Sey Young: Maybe our roots worth nourishing

Maybe our roots worth nourishing

"I've been down this road before

"I remember every tree

"Every single blade of grass

"Holds a special place for me."

-- Singer/songwriter John Prine

Go back 20 years ago. I was driving by the small town where I grew up and decided to take a brief nostalgic tour. Nothing much had changed in the 30-plus years since I had left except for a new Dollar General and assorted fast food joints. That is until I drove to the neighborhood where our old house was located. It was gone. In its place was a water bottling warehouse. Gone were the two large walnut trees that framed our modest home. Gone was the large mimosa tree where our rope swing hung. Gone too were my neighbors' houses. Why, I wondered? There was still so much vacant land nearby, why tear down a neighborhood?

Go back 150 years. A 30-year-old war-weary veteran of Gen. Jackson's Stonewall Brigade made his way to Bentonville to seek his fortune away from war-torn Virginia. Opening a hardware store, Norborne Henry, called "Captain" as a sign of respect, flourished, and by 1888 he decided to build a spacious two-story home barely more than a block from the square with a view toward the railyard that the Captain had invested in, bringing a railroad spur into the city from Rogers. His neighborhood, called the Railroad Addition, soon saw many other fine family homes build alongside the Henry house. With advancing age, Henry sold his home and moved to Springdale to live with his son. He would not be the last to move from that home.

Go back one year. A retired Walmart executive named Bob now lives in the Henry house on Second Street, a peaceful neighborhood perfect to keep his family nearby. But that was changing fast. Fueled by Walmart, the downtown area was now seen as a social hotspot, and soon apartment and condo developers came calling. City officials seemed only too happy to assist them. Slowly homes around the Henry house began disappearing, replaced by multi-family units. The final blow was the start of construction across the street from Bob's historic home of a 79-unit apartment building called The Howard. The structure, starkly imposed between the historic Bud Walton home and downtown's picturesque antique mercantile heart, looms 80 feet tall and features a corrugated metal exterior. The developers say their ultimate goal is to promote cycling and downplay the reliance on vehicles. Seeing the writing on the wall, Bob and his family will be moving soon. "It was just too much to walk out of my home and look at what was happening."

Why do so many cities see their role in government as facilitating new development in preference to protecting neighborhoods? Must we choose one over the other? If a warehouse or apartment developer wants a large building, why not direct them to where there is vacant or underused land? Some towns proclaim they are a "great place to plant roots," so why not protect what's already growing instead of focusing on new seedlings?

As I stood beside my car surveying the vast parking lot of my former childhood home, a security guard came up in a little golf cart. "Sir," he said politely. "I'm going to ask you to leave." And like Bob and the Captain, I did.

Sey Young is a local businessman, father and longtime resident of Bentonville. Email him at [email protected].

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