Our neck of the woods is home today to a lot of people who could declare "I wasn't born in Northwest Arkansas, but I got here as fast as I could."
Count me among them. I grew up in the '70s and '80s in Little Rock, often visiting the stomping grounds of my parents' youth near Warren, went to college at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and got my first reporting job in Hot Springs. The only part of the state I've not spent significant time in is the Delta.
I've lived in Northwest Arkansas almost 26 years now, having moved here after a few years in Texas. I'm fortunate to have found and married a truly native Fayetteville girl. And I've now lived here longer than any other place in my life.
When I chose to come back home to this state, Northwest Arkansas seemed the right place to be, and still does. Getting a job in my preferred profession certainly was important, but the region quickly felt like home. Since leaving Little Rock, no other place had felt that way -- a place that offered a sense of permanence.
Moving back to the Capital City never felt right for me. I loved my life growing up there, but there wasn't enough of a lure to make me want to go there after college.
Apparently, others feel similarly, and now a state agency has adopted a plan that takes into account the politically delicate matter of some people's aversion to Little Rock.
The Arkansas Department of Transportation, which oversees the state's highway system and other transportation projects, is preparing to open a satellite office in Northwest Arkansas because of the trouble the agency has had attracting graduating engineering students to go to work in Little Rock.
"A lot of kids who go to Fayetteville don't want to leave Fayetteville," said Rex Vines, the department's deputy director and chief engineer" They don't want to come to central Arkansas to work. They want to stay up there."
Officials with the state government agency hope a Northwest Arkansas office will make the department more attractive for potential employees. A few of the DOT's engineers who now work in central Arkansas have also asked to transfer to the northwest corner once the new satellite office is open.
It might be tempting to gloat. Our region and the greater Little Rock area have long had what one might call a respectful but competitive relationship. People in Little Rock sometimes behaved as though Northwest Arkansas was still just the place the Hogs played. People in our corner of the state were sometimes too quick to dismiss Little Rock as unimportant to their lives.
Things have changed. Northwest Arkansas' political power, population and economic success is growing faster than any other place in the state. Little Rock will always be the capital, but part the city's problem is its ongoing reputation as a place for violence. Last weekend, one person died by gunfire and 11 others, including a 1-year-old, were injured by shootings. City government declared a public health emergency as a result of the gun violence, which has been a problem for years in the capital.
Here's where Northwest Arkansas needs to be careful. As a booming region, it's got more crime to deal with than it used to. It's a far cry from the gang-influenced gun violence in Little Rock, but the region's leaders can ill afford to believe Northwest Arkansas has some level of immunity from those kinds of problems. Avoiding Little Rock's problems will demand strategic work in our region.
Let's not gloat at all. Rather, let's remember this: There but for the grace of God goes Northwest Arkansas.