Little Rock, AR

[mandypo333]

Any information on Little Rock, Arkansas? Would someone need a car? What is there to do? What's the city like in general? Any information is helpful!

[TheMagicMoment]

I'm sorry I saw this so late! I am currently attending a graduate program in Little Rock. I live in North Little Rock, but I'm going to talk about them as if they are the same place.

I would say that you need a car to live here. This is especially true if you plan to live off campus in places where rent is cheapest and if you want to avoid having to walk places when it gets cold in the winter. (It does snow here sometimes.) There are no places I can think of that have a convenient walking distance to everything you would need (campus, grocery stores) and want to do (shopping, bars, theaters). Downtown Little Rock or downtown North Little Rock might be your best option for walking, but those are nowhere near UALR (which is where I assume you've applied). There is a public transportation system and Uber if you don't have a car yet.

What is there to do? I mentioned shopping, bars, and theaters. There are three malls, an outlet mall that just opened, plenty of bars in downtown LR and NLR, a few museums, and several movie theaters and entertainment venues. There is a civic center that brings decent sized acts to the city (Slipknot, Fleetwood Mac, Carrie Underwood, Mumford & Sons). The city also has a regular series of events such as the cheese dip festival, the egg-nog off, the whole hog roast competition, craft shows, local music concerts, charity walk/runs, fundraisers, etc. 

Little Rock has half the population and is half the size of Pittsburgh (where your profile says you're currently living). Little Rock is definitely a southern city, accent included. The locals are generally polite and friendly. Everyone cheers for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks (no matter the sport or which Arkansas university they actually attended). Little Rock is also like a small town as opposed to a mid-size city. I've found that many of the locals have some kind of connection to many other locals that you may meet. Networking is the best way to get anything done around here.

Feel free to send me a message if I can answer any other questions for you!

[mandypo333]

Thank you so much for this information MandatoryManda! Do you find that you enjoy Little Rock or would not recommend it? Also are there many outdoorsy things to do around there?

[TheMagicMoment]

On January 3, 2016 at 10:22 AM, mandypo333 said:

Thank you so much for this information MandatoryManda! Do you find that you enjoy Little Rock or would not recommend it? Also are there many outdoorsy things to do around there?

You're very welcome! I enjoy Little Rock except in the winter. I'm from Florida and I was not prepared for freezing temperatures and snow. The biggest issue I have with living in Little Rock is sales tax. The state of Arkansas has a 6.5% sales tax, the city of Little Rock levies a sales tax of 1.5%, and Pulaski County has a 1% sales tax. So really you're paying 8.5% sales tax on most things. My other complaints about Little Rock are that there aren't more used book stores and Vietnamese restaurants. If you can get used to those things, and make friends easy, Little Rock is not a bad place to live.

There are lots of outdoorsy things to do in the Little Rock area. Arkansas is known as "The Natural State" and it has plenty of parks and recreation areas, several of which are not far from Little Rock. There also seems to be a decent sized cycling community here, but I'm not involved with it.