Who’s Your Fayetteville?
I’ve been a life-long resident of Fayetteville, AR. It’s a pretty quiet, tree-lined, college town where you can leave your car (heck, even your house) unlocked. We’ve got a lot more diversity than most of this area, thanks to the University of Arkansas. We have a smattering of the things that make a town livable and fun - live music, street festivals, art galleries, random public weirdos.But honestly, as Fayetteville has morphed and merged wit h Springdale/Rogers/Bentonville, its unique character has been diluted almost entirely away. More and more strip malls and McMansions, fewer decent jobs (but ever-higher housing prices), and more white-bread SUV drivers are making this town look like every other red-state sprawl-ville. Which, if that’s what you’re into, would make this a great place to live. But if you’re like me, and appreciate actual culture and diversity, it might not be as great as it once was.
Sent by DeLani Bartlette from Fayetteville, AR
May 7th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Hi DeLani, as I read your post, I thought you were describing my newly adopted home town - Chico, CA - A relatively quiet, diverse, tree-lined, culturally rich, bike friendly college town (California State University at Chico) nestled between agricultural land (rice, Almonds, Walnuts) and the lower cascades in northern California. I moved to Chico 5 years ago to escape the craziness and busy-ness of the SF bay area. One of the BIG saving graces of Chico is that we’re well off the beaten path (nearest town is 10 miles away, pop 1900, and 100 miles from the nearest major city, Sacramento), but with all the great amenities that an isolated town of 100,000 has - major stores in a mall well away from the city center, a flourishing old-town core, lots of local coffee houses (it is a college town, afterall), great local events - farmers markets, music, theatre, a fantastic local park - Bidwell Park - that is both accessible (1 mile from downtown) as well as quite beautiful and rugged when you get up into the foothills. The town is somewhat isolated (off sleepy highway 99 and 20+ miles from busy interstate 5), and unlikely to have much urban sprawl due to the Ag green line on one side and the hills/mountains on the other side. I love it here!
June 19th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
My best friend moved to Fayetteville a couple yeras ago b/c her husband is in the military. She’s originally from the Bay Area, CA. She is not impressed with Fayetteville, saying that it is mostly worn down strip malls. Seems like she has to drive 1/2 an hour to get anywhere.