Aw Nick, I feel empathy for Lori. It was hard to see another woman upset at how whole neighbourhoods have become run down. For what its worth, I'm in Scotland. As you know we are in the grip of the hardest cost of living crisis I can remember and Im 60. And its happening here , all the shops in the towns are closed, it started before covid but that didn't help. At the moment we have 15 pubs a day closing down because costs have tripled. Its sad cos we are the generation that remembers the enjoyment of going round the shops. Lori, this is for you, hold your head high sweety, , and love to all from Scotland
Thank you, Linda. It's hard to watch places that were once thriving & vibrant fall to ruin. I returned to Pine Bluff to care for an aging mother. I think about leaving again. But this is home. The economy is tough everywhere. Far too many people one paycheck away from living on the streets. I understand the sadness that comes from watching the place you love wither & die. Hold tight, Linda. & thanks again for your kind words. Hugs from Arkansas 💜
@@lorirobertson643 I live in Texarkana Arkansas and it looks horrible too but if you go over to the Texas side it is alive and thriving and everything is sparkling new. The roads are all fixed and they are building new infrastructure. I don’t understand why Arkansas looks so horrible? Our governor needs to bring more jobs into the state. I’m embarrassed of Arkansas. I met Bill Clinton when he was running for President. I also remember several people from Arkansas begging him not to sign NAFTA!! He didn’t listen!! I don’t know what the answer is. I grew up in Camden, AR. They took away the paper mill and that city died 😢. It makes me so sad.
@@laikanbarth Truly a small world. I lived in Txk AR & still have a daughter who lives there. You're definitely right about clean side & dirty side. Is the TX side still dry? Maybe thats it. Also - I lived at East Camden across from the fire dept in a small apt while my husband was driving cross country. I never got used to living there. & no matter what my experience & job history - never found a job except waiting tables at Pizza Hut. (Thank you, but no) You're right about it being a sad little town. Holy cow - the flooding!! Wowza! Paper Mill closings have killed several small towns. Just like Walmart opening. Same affect. Take care & hold tight. I feel your pain. Hugs from Pine Bluff 💜
This was a great episode, Nick! While it is disheartening to see what is happening in *many* towns in America, large and small, it was nice to cap it off with Ms. Walton and her positive attitude towards fixing things...makes me wonder if we could turn things around if we had more Angie Waltons in this country. Thanks for all you do.
Is she one of the Walton's that sold out American workers. After Mr. Walton the founder of Walmart who believed in made in the USA passed the family took over and started selling everything made in Communist China. I never shop there.
Pine Bluff used to be (Like most US cities) a thriving manufacturing powerhouse, until DC sold the country out to WS and they offshored and outsourced pretty much everything of any real value leaving this ....Thanks again DC!
@@NewHaven203 Reagan, the revered Republican, was the one who first started dismantling The New Deal. His policies started the financialization of almost every aspect of life, to the detriment of Main St America. Clinton, and his ilk, were also terrible for small-town America. But blaming Democrats is a simplistic, unrealistic, statement. Corporatization, the MIC, ... are the evils. Those things are not based on political party.
I am so tired of people saying stuff like 'the jobs left, then the drugs came'. Being unemployed is not a license to become an addict. I fell on hard times, the worse thing I did was have a couple gas station cans of beer after a long day. My one friend lost his job, was unable to find one.... so he fished A LOT. He was proud, he'd tell us how even though he had no work he could at least give his family a full belly of fish.
It’s probably more accurate to say that the companies left, then the unemployed left for opportunities elsewhere, then the tax revenues that funded the police force disappeared, and THEN the drug dealers and criminals came and squatted in the empty houses and buildings left behind.
Being unemployed is not a license to become an addict ,but what I think you may not understand is that many people have had a harder life than you and that is a huge cause for becoming an addict.
Husband and wife both have to Work to pay for housing , food , car, Clothes . Children are left at home Alone to complete their homework Etc. Common good people can’t Afford America .
Hey Nick- Nice job at showing the very worse of the town. Did you travel all of the 44 square miles, of the city? No, you went to part of downtown. You purposely started filming right after you past Simmons Bank’s headquarters and a brand new state of the art library. You also didn’t go far enough to show the new businesses that are near the courthouse, and where the sidewalks have been redone with nice light poles and benches. In the other 40 square miles of our town there are many regular businesses, some new growth, suburb after suburb of typical southern houses built in the 70’s and 80’s, and many other newer houses that line street after street. You also left out all of the farm land that is growing soybeans, and cotton. Little by little new businesses and places, a 4million dollar aquatics center, have been built thanks to the Go Forward Pine Bluff initiative. And GFPB has 50 of those unsightly buildings set for demolition this year. I’m not sure what they’ve done in the past 4 years, but I believe those numbers are right on per year. You also didn’t show our new casino that has brought added life and jobs to the area. In fact a Chik Fil A has broken ground off an exit near other thriving businesses, and that is a huge thing if you know anything about that franchise. And there are plenty of jobs here. You just have to want to work. Sure there’s a bad part of town. Every city has one. Is it the Pine Bluff of the 70’s or 80’s? No, but tell me someplace that is. So Nick, stay out of my town if you aren’t going to be positive about the changes that have been made. My father-in-law used to tell folks “If you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem.” And Nick this video is definitely part of the problem.
Home, not so sweet, home! That place looks worse than when I left there 10 years ago and I still have lots of family, including my parents, that still live in the area. I used to play Jr. Babe Ruth baseball at the abandon baseball field and I remember when the Pines Mall was on and poppin' in the 90s and early 2000s. There was a cinema on the inside of the mall over by your hotel that stayed pretty busy since a lot of the surrounding towns would come to Pine Bluff for shopping and entertainment. The mall really started to die when Wal-Mart closed their store at the south end when they built the Super Center. I remember when that wing of the mall was boarded up and when all the big name stores, (Gap, Old Navy, Foot Locker, etc..) started closing down and then less people shopped there and went to Little Rock instead since they had multiple malls. Mrs. Walton has a big heart to get it turned and I believe the first thing that needs to be done is all of the vacant houses need bulldozed. Not sure if that will fix the crime issue and the people that are there that doesn't want to help themselves as that seems to be the biggest problem. You can bring in jobs but if the people there doesn't want to work, those jobs will close and look elsewhere. - Jason
I say that all the time about ALL these places. Step 1- bring in the bulldozers. Most the buildings are not sustainable, those were the days of lead paint, asbestos, etc. You need jobs. There’s alot of land there. Grow food. Oh wait….
That’s what happens when you rebuild the rest of the world and send your jobs overseas, all while ignoring your homeland. Ask yourself, how is this possible in a country that is $32 trillion in debt? Where is the money going? Our only hope in saving this nation is people like Angie Walton.
I can tell you where the money is coming from. Our so-called congressional representatives go to The Federal Reserve board and beg for loans. They present packages where the requested amounts are doubled and tippled from actual debated amount desired. When the installment fees come due on this money, the US Congress forces them down upon the US Citizen base. The 16th amendment allows it, formed almost immediately (overnight) after the Federal Reserve was created. The US system is filled with virtual university and corporate fronts where these people are placed on director boards and get their payoffs via cost-of-living allowance funds for voting in favor of corporations and banks at the citizen's expense. See the books "Reflections on the loss of the freeborn nation," and "Stairway to Tyranny" for much more relevant information.
I grew up there. Graduated from chapel in 2000. So glad i moved in 07 got off the drugs. I will never drive thru that shit hole. Sorry to my family that still lives there.
Wow went to college in pine bluff in the 80’s. It was kind of ruff then. I can’t even recognize the place . Really sad. There use to be one of the finest night clubs I the entire south in the middle of a bean field, PJ’s. I’m from Chicago and I can say it was all that.
Pine Bluff used to be a thriving town… I actually stayed at the dilapidated hotel you showed, during its peak, also went to the , now closed mall.. The truth is, crime has been horrible there for a very long time, my daughter had a softball tournament there one year, and all the convenient stores had bars on the windows and doors, and you had to go to a walk up window after 10:00pm… I’ve seen the downfall of Pine Bluff from a distance for several decades, and to be perfectly honest… it is a lost cause, it’s a hell hole, no matter how you paint it. If you come to the northwest part of the state, it’s like a different country…..
Nick: "You've probably never even heard of the place." Laboeuf (Matt Damon): "He dallied in Monroe, Louisiana and Pine Bluff, Arkansas, before turning up at your father's place."
Oh yeah they built a bypass highway take traffic from city of White Hall outside around the whole city of pine bluff to the casino if you didn't know pine bluff you have no reason to even shop vist or even stop for gas and buy a coke and spend money to stimulate the economy. 😢😢
Let me give you some perspective on Pine Bluff that you don't seem to have: Pine Bluff is a city that is off of a huge agricultural section of Arkansas. It is very historic in being one of two choices for blacks and lower-income whites to get jobs. It was a mecca for poor people to come and be hired out of worse poverty. The jobs is only a part of it. These people come from a class that utilized farmland to "get by" without jobs. In urban areas, they can't do that. So, instead, now that they are depending on employer-employee situations, they pause until they find the "next job". Copy-Paste this and apply to many cities like Pine Bluff, where the people have the power, but it's been depleted over time by their employers.
I feel insurmountable sadness for America. I really really hope we can bring back what used to be, but everywhere I travel in this country shows signs of decay and societal collapse. Some worse than others, of course, but it’s all coming in everywhere, slowly but surely.
I grew in Pine Bluff and left after high school to enter the Army in 1983. At that time, the city was thriving economically but as you mentioned as the jobs left, so did most of the working and managerial class. Pine Bluff was known for great baseball back in the day and produced several MLB players. They opened the PB Convention Center in the mid 70's where every major act from Elvis to Kiss to Hank Williams Jr. played there. It was proclaimed as the Concert Capital of Arkansas until the 90's. As industry moved to Mexico, PB quickly became an entitlement community, with too many citizens on government assistance, which led to rampant drug use, gang violence and so on and so on until we arrived at the present. Thank you for your expose on my hometown. Like many who grew up there, I'm saddened by it's demise.
Theres a guy who moved there in 2020, bought one of the factories and 2 motels, every time he applied for permits to do anything the city council denies it, then takes those plans, quarter asses them and has the city "do them" funny enough hes buying the city council's houses at tax sales because they cant be bothered to pay their property taxes, he is currently the single biggest land owner in PB, and has plans to revitalize it into a maker, art, tech town
I grew up there and left in 1992. It's not "Capitalisms" fault, it's crime's fault. Crime went up, whites left town and it went to total shit. The city government is 50% corrupt and 50% incompetent. It will never ever go back to being a good city. It's a mathematical impossibility
To everyone blaming Clinton for NAFTA, pick up a book, or try looking at history without a political agenda - it began way before Clinton came into the picture. Reagan first proposed NAFTA in its original form in 1980. In 1988, under George Bush, the Canada-United States Trade agreement was signed, and it was agreed upon at that time to ratify NAFTA in the following years to include Mexico. During this time, it faced significant opposition in both the United States and Canada, but was finally ratified in 1993 after some additional agreements were added to it (the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC) and the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) ). The shit show began and continued, even after Trump made some small revisions to it, and called it the United States - Mexico - Canada Agreement (USMCA). So Clinton (innefectual as he was as a President) is not solely to blame for it . Where the shit really hit the fan was during the Reagan years when he let American companies pack up and move their operations overseas to China, Taiwan, etc, and did not place any meaningful tariffs on incomming imports. This occurred long before NAFTA whi h focused on reducing tarriffs between the North American nations, and having nothing to do with overseas industry. This destroyed the manufacturing base of the nation and made the US reliant on cheap goods by foreign powers. We just want our shit cheap. Unfortunately, the consequences are that all of our manufacturing and factory jobs are sacrificed because of it. India, China, etc. essentially run slaving operations so you can buy all that cheap shit at Wal-Mart. Meanwhile, the US lumber industry is toast, with Canada not being far behind, our fisheries are poached, we rely on foreign gas rather than investing in our own supply (we export tons of fuel to other nations.... go figure). The only winners are the fat cats in power - both Democrat and Republican and their Wall Street cronies. God Bless America. 👍
Too right! You should be commended for your research. Personally I believe it started with Nixon. We should have never normalized relations with the Chi-coms.
@Jeff Bueler NAFTA followed policies started by Reagan, and the whole process was run by Bush Sr. He even tried to fast track it before the election that saw Clinton come to power. Bush Jr did nothing to change it, even though he knew what NAFTA was doing to American jobs. So, anyone who believes that both parties aren't firmly in the pockets of the billionaires and big business, is sadly deluded.
@@FranceGaulGallia That is nonsense. Of course people overseas will put in hard work, for a $1 an hour in a sweatshop. Uf you sign trade deals like NAfTA it is obvious that many companies will leave, or go bust as they can't compete with the foreign imports. It has nothing to do with people overseas working harder. The international trade deals the US has signed has been utterly disastrous. The US should be much more self sufficient and should not outsource production it can do domestically.
@@jharvey9898 create economic growth here by making everything here again! It’s our own rules & regulations that are crippling our abilities to be successful
So many kids going to college and accumulating a lot of debt and there will be no jobs for those kids to go to. Those manufacturing jobs just didn’t hire blue collar workers. There are a lot of white collared workers who lost jobs too.
I lived in Pine Bluff for 7 years and went to University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. It may have been rugged but it was a family atmosphere. I love that place and miss it so much
depends on where you live. it's not a disaster if you're Mexican, and obviously a whole lot of this country is happy buying the cheaper imports. and plenty of people who left places like this went to places like Austin where they've got high-paying jobs in IT or whatever doesn't exist in Pine Bluff.
In my opinion nafta just sped up the inevitable. The vast majority of older uaw workers I've met are just unbelievable. They are some of the laziest most entitled people on this planet. It was not uncommon for employees to take a week off work and have there buddies punch them in and out. I've seen many a garage filled with anything that could be stolen from a plant. I've heard numerous accounts about the parking lots at these plants on break being just one big open air drug market. On top of all this they'd have to pay insane retirement benefits for these lazy turds. At one time unions served a purpose. Then they derailed to just taking care of their own while demanding more and more money. I think eventually these companies would've had to either move or close down anyways. It always easier to point the finger and have a boogieman. If you ask me we need to take responsibility for what we accept as work ethic.
I totally agree with Lori. I was born and raised in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and it was a very wonderful place to live, raise a family, and go out for pizza, Chinese, and Mexican food, and my mom's and family's personal favorite was ARNOLD'S CATFISH on Blake St. My childhood was great but now it's very sad and heartbreaking to see my beloved town in the shape it's in now. I moved to Conway in 2012 and then moved to Texas in 2017. And, it really do makes you want to shed a few tears because of how it has drastically changed. The 70's, 80's, 90's and very early 2000's were pretty nice.
I'm from Watson Chapel. Arnold's was not 2 miles from my childhood home. We had room to run . The Flick. Big Banjo, butrams, 8 wheels. A good baseball and football fields. We had the river amd motocross track. I had a blast. I also fought at the drop of a hat. There were alot of mean and nasty people in the 70's and 80's. I held my own. Got a reputation because of it. I'm grateful to move to my family in Hot Spring County. It was so odd to have cool stuff and fight to do it. Still strange to me. I have a special place in my heart for the town.
White (non-Hispanic) 7,284 18.30% Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 31,744 76.90% Native American 117 0.20% Asian 314 0.80% Pacific Islander 54 0.30% Other/Mixed 982 2.20% Hispanic or Latino 758 1.30% This might explain.......
I passed through Pine Bluff in the early 1990s on a motorcycle trip. I stopped for fuel there. I swore that I would never get anywhere near that place again. The vibe was a lot like Cairo Illinois... which I shall also never return.
The sad part is that people destroying and neglecting those houses are the ones complaining that they have nowhere to live. If you destroy your home then you have to live outside.
One huge issue in Arkansas is that people will have control of this property move away and then never let anybody else do anything with it It's a huge problem. The cities need to take control and clean this up because it looks terrible but they don't have enough money due to corruption and the dismissal of people like that smart young woman trying to help fix this huge problem that she sees in her home.
@@lilrapunzel Well that's very misleading. That city, ANY city, can at any time condemn and take over a property even if taxes are up to date. So blame the city for not enforcing codes for allowing a property to become derelict. If an owner walks away, the city can move to appropriate and clean it up. That abandoned motel? Why did that city not take it over and convert it to housing before it got trashed. In the end, it's the locals, the people of a community, that are responsible and to blame.
Americans are mostly generous people, regardless of their political leaning. If homeless people/squatters move into one of these houses and kept it clean, both in and outside, people will look the other way because these home are abandons anyway. The problem is that *_these people_* have an extreme sense of entitlement, victim-hood and ultra individualism that it's a waste of time and energy to help them out. Oregon and Western Washington State resident just learned the hard way that helping these type of people is a waste of time, energy and resources.
The Angie interview was sincerely refreshing to watch. She is so up on the vibe of the city and has the social and political insights to explain what could be and is needed.
I was a tour guide in Canada 30 years ago and we had a group of retirees from Pine Bluff. I remember them to be such kind and friendly people. Sad to see their city has been decimated.
Having a great attitude is fine, but the older woman said when new businesses have gone in there, abanteeism, near illiteracy, failed drug tests, theft...and the companies say "see ya!". I would never move a company there and deal with that.
Pine bluff is garbage. My friend worked there, used to read electric meters on houses. Literally within a year and a half of working he was jumped three times. Multiple guys hitting him behind with 2x4, stealing wallet, that kind of stuff.
I blame Walmart and their predatory vendor policy driving jobs to China, and anytime Walmart opens on the edge of a town, the city center loses businesses and declines.
If you wanted to film a post-apocalyptic movie, no need to build an expensive set. Just film it in downtown Pine Bluff. I half expected to see zombies walking down the street. DON'T STOP YOUR CAR, NICK!
Was thinking exactly the same ..just commented above.... Currently in Venezuela, scriptwriting and film site scouting (in decayed urban areas and run-down towns) for a possible post-apocalyptic fiction adventure series .
Is the problem all US citizens wanting cheaper products? Not buying American .sde goods and paying more to support America and our fellow citizens? Do you buy the cheapest products? If not, all the time or sometimes buy cheaper? I know I cannot afford buying American, but do my best.
I lived near Magnolia in southwest Arkansas as a teenager in the 70s a nice town and i remember we once went to pine bluff for a convention one weekend.I remember going to a supermarket there where everyone in the store looked homeless,this was over 40 years ago so i was a bit puzzled seeing the the lady much younger then me crying about what a nice town it once was.Arkansas is a beautiful state but Pine Bluff was an armpit even 45 years ago as i remember it.
The breakdown of the family is a universal cancer in this country. “Kids raising themselves.” Inevitable violence and teen pregnancy, and decay. Loss of jobs is a huge problem, of course, but culture matters.
I'm a life long resident of Arkansas. I'm 54. All of my life Pine Bluff has been a place to stay away from. Nafta killed Pine Bluff. I sold my home in western Arkansas to a retired teacher from Pine Bluff. She echoed what this lady said. A friend of mine is a emergency room doctor that was in Afganistan that came to work in Pine Bluff hospital emergency room. She said the intake was similar to Afganistan. She said sending doctors to the emergency room thier would make a good training for combat doctors.
Thank you Nick for showing this video. It looks like areas in San Antonio, Texas. Lots of empty houses. If the older homes stay vacant its an open doors for crime. We have our share of beautiful houses, but we are now getting people from California. Also lots of brand new apartments that are expensive at the Alamo Quarry a 2 bedroom 2 bath the rent is $3,000.00. The sad part is the apartments allow for residents to smoke on the patios. So if you live in the second, third, fourth floor all of the smoke will go into your patios. The Corporation USA has left the American people suffer. Shameful.
I'm grateful you ended the video with that beautiful young lady. Imagine a world with a generation of youth who have her drive and aspirations. I'm encouraged that all hope is not lost .
Great videos documenting the decline and deterioration of the middle class throughout the United States. I have also been to most of these places while driving truck for the past 20 or so years. One thing that always intrigued me is that if you were to rent an apartment for a couple years and then decided to move out, a cleaning fee would almost immediately would be assessed against you. My point is that if you own these abandoned run down buildings you as the owner of the land should be required to either clear out the land or sell it to someone else or the city and have them clear it. A limited amount of time should be granted to whomever owns the land before fines or civil penalties would be assessed. if no actions are taken in that allowed time limit then the city should step in. if a bank owns the land then it is their responsibility to return the land to the way it looked before anything was built there. Basically returning the land to the earth. If I were to live in one of these communities and decided to run for a local office, this is how I would solve this problem.
I worked in pine bluff for a couple of years, and I had my car window broken 3 times. One evening when I came out, a dude was crouched next to my car taking a dump and wiping with clothes he took out of my car. Decided it wasnt worth it.
@@Mark-hb5zf (It's offensive to certain people, especially if you're using to describe a particular race of female individuals..so choose words more carefully!!!)
@@Backwoods_870 Nah, I don't subscribe to the list of harmless words that people like to redefine (which now changes weekly). Some words? You betcha, plenty of them that are truly offensive and always will be, and should never be used. 'Gal' does not fit that category.
I remember when the pines mall was built. It was so pretty back then. Its easy to talk about self control unless youre in it. I knew i had to leave Louisiana or i would die a slow death. There was no way to get ahead when your parents had nothing. This was before internet and we couldnt afford a phone. So the only way i could see to go, was in the military. Got my degree and so much more.
@@lorrie5881 lol I'm from "the parish." My grandmother married into a family who's names end in vowels. My dad was already born but it was interesting. I moved back to nola in 2016 and because of the crime where I live in the quarter, I'm in the process of moving to another state. I'm ready for boring.
That person, Angie Walton? with the “Rebuild The Block” shirt…is the most amazing, articulate, passionate, and motivated person I have seen on RU-vid. Just amazing…
What will a town like this look like in 10 years? Did any towns this size in America look this bad at the height of the Great Depression? We are in a depression now. It’s not a recession and it certainly isn’t an economy the democrats are bragging about.
I've been watching your videos for a while now and everytime I think America can't get any worse, but each time I realize how wrong I've been.... At least the homeless people in Pine Bluff can hide out in the mall.
Kinda pointless to exist homeless in ark, cause whos gonna give you free handouts?? free money$$? its why they all leave, considering they have strict laws/prisons, against homeless and drug addicts, they are smart to leave. A smart homeless, would use their welfare check and rent a home lol..but considering some don't understand responsibility, sometimes its a lifestyle for them, or they were abandon by family(most cases), and mental cases , theres no mental wards for them to exist in..
Why wasn't the mall and the motel converted to housing BY THE CITY??? They could have condemned and appropriated both before the criminals took over. In the end, it's all on the politics and the people of Pine Bluff.
@@Theywaswrong Thats nice but thats like a communist housing tho.. Whos gonna manage it/invest in it? And manage it for who? Housing should be already cheap as it is in ark; most major gentrified city areas actually need "affordable" housing, which they'll never get. Giving it to homeless, doesnt help much as, they need mental help, thats long gone, since the nixon/reagan era, when they got rid of the insane asylums and mental institutions. Kinda pointless for converting, unless someone is willing to pay $$$, and I mean a person or actual business, which is rare. Its better just to bulldooze down and start anew, to avoid any costly reconstruction issues.
The OWNERS of the mall are responsible for cleaning it up or tearing it down and carting the remains away. Corporations go to court and delay, delay, delay until the city just gives up. Not a lot of taxes collected in poor cities and towns. Not enough to allot a lot of money to tearing buildings down or for going to court forever.@@Theywaswrong
It really does happen. I live in a small town in Idaho and the county I live in as well as next has a huge meth problem. Now I hear that street Fentanyl is making the rounds. All kinds of problems with the "meth lifestyle ". We do have some decent jobs here in agriculture and industry, but many people don't even qualify for an entry-level position due to criminal background and no GED/ HS Diploma, plus the need to pass a drug test. Drug addiction and the breakdown of the family unit has been a cancer to many areas.
This brought tears to my eyes. I lived in Watson Chapel from 1997 - 2002. It was bad then, but what a difference 20 years can make. I keep thinking about the people trying to cross the Rio Grande to get here. They have no idea the destitution. Wondered if they ever made the Sunbeam girl swing again on that billboard at the end of town. She was kind of a bright spot for decades. A landmark. It's like when Pine Bluff stopped swinging, so did she.
Before the criminals destroyed, so many buildings could have been repurposed for housing, including for immigrants. Too late after the city sat on their butts and did nothing, zero.
They redid the sign a few years ago and made her swing again!!! But it's since broke down again and not swinging...but swinging or not, she's still there as our beacon of hope!!!!!!
Many of the towns you visit and label “worst” usually have failed due to several factors. To say we need to blame Socialism or Capitalism is attempting to simplify complex issues that go beyond one economic model. Cultural decay, demographic shifts and offshoring manufacturing are just a few examples of the problems many parts of our Country need to face.
At last someone with a brain you are so right this actually started when automation was held in grander above the people to create the monopoly and the chain and the golden calf worshipping. The killing of the small business
Angie Walton could head up the Economic Development Department for the city of Pine Bluff! if there isn't one.. she should create it with the mayor and town council! She is the champion of Pine Bluff!
We moved to Pine Bluff about8 years ago when my husband was "promoted". We had a neighbor tell us how wonderful Pine Bluff use to be. He explained to us that when the prisons opened that the families of inmates assigned to those units would move to town and once they were released, they stayed in town and many return to crimal lifestyles. In a matter of 2-3 weeks, I learned of the death of 3 homeless people who would attend our church. GFPB has tried to make down town better, but they mist evident sign of that is the fancy new street lights. To be honest...the new street lights are like putting new ornaments on a dead Christmas tree. Personally, I would work on making the tree healthy before adding the ornaments.
My wife was from Pine Bluff. Up until 2 yrs. ago, her still lived there. However, her sister moved North of Little Rock and her brother lives outside of or Pine Bluff city limits (he works at the paper mill). My wife left home when she was 18 back in 1976 and never looked back. Pine Bluff started going downhill even back then. Of course, we went to spend every Christmas with her family and we always carried our dogs. Her mother's house had a yard, but the fence was in poor shape so we kept the dogs inside and had to walk them 4 times a day. When we did, not only were the dogs large and protective, both she and I carried a concealed weapon. Her mother lived about 4 blocks from the mall and she had been mugged 3 times...twice in the parking lot of the mall. Crime, unemployment, and drugs took over the town. The main reason can be summed up in two words....White Flight.
What a contrast in the two women, but like Angie said at the end, she understands the people who’ve lived there for decades and how they can be bogged down. A new generation of people can make things happen if they want it bad enough. I hope there are more people with her enthusiasm.
Hello Nick, You really bring attention to what is happening across this country. One thing you overlook is the harsh climate of Pine Bluff. So many oppressively hot, humid days in the summer. I don't know how people tolerate those conditions. I'm sure there is a lot of potential for this small city since so many folks are getting priced out of other areas. I like the energy of this young lady you had at the end of the video. She has positive anergy and I hope people like her can help bring the city back to life. Wishing the best for the folks of Pine Bluff.
You got that right I'm dying here. 100° in the shade with 94% humidity I've got to get out. I don't know where to go tho, it's just me my mom refuses to leave. I can't breathe outside it's like blasting radiation when you open the door.
I have commented before that I moved to Arkansas 20 years ago and live less than an hour from Pine Bluff. For a few years after we moved, I shopped at that mall regularly. It was clean, well-lit and full of franchise stores. The decline, however, was swift. You also drove past some retail areas that used to have nice franchise stores that have since closed. I frequently pass right by Pine Bluff on the way to Little Rock, and I still go into PB for doctor appointments and to shop in stores on the periphery. Even twenty years ago, however, I was told to not venture into downtown. I have still only seen it through online videos. Just a side note, a few years after we moved here, we stepped outside early one morning and thought that we smelled a gas leak. A gas company employee came and investigated but found nothing and smelled nothing. The wind shifted and he had an "aha" moment. When the weather and wind direction are just right, the smell from the PB paper mill can travel many, many miles.
The smell from paper mills is putrid. We also moved to Arkansas a little over 20 yrs ago, but live in the southwest part. The first time, I smelled a paper mill, I thought there was a giant gas leak. Crime Bluff has been in decline since we lived here. I used to go to prison there for trainings. The women's minimum security prison relocated to West Memphis. What 5 or 7 yrs ago? Downtown was already blighted, but you could see some of the dilapidated houses & buildings were once majestic, being the gateway to the Delta.
@rickjones784 It's a prison town that has a strange vibe. Up until recently, they had two prisons & now it's down to one. It's still the same vibe. PB peaked in the 1800s. Then there were two massive floods & the Great Depression. Also, the river commerce & cotton industry took a big hit. Add to it the Delta is poor poor and beyond poor. It's been bleeding people losing around 8000 people since the last census. That's not sustainable. The gorgeous Victorian houses are mostly dry rotting now. No one is investing in that train wreck. Fun fact, Martha Mitchell, who helped blow the Watergate scandal, is from PB.
I lived in Arkansas when I was little. My family and I lived in Benton, just south of Little Rock, from 1969 to 1975. I loved the little town of Benton and the people. We moved to Benton in 1969 when my dad took a job driving a truck for Arkansas Best Freight in Little Rock. My mom divorced my dad in 1975 and me, my mom and brother Paul moved back to Tyler Texas. My brother Paul and I are still living in Tyler. Our mom and dad have died. Just wanted to tell a quick story about living in Benton Arkansas when I was little.
I remember when I went out of state one time and was at a mall and told some folks where I was from and they were shocked. Arkansas and places like Pline Bluff and Little Rock have always gotten a bad rap. Me personally I love Arkansas. I am from Lake Village but I live in North Little Rock and I have spent a lot of time in Pine Bluff. I love Arkansas. I have hope for Arkansas. I've lived in Hot Springs for several years also. Arkansas is just my place.
I'm a Little Rock native. Pine Bluff has been awful for a long time. It's also pretty common for abandoned buildings to stand for many years in Arkansas. I don't think it's a matter of socialism or capitalism that is the cause for any of it. I just don't think there's enough of an economic base to really do much of anything there. It's just poverty and people leaving.
you say its greed? companies left? 50,000 people still there plus suburbs. why didnt they open new businesses. like sell books online in their garage like jeff bezos? why didnt they start landscape or handyman businesses? cause the whole town was drug addicts and thieves! the problem isnt corporate greed its the laziness of the other 99%! they want someone else to create a job for them. create your own damn job. i did. and im a 9th grade drop out. but from iowa. as a teen i had 4 jobs and 2 business. 30 years later still got those 2 businesses plus more! and i didnt have rich parents or investors
Not from the US but is hard for me to comprehend how can an entire city that has seemingly good infraestructure can go to hell like this. I guess bad governing can lead to that and they failed to attract new business for a long time. It's so sad because it looks like with some economy reactivation it could be restored...
As an Americna myself I really don't understand how all these years later the US Infrastructure has gotten this bad. You would think by now we would've gone more futuristic but apparently we are not quite there yet.
The good thing about Pine Bluff is, if there's NO people/civilization in town, then there's NO homeless issue there either. Its weird how almost all homeless people want to have access to everything/anything, but where there's literally nothing...you probably won't find them either.
YOUR NOT MUCH ON INTELLIGENCE, HOMELESS MOVE SOUTH FOR NICER WEATHER, THAT'S WHY CALIFORNIA HAS 179,000 HOMELESS AS WELL AS FLORIDA AT 168,000., TEXAS RUNNING THIRD FOR THEM.
@@chas3304 If you read into what I was saying, for homeless people its about access. If you take away access from what they need, they will move closer to where they can get it. Weather may be a contributing factor to where they live. But if that's the case, why are homeless still living in northern states like New York, Washington state? Its because of access. They can get what they need without having to walk 5, 10 or 20 miles to get it. If Pine Bluff had free-food trucks coming into town every day to feed the homeless, guess where the homeless would flock to? You take away access, the homeless problem goes away.
There is a homeless camp in PB. Just gotta know where to look. Not a huge homeless population like big cities. Many of the burned out houses are because of squatters starting fires to keep warm.
I recently drove through Arkansas on my way to Florida. The northwestern part of the state is booming and then you get to Little Rock, which is bad. After that is Pine Bluff, which is scary! I made sure to gas up before driving through so l wouldn’t have to stop. The Southern part of Arkansas past Pine Bluff was actually nice with lots of farmland and small towns. I stayed in a nice little town just before the Mississippi border.
@Dubinski2382 those certain ppl u speak of once had thriving neighborhoods like the 100s if black wal streets until a certain group of ppl fot jealous and bombed,burned and destroyed them then passed laws and policies that made it difficult to recover
I thought both of the interviewees were great in their own regard......BUT..... That Angie is a winner! God Bless her for really pushing for a better community.
What a wonderful young woman, Angie. Enthusiastic and caring, and if she can't rally the city, no one can! Any former residents who are now successful business people or celebrities to invest or lend support?? If so, seek them out.
Are you insane pb is full of corruption the money would just disappear. Why would anyone invest here it literally has no good part none. It stinks of paper mill and cotton poison and full of mosquitoes it to mention rampant crime so no one is going I flush their money down the crapper of pb
