Boyle Park, Little Rock's Emerald Gem, Is In Need Of A Polish

Boyle Park was a great Little Rock park. Boyle Park is a good park. Boyle Park can be great again. Boom! Done! See you later.

No, I can't let it go at that. Let me give you some brief personal background, so this blog post has some context. On March 31, the Jenny, Marlowe and I moved into the Broadmoor neighborhood next to Boyle. We truly are about a 1-minute drive from the place. Both of us daily walk Marlowe there and have gotten to know it very well. It's convenient to us, and often beautiful.

Dense underbrush at Boyle Park needs
 thinning and could present a fire risk
 in dry, hot weather.

However, (come on, you knew a "however" or "but" was coming) it has been greatly neglected of late. Boyle Park is in desperate need of some Operations & Maintenance money from the city parks department. I'm going to give a brief list of deficiencies necessary corrections broken down into two categories: "sweat equity" and capital investment. Here they are:

"Sweat Equity" — applying existing resources and personnel
• Cut the grass, sweep the walkways, pick up the piles of brush and clear out the underbrush.
• Step up the police presence. Have patrol cars drive through more regularly.
• Use the city's new ranger program to employ docents who can give nature tours.
• Talk it up more as part of existing advertising and promotions of the parks and recreation. Make use of the inexpensive social media tools.
• Have parks personnel really monitor Boyle more rigorously to take care of the trash and dumping problems.

Broken and cracking asphalt with some
sidewalks is so bad as to present a
pedestrian hazard.

• Remove the washed out slaps of pavement which are just lying on the ground.

Capital Investment
• FIX the walkways. Several paths are very bumpy and broken up. Tree roots have done this and there likely isn't an easy way to repair some of them so they stay smooth, but the foot bridge approaches could be redone with concrete.
• Install more trash cans and empty them more frequently.
• Post signs identifying trees and other natural, growing features.
• Build in some more amenities like restrooms.
• Construct on or two more foot bridges to close some loops for joggers, walkers and bicyclists.
• Allow one or two private vendors to set up snack stands or places where park goers can relax and rehydrate.

Grass and reeds along some walkways
is so high as to present a visibility and
safety issue, too.

Boyle is an older park in what is now the center of the city. It is not Central Park and Little Rock is not Manhattan, but it could be as much of asset to the Little Rock in its own way as that more famous greenspace is to the Big Apple. I easily could see it becoming an arboretum and teaching tool, too. Of course, it's had problems. Someone told me that it once had a cruising problem. I think some people perceive it as dangerous. Like any place, it's good to stay alert, but I've never had a problem there in terms of safety — unless you count nearly tripping on a bumpy park of a paved pathway.

Although bicyclists and others do use the park now, I expect many, many more would if these paved trails were smoothed out. More activity actually strengthens the atmosphere of safety. Don't get me wrong. The park is heavily used. Several times this summer it has been so hot that I have thought to myself, "No one will be here today" only to find one of the pavilions full of people with a group or family. Picnickers and other celebrants use the pavilions daily. The small, scruffy basketball court also is gets frequent play. Children almost always are playing on the recreational equipment there.

Just some Roundup could take care of a weed problem
in some areas of Boyle Park.

Before I go any further, I want to say that I am sure in these financially strapped times the city Parks Department is doing whatever it can, but some of these things just needs greater diligence. Others will require appropriations of money. I hope that that the city of Little Rock, which is making needed improvements to MacArthur Park, will not forget its other parks like Boyle.

I've read that Little Rock made a conscious decision to allow some park areas, where appropriate, to go wild. That's fine but that presents its own set of problem. The thick underbrush in a dry, hot summer like recent ones could be a fire hazard. If Boyle ignited and got out of control, it actually could threaten some nearby homes. The brush and tall grass catch litter. Finally, the overgrown areas obscure lines of sight and could make it easier for folks with less than honorable intentions to lurk and loiter with impunity.

Despite all its minor problems, Boyle Park still is a good park. I love it, Jenny loves it and Marlowe really loves it. Discover it if you haven't already, and let's all show it some real love and care.

Rating: Boyle Park — B; Potential — A+.

We Interrupt This Program

Folks, I normally post sometime on Sunday night. Here it is late Monday afternoon, and I still haven't posted. If you've been waiting on me, then I want to say I'm flattered, and I'll resume work on the blog starting this weekend. I'm starting a new, FT job in about 10 days, and that has me a little distracted. It also means I need to wrap up several pending free-lance assignments in fairly short order. It always has been my intent to post weekly and regularly, at least for 52 weeks following my first blog post here. Despite recent improvements in my career prospects, that's still the case — minus one. Apologies, and I hope to see you here next week.

Getting to Know Little Rock With a Little Help From Historical Sandwiches

Sandwiching in History at the Lafayette

Yep, I had lunch with a piece of the city — the old and renewed Lafayette Hotel. It's pretty dang cool and a Craftsman-style gem. The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program runs the "Sandwiching" events once a month, and Rachel Silva with AHPP was our guide. Oh, by the way, I think I was the only one who brought his lunch. Nobody else was eating. A veteran attendee said brown-bagging often is awkward because folks mostly are standing. I got there early enough that I was able to wolf mine down and not look too newbie. 

Stripped ceiling before restoration (photo courtesy of AHPP)

Silva taught us much and the 50 plus people there were attentive and interested. I won't reproduce her lecture, but here are some of the basic facts:

• Built and opened in 1925, the Lafayette closed in 1933 during the depths of the Depression and did not reopen until 1941.

• Peter Heerwagen, a noted interior designer, created the building inside look, including its lobby.

• John Oehrlie, Heerwagen's foreman, updated the look of the lobby and the rest of the hotel in 1941 for its reopening.

• A restoration team of four women worked on the lobby in 1984 during its rehabilitation. They could not restore its original 1925 look but what's there now is close and impressive.

Restored ceiling, August 2012

That restoration team left some traces: some tiny self portrait in the eyelets of the ceiling design. If you happen to go to the Lafayette for a meeting or event — the current owners rent out the lobby and mezzanine for such — then you can see if you can find them. Downstairs once was the Gaslight Club, a downtown nightclub in the 1960s and early 1970s, but now it's a private gym for the tenants who own the condominiums in the top half of the Lafayette. We Sandwichers were allowed to visit a model condo, which was quite nice.

The Lafayette truly is a great asset to downtown, and some other developers hope to magnify its positive effect. The Democrat Gazette reported this week that a redevelopment group has granted a wish expressed here in another blog; they're giving Main Street a boost by taking on several large buildings there. The Bright Knights will turn the Boyle Building, the M.M. Cohn and a few more addresses from vacant ghosts into venues for a variety retail, residential and office uses. Maybe some equally fun "Sandwiching" tours are in the offing in the future.

Little Rock has an interesting architectural history. Become familiar with its face with a drive through Quapaw Quarter, take a walk and look around downtown, and of course, take advantage of the free Sandwiching in History program for some introductions.

Rating: Sandwiching in History: A.

For more information and a schedule, go to: Sandwiching in History

Franke's: A 'Cafeterial' Institution Survives and Thrives in Little Rock

My lifetime has seen the decline and fall of the cafeteria. It has become a very endangered species. However, Little Rock can boast of having a hardy survivor — Franke's at 400 Broadway in the basement of the Regions Center Building.

I could bother to write an exhaustively detailed review here or sing its praises, but I won't. That's because it has been thoroughly reviewed in other places and frequently makes the best lists. Townies know it and know it's there. I'm really mentioning it here because it is the sort of place many newcomers might easily overlook.

Roast beef, mac and cheese, greens and a roll. Note: This
is technically the "Lite Plate" portion, believe it or not.

My wife, the Jenny, has many fond memories of eating at Franke's with her grandmother. I can't share those, but I can say that I always feel good about eating there. If you want a hot plate lunch with some tasty veggies and a roll, then it's the downtown place to go. 

Because my eating habits are not always the healthiest, I almost always feel good about eating there because I can get some tasty servings of vegetables — a food group I often lack in my daily diet. One of my personal favorites is the greens. In true Southern style, they cook them with a hunk of pork, but it's not just pork fat like in most places. It's actual pork meat, and it seems to make all the difference. Good stuff. If you don't want to stuff yourself and you want to save a dollar or two, then just ask your server for the "Lite Plate." They'll give you a smaller portion of the entree. The last time I asked for a Lite Plate of roast beef though, they gave me too big slabs of it. Hey, I'm not complaining.

Ham, pinto beans and carrots

I don't know for a fact that they know me on sight, but I'm beginning to feel like they do. Rumor has it that once you start working at Franke's you don't leave. The eatery has many veteran employees, and they know the food and clientele. At lunch, it's mostly downtown workers, many of whom give the appearance of being bankers.

When you patronize Franke's, you'll be helping to maintain a Southern tradition that sadly has taken it on the chin from the rise of fast food. The cafeteria used to define casual dining and it was an efficient way to serve lunch briskly. Obviously though, it does not allow for a drive-through and other such late 20th century innovations. Cafeterias were not exclusive to the South, but they were more fully embraced there. Clearly they continue to thrive at some universities and hospitals, but Franke's is a wonderful, still thriving example of the standalone commercial cafeteria. Franke's website details its own history more fully. I do need to mention though it has been around and in downtown for 88 years. For atmosphere, friendliness and down-home cooking, it can't be beat. Long Live Franke's!

Rating: Franke's — A+

Franke's, 400 Broadway Ave. Regions Center Building, 372-1919; also at 11121 N. Rodney Parham Ave., 225-4487.