Looking for Something To Read?

If you are, here's a few links I grabbed from the last week....kill some time, learn your brain something new.

• Hurry Up, Wait. — FANTASTIC editorial from the NW Arkansas Times in Fayetteville about the ongoing discussion about the possible western bypass and light rail in the area. My question is, what would keep a western bypass from just opening up more westward virgin land to more interstate-centric development, a la Rogers and 540. And then it's clogged with traffic once again. I still don't see the need for it, unless you're going to make it an actual limited access roadway. But it reminds me of the Northern Arc in Atlanta that got shot down; the AJC discovered that the Governor and a bunch of his cronies owned some of the rural land that it would run through, thereby jacking up the value of their land and creaing more opportunities for interstate-centric development. Which is unwise and ALWAYS solely auto-dependent. Do we need more places like Dickson Street and downtown Fayetteville, or do we need more beautiful places like Interstate 540 and the generica that sprouts up on both sides from Missouri to Fayetteville. While traffic on 540 is congested, unfortunately, you can't just move traffic AROUND the 540 corridor and Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers-Bentonville without creating more irresponsible growth out to the west. A must read

• Greetings from Bentonville — Recent WSJ Article about a humble little town in NWA that is home to Wal-Mart and has changed massively in the last 10 years. Definitely better than the WSJ's effort at this same article last year, which absolutely sucked. They had about 5 errors in the story, and the Bride emailed the reporter to talk to him about it, and never heard back from him. This one is much better and well worth your time. As you might remember from a previous post of mine, the WSJ may only make this available for a couple of days. So if you can't find the text online anywhere, leave a comment or email me and I'll send you the story.

• Highway Builders on a Roll — Story from the AJC about GDOT's wrongheaded decision to try and pave and build their way out of congestion in the ATL. Definitely a lesson for those in NWA to pay attention to.

• Gentrification Changing New Face of Atlanta — Recent story from NYTimes. Login might be required, but as always, try Bugmenot.com for a free login. I'm from Atlanta, if you didn't know, and I think there's lessons for us to learn from areas that have struggled with growth and the related issues.

read more: bypass, i-540, development, regionalism, bentonville, atlanta, roads, urbanism