Rose City showing its colors
Banners going up to promote area’s ‘small-town’ qualities
Banners featuring a photo of a bold red rose are starting to appear throughout North Little Rock’s Rose City area off East Broadway to promote the area’s “small-town” atmosphere, a project that’s part of a new partnership between the Rose City Neighborhood Association and the Rose City Business Association.
The organizations used Valentine’s Day to kick off the endeavor Thursday in front of several residents and city government officials outside the Rose City Shopping Center at 4109 E. Broadway. Red, white and pink balloons and Valentine’s Day treats also helped mark the occasion.
The neighborhood is “like a small town” in itself, said Ken Abel, Rose City Neighborhood Association president.
“I’ve lived here for over 30 years,” Abel said. “I’ve seen a lot. I’ve enjoyed it. This is the biggest thing we need to do.
“Y’all need to come together and make this the community we need it to be,” he said.
John Woodard, owner of the nearby Shotgun Dan’s pizza restaurant and incoming president of the business association, said the two groups would team up to hang red rose logo banners along Rose City’s traffic corridor as its first project.
North Little Rock Chief of Staff Danny Bradley, with assistance from journeyman lineman James Bartlett of the North Little Rock Electric Department, was lifted in a utility truck bucket to near the top of a 22-foot-tall light pole in front of the shopping center to hang the first rose logo banner. It was a bit of a chore in Thursday morning’s wind. Thirty such banners are planned.
Next will be the planting of rosebushes outside participating businesses and in public spaces “to beautify the area,” Woodard said.
The Rose City area formed in the early 1900s as “probably the very first working-class neighborhood” in North Little Rock, said Martha Capps, a 30-plus-years resident and secretary of the neighborhood association.
“A lot of the first businesses in North Little Rock started here in Rose City,” Capps said. “It grew up as a blue-collar, working-class neighborhood.”
Capps said the partnership between the two associations is to promote Rose City as a “nice, affordable place to live” in a convenient location that has a neighborly atmosphere.
“Everybody watches out for each other,” Capps said. “And the accessibility. You can get from this point to the [Verizon] Arena in 10 minutes. We can get to UAMS [the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences] in 15 minutes, McCain Mall in 15 minutes.
“The neighborhood association has worked hard to stop things from coming in that would be detrimental to the neighborhood,” said Capps, who said she’s been a member for eight years. “We have a strong neighborhood association, and it’s getting stronger. That’s what this partnership is all about.”