decent place to live in little rock

[BethT]

Hopefully my husband and I will be moving back to AR at the end of the year and I will finally get to start nursing school! Can anyone suggest a good place to live, or areas that would be ok. I am not familiar with LR at all. I will be applying to UALR, is it safe around there?

Thanks guys!

[booklovinrn]

I was hoping someone that knows more would answer, but I'll tell you what little I know. My family and I moved to Cabot about 3 years ago. It is about 30-45 minutes north of Little Rock. We like it a lot and have found it to be a good place for our family. I don't know much about intown Little Rock except I know you need to be careful about schools (if you have school age children) and I don't think the area around UALR is very good. That is just what I have noticed from driving around there. Hope this helps.

[Hannah25]

You might like North Little Rock or West Little Rock. You can find nice, safe, and reasonably priced homes in both areas. It takes about 10 minutes to get to UAMS from either direction. Plus these areas are close to downtown little rock where a lot of fun stuff happens and you are far enough away so the neighborhoods are better. Maumelle, Cabot, Benton, and other cities outside of Little Rock are too far a drive for me personally. As far as schools, when I was going to highschool and moving to Arkansas, we were suppose to move to Little Rock, but my parents chose to move to Conway (22miles NW of Little Rock) for their schools. Little Rock and that area have a bad rep for schools, unless you can afford private schools. As far as nursing schools. I graduated from UCA (in conway) and work at UAMS. From talking to UAMS grads, they liked their school and have great things to say about it. And on the other end I have heard nothing but horror stories about Baptist nursing school in Little Rock. They sound absolutely wicked! And I loved my school, UCA.

[feralnostalgia]

I've lived in little rock for 13 years, and I've been attending UALR since January, and just got accepted into their nursing program a few weeks ago =)

as a general rule, west little rock is more middle class, south and east little rock tend to be poorer, and sections like the heights and hillcrest (which are in the middle, but north of highway 630) tend to be upper middle class and trendier. there's also a lot of very expensive "new money" development in farther west little rock, like Chenal. if you want to live in a mostly middle-class suburban kind of environment, where it's safe to jog at night and so on, try for west of 430 and north of 630. if you want a more artistic neighborhood, look in hillcrest, around Kavanaugh, or in downtown north of 630.

maumelle is a white-flight community that was founded across the river from west little rock when they integrated the schools...not a great way to start a city but it's now a bedroom community to little rock and I think most people commute in. lots of people live in jacksonville, benton, conway, and cabot too - and it would probably be a lot cheaper there, assuming you are ok with lots of driving.

I live with my parents in Pleasant Forest, and it takes me at most 15 minutes to drive to UALR campus.

if I weren't living with my parents, I would try to find something off of North University avenue. UALR is on South University, so it's not far away. there are also some decent neighborhoods along Mississippi. I've never looked for an apartment or house in little rock, so I don't know much about prices. I DO know that the Sierra Club has been concerned that there is a very illegal dump of toxic waste in the landfill near Asher Ave, just south of UALR campus, and that they are getting away with it because it is a low-income neighborhood. again, the father south and east you are in little rock proper, the more you're probably going to deal with crime. (in this case rich people screwing the poor ones over...)

a few people have even been robbed in the UALR parking lot after dark, and I think they've had at least one drive by over the last 5 years, if that gives you any idea. I'm happy with my choice of school and have never felt unsafe while I've been on campus, (in fact suburban UCA up in Conway had a shooting last semester that was part of my moving to little rock and going to UALR), but I wouldn't wander around with my laptop in the middle of the night. personally I'd rather add 5 minutes to my drive to school than have to worry about that kind of thing.

[BethT]

Thanks for the response guys. I think I may have talked my husband into buying a home instead of renting (keeping my fingers crossed!). Nothing too fancy, keeping the mortgage around 700-800 per month. Heck, you will pay that in rent somewhere!! I won't know until later on in the year if we really get to move, my husband starts his interview process with the LRPD this Thursday. I am so nervous! I hope to attend UALR. This sounds so stupid... but the only reason I wasn't looking into UAMS is because of the Chemistry classes. I am too afraid I can't do it!

[booklovinrn]

About the chem, the one that UAMS requires is Intro to organic. Now you may have to take Chem 1 as a pre-req depending on the school, but Intro to Organic is nothing like Chem 1. The intro to organic is more naming and recognizing compounds -not near as much math and problems like Chem 1. So anyway, don't let your fear of Chem stop you.

[Hannah25]

Organic chemistry 1 and 2 were hard, and I worked my butt off in those classes, but once I was finished and took pharm and patho and anatomy etc etc it was really helpful in understanding how it all worked on a molecular level. Besides, it's so much more gratifying when it's hard, right!

[Girl Scout]

I grew up in Little Rock and can tell you anything about it, but all my info as of recently comes from family or friends, since I haven't moved back since I graduated high school in '90, and haven't visited much either.

However, it sounds like what was true then, is essentially still true: the north and west sides of Little Rock are the best and safest places to look at.

I lived in the Heights area - roughly the area around and north of Mount Saint Mary Academy (my high school). It was a nice place then, and I think it's still nice now, but you have the "creep" happening from the south. Just south of that area is War Memorial Stadium and the zoo, and the interstate, and all that was iffy area then, and I reckon it's moreso now. To give you an idea, my aunt lived on Pine Street in the late 70s and early 80s and got burgled 2 or 3 times a year. The area itself was neat, hilly, lots of neat architecture, and near UAMS, but if it was bad then, I can only imagine now (although I can hope that it's actually gotten nicer...)

But if you look at Google Maps at Little Rock, see the place where University dead-ends into Cantrell, that was a great area. Everything west of that was also great. You start to get into the W. Little Rock area at about Rodney Parham Rd., and it was really nice and pleasant.

In fact, as a kid, we lived out on Stagecoach Road in a giant old house that must've been 100 years old. The road itself was where the old stagecoach route used to come, and the coach house was still there when we moved away. That area of W. LR was really, really great. Very serene - you will find an abundance of trees, especially lovely, tall pine. That's one thing I really have missed about LR, the pine trees! And the way the city smells with the pine trees. Really takes me back when I go for visits.

Hope that helps some!