Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project - Revision history

Phil at 02:06, 21 April 2011

2011-04-21T02:06:10Z

Phil at 05:13, 9 March 2009

2009-03-09T05:13:31Z

Phil: /* References */

2008-09-24T14:46:05Z

‎References

Phil: /* History of Little Rock Urban Renewal */

2008-09-24T14:45:20Z

‎History of Little Rock Urban Renewal

Phil at 20:49, 19 September 2008

2008-09-19T20:49:31Z

Phil: /* References */

2008-09-19T20:43:54Z

‎References

Phil: /* Central Little Rock Urban Renewal */

2008-09-19T20:43:10Z

‎Central Little Rock Urban Renewal

Phil: /* History of Little Rock Urban Renewal */

2008-09-19T20:40:12Z

‎History of Little Rock Urban Renewal

Phil: /* References */

2008-09-19T20:36:43Z

‎References

Phil at 20:35, 19 September 2008

2008-09-19T20:35:41Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:06, 21 April 2011
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−	The '''Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project''' (CLR URP) ~~was begun~~ in 1961 as a joint effort of the [[Urban Progress Association]], the [[Little Rock Housing Authority]] (LRHA), [[Downtown Little Rock Unlimited]] the [[City of Little Rock]], and local architects. LRHA executive director [[Dowell Naylor Jr.]] was the chief author of the Central Little Rock Project.	+	The '''Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project''' (CLR URP) began in 1961 as a joint effort of the [[Urban Progress Association]], the [[Little Rock Housing Authority]] (LRHA), [[Downtown Little Rock Unlimited]] the [[City of Little Rock]], and local architects. LRHA executive director [[Dowell Naylor Jr.]] was the chief author of the Central Little Rock Project.

	====History of Little Rock Urban Renewal====		====History of Little Rock Urban Renewal====

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 The Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project transformed housing in the city. Real estate moguls like future governor [[Winthrop Rockefeller]], Dallas-based [[Trammell Crow]], and local investor [[R. A. Lile]] regularly met in the [[Top of the Rock Club]] in the Tower Building to plan new developments. In 1960 Little Rock held only three urban apartment complexes greater than fifty units in size. Over the next fifteen years the city added seventy-eight complexes this size or larger.
-The total cost of the project in public and private funds was around $50 million. The project was occasionally deemed "socialistic," politically corrupt, and a "white preserve" maker by commentators and members of the public. One of its lasting reminders was a hotly contested McDonald's restaurant at the corner of Capitol and Main, which replaced a number of exiting local downtown eateries, including [[Breier's]], [[Tom and Andrew's]], the [[Courthouse Cafe]], [[Canton Tea Garden]], and [[Buddy's Cafe]]. The clearance made room for [[Worthen Bank and Trust Company]], [[Union National Bank]], [[Quapaw Quarter Apartments]], the [[Sheraton Little Rock Hotel]], the [[Camelot Inn]], the [[Federal Reserve Bank]], a [[Continental Trailways bus terminal]], [[Parkview Towers]], the [[One Spring Building]], and the offices of the [[Arkansas Bar Association]]. Linchpin features of the plan eventually became widely known as the [[Main Street Mall]] and the [[Statehouse Convention Center]] in downtown Little Rock.
+The total cost of the project in public and private funds was around $50 million. The project was occasionally deemed "socialistic," politically corrupt, and a "white preserve" maker by commentators and members of the public. One of its lasting reminders was a hotly contested McDonald's restaurant at the corner of Capitol and Main, which replaced a number of exiting local downtown eateries, including [[Breier's]], [[Tom and Andrew's Barbecue]], the [[Courthouse Cafe]], [[Canton Tea Garden]], and [[Buddy's Cafe]]. The clearance made room for [[Worthen Bank and Trust Company]], [[Union National Bank]], [[Quapaw Quarter Apartments]], the [[Sheraton Little Rock Hotel]], the [[Camelot Inn]], the [[Federal Reserve Bank]], a [[Continental Trailways bus terminal]], [[Parkview Towers]], the [[One Spring Building]], and the offices of the [[Arkansas Bar Association]]. Linchpin features of the plan eventually became widely known as the [[Main Street Mall]] and the [[Statehouse Convention Center]] in downtown Little Rock.
 This vast urban renewal project came to an official end in 1977 as the federal government began turning to the [[Community Development Block Grant program]] for street improvements and housing rehabilitation in lower income neighborhoods.

@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 *Little Rock Unlimited Progress, ''Little Rock New Town In-Town: A Downtown Residential Feasibility Study'' (Technical Assistant Project, Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1975).
 *Letha Mills and H. K. Stewart, ''Greater Little Rock: A Contemporary Portrait'' (Chatsworth, CA: Windsor Publications, 1990).
 *"More Goes On Than Meets the Eye in Urban Renewal," ''Arkansas Gazette,'' June 27, 1965.
 *Bette Orsini, "Renewal in Little Rock: 'Dedicated to People,'" ''Arkansas Gazette,'' October 1, 1965 (reprint from ''St. Petersburg'' (FL) ''Times'').

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 The project's roots lay in the [[Main Street 1969 plan]] created by the [[Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects]] in the spring of 1957. The Central Litle Rock Project became a national model for urban revitalization in the 1960s (then called "slum clearance"), and was bolstered by a planning grant of $350,000 approved under the National Housing Act of 1959 in only twenty-eight days with the help of powerful U.S. Senator [[J. William Fulbright]].
-The Central Little Rock Project swiftly became a nationally-recognized for leadership in urban renewal in the 1960s because the city already had a decade of experience with slum clearance under the 1959 housing act. The earliest urban renewal project took place in the [[Coliseum]] neighborhood in 1951. The city received $282,928 to engage in urban renewal activities in the [[Philander Smith neighborhood]] (1955), $2.2 million for the [[Dunbar neighborhood]] (1961), $1.3 million for slum clearance in the [[Granite Mountain neighborhood]] (1954), $1.3 million for renewal in the [[Livestock Show Area]] (1957), $1.4 million in [[Westrock]] (1956), and $2.5 million in the [[East End neighborhood]] (1956). Local dollars supported an additional [[High Street Urban Renewal project]] on 283 acres beginning in 1958. The Housing Authority, led by executive director [[George Millar Jr.]] purchased sixty-five properties in the [[University Park]] (1961) neighborhood for another $832,486. The [[Urban Renewal League]] help relocate more than 5,500 families in the process, most of whom could not afford to return to their neighborhoods because the house had moved "far out of reach" of their incomes.
+The Central Little Rock Project swiftly became a nationally-recognized for leadership in urban renewal in the 1960s because the city already had a decade of experience with slum clearance under the 1959 housing act. The earliest urban renewal project took place in the [[Coliseum]] neighborhood in 1951. The city received $282,928 to engage in urban renewal activities in the [[Philander Smith neighborhood]] (1955), $2.2 million for the [[Dunbar neighborhood]] (1961), $1.3 million for slum clearance in the [[Granite Mountain neighborhood]] (1954), $1.3 million for renewal in the [[Livestock Show Area]] (1957), $1.4 million in [[Westrock]] (1956), and $2.5 million in the [[East End neighborhood]] (1956). Local dollars supported an additional [[High Street Urban Renewal project]] on 283 acres beginning in 1958. The Housing Authority, led by executive director [[George Millar Jr.]] purchased sixty-five properties in the [[University Park]] (1961) neighborhood for another $832,486.
 ====Central Little Rock Urban Renewal====

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 ====Central Little Rock Urban Renewal====
-[[Raymond Rebsamen]], the president of the organization, claimed the group's goal in the Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project was to have "the first capital city in the national where no child will come out of a slum to go to school." But it also sought to obliterate bad publicity stemming from the [[Little Rock Crisis]] of 1957, which exposed the city as a powerful "symbol of brutality and prejudice for all the world to scorn." The city secured $18.8 million in federal Urban Renewal Administration funding in June 1962. In all, fifteen percent of the land area of the city underwent significant renewal activity. Five hundred and eight acres of downtown were demolished, including 471 buildings, which displaced 296 businesses of varying size. The population density dropped dramatically, from eighteen people per acre in 1960 to five people per acre in 1970. In Census Tract 8 the resident population dropped 72 percent. In the riverfront district it dropped 62 percent.
+[[Raymond Rebsamen]], the president of the organization, claimed the group's goal in the Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project was to have "the first capital city in the national where no child will come out of a slum to go to school." But it also sought to obliterate bad publicity stemming from the [[Little Rock Crisis]] of 1957, which exposed the city as a powerful "symbol of brutality and prejudice for all the world to scorn." The city secured $18.8 million in federal Urban Renewal Administration funding in June 1962. In all, fifteen percent of the land area of the city underwent significant renewal activity. Five hundred and eight acres of downtown were demolished, including 471 buildings, which displaced 296 businesses of varying size. The population density dropped dramatically, from eighteen people per acre in 1960 to five people per acre in 1970. In Census Tract 8 near [[Philander Smith College]] the resident population dropped 72 percent. In the riverfront district it dropped 62 percent.
 The renewal project included proposals for an Arkansas Exchange market for good manufactured in the south-central part of the country, a sports center (the proposed "Arkansas Sports Center") and marina along the Arkansas River, a downtown local and interurban bus terminal, a convention center, a Variety Lane pedestrian district for retailing in an area bounded by West Capitol, West Eighth, Spring, and Center streets, underground fallout shelters, parking ramps, upscale apartments, and plazas across from the eighteen-story [[new Tower Building]] and along Main Street. The renewal project also had a special committee designated for work on a proposed [[Quapaw Quarter]] of historic homes just south of downtown. The plan included projected razing of 2,292 houses and tenement units.

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 *"Bright Promise Lies in Central City Project," ''Arkansas Gazette,'' June 13, 1962.
 *"11 More Properties Acquired for University Park Project," ''Arkansas Gazette,'' December 2, 1964.
 *Ernest Dumas, "Mid-Little Rock Renewal Plan Wins Approval," ''Arkansas Gazette,'' June 12, 1962.

@@ Line 45: / Line 45: @@
 *"Outward and Upward for Downtown Little Rock," ''Arkansas Gazette,'' March 5, 1973.
 *Matilda Tuohey, "Little Rock Has Massive Urban Renewal Program," ''Arkansas Gazette,'' February 17, 1963.
 ==External links==
 [[Category:Urban renewal]]

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-The '''Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project''' (CLR URP) was begun in 1961 as a joint effort of the [[Urban Progress Association]], the [[Little Rock Housing Authority]] (LRHA), [[Downtown Little Rock Unlimited]] the [[City of Little Rock]], and local architects. LRHA executive director [[Dowell Naylor Jr.]] was the chief author of the Central Little Rock Project. The project's roots lay in the [[Main Street 1969 plan]] created by the [[Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects]] in the spring of 1957. The Central Litle Rock Project became a national model for urban revitalization in the 1960s (then called "slum clearance"), and was bolstered by a planning grant of $350,000 approved under the National Housing Act of 1959 in only twenty-eight days with the help of powerful U.S. Senator [[J. William Fulbright]], and $18.8 million in federal Urban Renewal Administration funding secured in June 1962.
+The '''Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project''' (CLR URP) was begun in 1961 as a joint effort of the [[Urban Progress Association]], the [[Little Rock Housing Authority]] (LRHA), [[Downtown Little Rock Unlimited]] the [[City of Little Rock]], and local architects. LRHA executive director [[Dowell Naylor Jr.]] was the chief author of the Central Little Rock Project.
 ====History of Little Rock Urban Renewal====
-The Central Little Rock Project swiftly became a nationally-recognized for leadership in urban renewal in the 1960s because the city already had a decade of experience with slum clearance under the . The earliest urban renewal project took place in the [[Coliseum]] neighborhood in 1951. The city received $282,928 to engage in urban renewal activities in the [[Philander Smith neighborhood]] (1955), $2.2 million for the [[Dunbar neighborhood]] (1961), $1.3 million for slum clearance in the [[Granite Mountain neighborhood]] (1954), $1.3 million for renewal in the [[Livestock Show Area]] (1957), $1.4 million in [[Westrock]] (1956), and $2.5 million in the [[East End neighborhood]] (1956). Local dollars supported an additional [[High Street Urban Renewal project]] on 283 acres beginning in 1958. The Housing Authority, led by executive director [[George Millar Jr.]] purchased sixty-five properties in the [[University Park]] (1961) neighborhood for another $832,486.
+The project's roots lay in the [[Main Street 1969 plan]] created by the [[Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects]] in the spring of 1957. The Central Litle Rock Project became a national model for urban revitalization in the 1960s (then called "slum clearance"), and was bolstered by a planning grant of $350,000 approved under the National Housing Act of 1959 in only twenty-eight days with the help of powerful U.S. Senator [[J. William Fulbright]].
 ====Central Little Rock Urban Renewal====
-[[Raymond Rebsamen]], the president of the organization, claimed the group's goal in the Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project was to have "the first capital city in the national where no child will come out of a slum to go to school." But it also sought to obliterate bad publicity stemming from the [[Little Rock Crisis]] of 1957, which exposed the city as a powerful "symbol of brutality and prejudice for all the world to scorn."  In all, fifteen percent of the land area of the city underwent significant renewal activity. Five hundred and eight acres of downtown were demolished, including 471 buildings, which displaced 296 businesses of varying size.
+[[Raymond Rebsamen]], the president of the organization, claimed the group's goal in the Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project was to have "the first capital city in the national where no child will come out of a slum to go to school." But it also sought to obliterate bad publicity stemming from the [[Little Rock Crisis]] of 1957, which exposed the city as a powerful "symbol of brutality and prejudice for all the world to scorn." The city secured $18.8 million in federal Urban Renewal Administration funding in June 1962. In all, fifteen percent of the land area of the city underwent significant renewal activity. Five hundred and eight acres of downtown were demolished, including 471 buildings, which displaced 296 businesses of varying size.
 The renewal project included proposals for an Arkansas Exchange market for good manufactured in the south-central part of the country, a sports center (the proposed "Arkansas Sports Center") and marina along the Arkansas River, a downtown local and interurban bus terminal, a convention center, a Variety Lane pedestrian district for retailing in an area bounded by West Capitol, West Eighth, Spring, and Center streets, underground fallout shelters, parking ramps, upscale apartments, and plazas across from the eighteen-story [[new Tower Building]] and along Main Street. The renewal project also had a special committee designated for work on a proposed [[Quapaw Quarter]] of historic homes just south of downtown. The plan included projected razing of 2,292 houses and tenement units.
@@ Line 19: / Line 21: @@
 The Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project transformed housing in the city. Real estate moguls like future governor [[Winthrop Rockefeller]], Dallas-based [[Trammell Crow]], and local investor [[R. A. Lile]] regularly met in the [[Top of the Rock Club]] in the Tower Building to plan new developments. In 1960 Little Rock held only three urban apartment complexes greater than fifty units in size. Over the next fifteen years the city added seventy-eight complexes this size or larger.
-The total cost of the project was around $50 million. The project was occasionally deemed "socialistic," politically corrupt, and a "white preserve" maker by commentators and members of the public. One of its lasting reminders was a hotly contested McDonald's restaurant at the corner of Capitol and Main, which replaced a number of exiting local downtown eateries, including [[Breier's]], [[Tom and Andrew's]], the [[Courthouse Cafe]], [[Canton Tea Garden]], and [[Buddy's Cafe]]. The clearance made room for [[Worthen Bank and Trust Company]], [[Union National Bank]], [[Quapaw Quarter Apartments]], the [[Sheraton Little Rock Hotel]], the [[Camelot Inn]], the [[Federal Reserve Bank]], a [[Continental Trailways bus terminal]], [[Parkview Towers]], the [[One Spring Building]], and the offices of the [[Arkansas Bar Association]]. Linchpin features of the plan eventually became widely known as the [[Main Street Mall]] and the [[Statehouse Convention Center]] in downtown Little Rock.
+The total cost of the project in public and private funds was around $50 million. The project was occasionally deemed "socialistic," politically corrupt, and a "white preserve" maker by commentators and members of the public. One of its lasting reminders was a hotly contested McDonald's restaurant at the corner of Capitol and Main, which replaced a number of exiting local downtown eateries, including [[Breier's]], [[Tom and Andrew's]], the [[Courthouse Cafe]], [[Canton Tea Garden]], and [[Buddy's Cafe]]. The clearance made room for [[Worthen Bank and Trust Company]], [[Union National Bank]], [[Quapaw Quarter Apartments]], the [[Sheraton Little Rock Hotel]], the [[Camelot Inn]], the [[Federal Reserve Bank]], a [[Continental Trailways bus terminal]], [[Parkview Towers]], the [[One Spring Building]], and the offices of the [[Arkansas Bar Association]]. Linchpin features of the plan eventually became widely known as the [[Main Street Mall]] and the [[Statehouse Convention Center]] in downtown Little Rock.
 This vast urban renewal project came to an official end in 1977 as the federal government began turning to the [[Community Development Block Grant program]] for street improvements and housing rehabilitation in lower income neighborhoods.