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I have a few questions, as we are considering a move in the near future. There is 1 other city in Utah we are looking at, but have been to Northwest Arkansas several times over the years, and have fallen in love with it. Just have some questions first..
1 - How prevalent are earthquakes here? I know the New Madrid Fault is on the far eastern side of the state, but how well would NWA feel the damage if an earthquake were to occur there? And are earthquakes common in NWA?
2 - How is crime in Northwest Arkansas? Specifically in Benton County. Are there any areas to avoid? Would it be a place we could feel safe to walk through the neighborhood in the evenings?
3 - Lastly, what(in your opinion) would be the biggest complaint about NWA?
Thank you so much! Anything else you might want to add about the area would be greatly appreciated. We will be coming out for a visit in early November
I'll address part of your first question. NWA has been given a range of a slight (or greater) damaging earthquake shaking in the area as 4-19% chance in the next 100 years. That is based off the most recent assessment by the USGS conducted in 2019. Also the state of Utah as a whole has significantly higher earthquake risk compared to NWA.
I have a few questions, as we are considering a move in the near future. There is 1 other city in Utah we are looking at, but have been to Northwest Arkansas several times over the years, and have fallen in love with it. Just have some questions first..
1 - How prevalent are earthquakes here? I know the New Madrid Fault is on the far eastern side of the state, but how well would NWA feel the damage if an earthquake were to occur there? And are earthquakes common in NWA?
2 - How is crime in Northwest Arkansas? Specifically in Benton County. Are there any areas to avoid? Would it be a place we could feel safe to walk through the neighborhood in the evenings?
3 - Lastly, what(in your opinion) would be the biggest complaint about NWA?
Thank you so much! Anything else you might want to add about the area would be greatly appreciated. We will be coming out for a visit in early November
We moved here in June.
I can't answer #1.
#2-There aren't a lot of big homogeneous neighborhoods. You'll have a nice block of houses next to a rough one. We feel pretty safe walking the dogs in most places.
#3-Probably traffic. For a relatively low population, there can be a lot of traffic at certain times of day. Drivers here aren't very aggressive, so they don't keep the line moving. But you can usually go where you need via back roads.
A complaint about Arkansas generally is the taxes. We have an income tax, a high sales tax, and we're taxed yearly on the vehicles we own. But property taxes are more reasonable.
All in all we love it here so far. People are very friendly and there are enough things to do. If you're into outdoor activity there's a lot. Wikipedia says:
Northwest Arkansas doubled in population between 1990 and 2010. Growth has been driven by the three Fortune 500 companies based in NWA: Walmart, Tyson Foods, and J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. as well as over 1,300 suppliers and vendors drawn to the region by these large businesses and NWA's business climate. There are also several large private employers like Simmons Foods in Siloam Springs. The region has also seen significant investment in amenities, including the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Walmart AMP, and the NWA Razorback Regional Greenway.
I have a few questions, as we are considering a move in the near future. There is 1 other city in Utah we are looking at, but have been to Northwest Arkansas several times over the years, and have fallen in love with it. Just have some questions first..
1 - How prevalent are earthquakes here? I know the New Madrid Fault is on the far eastern side of the state, but how well would NWA feel the damage if an earthquake were to occur there? And are earthquakes common in NWA?
2 - How is crime in Northwest Arkansas? Specifically in Benton County. Are there any areas to avoid? Would it be a place we could feel safe to walk through the neighborhood in the evenings?
3 - Lastly, what(in your opinion) would be the biggest complaint about NWA?
Thank you so much! Anything else you might want to add about the area would be greatly appreciated. We will be coming out for a visit in early November
I've been here 17 years and have been witness to many of the dramatic changes in NWA.
1. We DO have very minor earthquakes from the fracking taking place in Oklahoma. Only two of these have I felt. Think 30 seconds of the dishes rattling and that's it. Most are so small only seismographs register them. As for New Madrid and "the big one," we'd certainly take damage to older structures but from what I've read the plateau system of the Ozarks provides some protection. You can get potential damage maps online. Nobody here lives in any fear of this. Tornados are the much more immediate threat here and planning for that is far more important.
2. Compared to most areas, crime is very very low. Street crime is virtually non-existent and you can walk safely in many poor areas at night. Theft, vandalism, burglary also low. When the rare murder occurs, they are generally crimes of passion (anger, not romance) in the moment between two people who know each other. Our police are plentiful and respected.
3.
A. The traffic is pretty crappy, as NWA has grown faster than it's road system. For instance, Bentonville in particular doesn't have many good East/West routes through town. When you travel out of the area by car, getting out of Arkansas is always the hardest part. This is slowly being remedied. The I49 expansion is nearly complete with several single point urban interchanges in the finishing stages. They just opened up the Bella Vista bypass so getting up into Missouri and points north is much better. The Tontitown bypass of 412 is in progress and will dramatically help getting into Oklahoma to the west. They're also putting in an increasing number of traffic circles in towns which do keep traffic moving..
B. It's inauthentic as hell. When I moved here 17 years ago, NWA didn't have much personality. People rooted for the Hogs and it was a great place to find decent paying blue and white collar employment and that was about it. The personality we have now has been layered on by billionaires (primarily the Walton grandchildren) and caters to a very specific type of highly educated, physically fit, white collar worker and their tastes. If that's you, you'll love it. If my very good job wasn't tied to the area I'd move to Oklahoma, and that's still the plan when I near retirement. Here's the best description I've found of what's happening here: https://jacobin.com/2021/03/walmart-...s-company-town. It's about Bentonville specifically but this is happening all over NWA.
C. While the economy is great (we weathered the great recession very well, and this may have been the best spot in America outside of Florida to ride out Covid), and you can make a very good living here, it comes with nuisances. The labor market is such that anything that isn't local can be highly inconsistent. Any chain restaurant or chain store is scraping the bottom of the barrel for workers. There are so many upper middle class people here that either discourage or won't allow their kids to work, that many jobs traditionally held by teens go wanting for warm bodies. Think going to Braums at 8 pm on a Saturday night for an ice cream cone and waiting 40 minutes in the drive thru because their lobby is closed and they only have three workers including the manager. Even Chick fil a has trouble operating and they pay above market wages and are closed on Sundays.
I've been here 17 years and have been witness to many of the dramatic changes in NWA.
1. We DO have very minor earthquakes from the fracking taking place in Oklahoma. Only two of these have I felt. Think 30 seconds of the dishes rattling and that's it. Most are so small only seismographs register them. As for New Madrid and "the big one," we'd certainly take damage to older structures but from what I've read the plateau system of the Ozarks provides some protection. You can get potential damage maps online. Nobody here lives in any fear of this. Tornados are the much more immediate threat here and planning for that is far more important.
2. Compared to most areas, crime is very very low. Street crime is virtually non-existent and you can walk safely in many poor areas at night. Theft, vandalism, burglary also low. When the rare murder occurs, they are generally crimes of passion (anger, not romance) in the moment between two people who know each other. Our police are plentiful and respected.
3.
A. The traffic is pretty crappy, as NWA has grown faster than it's road system. For instance, Bentonville in particular doesn't have many good East/West routes through town. When you travel out of the area by car, getting out of Arkansas is always the hardest part. This is slowly being remedied. The I49 expansion is nearly complete with several single point urban interchanges in the finishing stages. They just opened up the Bella Vista bypass so getting up into Missouri and points north is much better. The Tontitown bypass of 412 is in progress and will dramatically help getting into Oklahoma to the west. They're also putting in an increasing number of traffic circles in towns which do keep traffic moving..
B. It's inauthentic as hell. When I moved here 17 years ago, NWA didn't have much personality. People rooted for the Hogs and it was a great place to find decent paying blue and white collar employment and that was about it. The personality we have now has been layered on by billionaires (primarily the Walton grandchildren) and caters to a very specific type of highly educated, physically fit, white collar worker and their tastes. If that's you, you'll love it. If my very good job wasn't tied to the area I'd move to Oklahoma, and that's still the plan when I near retirement. Here's the best description I've found of what's happening here: https://jacobin.com/2021/03/walmart-...s-company-town. It's about Bentonville specifically but this is happening all over NWA.
C. While the economy is great (we weathered the great recession very well, and this may have been the best spot in America outside of Florida to ride out Covid), and you can make a very good living here, it comes with nuisances. The labor market is such that anything that isn't local can be highly inconsistent. Any chain restaurant or chain store is scraping the bottom of the barrel for workers. There are so many upper middle class people here that either discourage or won't allow their kids to work, that many jobs traditionally held by teens go wanting for warm bodies. Think going to Braums at 8 pm on a Saturday night for an ice cream cone and waiting 40 minutes in the drive thru because their lobby is closed and they only have three workers including the manager. Even Chick fil a has trouble operating and they pay above market wages and are closed on Sundays.
A) I guess when the big one hit, its effects were felt as far as the east coast. This says damage was reported in Washington, DC.
B) I was talking to a guy in a dog park and he said Wal Mart has to bribe their management to come here from California. They really don't want to move out here but if you jack up the salary, they'll tolerate it for a couple years. So what is written in the article fits with that---get them here, make it a place they'd like, hope they stay. But man, the traffic over there sometimes reminds me of Dallas. Folks here are just too patient on the road and it feels like a game of *******. It just isn't sustainable.
Whenever we go to Sam's (resistance is futile), there's always a slogan painted on the wall. Helen Walton said something to the effect that "It isn't what you gather, it's what you scatter." I.e. look at how we give back! There are precedents of course. Rockefeller crushed competition and got rich, but then he gave away dimes so it was all good. Carnegie made his fortune...then gave us libraries. Robber baron scumbag grows a conscience or is he just making PR moves?
I'm really on the fence about the Waltons in some ways. My parents raised me with assurances that nobody owed me a job, I could fail if I didn't apply myself, that minimum wage is all anyone can expect and so on. I looked at how hard they worked in blue collar jobs that buddy, I got myself a college education. I don't understand how Waltons get enough people to work for them. I understand a lot of people don't have a choice; I don't understand why they allowed themselves to be in that position, I guess. Not everyone can go to college but there are other skilled workers needed...I put some of it down to lack of ambition. I don't want to hijack the thread, so I'll move on.
C) I was in Fayetteville one day, getting a new battery for the car. Suddenly, my lane was blocked. It turned out that Chick Fil A was backed up. The cars snaked through the parking lot and the line continued into the street with another ten cars waiting to get their "Jesus chicken." And a brand new Culver's opened in Rogers. On Next Door one report said it took someone 2 hours to get through the line. We tend to stay away from the national chains anyway, in part hoping to support the locals.
We think this area is going to continue growing and that's a piece of the retirement strategy. Some day we may need to move into a care facility or whatever and we want this house to appreciate as an investment.
B) I was talking to a guy in a dog park and he said Wal Mart has to bribe their management to come here from California. They really don't want to move out here but if you jack up the salary, they'll tolerate it for a couple years. So what is written in the article fits with that---get them here, make it a place they'd like, hope they stay. But man, the traffic over there sometimes reminds me of Dallas. Folks here are just too patient on the road and it feels like a game of *******. It just isn't sustainable.
Whenever we go to Sam's (resistance is futile), there's always a slogan painted on the wall. Helen Walton said something to the effect that "It isn't what you gather, it's what you scatter." I.e. look at how we give back! There are precedents of course. Rockefeller crushed competition and got rich, but then he gave away dimes so it was all good. Carnegie made his fortune...then gave us libraries. Robber baron scumbag grows a conscience or is he just making PR moves?
I'm really on the fence about the Waltons in some ways. My parents raised me with assurances that nobody owed me a job, I could fail if I didn't apply myself, that minimum wage is all anyone can expect and so on. I looked at how hard they worked in blue collar jobs that buddy, I got myself a college education. I don't understand how Waltons get enough people to work for them. I understand a lot of people don't have a choice; I don't understand why they allowed themselves to be in that position, I guess. Not everyone can go to college but there are other skilled workers needed...I put some of it down to lack of ambition. I don't want to hijack the thread, so I'll move on.
C) I was in Fayetteville one day, getting a new battery for the car. Suddenly, my lane was blocked. It turned out that Chick Fil A was backed up. The cars snaked through the parking lot and the line continued into the street with another ten cars waiting to get their "Jesus chicken." And a brand new Culver's opened in Rogers. On Next Door one report said it took someone 2 hours to get through the line. We tend to stay away from the national chains anyway, in part hoping to support the locals.
We think this area is going to continue growing and that's a piece of the retirement strategy. Some day we may need to move into a care facility or whatever and we want this house to appreciate as an investment.
I think Covid changed things a little bit in Walmart's favor. I've got on neighbor that fled Covid restrictions in San Diego and Bentonville was much closer to their family on the East Coast and had the biking they were enthused about. I've got another neighbor that came from Iowa to get a milder winter and again, the biking.
As for why people work at Walmart, there is still opportunity there. You can start out working in the stores and make a really great career for yourself without a college degree, though it takes hard work. You can still do that to some extent at the Home Office too, especially now with labor so tight. Back in Sam Walton's day the company had a very family feel, and retail jobs, especially for women, were not looked down on like they are today.
Chick Fil A in Bentonville backs up onto Walton too, especially if they don't have enough personnel to run order takers outside. It's damn good chicken though, and they're very pleasant to deal with. Culver's has a terrible location, shoehorned in on that lot between the car wash and New Hope, which is a very busy road. I don't know that they'll be able to survive if it's too much of a hassle to go to. A lot of restaurants are built on cramped lots in NWA. The Whataburger in Fayetteville on MLK comes to mind, with that oddball, triangular property.
I've been here 17 years and have been witness to many of the dramatic changes in NWA.
1. We DO have very minor earthquakes from the fracking taking place in Oklahoma. Only two of these have I felt. Think 30 seconds of the dishes rattling and that's it. Most are so small only seismographs register them. As for New Madrid and "the big one," we'd certainly take damage to older structures but from what I've read the plateau system of the Ozarks provides some protection. You can get potential damage maps online. Nobody here lives in any fear of this. Tornados are the much more immediate threat here and planning for that is far more important.
2. Compared to most areas, crime is very very low. Street crime is virtually non-existent and you can walk safely in many poor areas at night. Theft, vandalism, burglary also low. When the rare murder occurs, they are generally crimes of passion (anger, not romance) in the moment between two people who know each other. Our police are plentiful and respected.
3.
A. The traffic is pretty crappy, as NWA has grown faster than it's road system. For instance, Bentonville in particular doesn't have many good East/West routes through town. When you travel out of the area by car, getting out of Arkansas is always the hardest part. This is slowly being remedied. The I49 expansion is nearly complete with several single point urban interchanges in the finishing stages. They just opened up the Bella Vista bypass so getting up into Missouri and points north is much better. The Tontitown bypass of 412 is in progress and will dramatically help getting into Oklahoma to the west. They're also putting in an increasing number of traffic circles in towns which do keep traffic moving..
B. It's inauthentic as hell. When I moved here 17 years ago, NWA didn't have much personality. People rooted for the Hogs and it was a great place to find decent paying blue and white collar employment and that was about it. The personality we have now has been layered on by billionaires (primarily the Walton grandchildren) and caters to a very specific type of highly educated, physically fit, white collar worker and their tastes. If that's you, you'll love it. If my very good job wasn't tied to the area I'd move to Oklahoma, and that's still the plan when I near retirement. Here's the best description I've found of what's happening here: https://jacobin.com/2021/03/walmart-...s-company-town. It's about Bentonville specifically but this is happening all over NWA.
C. While the economy is great (we weathered the great recession very well, and this may have been the best spot in America outside of Florida to ride out Covid), and you can make a very good living here, it comes with nuisances. The labor market is such that anything that isn't local can be highly inconsistent. Any chain restaurant or chain store is scraping the bottom of the barrel for workers. There are so many upper middle class people here that either discourage or won't allow their kids to work, that many jobs traditionally held by teens go wanting for warm bodies. Think going to Braums at 8 pm on a Saturday night for an ice cream cone and waiting 40 minutes in the drive thru because their lobby is closed and they only have three workers including the manager. Even Chick fil a has trouble operating and they pay above market wages and are closed on Sundays.
I'm actually glad your brought up tornadoes. How bad are they in Northwest Arkansas/how frequent?
We have a friend who lives in Bentonville who told us tornadoes are rare, and when they do occur, they tend to be brief spin-ups rather than catastrophic. Is there any truth to this, and what are the chances that a catastrophic one could occur in NWA?
I'm actually glad your brought up tornadoes. How bad are they in Northwest Arkansas/how frequent?
We have a friend who lives in Bentonville who told us tornadoes are rare, and when they do occur, they tend to be brief spin-ups rather than catastrophic. Is there any truth to this, and what are the chances that a catastrophic one could occur in NWA?
Tornadoes can be incredibly destructive, but they're also highly localized unlike a hurricane or earthquake. A "monster" tornado might be a mile wide, but they're often much smaller. You need to have a plan or a shelter but chances are you'll never actually need it. My parents have a steel shelter bolted to the floor of their garage after surviving a near miss from an F5. That was 11 years ago and they've not had to get into it since it was installed. I have a cubby under the stairs in my laundry room that's right in the center of my house that I've judged to be "good enough." From this map, you can see a large swath of the country can have tornadoes:
Modern day early warning is very good because doppler radar is very good, and we also have sirens outdoors. My anecdotal observations from 17 years of living here is that the most violent storms split and go north or south of us along I44 or I40, which makes some sense as they were build in the most favorable terrain.
B) I was talking to a guy in a dog park and he said Wal Mart has to bribe their management to come here from California. They really don't want to move out here but if you jack up the salary, they'll tolerate it for a couple years. So what is written in the article fits with that---get them here, make it a place they'd like, hope they stay. But man, the traffic over there sometimes reminds me of Dallas. Folks here are just too patient on the road and it feels like a game of *******. It just isn't sustainable.
Whenever we go to Sam's (resistance is futile), there's always a slogan painted on the wall. Helen Walton said something to the effect that "It isn't what you gather, it's what you scatter." I.e. look at how we give back! There are precedents of course. Rockefeller crushed competition and got rich, but then he gave away dimes so it was all good. Carnegie made his fortune...then gave us libraries. Robber baron scumbag grows a conscience or is he just making PR moves?
I'm really on the fence about the Waltons in some ways. My parents raised me with assurances that nobody owed me a job, I could fail if I didn't apply myself, that minimum wage is all anyone can expect and so on. I looked at how hard they worked in blue collar jobs that buddy, I got myself a college education. I don't understand how Waltons get enough people to work for them. I understand a lot of people don't have a choice; I don't understand why they allowed themselves to be in that position, I guess. Not everyone can go to college but there are other skilled workers needed...I put some of it down to lack of ambition. I don't want to hijack the thread, so I'll move on.
C) I was in Fayetteville one day, getting a new battery for the car. Suddenly, my lane was blocked. It turned out that Chick Fil A was backed up. The cars snaked through the parking lot and the line continued into the street with another ten cars waiting to get their "Jesus chicken." And a brand new Culver's opened in Rogers. On Next Door one report said it took someone 2 hours to get through the line. We tend to stay away from the national chains anyway, in part hoping to support the locals.
We think this area is going to continue growing and that's a piece of the retirement strategy. Some day we may need to move into a care facility or whatever and we want this house to appreciate as an investment.
If there's one thing I miss about Arkansas, it's the drivers. Never appreciated that enough when I lived there.
I hate the "mad rush for no reason" mentality found elsewhere. It does nothing to speed up the actual flow of traffic, it ONLY makes people even more agitated.
I've lived in places where the whole "my hurry is more important than your hurry" mentality made me not even want to leave the house.
As for the "Jesus chicken" snark, rest assured there are people of all faiths and beliefs that like Chick-fil-A.
For fast food, it really is among the best. I'd say it's as good if not better than many yocal joints. Nothing wrong with national chains mixed in with the rest.
Here in Wisconsin they have that "local first" mentality. I get it, but it really does limit your options.
Culver's I really don't understand though. It's... fine, but doesn't stand out. Up here people think it's the greatest thing since the Packers, but I personally find Steak N' Shake to be 10x better.
"Jesus chicken" was what some called it in Dallas. Not a snark, just a nickname acknowledging that they're closed on Sundays etc. They did have that controversy awhile back involving religion.
Steak N Shake is at the top of my list for fast food burgers. I've met people who love Whataburger, In N Out, etc. and I think a lot has to do with where you grew up. Being originally from Illinois...
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