waiting to be filled on Thursday afternoon. Jo is doing her part while I'm wandering around documenting the event.

We had to come in early on Saturday so Jo could attend a meeting so I wandered around the immediate vicinity of the Statehouse Convention Center and took some photos. (Now that I think back on it, Jo had meetings Friday and Sunday before the show opened and during set up on Thursday, too. Jo does meetings much better than I.)

I was standing in the middle of the Arkansas River and took this photo of a piece of the Little Rock skyline. Riverfront park is in the foreground. The convention center complex is partially under the Peabody Hotel and extends to the left in the photo.

The Arkansas River in downtown Little Rock. The city of North Little Rock is on the opposite bank. Like most twin cities arrangements, there is a great deal of friendly (and, sometimes, not so friendly) competition between Little Rock and North Little Rock. If you start referring to the entire metropolitan area as "Little Rock", a resident of North Little Rock will be quick to correct you. Likewise, residents of Little Rock call NLR "Dog Town" because in times past whenever Little Rock rounded up stray dogs, they were simply dumped across the river in North Little Rock.

Anyone familiar with the Arkansas River in Colorado or Kansas will not be impressed with the Arkansas here. Our locked and channelized version of the river turns it into nothing more than a big ditch. Being navigable by barge traffic helps the Arkansas economy, but it's ugly, nothing like my first exposure to the Arkansas River near Arkansas City, Kansas, where Jo's grandparents had a farm that was bordered on one side by the river. (Note: The farm is now the Chaplin Nature Center operated by the Wichita Audubon Society.)





While Little Rock my be the home of the Clinton Presidential Library and the convention center, North Little Rock has a fake river boat...

and a battered, old submarine -- plus the Alltel Arena, of course.

The Alltel Arena was the venue for a Hannah Montana performance Saturday evening. I must confess a total ignorance regarding Ms. Montana until someone explained her to me on Saturday. While the traffic jam created by her appearance may have hampered a few folks trying to get to our art fair, I seriously doubt that her pre-teen fans form a significant portion of our customer base.


(Note: I'm still working on getting the photos I took down in Little Rock culled, edited and uploaded. I'll post a link to the Picasa album when I finish.)

2007 ACG Christmas Showcase