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November 17, 2004
Trailer For Sale or Rent
The Bubba-fest has begun.
"A glorified house trailer," former President Bill Clinton joked at a luncheon here yesterday to kick off the dedication of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. "That's me. I'm a little red and a little blue."
As you can see from this photo, it's also parked next to a railroad trestle spanning the Arkansas River. A single-wide on the wrong side of the tracks. Could it be more appropriate?
'Course they've cleaned up a little for the big party.
And what better site to store his legacy — tarnished or not — than a scruffy, previously decrepit part of town which, like the boy from Hope, shined up like a new penny. In fact, the whole town smells like fresh mulch.
The trash has been picked up. The lights down Main Street (mostly, like a lot of Main Streets, boarded up) are twinkling. The city picked itself up and began moving west, up the Arkansas River, several years ago.
Not to mention clearing out the homeless tent city that had been in the area for years. But then they've been working on cleaning up downtown for a while now......even as early as 1996, when I was there taking the bar exam, it was reasonably safe to walk around the riverfront area unarmed during daylight hours. Which was not always the case, believe me.
The Clinton library, supporters say, could draw up to 300,000 tourists a year to Little Rock, generating an estimated $17.5 million in sales. But not everyone in town is convinced that the rest of America wants to pore over Mr. Clinton's papers while on vacation.
"I don't see people saying, 'Let's not go to Fort Lauderdale. Let's go to Little Rock instead,' " says 29-year-old Allen Pennington, tending bar at Brave New Restaurant across town. "It's not going to happen."
I don't see it either, but then I've never understood the Clinton attraction. If you do go there, I highly recommend stopping in at Doe's Eats (killer steaks) and a little bar & grill called UFO's (best sammichs in the state and more kinds of beer than you can imagine). We haven't been there in years, but I reckon it's still there.
And I doubt we'll be going anytime soon. Funny, after all those years of sending me crap asking for donations to build the Clinton library, they forgot to send me an invitation to the grand opening.
What do you mean I had to contribute to get an invitation?
Not bloody likely.
Posted by Rita at November 17, 2004 06:36 AM
Comments
ACK!! That is fugly.
Posted by: Jim at November 17, 2004 10:15 AM
But so appropriate, right?
Posted by: rita at November 17, 2004 04:40 PM