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Friends,
We hope you will take time out of your busy schedules this week to join us in Wards 1, 2 and 4 as we continue our community meetings to discuss our sales tax proposal. We value resident input and need your help to create safer streets and stronger neighborhoods through additional investments in essential City services and amenities.
This week's schedule provides three opportunities for you to hear about plans for the one-percent sales tax increase and how that money will be spent. You will learn first-hand from city department directors about their needs and how new investments will reshape and transform our approach to public safety, upgrade our infrastructure, and enhance quality-of-life and place for all our residents.
Our meeting schedule this week:
- Monday, May 13: Ward 4, Unitarian Universalist Church, 1818 Reservoir Road
- Wednesday, May 15, Ward 2: Southwest Community Center, 6401 Baseline Road
- Thursday, May 16, Ward 1: Dunbar Community Center, 1001 W. 16th St.
Each meeting begins at 6 p.m. All residents are welcome, regardless of which ward they live in.
The pillars of the tax plan are "the four P's," public safety, public infrastructure, parks and recreation and the Port and economic development.
In last week's Monday Memo, we talked briefly about how investments in state-of-the-art technology and upgrades to vehicles will allow us to continue our successful efforts to reduce the crime rate. Today, we will focus on the ongoing needs in our Public Works Department to repair and replace streets and sidewalks and improve drainage across the City.
The tax proposal sets aside more than $80 million over 10 years to help address our infrastructure needs. When paired with proceeds from the voter-approved 2022 Renew The Rock bond program, we will work toward the goal of creating safe streets for vehicles and bicycles, safe sidewalks for pedestrians and drainage improvements to prevent property from flooding. Nevertheless, we must have new revenue to meet that goal, and the cost of infrastructure improvements continues to increase.
Since 2010, the cost of resurfacing just one mile of two-lane roadway has nearly doubled, from about $170,000 per mile to about $300,000 per mile. In that same time, the cost to completely reconstruct a typical residential road has jumped from $1.5 million per mile to about $2.5 million.
The City of Little Rock is responsible for maintaining nearly 1,200 miles of city streets, and that's not including state highways like Cantrell Road, Broadway Street and Roosevelt Road. With a significant amount of street miles in Little Rock and the escalating costs of materials, we must identify additional resources just to keep up with ongoing needs. Rest assured, our team seeks out grant opportunities and works efficiently and effectively to implement bond-program projects (We have a total of 72 ongoing infrastructure projects, and last year we added more than 15,000 feet of sidewalks). However, we must make additional investments in order to maintain our streets and grow our City.
A tax increase would help us better manage the ongoing infrastructure requests submitted by residents online or by phone. In the last few years, there have been about 600 projects requested across the City. Less than 100 have been funded. This proposal, with its emphasis on public infrastructure, allows our team to implement more of those priority projects identified by our residents.
You can learn more details about the plan and be a part of Results for The Rock. Educational and engagement tools are available on our website. There, you have the opportunity to see the proposal and to provide input. You are also encouraged to give feedback and ask questions at our community meetings, which continue today (May 13) at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1818 Reservoir Road..
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Daisy Bates Statue Unveiling
The most recent addition to National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol should be familiar to Little Rock residents -- an individual who advanced the cause of civil rights and boldly blazed a path forward for our City with resolve, dignity and grace. We were humbled and honored to represent the City of Little Rock last week for the unveiling of the statue of longtime Little Rock civic leader Daisy L. Gatson Bates.
Mrs. Bates was selected by the Arkansas Legislature in 2019 to be honored with a statue representing Arkansas inside the Capitol. She takes her rightful place in Statuary Hall among the legends and leaders who have shaped American history.
Mrs. Bates, a native of Huttig in south Arkansas, was co-founder of The Arkansas State Press along with her husband, L.C. Bates. The newspaper championed the rights of African Americans and called on Little Rock schools to desegregate following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. As a leader within the NAACP, she played a key role in the integration of Little Rock Central High School in 1957. She was the only woman to address participants at the 1963 March on Washington, and she stood for civil rights and equity no matter what, even in the face of threats, intimidation and violence.
We recognize Mrs. Bates's legacy locally with a street and an elementary school named in her honor, and the State of Arkansas observes Daisy L. Gatson Bates Day every year with a state holiday on the third Monday in February.
The statue unveiling was hosted by Congress and featured remarks from congressional leaders, the state's delegation in Congress and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Little Rock residents who were unable to attend the ceremony in-person united to celebrate the momentous event with a simulcast that aired at Second Baptist Church on John Barrow.
Please be sure to view the statue, sculpted by Ben Victor, when visiting Washington. Mrs. Bates's legacy gives us strength and hope for the future.
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Share Your Input on Draft Downtown Plan
Last week, our partners with international design firm Sasaki released the initial draft of the first-ever Downtown Little Rock Master Plan. This comprehensive plan is a blueprint for the future of Little Rock's urban core, and it represents the voice and vision of business leaders, merchants, stakeholders, residents and others engaged in the ongoing success of Downtown.
Read the draft plan at mp.downtownlr.com. After reviewing the plan, share your comments. When the final plan is presented to the Little Rock Board of Directors this summer, we want to be unified in support of the strategies outlined in the final document. Implementation of the final plan will take all of us working together and investing in Downtown.
The draft plan identified nine key takeaways with multiple opportunities for growth and evolution. Those include the need to focus on attracting residents to live downtown; better utilizing the Arkansas River as an attraction and asset; improving infrastructure, including multi-use trails and streets; and promoting Downtown Little Rock's history and its cultural attractions.
The plan is driven by key values established by members of the Executive Steering Committee and Stakeholder Advisory Committee and through community input. Those values are that Downtown Little Rock should be welcoming and safe, livable and people-focused, authentic and diverse, sustainable and resilient, vibrant and prosperous, and dynamic and connected. We maintain that we should strive to attain those values all across our City, as well as in Downtown.
We are grateful for the hard work of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, its members and so many residents who gave of their time and attention to serve on committees or participate in the public input process. Please provide additional feedback over the next 30 days before the plan is finalized.
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Landlord Lunch and Learn
We consistently seek out new, innovative ways to make permanent, affordable housing available and accessible to Little Rock residents who need it. One way to help do that is by making sure landlords can stay connected with organizations that can facilitate matches with potential tenants. We know there are rental vacancies and affordable properties available, and we know there are potential tenants or first-time homeowners who need housing; however, sometimes it is difficult to bridge gaps between those two groups.
That's why Central Arkansas Team Care for the Homeless (CATCH), the City and other community partners are hosting our first-ever Housing Lunch and Learn on Wednesday, May 15. We ask landlords from Little Rock and across the region, as well as property managers and any others who are interested to join us at Our House, 302 E. Roosevelt Road, at 11 a.m. Lunch will be provided by First Arkansas Bank and Trust.
You will hear from speakers and have the opportunity to network with representatives of local housing agencies and nonprofits. The goal, according to CATCH, is for landlords to learn more about partnerships that lead to great tenants and that also benefit our community.
Register for the event here.
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The Week Ahead
- The Little Rock Board of Directors will meet Tuesday, May 14, at 4 p.m. at The Centre at University Park, 6401 W. 12th St. At that time, Directors will set the agenda for their next regular meeting. All board meetings are livestreamed on the City of Little Rock's Facebook and YouTube pages.
- The annual Little Rock Police Department Police Memorial Service is at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, May 15, outside LRPD headquarters, 615 W. Markham St. This event honors officers who have been killed in the line of duty.
- As mentioned above, there are three community meetings scheduled this week to discuss the sales tax proposal. Those meetings are in wards 1, 2 and 4, and residents are welcome to attend any meeting, regardless of what ward they live in. The Ward 4 meeting is today (Monday, May 13) at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1818 Reservoir Road; the Ward 2 meeting is Wednesday, May 15, at 6 p.m. at Southwest Community Center, 6401 Baseline Road; and the Ward 1 meeting is Thursday, May 16 at 6 p.m. at Dunbar Community Center, 1001 W. 16h St. Each meeting begins at 6 p.m.
- The Land Bank Commission meets Wednesday, May 15, at noon at the Willie L. Hinton Neighborhood Resource Center, 3805 W. 12th St. Little Rock's Land Bank Commission has a mission to reverse blight, increase homeownership and stability of property values, and provide affordable housing within our City.
- The Board of Adjustment's monthly meeting is Thursday, May 16, at the Willie L. Hinton Neighborhood Resource Center. The board considers requests for zoning variances. That meeting begins at 4 p.m..
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As always, stay up to date with what's happening in the City on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram via @citylittlerock. You can also email me at mayorscott@littlerock.gov or call my office at 501.371.4744.
I appreciate you!
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