Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

Press boxes and Pryors

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

I’ve attended two fun, uplifting events the past two days.

Yesterday, the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History at the University of Arkansas announced that it’s moving the KATV collection of videos to the Arkansas State Library.

The library is in the building on Capitol Avenue in downtown Little Rock that once housed the Dillard’s corporate headquarters. That building has been beautifully renovated for state offices, including those of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority.

The gift from KATV to the Pryor Center was announced in May 2009. But the priceless video collection had remained in the damp KATV basement on Main Street, where conditions are not the best for the preservation of old tapes. Those tapes will now be stored in a climate-controlled environment where they can be preserved and digitized during the next several years.

Today, I stood outside War Memorial Stadium as the new $7.3 million press box was dedicated. It’s a thing of beauty, especially for those of us who once toiled as sportswriters in the old facility. And for those who continue to live in fear that the University of Arkansas will end its association with the stadium, it was nice to hear UA athletic director Jeff Long call Little Rock the “gateway to the south and east” for the state’s flagship institution.

I’ve long contended that Little Rock games, while producing less revenue than Fayetteville games, ultimately strengthen the university as a statewide entity.

Frank Broyles forgot that when he attempted to end the tradition of playing football games in Little Rock. Relationships were damaged with people with last names such as Stephens and Ford. To Long’s credit, he has worked hard to rebuild those relationships.

At the same time, though, the members of the War Memorial Stadium Commission had the obligation to continually upgrade the stadium. Thank goodness for Gary Smith. Appointed by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee to the commission in 2003, the tenacious Little Rock businessman took on the stadium as a personal crusade. New scoreboards, video screens, playing surfaces, seats, restrooms and concession stands have all come about under Smith’s watch.

Gov. Mike Beebe, remembering the Great Stadium Debate, said it’s nice to see northwest Arkansas and central Arkansas working together better than they have in past years. This project was an example of that improving relationship with Long and Smith working closely together throughout the planning and construction of the press box.

The 1948 stadium has never looked better. Little Rock attorney Kevin Crass, a member of the War Memorial Stadium Commission, called it Miracle on Markham III.

I was fortunate to be in the stands with my family when the Razorbacks defeated LSU in Miracle on Markham I in 2002.

I was fortunate to be in the stands again with my family when the Razorbacks defeated LSU in Miracle on Markham II in 2008.

And I’ve watched with interest as Smith has brought about Miracle on Markham III.

I’m ready for football season. I hope to head out to War Memorial Stadium after work on Monday and Tuesday nights for part of the 2010 Arkansas High School Kickoff Classic. I hope to be back out there on Friday night of next week for the Salt Bowl game between Benton and Bryant. Last year, that game set the record for the highest attendance for an Arkansas high school football game. If the weather stays like this, last year’s record could be broken.

I’m sure I’ll look around the stadium next week and marvel at all that has been accomplished.

So what do yesterday’s Pryor Center event and today’s War Memorial Stadium event have in common? Several things:

– Both events were opportunities to show off newly renovated facilities in the heart of Little Rock — the old Dillard’s corporate headquarters and the stadium. While there are obvious examples of neglect (the city’s refusal to save historic Ray Winder Field remains the sharpest burr in my saddle), my overall impression is that Little Rock remains progressive.

– Both events reflected well on the new leadership at the university’s Fayetteville campus. I’ve been impressed with the job Long has done as athletic director. They say you never want to be the guy who replaces the legend, but Long is making the kinds of moves that are necessary in a world that’s far different from the one athletic directors faced in the previous century. Meanwhile, I laughed until my eyes watered during the Pryor Center event as Chancellor David Gearhart spoke. I must tell you that Gearhart is rapidly becoming one of my favorite people in Arkansas. What a great decision it was to make the Fayetteville native the chancellor. Too often in this state, we feel obligated to do “nationwide searches” and bring in people from elsewhere with lots of titles — people without a sense of history or place when it comes to Arkansas. Sometimes the best choices for these leadership positions are right here if only we would realize it. Gearhart is an example of that. The longer he’s chancellor, the more marvelous things he will do for the university.

– Both events were attended by people I’ve known for years, reminding me how nice it is to live in a small state where you know people. And reminding me that whether it’s a David Gearhart from Fayetteville or a David Pryor from Camden, Arkansas produces some smart, articulate leaders.

Back to the KATV video collection and the Pryor Center: The KATV collection has been called the finest collection of tapes at any local television station in the country. I described it earlier as “priceless.” For those of us who love Arkansas history, even that is an understatement.

Hats off to former KATV general manager Dale Nicholson, former news director Jim Pitcock and current news director Randy Dixon for not allowing old tapes to be discarded, as was the case at so many stations. There are 24,000 hours of tapes.

That’s right — 24,000 hours.

Thanks also to David and Barbara Pryor for establishing this unique center for preserving Arkansas history.

“The sheer scale of this irreplaceable, one-of-a-kind archive of Arkansas visual history is unprecedented in our state,” said Kris Katrosh, the Pryor Center director.

Here’s how the university’s news release put it: “A decade ago, when David and Barbara Pryor learned that another local news affiliate had discarded its entire catalog of aging archival tapes in the city dump, they embarked on a campaign quite different from their usual political one. Their goal: To ensure the preservation of KATV’s more than 24,000 hours of videotape containing film and video footage of Arkansas history, the most comprehensive archive of its type in the state and one of the largest in the nation. To put the size of this collection into context, it would require almost three years of viewing around the clock simply to watch the entire KATV collection.”

The Pryors had made a significant donation in 1999 to establish the center. Since then, more than 500 interviews with Arkansans of all types have been recorded. Those efforts will continue.

Check out the website at http://pryorcenter.uark.edu and make an online donation while you’re at it.

The leadership of the Pryor Center describes its mission in these words: “It’s a great honor and huge responsibility to be entrusted with our state’s treasure: its history. It is our goal to collect and preserve the most diverse and compelling collection of Arkansas oral and visual history, and to share it with our state and the world. We’re off to a good start by using high-definition video cameras, building an extensive digital archive and placing the collection on our website.

“We are recording stories and documenting events all across the state of Arkansas. We talk to people about their childhood challenges, their family fortunes and misfortunes and the experiences that shaped their character. We step into the lives and times of the individuals we interview, and we leave with a deep appreciation of who they are and how they helped impact our state, our country and sometimes our world. These in-depth interviews help preserve our Arkansas heritage.”

I have too many outside interests. My wife begged me not to agree to serve on any additional boards. I told her I would learn to say “no.”

Two days later, David Pryor called to ask me to serve on the Pryor Center Board of Advisors.

I was honored.

And you just don’t say “no” to David or Barbara Pryor.

I said “yes,” of course.

I’m glad I did.

Posted in Building Arkansas, Business, Little Rock | 1 Comment »

A Saturday in Branson

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

It was almost 4 p.m. Saturday when we walked into Dick’s Old-Time 5 & 10 on Main Street in Branson, Mo.

As usual, the store was crowded. We could barely move up and down the narrow aisles. By the dozens, tourists pushed their way through the glass doors. It was stuffy inside.

Those who know me will be quick to tell you that I’m not one to go into stores. But I was here to see a friend from my college days, Steve Hartley, whose father began the business half a century ago.

Wedging myself between the tourists, I looked for Steve. He wasn’t there. But I knew he was working on this summer Saturday. Heck, he’s always working.

Finally, I asked an employee: “Is Steve in today?”

“He’s gone to lunch,” the employee replied. “He should be back in the next 30 minutes.”

So Melissa, Evan and I crossed Main Street (our older son, Austin, was back at the Hilton Promenade working out in the fitness room) to have homemade limeades at Mr. B’s.

We returned to Dick’s shortly before 5 p.m., and I still didn’t see Steve. But then I saw his mom, June, hard at work at age 80.

“Welcome to Dick’s,” she said with a smile as people walked in.

Every other year during the 1990s, when the Ouachita Baptist University football team would play Southwest Baptist University in nearby Bolivar, I would spend a weekend with Steve. On a couple of those occasions, I was honored to have Saturday lunch at the home of Dick and June Hartley.

I went over, said hello to Mrs. Hartley and immediately received a big hug. Then, she went to the back room to retrieve Steve, whose day had become even busier than usual when the air conditioner in the building had given out.

Steve and I attended Ouachita at the same time. He was an excellent baseball player, and I covered the team as part of my job as sports editor of Arkadelphia’s Daily Siftings Herald. Following college, Steve began a career with Dillard’s Inc. Because he was smart and a hard worker, he quickly rose through the ranks, eventually managing one of the chain’s largest stores in Nashville, Tenn.

I have no doubt that Steve would now be a top executive had he remained with the company.

In 1993, however, he had to make a life-changing decision. Branson was booming, and his father asked him if he would come home to help run the family business. Steve chose at that point to give up his Dillard’s career and has never looked back. He has a closet filled with the suits he wore as a Dillard’s store manager. They’re rarely used. In Branson, the dress is casual. But the hours are long.

The Hartley family was in Branson before Branson was cool. Now an anchor of Main Street in the old downtown section of town, Dick’s has become somewhat of a landmark in a place where so much of what now exists is less than 20 years old.

My father, who was a downtown businessman in Arkadelphia for decades and a salesman at heart, would stop in to say hello to Dick Hartley whenever my parents would visit Branson. That’s because Red Nelson and Dick Hartley were kindred spirits — both born in the 1920s, both veterans, both hard workers who built businesses from scratch. Dick, who died in December 2006 at age 80, was a natural-born retailer.

Dick was born in 1926 in Springfield. He joined the U.S. Army upon graduation from high school and was stationed in Tokyo following the conclusion of World War II. He went to college at Drury in Springfield and graduated with a degree in economics. In 1950, he moved to Chicago to work for the S.S. Kresge Co. (later Kmart), renting a room at a YMCA and learning the five-and-dime business.

In 1956, Dick accepted a management position with TG&Y and moved to Midwest City, Okla. He and June, also a Springfield native, were married in 1959.

“After being transferred to Norman, Okla., Dick developed a desire to own his own five and dime,” says the store’s website at www.dicksoldtime5and10.com. “Dick and June agreed together that they wanted to take on this challenge. The next big decision, ultimately one of the biggest decisions of their lives, was where to locate their business. There was talk of Abilene, Kan., because of an available building with a favorable lease opportunity. There was also talk of the communities surrounding their hometown of Springfield.”

There was, however, something about Branson on the banks of the White River that felt right. That’s where they decided to open their business. At first, Dick and June were the only employees. Dick even built many of the counters used in the store. The folks in Branson said no one could outwork Dick Hartley. It’s an attribute inherited by his son.

In the 1970s, a competitor closed down and Dick Hartley bought the building that now houses the store. On Dec. 9, 2006, he closed the store at 9 p.m., went home and passed away.

Steve had the pleasure of working daily with his father for 13 years. Following his father’s death, my friend began to work even harder. His brother-in-law, Dave Montgomery, joined the thriving business in 2008.

There are more than 50,000 items in stock at the store.

“My father would have a fit if he knew how much inventory I have,” Steve says. “But it’s moving.”

There also are the collections on the walls — the autographed aviation prints, sports memorabilia, arrowheads, train memorabilia and more. Many of the more than 100 aviation prints are autographed by pilots and crew members. There’s the Memphis Belle, the Enola Gray and more.

In the collection of autographed sports prints, one can find Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Dizzy Dean and many others.

The walls are covered.

Unlike most Branson visitors, I do my best to stay off Missouri Highway 76 west of U.S. Highway 65. I hate traffic, and I don’t really have any desire to attend the shows. We made one futile attempt to drive through that area Sunday morning but turned around in the face of bumper-to-bumper traffic. I prefer to remain downtown.

Steve says the $500 million Branson Landing development has helped his business. More than 7,000 cars go up and down Main Street on an average day. People now flock to the development along Lake Taneycomo, which boasts two Hilton hotels, condominiums, more than 20 restaurants, more than 100 specialty shops, a Bass Pro Shop, a Belk’s department store, a marina and the $7.5 million water fountain show that’s synchronized to music with lights and fire.

Partners Rick Huffman, Sam Catanese and Marc Williams of HCW Development Co. are the men behind Branson Landing, which opened in 2006. In December 2008, the development was given a design award by the International Council of Shopping Centers.

As the economy continues to struggle, the overall tourism numbers in Branson are relatively flat. But east of U.S. 65, in the old downtown and at Branson Landing, the crowds are heavy. Steve said business at Dick’s has been good — very good.

If you’re like me and don’t care to fight the traffic on Highway 76 West, stay east of U.S. 65, visit Steve and June at Dick’s and eat at one of the old-style restaurants downtown — the Branson Cafe, the Farmhouse, Clockers or The Shack.

Had he lived, Dick Hartley might have been amazed at the size of the Saturday night crowds that show up these days down the street at Branson Landing. But he wouldn’t have been surprised by the crowds at his store or the work ethic of his son. Like father, like son, no one outworks a Hartley.

Posted in Business, Ozarks | 3 Comments »

Bentonville strikes gold with 21c

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

I love hotels.

Old hotels and new hotels. I love to sit in their lobbies. I love to check out their restaurants. I love to take the extra shampoo and conditioner home. I love to read the online reviews.

Of all the hotels I’ve visited (consider the fact that I spent 110 nights away from Little Rock in 2008), the 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville is perhaps the most unique. I was there in July 2008 for a Southern Foodways Alliance event.

Trust me when I tell you that Tuesday’s announcement that a 21c will be built in downtown Bentonville (an announcement overshadowed by that day’s Democratic runoff for the Senate) is big news for Arkansas.

We realize that Alice Walton’s construction of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville is transformative. Attracting a 21c gives us an indication of the kind of people and amenities that Crystal Bridges will bring to Northwest Arkansas.

Consider the fact that the readers of Conde Nast Traveler last year voted 21c Louisville as the best hotel in the country and the sixth best hotel in the world.

Best in the country. Sixth best in the world. And one is coming to downtown Bentonville.

Sit back and think about that for a moment.

A 21c also will be built in downtown Austin and downtown Cincinnati. Funky, progressive Austin is pretty good company for a town in Benton County to keep.

“The growth of 21c Museum Hotels is something that has happened organically,” says Michael Bonadies, the president and CEO of the company that’s owned by Louisville philanthropists Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson. “The success of the brand has surpassed our expectations. As a hub of global commerce and a rapidly emerging arts and entertainment destination, Bentonville is the perfect place for a 21c Museum Hotel.”

Bonadies, by the way, is an acclaimed restaurateur and author. He was a founding partner of the New York group that developed such famous restaurants as Tribeca Grill, Nobu and Rubicon. The restaurant in 21c Louisville, which is called Proof on Main, was listed by Esquire in 2006 as one of the best new restaurants in the country.

Thus we can expect there also to be a world-class restaurant in downtown Bentonville.

Steve Wilson once told the Austin American-Statesman that he’s “not very good about rules.”

“I was born in a fairly restrictive community in the Bible Belt,” he said. “I’m all about opening up the barriers and encouraging people to be creative and expressive.”

Wilson grew up on a farm at Wickliffe in far western Kentucky, just below where the Ohio River empties into the Mississippi River at Cairo, Ill. He majored in political science at Murray State and later worked in the communications division of the Kentucky governor’s office.

He met Laura Lee Brown in 1994, and they married two and half years later. Brown’s great-grandfather founded what’s now Brown-Forman Corp., the giant liquor conglomerate that owns brands such as Jack Daniel’s and Woodford Reserve. Brown’s father was president and CEO of the business. She grew up outside Louisville on a 400-acre property known as Sutherland.

Brown and Wilson now live on a 1,000-acre farm in Goshen, Ky., known as Woodland Farm. They raise bison there. Bison, by the way, is on the menu at Proof on Main.

Here’s how a 2006 feature on the couple in W magazine began: “In Kentucky horse country, it’s nearly impossible to discern a man’s social standing by the car in his driveway or the watch on his wrist. The region has its own set of status symbols, which, though no less powerful, aren’t obvious to the untrained eye. The type of fence that surrounds one’s thoroughbred farm matters — four horizontal slats denote more prosperity than three — as do the initials stamped on the bottom of one’s silver mint julep cups. (They indicate who was president in the year the vessel was made. Old julep cups, of course, suggest old money).

“But perhaps the most telling is the company one keeps on Derby Day, the climax of Louisville’s social swirl. On that front, Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson are hard to beat. This year two members of Congress, the co-founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (who is also a former governor) and three Miss Americas watched the races from the couple’s fourth-floor suite at Churchill Downs. It was a fitting entourage for Louisville’s reigning power pair, who put their guests up at their just-opened hotel downtown, treated them to dinner at their chic new restaurant and hosted them for Sunday brunch at their contemporary art-filled 19th century plantation house overlooking the Ohio River.”

Now, they’re bringing their act to Arkansas in partnership with the Walton family.

Wilson and Brown have traveled around the world to collect the art that will be displayed at 21c Bentonville. The combination of an art museum, a boutique hotel and a widely recognized restaurant is an interesting one that they’ve pulled off in Kentucky.

They only collect art by living artists. They like things that surprise and shock, including video. While standing at the lobby men’s room urinals of 21c Louisville, you look through a one-way mirror at people walking right in front of you while you’re taking care of your business.

Here’s how Elizabeth Blair described 21c Louisville in a piece for National Public Radio: “When you go to an art museum, you don’t expect to be able to take a shower or sleep there. But in Louisville, there’s a place where you can do both. It’s called 21c, and it feels a lot more like a contemporary art gallery than a hotel. … Wilson and Brown have been buying contemporary art from around the world for a long time. About three years ago, they opened 21c as a place to show their collection, Now, anyone can view the art, no matter the time of day, even if they’re not staying here. Sculptures, paintings, interactive video installations are everywhere — even in the bathrooms. … 21c has a permanent collection, rotating exhibitions and even a full-time museum director.”

Wilson said, “I love doing this because it’s so unlike a traditional museum. It’s so accessible, and that’s what to me contemporary art should be all about.”

Charles Venable, director of the Speed Art Museum in Kentucky, told NPR in late 2008: “I think what they’re doing down there is very relevant to a lot of people. Because it is commercial, they combine a restaurant, a bar, a place where you can stay — and they have great art there as well. It’s the combination of different parts of culture that make it so special, whereas older-style museums tend to parse that out in ways that don’t make it as meaningful for a lot of people.”

Rooms in Louisville begin at about $150 a night and can bump up to more than $200. 21c Louisiville has a portfolio of about 2,500 works of art.

So now Bentonville will have two great art museums. And you’ll be able to spend the night in one of them.

We’ve come far from the days when Dogpatch was considered one of this state’s top attractions.

Posted in Building Arkansas, Business | 3 Comments »

Training new leaders (at home and elsewhere)

Monday, June 7th, 2010

I will be driving down to DeGray Lake Resort State Park later today to speak at the graduation ceremony for the Leadership Clark County program. There will be 24 graduates of Leadership Clark County, which is in its second year of existence.

I’m a huge proponent of leadership programs. In a small state like Arkansas, where personal connections are vital, these programs allow a new generation of leaders to make contacts and learn about parts of their city, county and state they might not have learned about otherwise.

Such programs also allow these emerging leaders to come up with fresh ideas and, hopefully, begin making some of those ideas a reality.

When I was at the Delta Regional Authority, we created an eight-state program called the Delta Leadership Institute. The governors of the eight states in which we worked (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois) each were able to name four people to the program. The federal co-chairman, appointed by the president, could name another four people in order to round out a class of 36.

I also participated in the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Arkansas program, and it proved to be an outstanding experience.

The Leadership Clark County initiative is an outgrowth of the Clark County Strategic Plan, a countywide effort that set goals and then began implementing various action steps.

Back in 2006, I was visiting with the president of one of the state’s major associations. This man, who had once lived in Southwest Arkansas but now lives in the booming city of Conway, said something that startled me. He knew I was an Arkadelphia native and mentioned that he had recently been in my hometown.

“Arkadelphia is really a town in decline, isn’t it?” he said.

I was working with the DRA at the time, a job that took me into struggling Delta towns in several states on an almost daily basis. I can tell you all about towns in decline.

But I had never thought of Clark County in the same way. To me, Arkadelphia will always be one of this state’s garden spots — a beautiful old town with two universities, two rivers, interstate highway access, a popular lake just down the road, history, charm and character.

The banner of the Southern Standard weekly newspaper, which no longer exists, once proclaimed Arkadelphia to be the Athens of Arkansas. I had a pretty idyllic childhood there. Yet I was determined that on my next trip home to Arkadelphia, I would try to view the city as an outsider. Mentally taking on that role, I saw many things I didn’t like. These were things that to the outsider made this look much more like a shrinking Delta town than a thriving university town.

That’s why Clark County’s strategic planning effort, which was just cranking up at the time, has been so important. A lot of people suddenly were coming together back in 2006 to address the lack of growth and economic development in the county. I wrote a guest column for the Daily Siftings Herald in Arkadelphia, and I knew it had struck the proper nerves when I was criticized by some of the political powers there.

That was good.

It showed people were reading. A debate had been started.

Having viewed firsthand what a similar strategic planning effort had done for Phillips County, I asked Phil Baldwin of Southern Bancorp in Arkadelphia if such a planning effort could begin in Clark County. Southern Bancorp had been instrumental in getting the strategic plan off the ground in Phillips County, which started with far more severe economic problems than Clark County. And Clark County, not Phillips County, is the home base of Southern Bancorp.

As usual, Phil was ahead of me.

He responded, “It’s interesting you mentioned it because we’re planning to do a strategic plan for Clark County.”

Having lived away from Arkadelphia for the past quarter of a century, I’ve watched from afar as the city has responded to major challenges. When Reynolds Metals Co. shut down its Patterson Plant in the 1980s, the business leaders worked to bring in new jobs. Within a few years, Clark County had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state.

In the late 1990s, though, things slowed down again.

When the tragic tornado changed the face of Arkadelphia on March 1, 1997, people responded. I’ll never forget something President Clinton told me on Tuesday, March 4, 1997, after he had finished his walking tour of what remained of downtown Arkadelphia. A reception was being held at Elk Horn Bank even though the bank still had no electricity.

“A lot of towns would never recover from this blow,” the president told me that afternoon. “But with two universities and strong banks, Arkadelphia is better situated to recover from something like this than most towns in the southern half of the state.”

The president was right. Arkadelphia did build back in those areas that had been destroyed. But the growth was not what it should be in a place with two well-respected universities.

So what will I tell the group tonight?

1. Don’t let this be the end. Go out there and truly be leaders in the years ahead. In too many Arkanasas communities, people sit back and wait for elected officials — the mayor, members of the city board, the county judge, members of the quorum court, legislators — to do something for them. Don’t wait on them. The communities that are thriving in Arkansas have strong grassroots support from the business and civic sectors. Simply waiting on government to do something is a recipe for rot.

2. Play to your strengths. The county shouldn’t stop trying to attract manufacturing jobs, but I see too many towns that spend way too much time chasing jobs that likely are headed to Mexico, China and India anyway. Arkadelphia’s strength will always be the fact that it’s home to Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University. I firmly believe Arkadelphia’s niche in this century should be as an attractive Southern college town — a smaller version of Oxford, Miss., if you will. The goal should be to position it as the educational, cultural, literary and artistic center of south Arkansas. For college students, quality of life is now more important than ever. If properly executed, such an effort could also attract artists, writers and others looking for just such an oasis offering culture, a low cost of living and a safe environment.

3. Try harder to attract retirees. High-income retirees put much into an area’s economy with their need for medical care, their spending in restaurants, the time they have for volunteering, etc. They pay property taxes to support the public schools but don’t have children in those public schools. College towns across the country have become increasingly attractive to high-income retirees due to the steady diet of concerts, lectures, plays and sporting events that colleges provide. Arkadelphia should be perfectly positioned to take advantage of this trend.

4. The city should also take better advantage of its old houses and other historic sites. Old river towns such as Camden and Helena don’t have the benefit of being home to four-year universities. And college towns like Jonesboro, Magnolia and Monticello aren’t historic old river towns. Arkadelphia is both — a college town and a historic river town. Play to that strength.

5. Arkadelphia should aim for a bookstore, some art galleries, a music store and some additional restaurants and coffeehouses downtown. The vision should be that of a funky, somewhat artsy place with loft apartments on the second floors of downtown buildings. I’ll urge the emerging leaders to visit the downtown square at Oxford and then envision a modified version of that for downtown Arkadelphia.

6. These leaders should make it their goal to create the cleanest county in the state. There should be strong Adopt-A-Street programs across the county. I remember as a Boy Scout distributing free dogwood trees that had been donated by the Ross Foundation. How about something like an organized effort to plant thousands of new dogwood trees while encouraging people to keep them watered and healthy? Eventually, the area could be promoted as the Dogwood Capital of the South, yet another draw for tourists and retirees.

7. Finally, something I advocate for every community from Little Rock on down: Strict code enforcement. No excuses. No lenience. Abandoned houses should be torn down quickly. Absentee owners should be forced to adhere to the codes and brought to justice quickly when they fail to do so.

Maybe there are lessons here for other towns in Arkansas when it comes to playing to your strengths, cleaning up the town, etc.

Maybe not.

At any rate, it will be good to be home, among friends, talking about helping a place I love finally achieve its full potential.

Posted in Building Arkansas, Business | 2 Comments »

Remembering Mr. Jack

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

There’s a great article in Forbes on Little Rock’s Stephens Inc. and how well the company is doing despite the current recession. It tells how Stephens Inc. has increased from 84 to 100 investment bankers in the past year and “aims to double its roster of retail brokers to 200 and hire more analysts and portfolio managers.”

It also recounts how the company has gone from 13 employees to 300 employees in its insurance division the past three years.

It’s good publicity for Little Rock and for Arkansas as a whole. There’s a nice photo of Warren Stephens with the caption: “No leverage, no problems.”

It’s also good for Arkansas when people across the country can hear about the Stephens brothers who founded the company, Mr. Witt and Mr. Jack.

My wife and I were married in October 1989 and moved from Washington, D.C., to Little Rock at that time. I was involved with Mr. Jack in a political exercise. And my wife, who had never even visited Arkansas until earlier that year, was hired to be part of Mr. Jack’s small personal staff on the third floor of the old Stephens Inc. building at Capitol and Scott across from what’s now the offices of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Mr. Witt’s offices were on the second floor.

What a wonderful experience for both of us. While quieter and less public than his older brother, Mr. Jack was one of the smartest, kindest men I’ve ever met. I was only 30 years old at the time. To be able to duck hunt with him, fly several places with him and even drive his brown Mercedes to Brinkley on one occasion was the experience of a lifetime for a guy from Arkadelphia.

People know of the Jack Stephens Center at UALR, the Jack Stephens Spine and Neurosciences Institute at UAMS, the Jack Stephens campus of the Episcopal Collegiate School and the many other world-class facilities he helped fund. But too few know of his keen wit and sense of humor.

My wife was most nervous when she would have to sit at the desk of Mr. Jack’s long-time secretary while the secretary went to lunch. That’s because invariably, in those pre-Internet days, Mr. Stephens would call during that hour and ask: “How’s the market doing?”

Looking up the answer would make my wife sweat bullets, though Mr. Jack was always patient. The payoff for sitting at the desk for an hour would be getting anything left over from Mr. Witt’s famed luncheons downstairs, including the dripping-in-butter Stephens cornbread.

Speaking of cornbread, Warren Stephens’ most recent great contribution to this city would have to be bringing Lee Richardson up from New Orleans to serve as the chef at the Capital Hotel. Lee was a James Beard Foundation finalist this year for best chef in the South.

If you haven’t tried his cooking at either Ashley’s or the Capital Bar & Grill, you’re missing out on some of the best food this state has to offer. We might lose Bobby Petrino from this state one of these days, but by all means don’t let anyone steal Lee Richardson. Good chefs are harder to find than good football coaches.

By the way, the prices at both of the hotel’s dining venues are surprisingly reasonable for the quality of food offered.

I love the fact that the Capital Bar & Grill still keeps the table reserved where Mr. Jack would hang out prior to his death. And knowing that he liked to eat a cheeseburger every night for supper, I can tell you that Lee and his staff serve one heck of a cheeseburger. Warren, your dad would be proud.

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