re: Just booked my trip to Fayetteville....

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ON the otherhand, the professional opportunities are greater in NWA. The better jobs are not even with Wal Mart, JB Hunt or Tyson. They are with the myriad of vendors that are in the area. In LR and Central AR, Axiom and Alltel have been less than stellar lately.

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This is one I would disagree with. I mean, there are plenty of jobs available, but that doesn't necessarily mean the "opportunities" are better. If you are working for a vendor of Wal-Mart, you really have a limited ceiling to your career unless you are willing to move to wherever that companies' HQ is. Outside of that, if you aren't working for the UA or one of the Big 3, there isn't a whole lot out there.

What you forget about Little Rock is that it has a huge health care sector. Baptist Health and St Vincent are HUGE hospitals, and that's not mentioning UAMS. If you haven't driven by UAMS lately, you should, because it is like a small city in itself. There are thousands of doctors/researchers/students there, I consider it LR's "answer" to the UA. It's just a much more professional crowd compared to the college students at UA.

On top of that, there's actually somewhat of a finance sector in Little Rock with Stephens Inc., along with several other smaller shops around town. That's in addition to the banking sector (Bank of the Ozarks, Metropolitan, etc) that provides a lot of jobs.

That's on top of Dillard's, Acxiom, etc etc.

There is a reason that Little Rock is the only MSA in the state with an average income above the national average.

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Concerts. LR may get some more concerts but that is just one aspect. It's not like either location is getting the greatest shows. U2 isn't coming to either of them on this tour. To hit the big stadium tours we both still have to hit the surrounding states.

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Little Rock does get the greatest shows outside of the HUGE HUGE HUGE acts like that. I mean, even Dallas isn't getting U2.

Big acts are here all the time...it seems like Kenny Chesney is here every weekend, Dave Matthews and Robin Williams are coming in September, etc. If you've got kids or nieces, American Idol tour was just here.



As far as crime, Little Rock certainly does have that. If NWA ever grows to Little Rock's size it will start having its problems as well. As far as being safe, if you just stay out of the bad part of town you are as safe as anywhere in the country. None of the crime is random...it's a drug deal gone bad, etc. I do wish the public schools were better, but there are still a few good ones if you really want to go that route.