During September 15-16th, CCED Assistant Director Dylan Edgell and Project Coordinator Michael Hudson attended the Destination Downtown in North Little Rock, AR. While there, they attended informative panels, listened to engaging speakers, strengthened existing partnerships, and built new ones with economic developers from Louisiana and Mississippi.
Both Dylan and Michael on their time at the conference and here are their main takeaways:
From Dylan:
My biggest takeaway from Destination Downtown 2022 was from Stephen Luoni’s presentation titled “Main Street: Not Just a Collection of Facades, but an Urban Ecosystem”. Luoni is the Director of the University of Arkansas Community Design Center and his views on urban design, placemaking, and community design were incredibly interesting and had me hopeful for the future of cities in Arkansas by looking at what we had in the past.
The most interesting parts for me were when Luoni showed historic photos and maps from major cities in Arkansas including Little Rock, Fort Smith, and Pine Bluff to show how dense the downtown areas and neighborhoods around the downtown areas were. That density allowed for a thriving downtown economic infrastructure, including a robust network of railcars and trolleys that could serve people living, working, and enjoying the downtown area. There were photos of Downtown Little Rock in 1910 that showed huge multi-use buildings and multiple trolley tracks for a town of only 45,000 at the time.
Currently, most zoning codes do not allow for the type of dense development that could help build back downtown areas but many cities and towns across the United States are responding to this issue by changing or adding flexibility to their zoning codes. It was sad to see the changes in downtown areas in Arkansas and the type of urbanism that we had at the turn of the century, but it makes me hopeful because if we’ve done it before we can do it again.
From Michael:
The session that captured my attention the most at Destination Downtown 2022 was The Grumpy Rabbit: A Homemade Recipe for Hometown Success by a panel of speakers that included Ryan Biles, Gina Wiertelak, Natalie Biles, Stacey Breezeel, Brantley Snipes, and Will Staley. Perhaps it was due to me running late and not eating breakfast that morning that really sparked my interest in listening to how a restaurant was created during COVID; but, what really drew me in was listening to how the brand was created, the amount of work that was required to gather public support, a license to sell alcohol, the renovations, and countless other things that would’ve stopped anyone else from opening the restaurant.
The Grumpy Rabbit is located in the beautiful historic downtown district of Lonoke, Arkansas. The building itself dates back to 1905 and has been completely renovated to include as much of the original wood inside as possible. That within itself faced issues due to COVID-19 impacting construction, workers, supplies, and more. However, the Grumpy Rabbit team continued hopping forward. By partnering with Thrive, Inc. the Grumpy Rabbit owners, Gina and Jim Wiertelak were able to focus on how they would create an environment that is welcoming to all while Thrive focused on the branding and interior design.
The Grumpy Rabbit faced another challenge by trying to obtain a license to sell alcoholic drinks in a dry county. While facing the usual critics, The Grumpy Rabbit had to be innovative in how they would market themselves as fine dining instead of as a sports bar, as the rumors stated they would be. By consulting a Little Rock attorney, they were able to determine that by purchasing a non-profit business they then would be able to sell alcoholic beverages in their restaurant. It was incredibly uplifting to hear how a rural town implemented positive change into a community through a restaurant.