Do you know how long it takes a city to build one trail?

Longer than you might think. It’s taken nearly 30 years for the concept of a multipurpose urban trail to make its way out of the imaginations of a handful of city leaders and onto the pavement.

The Arkansas River Trail is a work in progress — new features seem to crop up every few months — that has taken a host of philanthropists, organizers, city departments and planners to bring full circle, literally.

The opening of the BigDamBridge pedestrian crossing over the Murray Lock and Dam created a 14-mile bike/hike loop. But much more work must be done for the River Trail to be complete.

It will be worth the wait, trail planners say.

When complete, the River Trail will be nearly 25 miles long, not just connecting downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock but providing a route to Pinnacle Mountain State Park and to the Ouachita Wilderness Trail (which is itself around 225 miles long).
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When George Wittenberg sent me his address I didn’t look at it closely. It wasn’t until the morning of our interview that I read it and thought, “Huh? This isn’t near the River Market.” I was so certain that was where he lived. I plugged the address into Mapquest and, again, nowhere near the River Market district. I e-mailed Wittenberg for confirmation. “Between 15th and 16th,” he replied. In the Abeles complex.

Where did I get the idea that his home, which is legendary for its sophisticated and gorgeous aesthetic, was near the River Market? It dawned on me: It’s because that’s where I’ve heard people talk about him and his home. It’s a testament to the crucial role Wittenberg plays in the continued development of downtown Little Rock; you can’t talk about it without his name coming up.
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Stephens Inc. CEO Warren Stephens thinks Little Rock needs to be “more aggressive” about committing tax dollars to downtown development projects, and he has shied away from dictating the future of his own downtown properties, lest he provoke a “backlash.”

I want to be part of the process,” Stephens said in an interview with the Arkansas Times. “I’m not going to be the sole factor to make any development come to light.”
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