Historic Little Rock Neighborhood Getting Facelift
By: Josh Berry, KARK 4 News
Updated: October 26, 2012
The project is called "Pop-Up Main Street." It's organized by a group of people that meet in an on Main Street called Studio Main.
The idea behind the project is making mock improvements to the sidewalk and street between 12th and 16th along Main, with the hope that the city will pick up on the ideas and utilized them when they come in and actually make improvements sometime in the middle of next year.
Shelley Green owns a sustainable goods store on the corner of 15th and Main, just south of Interstate 630; an area near downtown Little Rock dubbed SoMa, for "South Main."
"It's just a great, vibrant area," Green says.
She calls her place the Green Corner Store, and she's seen positive changes come to this area for the last few years.
"And that was one of the reasons why I located here," she says.
There's a push by like-minded store owners to change the direction of this neighborhood, and now they're getting help through a community-based project called Pop-up Main, which aims to improve this portion of Main Street by adding better parking along with pedestrian and bicycle lanes.
"There's so much change happening," says James Meyer. "You can't happen to come down here and not see the change."
They're going to take out one lane of traffic going both north and south, which they think folks can get used to.
They're recreating the flow of the entire street, but to do that they have to cover up the current lines. But they need a lot of tape, and they say they need your help.
If you're an artist or student, or just want to donate something, they say they'll find a use for it.
The intention is if this goes well, they'll want to move on to another area to see what can be done and what would be best for the community.
They say volunteers are needed for Sunday, Nov. 4 to lay out the first steps of this project as it gets underway for the big day on Nov. 9.
If you're interested in helping or want more information, click here or look for updates in the future on their @popupmain Twitter feed or Facebook.
The idea behind the project is making mock improvements to the sidewalk and street between 12th and 16th along Main, with the hope that the city will pick up on the ideas and utilized them when they come in and actually make improvements sometime in the middle of next year.
Shelley Green owns a sustainable goods store on the corner of 15th and Main, just south of Interstate 630; an area near downtown Little Rock dubbed SoMa, for "South Main."
"It's just a great, vibrant area," Green says.
She calls her place the Green Corner Store, and she's seen positive changes come to this area for the last few years.
"And that was one of the reasons why I located here," she says.
There's a push by like-minded store owners to change the direction of this neighborhood, and now they're getting help through a community-based project called Pop-up Main, which aims to improve this portion of Main Street by adding better parking along with pedestrian and bicycle lanes.
"There's so much change happening," says James Meyer. "You can't happen to come down here and not see the change."
They're going to take out one lane of traffic going both north and south, which they think folks can get used to.
They're recreating the flow of the entire street, but to do that they have to cover up the current lines. But they need a lot of tape, and they say they need your help.
If you're an artist or student, or just want to donate something, they say they'll find a use for it.
The intention is if this goes well, they'll want to move on to another area to see what can be done and what would be best for the community.
They say volunteers are needed for Sunday, Nov. 4 to lay out the first steps of this project as it gets underway for the big day on Nov. 9.
If you're interested in helping or want more information, click here or look for updates in the future on their @popupmain Twitter feed or Facebook.
