MAIN STREET HARDY

Posts Tagged ‘hardy arkansas’

City dwellers may look down on small town America and wonder what a small town could possibly have to offer. What is there to see and do? Why choose to live out in the middle of nowhere? But there are as many reasons, that tempt people to live in small town America rather than move to the big city.

Location is often a prime factor that keeps people in small town America. For those who want to live away  from the hustle and bustle of city life, the country has a special appeal to it. So rather than rushing through traffic or running to catch a train during the busy commuting times, many prefer to live far away from the city in a small town where they live and work. Living in the country can cut the stress from commuting through heavy traffic to get to work each day.

Small town America often gives people an opportunity to live on a larger size lot with a front and back garden. Residents therefore have more freedom to plant flowers, fruit and vegetables. They can also set up swings and a slide for their children, if they so choose. City dwellers cannot even claim a slab of concrete outside their home as their own a lot of the time, as they are more likely to be squashed tightly into small apartments.

Living in a small town in America gives people a chance to get to know their neighbours more easily. With a population of 5,000 or less, it is quite likely that you will be running into the same people again and again. City dwellers who visit small towns will be surprised to see people greeting one another and holding conversations with people they meet in the street, supermarket, health food shop and pharmacy. People know one another and this can help to create a tighter sense of community, that is hard to find in a large city where many people would rather maintain their anonymity.

Some small town dwellers still feel safe enough to leave their doors, windows and doors unlocked, especially if their town is not known for its high crime rate. Relative safety can make people more trusting of others. But of course, that does not mean to say that small town America is crime free. It is actually refreshing to see people welcoming strangers to their town, rather than treating everyone they meet with suspicion.

People who are on a limited income and cannot afford to move to a large city, can usually live more cheaply in a small town. Food, clothing, fuel, and house prices are lower, which makes small town living more affordable. Rather than having to live in apartment blocks or surrounded by other homes, many small town residents can live further away from their other neighbours, which gives them more seclusion and privacy.

Small towns are not without “things to see and do”. Depending on where you go, you can visit nearby national parks and forests and go hiking, fishing, skiing, hunting, cycling around trails, and kayaking. Small towns also have inside attractions such as museums and art galleries, so they are not entirely without “culture”.

Living in a small town certainly has its benefits and that is why many people would much rather choose small town America over overcrowded, polluted, crime filled cities.

Why even offer Free WiFi (muniwireless) along Main Street in Hardy Arkansas?  The only  thing that retains value is what the local community is willing to invest in terms of their interest and content. If local businesses, organizations, civic groups and schools  in the local community, in short, are willing to create local content for the local network, post local ads, if they see the service as part of the fabric of the community. That is part of the idea of Free muniwirelessWiFi, because our idea – would first point all users to the Main Street Hardy Online Resource website. This then helps promote not only the town but the local merchants and community as well. Is this self serving? Not really, its self promoting of our town ! Besides, if we don’t do it, no one else will.

 No one can provide better local content or advertise better to the local community than the community itself. Everyone big wants to get local — Google, Microsoft, Citysearch (IAC), Yahoo, etc.. As the world goes digital and online, traditional media – newspapers. Local TV and radio, are rapidly disappearing from the landscape. They are losing a crucial source of revenue — local advertising (classifieds) — to the Internet and these megaportals. At the same time, these same companies have a great challenge — how do they capture the local ‘from above,” as a top-down play? On the web, everything is driven by reputation. Do we trust this seller on eBay? Well look at his rating. Want to buy a book? How are people reviewing it? How in turn are people rating the reviewers? All of this is important to the local area.

Everyone must decide, do I trust someone working for a multibillion dollar global portal to create content, for local knowledge, or do I trust a local?  What are the best restaurants in a given neighborhood? I will trust a local resident if given the choice. Their informed opinions will be given up freely, out of a desire to share. This is grassroots, not Astroturf, and that is what Friends Of Hardy Arkansas are trying to do and want for Hardy !

With the localization of content, services, and advertisements, with more and more devices GPS enabled, with the growing ability to create local ‘intranets’ for buildings, neighborhoods, towns, cities, via new wireless infrastructure deployments, it will be increasingly easy for communities to segment themselves from the rest of the web, and capture the value that is now otherwise feeding these web behemoths. If Google’s model in creating muniwireless as part of The White Space Coalition depends in no small part on local ads, what is to stop the locals from building their own networks and capturing the ad revenue themselves?

As social computing goes local, as the internet grows pervasive, as everyone is brought onto the grid, muniwireless has a bright future. Cell phones and the new Ipad even offer WiFi connection. Communities will have wireless networks as public amenities. They will serve a number of functions, from the very basic — offering the ability to surf the web, check email, to supporting local businesses through a local community portal with local content and providing better security. In the process, the web will become increasingly localized. As always, and from the beginning, we know the end points, and as always, it’s getting there that matters, the details of it. Who will be the ones trying, failing, and learning?  Who will build these municipal wireless networks? Will it be the large incumbent telecoms, the Verizons and Comcasts of the world? Or will it be people like you and me? If in the end the value of the community network is derived from the activity of the people using it, we know the answer.

The Friends Of Hardy Arkansas are motivated and interested in bringing Free WiFi to the Main Street area of Hardy. We feel it is an important step toward growth in our community and for the business tourist who stop here. In the future if proven sustainable it may even grow outward to cover the whole town – who knows. Just imagine the possibilities. We would love to get your comments about this below. Feel free to share with us.

Portions of this article are reprinted from Wired Towns website.

Being a small town local news can sometimes be a little slow, not that we mind this. It’s why we all love our small town in the first place.  In an effort to continue to provide a better website experience, we are excited to now offer live video clips of Arkansas area news and National news right here on our website. 

Now you can visit our site to check out news clips that are constantly being updated in real time. This is just another addition to our site in our effort to continue to bring to the Hardy Arkansas area a way to come together through information and technology.

Additionally, we offer forums on our site to interact with questions and answers. Stories on our site has a comment section were you can leave your own opionion plus we even offer a classifieds ad section for the area too.

If you want to know whats happening in our area all you need to do is visit us anytime.

Click HERE to see Arkansas video news now!

Click HERE to see World video news now!

Just a friendly reminder that this Friday Dec. 18th is THIRD FRIDAY in Hardy. This is when many of the local shops will remain open until 8:00pm for those interested in shopping and supporting your local economy. It’s getting close to Christmas so now is the time to get out and find that special gift item. Hope to see ya’ll on Main Street.

So…here is what this particular area is all about. Here we can share our stories of Hardy and the lives we have had and continue to have. We can tell our tales of how, why and what brought us here and the love for Hardy that we all share.

I’ve had the priviledge of falling in love, running a great business and meeting great friends, watching seasons pass, leaves fall and meeting all the wonderful people who live and travel to and through Hardy. What a wonderful place to experience life. I love Hardy and I’m glad that I’m here.

Marc Herring

Ozark Classic Crafts Mall

Join the forum discussion on this post - (5) Posts