Dear friends of downtown,
2024 is full of things we fought and dreamed for, and now it’s time to act.
While it seems like last week when we first started calling for a downtown ambassador program, it was actually
2016. That said, it is now a reality for our city. A funded, functioning ambassador program for our downtown hit the streets in October 2023, and the team has been hard at work ever since.
It’s incredible to see and feel the difference ambassadors make on the street — simply saying “hi” to passersby, picking up trash and checking in on our local businesses.
Not only do we now have ambassadors out and about in their blue-and-green uniforms; we are also in the midst of a master plan for downtown Little Rock, the first such planning process in our city. Sasaki Associates Inc. has been hard at work to develop a new vision for our downtown.
The city kicked the plan off with a public meeting at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in October, and the planners have held public meetings every other month since in a variety of locations downtown. Additionally, focus groups have been meeting monthly, discussing the ideas and findings of planners, as well as feedback from residents.
The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts will complete its first full year since reopening in spring 2023, and construction is well underway for the new performance hall of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. And after sitting vacant for over two decades, the beautiful Boyle Building is undergoing renovations at the corner of Capitol and Main.
It’s a great time to be downtown. Come join us.