The Atlantic
They seemed like such a good idea in the 1950s.
Sunday traffic from New York City to the Jersey Shore in 1941Library of Congress
Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from remarks delivered by the author on March 16 at the University of Arkansas’s Clinton School of Public Service, in Little Rock.
Little Rock is a fascinating city. With its river and renovated warehouses and bustling River Market district, it reminds me a little bit of Pittsburgh, where I lived a decade ago when I was starting my journalism career. At that time, Pittsburgh was still the butt of many jokes, though determined city planners were starting to drive the transformation that’s made it so popular. Today, there’s a growing population downtown and tech companies are locating in the city once known for steel.