@@RandyJGJ I don't think M Mike wanted to share his time and make a good report, he gave us a clue to the UN/DOWNTOWN REDEVELOPMENT DISTRICT 14 years before.
I received my Bachelors from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB). In comparison to the size of the city the University is relatively large. UAPB is an historically black college or university HBCU. It’s actually the only place I’ve been robbed at gunpoint. A friend of mine had the same thing happen to him as well. In my summation the city can be saved but it would take an unrealistic shift in mentality. It is a heavily black city (77%). A lot of people are voting against their best interest. The strong anti police mentality of the community along with anti-gentrification mentality deter large scale businesses. More businesses means more foot traffic. More foot traffic means money is flowing through the area. These things attract people. Strongly enforced laws stop the crime and businesses don’t have to worry as much about theft and violence. Fixing the problems with Pine Bluff would be an extremely painful and expensive project. The influx in people would skyrocket the cost of living before people start complaining that the rent prices are too high and all of the residents are being bought out. I hope for the best for PB, but I don’t see a world where all of the stars align for the success of the city. Corruption is too high and the people are too complacent.
The problem with pine bluff is that it’s in a red state. Blue counties in the US contribute more than 70% of the nations gdp. Blue states are far richer than red states. So you think red states are business friendly? If that were the case then why are these pro business states so poor? It’s because no one wants to live in a place that pays poorly, provides minimal services, provides no healthcare, on and on. If pine bluff is mostly black I’d like to know what percentage of the government jobs including police are staffed with black residents. People in pine bluff aren’t against redevelopment. Pine bluff is empty because they’ve allowed giant chain stores to suck up all the money with their cheap made Chinese imports. Where was the government when they allowed union busting companies the right to import their shit back into the US without penalty.
I was born in Pine Bluff in 1961. It was a beautiful, bustling, thriving city up until the 70’s. As a kid I remember the Christmas parade going down Main Street. There was a J. C. Penny store on main street beside one of the railroad tracks. There was a huge magazine and newspaper stand on the side of that building. There was so much activity on Main Street then. It was safe and friendly. I sure miss that. We moved out of town in the early 70’s but i came back and worked at Coca Cola there through the 80’s. I was a sign painter for Coke. We did some artwork on some buildings there and restored some very old Coke signs on the side of some of the old businesses. It was a great job. I miss that too. Thank you for the video.
I was born there in 57. Same as you. I remember a nice quiet town where a young person could enjoy their teen years. I wouldn't live tgere now for all the money God has.
I Grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It breaks my heart so much to see it in this current state. SO many memories came back during your video. So MANY MEMORIES CAME BACK watching the video. Thank You! I have SO MANY friends and Wonderful childhood memories from there! We moved to Chicago in the summer of 1976. Because of that I got a lot of opportunities that otherwise I would have never got and door openings I never even knew about. My father is buried in Pine Bluff. I visited his grave the night before I left! He was A Good Man that I love and I miss still to this day. I went to Townsend Park and Then Dollarway which recently closed. I use to spend my summers over at the College AM&N then, now UAPB, in Chicago and in Bastrop, Louisiana with my father's baby sister and her husband, Aunt Juliza. I have never been back to Pine Bluff but have seen people I went to school with there here in Chicago over the years. I even worked with A next door neighbor childhood friend for some years in a Government Job. On the video the museum looking place by the railroad tracks was the train station. Also Dr. Flowers office was there on the backside. You walked by the entrance. He delivered us at our births. I fished in Oakland Park, The Lake, the River and ponds. I swam in The Townsend Park Pool. I rode my bike from the North side were I lived, 1103 North Hazel to all over the West side with my friends and the back woods. Life was simpler, slower, laid back and so much fun. I remember when Downtown was bustling. I use Google Maps to "walk" around the town and I have been seeing how things have changed and SO many houses are just missing. As stated in the video the young people left because of the lack of jobs. Life goes on well for me, but Pine Bluff, Arkansas will ALWAYS have a very very very special place in my heart Forever, Always And A Day!!! Thank You for the Excellent Video. Live Long and Prosper...
I read what you wrote alot of passion. I am from Little Rock and have lived in the NYC area since the early 90s .I am 51 years old. I never went to Pine Bluff but always heard about UAPB and all the Cool things going on there in the 80s. It is sad to see places like this. Luckily Little Rock is experiencing the exact opposite so maybe Pine Bluff can make a comeback fingers crossed.
Most of those mural were already there when I was a kid in 80's. You should have seen the swinging wonderbread girl sign, it was removed in the early 90's and put in the museum to keep it preserved. I think it had been there for about century at least.
I need to correct myself. it was the sunbeam bread girl. It was one of those things I used to look for everytime we drove by. Turns out it was taken down, restored and put back up. She might still be swinging
New York, Las Vegas have probably the most visited and most active downtowns. This place is practically abandoned. Shreveport's downtown looks reminiscent of this as well. But even Shreveport has activeness.
@@Nacalina007Shreveport made a comeback of sorts. Before the casinos downtown Shreveport looked similar. During that time Texas St between First Methodist and the Long Allen bridge was in dire need of repaving.
As someone that has lived in Arkansas near all my life i can tell you this is all to common. Most all of our citys and towns look just like Pine Bluff.
I was born here in 1960, grew up right beside Pine Bluff High School. It was a wonderful place to grow up, had a great childhood there, not sure what happened, heartbreaking
I remember visiting downtown Pine Bluff in 2014 and 2015. Took a few photos of the area and the county courthouse. I was surprised at how a city of that size could have no traffic mid-day, so that I could walk right into the middle of one of the main roads and not worry about any cars or trucks. The convention center was very well-maintained, which tracks with your observation about government buildings. Based on your video, the city seems to have declined even more since. The 1980s and 1990s hurt a lot of our industrial cities and towns. I live in Fort Smith, which is just a couple hours west of Little Rock. We lost our Whirlpool plant around 2010, which employed a lot of people in our area. Having a university helped a lot, whether or not folks appreciated that. The graduates seemed to stay in the area. We're more of a medical school, medical billing, and arts space now. Being connected to the I-40 freeway and I-49 freeway helps. I hope folks who care about Pine Bluff find a way. It's a beautiful city.
The convention center while not run down hasnt been updated much since the 70s, and the attached motel is very much abandoned, unless you consider the bed bugs and roaches residents
I thought Texarkana had regressed but it's a boomtown compared to Pine Bluff. I read that Pine Bluff has lost so many people that it lost it's designation as a metropolitan area. I hope they can turn things around.
@@christophercotton9048gop and no governor did this. The majority people living there started this years ago. They’ve mismanaged that town into the cesspool it is. Want to see who caused this? Go look in a mirror
I live in Arkansas. Most Arkansans avoid PB like the plague. Look at the bars on the windows. Those aren't decorative. It's a crime-ridden cesspool. You can play the chicken or the egg game by asking "Did people resort to crime due to lack of businesses and opportunity, or did the businesses leave because of the amount of crime?". I can assure you it's the latter.
Enjoy your video I was born in pinebluff And have lived on the West Coast for the past 20 years and thinking of moving back. You've got the first positive video i've seen. Your video shows more of a decay with time. Is not As bad as everybody shows
Unfortunately , once a city gets the reputation as being dangerous and crime-ridden , and the local population does nothing to counter those claims , it's pretty much over.
@@Yntstaxnot true, most of the abandoned buildings you see in the downtown area were black owned. But I will say that white flight caused the uprise of a city that used to just be an extension of pine bluff to surpass it in all areas which is white hall. It’s only a few miles away and is so much better because businesses tucked tail and left pine bluff for it.
Thank you for this. I would have never seen Pine Bluff. My late great-aunt was born in Pine Bluff in late 1921, she made it to early 2020. Her mother took her to California in the late 1920s to start over after the father died. I wonder now if she ever went back… That Walmart and other big box stores are what helped kill the downtown. A town isn’t “walkable” unless there are things to walk TO. You need craft stores and shops which make things and provide services people want to buy. Then the cafes and pubs arrive. I’d start attracting remote workers with fast internet infrastructure, that will get people into affordable housing. And instead of incarcerating wayward youth, put them to work cleaning up.
Downtown was done way before WalMart - Gibsons, Magic Mart and TG&Y might have been impacted - The interstate linking Pine Buff to Little Rock probably had the most impact - seems like it was a 2 hour drive as a kid and also 630 in Little Rock opened up commerce for Little Rock - I remember Newstands, Soda Fountains, Music Stores, lots of clothing stores during the 70s. Seems like WalMart came in around 1980 and it was on 28th street
@@danu4658 Wal Mart was once attached to The Pines Mall in 1980. My wife was from Pine Bluff and we got married at her parent's house which was about 3 blocks from the Pines Mall. Wal Mart was there when we got married.
People in big cities complaining about cost of living but won’t move somewhere affordable like here. We just did and we love it! We don’t have to work ourselves to death anymore and you have everything you need in reasonable distance. If you’re struggling and complaining it’s your own choice. There’s plenty great places in “fly over country”
My grandparents lived in Pine Bluff for forty years as my grandfather retired from the Cotton Belt RR, my father and uncle were raised there, and I was also born there in 1992, but left when I was four, and last lived there for one more year in third grade. My grandparents, uncle, and my own family relocated to Northwest Arkansas in the early 2000s, and of all my extended from both my grandfather and grandmother's sides all relocated with the exception of one second cousin. I spent half my childhood in South Arkansas and the rest of my life in Northwest Arkansas with the exception of a few years I lived in Asia. Honestly, I don't think you could pay me enough to live in any part of the state outside the Northwest corner, because as great as NWA is, the rest of the state, outside of perhaps Conway, parts of Little Rock, and Jonesboro, is the reason Arkansas has such terrible stats. People say it's a good place "to be from," the implication being that you're no longer there. If NWA was its own state, we’d be inside the top five to ten for many important metrics, which should give you an idea of how poor the rest of the state performs in comparison.
Small world, my family lived in Pine Bluff from ‘96 when I was 5 until my dad got a job in NWA in like ‘02. I’ve lived on the East Coast and in Texas by myself for a bit, but always find my way back to NWA. It’s home.
@@sidriley1380 There are few places in the rest of the nation I would consider living. It’s always funny when people badmouth us having no idea what Northwest Arkansas is like. I wish it’d keep more people from moving in, but the secret’s out, and I suppose that’s the price we pay for doing well. A lot of NWA natives don’t even understand how much worse off the rest of the state is in comparison. That said, glad you made it out of Pine Bluff too. It’s always interesting when you meet another person from there up here, because you each give each other a knowing look acknowledging what we gladly left behind.
My parents were both born and raised in Pine Bluff and my grandfather was the county treasurer for many years. Sad to see the city so run down and deserted now.
When I was a child, our family drove down to Pine Bluff from Wisconsin to visit family, back then it was very nice. I recall lots of pretty girls, this was back in the 70's, sad to see.
Does anyone local to the area know how committed Simmons Bank is to staying in town? It sadly seems like it would be easy for them to move operations to Little Rock if there isn't anything keeping them in Pine Bluff. I was making a road trip from Pensacola, FL to NW Arkansas about a year ago when I hit Pine Bluff around dinner time. I never heard of the town before and got off the freeway towards the downtown area with zero research hoping some local joint to get food. The town caught me at such a surprise that I just had to spend two hours driving/walking around to explore the area (I think I ended up eating at a Wendy's after no luck). I grew up in the rust belt, so I was used to living in declining factory towns, but I had never seen a place in such sad despair as PB. I certainly hope the best for those who stay and try to reverse the declining trend. Thanks for the video!
They've been there for years, so it seems as though if they wanted to move they would have done it years ago. I think a bigger concern would be as Simmons grows bigger, would they want to move to Dallas or somewhere else? It would seem as though being in PB would make it difficult to attract talent.
Simmons owns the tallest building in little rock idk what you are trying to say? Its office rental space that simmons owns so long as it has renters they will stay.
I will say this, I grew up in St. Louis, MO. About three blocks from where they had the riots over that youngster that was killed. Way back in the 1960 to 1970's alot of my school mates had come up from Pine Bluff, and a few from Mississippi. They all moved north to find work, and St. Louis which was home to McDonnell Douglas as well as many more business. I imagine a lot of folks just moved away.
Excellent, thoughtful video, Mike. Without an influx of employers, which is very unlikely given our current economic and trade policies, perhaps the city can grow into an exurb of Little Rock. Perhaps completion of the interstates will spur that transition.
This has a lot to do with national policy. We have a government that allows and almost encourages businesses to move operations overseas through onerous regulations and taxes. Soaring energy prices also further prohibits growth of any kind. This is what we get from corporate and government greed. It’s not only here, there’s places like this in almost every state. Small towns in the rust belt are dying. That’s the national policy of greed and these are the results.
Pine Bluffs loss was chinas gain. When china builds new hs rail it’s because the US allowed giant corps to move there without consequence. They could import their products into the US tariff free. They didn’t move there because of taxes and regs. They did so for the super low wages. Dollars a day. Don’t pretend it’s because of democrats because that’s a massive lie. Blue states and countries generate Most of the nations GDP.
I feel like I am watching an archeological expedition on a lost civilization that disappeared without a trace. So many towns like this one. So much potential for an affordable community. But usually when you put murals up, no matter how beautiful or timely they are, it's like putting a grave marker on a freshly dug grave, crowing about achievements of the past.
@@doctolad I look at places like this and long to live there. I also love my 2010 Prius, even with the blown head gasket, it still runs well, knock wood.
@@CricketChris513agreed I don’t live there but thought about buying some land there and some places to fix up but don’t understand why people won’t invest
No matter how much money is give to refresh the downtown, it will never solve the problems. Money can not solve this problem. Until gangs are treated as terrorists in our country I do not know how this gets better.
My grandparents moved to Pine Bluff when my mother was 9. My uncle was born there. My grandparents owned Orvis Brewer's Auto Service. I spent a great deal of my childhood in Pine Bluff. It just breaks my heart to see this. It was such a lovely town.
Since the really good paying jobs in the city has drastically reduced. It’s sad to see the decline of this city. When I was little Pine Bluff was a great place to visit and shop. But now it’s an eye sore and crime ridden place….
When Pine Bluff was thriving it was a railroad town, which is OK, but two of its main employers were state prisons and a big chemical weapons depot north of town. Those aren't exactly attractive. The prisons are still there, I think the weapons depot has been shut down. You could see similar a lot of places in eastern AR. When farming got mechanized a lot of people had nothing to do.
Yes, the chemical weapons arsenal is gone. There was a period of time when a lot of people were employed in destroying the chemical weapons. They were incinerated in the late 90s up to the early 2000s.
It appears that the abandonment of downtown is so complete that even the homeless have moved on (I didn’t see any in the video). That’s pretty extreme. Resurrection of the city center at this point is very questionable. Glad they’re making an effort, but I wouldn’t much hope in it.
When the money leaves, this the results. The question would be, why did it leave? The Masonic lodge is closed as well showing the money is all gone. There isn't any logical way to revamp this town without a major income source. There lies the problem, and how would they keep it there even if it came?
Interesting. Where were the launch silos? I’ve lived in Arkansas all my life. Know where the titan two silos were. Where in southeast Arkansas were they located?
A lot of work has gone into making the downtown streets as appealing as possible. They did a really nice job, IMO. I hope the money and effort are not wasted. It looks very inviting - except for the actual businesses (or lack thereof).
My family moved to pine bluff when I was in the 4th grade. This was in the early 70s. Pine bluff back then was a sleepy but vibrant town. Downtown had activity; my mother used to shop at the New Maru and other shops down there. Both mom and dad worked in offices in downtown. Chief Pontiac was there, as was a TG&Y. Simmons bank and First Federal bank were down there, as was a couple of small theaters. The abandoned hotel was not in as bad a shape as I see it is now; it was used at Halloween as a haunted hotel. Jefferson square was hopping with an eckerds, an otasco, a blass store, and another TG&Y. The high school didn’t have barriers across the street and warning signs to keep out thugs. I enjoyed living there. It makes me sad that it has decayed so much since then.
I remember Pine Bluff as city where Eddie Sutton coached Arkansas to a win over UNC in the 80s. That's before the days of Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.
Supposedly the casino paid for those new sidewalks as part of the deal to let them open. The casino is supposed to help revitalize the city, by funding programs like that.
I work at said casino. Saracen Casino and Resort. As of right now the casino is trying their best I beleive, but it's in the middle of being renovated. A hotel and concert hall are being added, a whole new teo story gaming floor, renovations to ALL the restaurants as well as a parking garage too. Hopefully what you say is true because I'd love to see at least a little life given outside the casino to this little crap hole of a town.
Shout out to the Communist Clintons and the Grand Freemasonic witchcraft Lodge for selling out America! And deal making with the death cult Mafia to bring in more immorality and organized crime ought to cinch all deals.
@animalkings7489 ALL brick and mortar casinos have started to feel the pinch of online gambling since it became legal across the entire U.S. Even Las Vegas is starting to feel the hurt. I feel for the Quapaw Nation and the residents of Pine Bluff, but this is a really bad time to invest into physical gambling casinos.
Pop’s barber shop is honestly one of my favorite barber shops, it sucks what has happened to Pine Bluff and I don’t really see a recovery any time soon
For me as a non-american it is very interesting to see, that there are no people walking on the sidewalks at all. Even with the population decline, he said there are more then 40,000 people living in the city. Everything is empty.
I live here, and the reason for that being is that our downtown, which is where he’s currently at, has been reduced to a shell of its former self. There’s no stores, no restaurants, no tourist attractions, or anything of the nature to make people want to walk along the side walks. Its the least walkable city I’ve ever lived in
This is crazy because I have family who lives in Pine Bluff... and I've been numerous time and it does get progressively more desolate. Its a bit sad honestly. I hope they can bounce back!
Our family moved to Pine Bluff during WWII. We moved away in 1951 but continued to visit relatives in Pine Bluff until 1971. The bank building was there but has been remodeled. The shells of many fine old buildings remain, but there is nothing of the modern and vibrant place it was in the 40's and 50's. Imagine 7 movie theaters (good to see the old Community theatre is still standing). All the major chain stores plus many other stores and businesses lined Main Steet from 13th street all the way down to the Court House. Pine Bluff was a main hub for the Cotton Belt RR with shops also located there. My relatives moved away and regard Pine Bluff as a dangerous place, especially after dark. None of us who lived there and went to school in Pine Bluff during that era would ever have imagined it would be as it is now. I started school at Lakeside and then attended Gabe Meyer when we moved out to W24th. Hello to anyone who might have been a classmate then.
I've got land right by the college nearby (SE AR Tech I believe). Hopefully if downtown is played right, west is the next direction. My guess though, is 2050.
Lol. I was in pine bluff 1993 to 1995 doing a job at international paper and roofed for JW Johnson construction. It was…. um…. degrading back then. Note: witnessed a reporter get hit by a pickup truck when he was exiting a bar. I was the only one that ran out to help him (he died). Everyone else just watched from a distance. And I’m not even local. I’m from Minnesota. I never understood that.
Wow that is the biggest run down downtown I've ever seen. I have never been there. But in the 80's and 90's I found a bank that offered the lowest interest rate in the country for a credit card. I took it. It did me well for many years. Right now I have about 10 channel I subscribe to from rural Arkansas. People are moving to rural AR in droves. It is one of the cheapest place to buy land. But, even those people complain that there is not enough laws to abide them. It is a very poor state. Down there with Louisiana. Uneducated folks. Lots of Hunting. Thanks for sharing
A much larger town... StL, Mo... is getting close to this level. Over 60% of its commercial space now sits empty, and residents are fleeing like dogs with their tails on fire. For one reason, and it ain't the humidity, folks. Think Chicongo...
Excellent video. We often stay in Pine Bluff when we travel from Tulsa to Destin, FL. Usually just a Hampton or HI Express or something along the interstate. Never had time to venture into town. We've taken just about every possible route and this seems to be the most direct. I appreciate what you're doing with these videos. Unfortunately, the list of negative impacts resulting from NAFTA is far too long.
If that town gets any worse, either you’re eventually risking getting your car vandalized or those Hampton & Holliday Inn’s will downgrade to Ramada & Knight’s Inn until they ultimately get shut down by the city or county. In recent years, I went all over the country yet neglected the south. Whenever I get the time to start thoroughly exploring said Deep South, I realize soon enough that burned out Southern small towns & cities aren’t as laid back as plentiful within the Midwest. I found a decent price on a Hilton in this certain small town downtown in Western Georgia. Seconds to minutes later, I knew exactly why!
I’ve made a video on the entirety of Pine Bluff if y’all would like to see more. It is sad to see what has happened to it. Central Arkansas as a whole is seeing tremendous growth. Pine Bluff used to be one of the strongest cities in the state and now it’s just a shell
I must say, that town has some good bones! If I were part of a financial group, I would look to invest in some small businesses. That courthouse is gorgeous!
Walmart and the big box stores killed the down towns and now the internet with Amazon has finished off what little was left. People can sit at home and not have to go out to get what they want or need.
We lived in Pine Bluff for a time in the early 2000's. It had a mall (don't know the status now) with a hotel next door, a medical center, and a community center admittedly in the suburb of White Hall. WH is where all the people went- safer with better schools. I see the biggest problem as a reputation for crime, however true, and that keeps investment away. We now live up in Little Rock, which has invested in its own downtown much more in recent years.
First of all I would like to say wonderful video… I believe, Pine Bluff Arkansas, is ideal for heavy to light, small and medium to industrial scale manufacturing of all types and kinds. Arkansas is very business friendly and attracts top business talent all the time within the state…
Or logistics & distribution in particular… especially if/when I-69 is ever fully realized that direction; to which they partially built the spur for just south of town with eventual intent to link it to… Practically midway between DFW, Houston, and Atlanta, among other neighboring & respectable sized metropolitan areas… where else within the mid-Deep South would you want a cluster of warehouses primarily located to serve that entire corner of Mid-America?
I'm not trying to be mean, but that just isn't true. Arkansas has always been one of the worst states for business due to it's high corporate tax rate. It's a little bit better than it used to be, but not by much. In 2010, Arkansas was in all the Top10 worst states for business, usually ranked about 42 out of 50 states. In 2024, it is currently sitting around 38-40. Big business just isn't going to invest in Arkansas when there are plenty of other options.
15:52 a vintage 5 Cent store sign painted on the side of the building that looks like they build a building in front of the sign, and it is no longer there preserving the 5 Cent store sign.
I grew up near Pine Bluff; White Hall! After my schooling, my husband and I left, he was a Naval officer, we traveled to different duty stations for some years, finally ending up in Washington, DC! Then going into the corporate area of employment! I don’t recognize Pine Bluff at all; all of our friends have left Pine Bluff for different places in Arkansas! I literately cry driving through the town and once populated neighborhoods! The decline of Pine Bluff started in the 1960’s when the so-called “leaders” of the city held back on improving anything unless it benefited them in their pocketbooks! The small group of civic minded were out numbered and out moneyed by the “pillars” of town! Improvements were stymied and apathy took over! Professional groups started to abandon the town! Pine Bluff is a result of this apathy; the Saenger and the Pines Hotel were two of the leading structures of improvement interests, you can see their skeletons today! I agree that the times and lose of jobs played a great part in the decline; however, there are many towns in the South where civic pride and love of community won out! Pine Bluff lost out many years ago!
I work form home, I used to live in Maumelle AR then moved to Murfreesboro TN, many of the "Small Towns" outside of Nashville have development, IF job are brought back and given the fact of the trend of domestic migration in the US its possible, Pine Bluff look like it trying to prime itself to be an interesting place for future investment
Maybe someone can explain this to me. You see this in all of the lower 48. Town where all the jobs have moved overseas or to Texas (which might as well be a foreign country). Tons of seemingly abandoned or obsolete properties. Some arguably worthless. Some where the building is still salvageable. Yet.......the people that own these properties still want an arm and a leg for them. Asking ridiculous money for buildings in need of a full rehab, where they would have to be given away, to make any kind of rehab worthwhile? How are these property owners able to sit on these buildings for 20-30 years?
Because the municipality allows it. The Supreme Court ruled some years ago that cities and states could force an owner to sell the property if it weren’t generating tax revenue to their liking. If the owner refused the government could seize the property and sell it to a developer.
This is the dirty little secret of rural finance. County appraisers always over-appraise the value of a property so they can present the county as being prosperous. The owner of the building then uses that over-appraisal to get a much larger loan and/or cheaper interest rate than what they would get if it was correctly valued. Almost all of the empty, run-down buildings you see across the U.S. are actually listed as in good working condition on paper just for this nation-wide scam that has been going on for decades.
Maybe they could legalize street racing downtown. Might get some more activity down there. Based on those tire marks, looks like this is a thing already.
Right before Covid went down, I stretched my legs at their mall midway through a daytrip. It literally shut down months or even weeks after the fact. They still had a “We don’t give a ***k anymore clearance special” by Dillard’s and that was just about it. The mall was so down on its luck to where they literally had exterior kinda light fixtures inside of the mall primarily lighting up corridors because the regular lights were so dim & burned out… if the wiring wasn’t increasingly RUINED from prolonged neglect that such unmaintained structures of that kind face once the crowds no longer came. Not even remotely surprised the whole downtown core in this footage looked just as completely gone.
Lived and worked in Pine Bluff back in the early 2000's. Wasn't impressed with the place because there seemed to be a liquor store on every corner. Was there for only about a year and then moved on. When I did leave I took a picture of the job site through my rear view mirror of my truck. Guess my way is seeing Pine Bluff in the rear view mirror.
whoa....in 1929 my dad was born in pine bluff....last time i was there was 1983 to attend his mother's funeral....hitch hiked from austin, texas to get there....first time there so i went to the police station to get directions and they gave me a ride to where i was staying....surprisingly nice police department....they even knew my relatives there...have not been there again since then so when i saw this i was .....whoa....thanks for the memories...
1:17 I recognise that red house, it's the exact one beside my grandpa's old liquor store, he had to shut it down since his leg got amputated and he could barely run it anymore. By the way when I say beside I do mean directly next door, you can just barely see it for a second at the corner of your eye. I miss that place.
Lived in PB and played bass for a pro rock band in the 90s. Played at Sonny's and Fauquries. Visited PB today first time in 15years , drove around showed my kid the sites. Very , very sad
13:40 be nice if a restaurant came in next door and made that an outdoor patio. Something Italian, Greek, or otherwise Mediterranean would really fit the space
They don't want to eat those types of foods here, most likely. They are not of that culture. They might go out the city to eat things like that but they wouldn't want it in their neighborhood. And the second poster, shameful for calling those types of cuisine upscale when you can make nearly anything upscale. So why would you link "upscale" to those particular cuisines? 🤔. And bbq is low brow or something? There are plenty upscale bbq restaurants.
Love these kinds of videos! Awfully brave of you to walk on the sidewalks next to all those old deteriorating structures, seems like a major safety hazard...
Back in the 70's Pine Bluff was a nice place to live. I had lived there all my life until about 3 years ago. Its so sad how it has went down. But theirs nothing down there but the court house where all the renovation is. So sad to see how Pine Bluff is now.
I moved to Pine Bluff in 2016 to work in the Tyson chicken processing plant. My house was burglarized three times in two years. The last time, they even stole the food out of my refrigerator. I left very soon after.
Take a trip to Helena, AR (Now called Helena-West Helena and you will see conditions near or even worse than Pine Bluff. Trust me, I was born and raised in West Helena and still go there occasionally because a few friends and relatives still live there. The Hospital I was born in recently closed down and even churches have closed their doors...........Very sad, and so different than it was when I grew-up there.....
Gangs, corruption, and drugs killed Pine Bluff. A lot of the HBO film about gangs in the 90s, "Bangin In The Rock" was actually filmed in Pine Bluff. My family moved away in 94. That move saved my life. I was selling and using at the age of 13.
The group who funded that got millions and millions of dollars in funding over years to revitalize our city just for their best efforts is some new side walks, some new trees planted and a new library
I did some satellite work for an old pharmacy in downtown P.B. and it was quickly dying back then in the late 90s. The old pharmacist was a self-proclaimed witch doctor.
My grandma and her family is from a small town Warren, AR. You have to drive through Pine Bluff from the airport and it’s getting worse and worse. But most of the towns along the way are the same. Most people are moving to Little Rock and abandoning these towns. Sad to see what was once a thriving business districts. Now most people just go to Walmart.
I thought you were suppose to stop and yield when pedestrians were in or about to be in a crosswalk? Maybe not so in AR, since the police car rolls right on by at 10:57, even riding the double yellow 🤣.
I would love to see Pine Bluff be re-vitalized & become a sucess story. Arkansas is a wonderful state. I currently reside in Mossy Creek, AR and can attest to this fact.
I worked with a guy from Pine Bluff, he described it as "... Its not the end of the earth, but you can see it from there."
😂
9:07 Local news needs to hire this guy, he absolutely killed it 😂🤣
he’s got that golden voice
Look, cause i really though he was about to give us the scoop. 😂
Dude had the voice of a well-clipped reporter, but telling truths like a politician.
Like that other guy who got that kraft deal then disappeared again.
@@RandyJGJ I don't think M Mike wanted to share his time and make a good report, he gave us a clue to the UN/DOWNTOWN REDEVELOPMENT DISTRICT 14 years before.
I received my Bachelors from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB). In comparison to the size of the city the University is relatively large. UAPB is an historically black college or university HBCU. It’s actually the only place I’ve been robbed at gunpoint. A friend of mine had the same thing happen to him as well.
In my summation the city can be saved but it would take an unrealistic shift in mentality. It is a heavily black city (77%). A lot of people are voting against their best interest. The strong anti police mentality of the community along with anti-gentrification mentality deter large scale businesses. More businesses means more foot traffic. More foot traffic means money is flowing through the area. These things attract people. Strongly enforced laws stop the crime and businesses don’t have to worry as much about theft and violence.
Fixing the problems with Pine Bluff would be an extremely painful and expensive project. The influx in people would skyrocket the cost of living before people start complaining that the rent prices are too high and all of the residents are being bought out.
I hope for the best for PB, but I don’t see a world where all of the stars align for the success of the city. Corruption is too high and the people are too complacent.
💯
Bingo...blacks vote Democrats to their detriment
You got yo degrees from piney bluff?
Yo be screwed.
Gahanna.
@@kellymcclendon6601 it got the job done. It’s a reasonably priced school compared to these crazily priced Universities nowadays.
The problem with pine bluff is that it’s in a red state. Blue counties in the US contribute more than 70% of the nations gdp. Blue states are far richer than red states. So you think red states are business friendly? If that were the case then why are these pro business states so poor? It’s because no one wants to live in a place that pays poorly, provides minimal services, provides no healthcare, on and on. If pine bluff is mostly black I’d like to know what percentage of the government jobs including police are staffed with black residents. People in pine bluff aren’t against redevelopment. Pine bluff is empty because they’ve allowed giant chain stores to suck up all the money with their cheap made Chinese imports. Where was the government when they allowed union busting companies the right to import their shit back into the US without penalty.
I was born in Pine Bluff in 1961. It was a beautiful, bustling, thriving city up until the 70’s. As a kid I remember the Christmas parade going down Main Street. There was a J. C. Penny store on main street beside one of the railroad tracks. There was a huge magazine and newspaper stand on the side of that building. There was so much activity on Main Street then. It was safe and friendly. I sure miss that.
We moved out of town in the early 70’s but i came back and worked at Coca Cola there through the 80’s. I was a sign painter for Coke. We did some artwork on some buildings there and restored some very old Coke signs on the side of some of the old businesses. It was a great job. I miss that too. Thank you for the video.
I was born there in 57. Same as you. I remember a nice quiet town where a young person could enjoy their teen years. I wouldn't live tgere now for all the money God has.
I Grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. It breaks my heart so much to see it in this current state. SO many memories came back during your video. So MANY MEMORIES CAME BACK watching the video. Thank You! I have SO MANY friends and Wonderful childhood memories from there! We moved to Chicago in the summer of 1976. Because of that I got a lot of opportunities that otherwise I would have never got and door openings I never even knew about. My father is buried in Pine Bluff. I visited his grave the night before I left! He was A Good Man that I love and I miss still to this day. I went to Townsend Park and Then Dollarway which recently closed. I use to spend my summers over at the College AM&N then, now UAPB, in Chicago and in Bastrop, Louisiana with my father's baby sister and her husband, Aunt Juliza. I have never been back to Pine Bluff but have seen people I went to school with there here in Chicago over the years. I even worked with A next door neighbor childhood friend for some years in a Government Job.
On the video the museum looking place by the railroad tracks was the train station. Also Dr. Flowers office was there on the backside. You walked by the entrance. He delivered us at our births. I fished in Oakland Park, The Lake, the River and ponds. I swam in The Townsend Park Pool. I rode my bike from the North side were I lived, 1103 North Hazel to all over the West side with my friends and the back woods. Life was simpler, slower, laid back and so much fun. I remember when Downtown was bustling. I use Google Maps to "walk" around the town and I have been seeing how things have changed and SO many houses are just missing. As stated in the video the young people left because of the lack of jobs. Life goes on well for me, but Pine Bluff, Arkansas will ALWAYS have a very very very special place in my heart Forever, Always And A Day!!! Thank You for the Excellent Video. Live Long and Prosper...
I read what you wrote alot of passion. I am from Little Rock and have lived in the NYC area since the early 90s .I am 51 years old. I never went to Pine Bluff but always heard about UAPB and all the Cool things going on there in the 80s. It is sad to see places like this. Luckily Little Rock is experiencing the exact opposite so maybe Pine Bluff can make a comeback fingers crossed.
Pine Bluff has some really fine murals, too bad no one is there to see them 😔
Murals are a sign of deterioration. Nothing good about them at all . Murals are vandalism.
Most of those mural were already there when I was a kid in 80's. You should have seen the swinging wonderbread girl sign, it was removed in the early 90's and put in the museum to keep it preserved. I think it had been there for about century at least.
Reminds me of Paducah
I need to correct myself. it was the sunbeam bread girl. It was one of those things I used to look for everytime we drove by. Turns out it was taken down, restored and put back up. She might still be swinging
I loved going to look at the murals with my grandparents, but would cry for the first half hour. Pine Bluff has a mill there that smells *horrible*.
New York, Las Vegas have probably the most visited and most active downtowns. This place is practically abandoned. Shreveport's downtown looks reminiscent of this as well. But even Shreveport has activeness.
If you're referring to the Las Vegas strip, it isn't in Las Vegas.
@@Nacalina007Shreveport made a comeback of sorts. Before the casinos downtown Shreveport looked similar. During that time Texas St between First Methodist and the Long Allen bridge was in dire need of repaving.
I was in Shreveport a couple of years ago and the downtown was dead-even in the middle of the day. The same with Tulsa, OK. It was almost sad.
Fremont St. is downtown Las Vegas.
As someone that has lived in Arkansas near all my life i can tell you this is all to common. Most all of our citys and towns look just like Pine Bluff.
Not in Northwest Arkansas, but that's the reason I wouldn't live anywhere else in the state.
No.
I think the most erie thing is that music playing in the background and yet no people out anywhere. Very dystopian.
I was born here in 1960, grew up right beside Pine Bluff High School. It was a wonderful place to grow up, had a great childhood there, not sure what happened, heartbreaking
That one downtown street is one of the nicest looking ghost towns I've ever seen...looks like it was abandoned mere weeks ago. Sad.
I remember visiting downtown Pine Bluff in 2014 and 2015. Took a few photos of the area and the county courthouse. I was surprised at how a city of that size could have no traffic mid-day, so that I could walk right into the middle of one of the main roads and not worry about any cars or trucks. The convention center was very well-maintained, which tracks with your observation about government buildings. Based on your video, the city seems to have declined even more since. The 1980s and 1990s hurt a lot of our industrial cities and towns. I live in Fort Smith, which is just a couple hours west of Little Rock. We lost our Whirlpool plant around 2010, which employed a lot of people in our area. Having a university helped a lot, whether or not folks appreciated that. The graduates seemed to stay in the area. We're more of a medical school, medical billing, and arts space now. Being connected to the I-40 freeway and I-49 freeway helps. I hope folks who care about Pine Bluff find a way. It's a beautiful city.
The convention center while not run down hasnt been updated much since the 70s, and the attached motel is very much abandoned, unless you consider the bed bugs and roaches residents
I thought Texarkana had regressed but it's a boomtown compared to Pine Bluff. I read that Pine Bluff has lost so many people that it lost it's designation as a metropolitan area. I hope they can turn things around.
Provided the GQP dominated legislature and the Trunchbull Governor will take a look at reality and see why their state is on the decline.
@@christophercotton9048gop and no governor did this. The majority people living there started this years ago. They’ve mismanaged that town into the cesspool it is. Want to see who caused this? Go look in a mirror
I live in Arkansas. Most Arkansans avoid PB like the plague. Look at the bars on the windows. Those aren't decorative. It's a crime-ridden cesspool. You can play the chicken or the egg game by asking "Did people resort to crime due to lack of businesses and opportunity, or did the businesses leave because of the amount of crime?". I can assure you it's the latter.
Enjoy your video I was born in pinebluff And have lived on the West Coast for the past 20 years and thinking of moving back. You've got the first positive video i've seen. Your video shows more of a decay with time. Is not As bad as everybody shows
I'm from Pine Bluff but, I have not been home since 1994. This is crazy seeing this.
Unfortunately , once a city gets the reputation as being dangerous and crime-ridden , and the local population does nothing to counter those claims , it's pretty much over.
More like when white flight happens the city is over
@@Yntstax you are correct about that
@@Yntstax because white people are not going to live in a crime-ridden area and shouldn't have to.
@@Yntstaxnot true, most of the abandoned buildings you see in the downtown area were black owned. But I will say that white flight caused the uprise of a city that used to just be an extension of pine bluff to surpass it in all areas which is white hall. It’s only a few miles away and is so much better because businesses tucked tail and left pine bluff for it.
Thank you for this. I would have never seen Pine Bluff.
My late great-aunt was born in Pine Bluff in late 1921, she made it to early 2020.
Her mother took her to California in the late 1920s to start over after the father died. I wonder now if she ever went back…
That Walmart and other big box stores are what helped kill the downtown. A town isn’t “walkable” unless there are things to walk TO.
You need craft stores and shops which make things and provide services people want to buy. Then the cafes and pubs arrive.
I’d start attracting remote workers with fast internet infrastructure, that will get people into affordable housing.
And instead of incarcerating wayward youth, put them to work cleaning up.
Unfortunately it’ll never be anything as long people like Huckabee Sanders is in charge of the state.
Downtown was done way before WalMart - Gibsons, Magic Mart and TG&Y might have been impacted - The interstate linking Pine Buff to Little Rock probably had the most impact - seems like it was a 2 hour drive as a kid and also 630 in Little Rock opened up commerce for Little Rock - I remember Newstands, Soda Fountains, Music Stores, lots of clothing stores during the 70s. Seems like WalMart came in around 1980 and it was on 28th street
You ain’t missing nothing, honey!!
you're right, big box chains help to kill vibrant downtown and convert them into ghost towns
@@danu4658 Wal Mart was once attached to The Pines Mall in 1980. My wife was from Pine Bluff and we got married at her parent's house which was about 3 blocks from the Pines Mall. Wal Mart was there when we got married.
People in big cities complaining about cost of living but won’t move somewhere affordable like here. We just did and we love it! We don’t have to work ourselves to death anymore and you have everything you need in reasonable distance. If you’re struggling and complaining it’s your own choice. There’s plenty great places in “fly over country”
Agreed
My grandparents lived in Pine Bluff for forty years as my grandfather retired from the Cotton Belt RR, my father and uncle were raised there, and I was also born there in 1992, but left when I was four, and last lived there for one more year in third grade. My grandparents, uncle, and my own family relocated to Northwest Arkansas in the early 2000s, and of all my extended from both my grandfather and grandmother's sides all relocated with the exception of one second cousin. I spent half my childhood in South Arkansas and the rest of my life in Northwest Arkansas with the exception of a few years I lived in Asia.
Honestly, I don't think you could pay me enough to live in any part of the state outside the Northwest corner, because as great as NWA is, the rest of the state, outside of perhaps Conway, parts of Little Rock, and Jonesboro, is the reason Arkansas has such terrible stats. People say it's a good place "to be from," the implication being that you're no longer there. If NWA was its own state, we’d be inside the top five to ten for many important metrics, which should give you an idea of how poor the rest of the state performs in comparison.
Small world, my family lived in Pine Bluff from ‘96 when I was 5 until my dad got a job in NWA in like ‘02. I’ve lived on the East Coast and in Texas by myself for a bit, but always find my way back to NWA. It’s home.
@@sidriley1380 There are few places in the rest of the nation I would consider living. It’s always funny when people badmouth us having no idea what Northwest Arkansas is like. I wish it’d keep more people from moving in, but the secret’s out, and I suppose that’s the price we pay for doing well.
A lot of NWA natives don’t even understand how much worse off the rest of the state is in comparison. That said, glad you made it out of Pine Bluff too. It’s always interesting when you meet another person from there up here, because you each give each other a knowing look acknowledging what we gladly left behind.
My parents were both born and raised in Pine Bluff and my grandfather was the county treasurer for many years. Sad to see the city so run down and deserted now.
Come to Opelousas Louisiana our downtown is Abandoned here too…it really used to be poppin until the late 1980s
When I was a child, our family drove down to Pine Bluff from Wisconsin to visit family, back then it was very nice. I recall lots of pretty girls, this was back in the 70's, sad to see.
That’s about the time it started down hill.
Does anyone local to the area know how committed Simmons Bank is to staying in town? It sadly seems like it would be easy for them to move operations to Little Rock if there isn't anything keeping them in Pine Bluff.
I was making a road trip from Pensacola, FL to NW Arkansas about a year ago when I hit Pine Bluff around dinner time. I never heard of the town before and got off the freeway towards the downtown area with zero research hoping some local joint to get food. The town caught me at such a surprise that I just had to spend two hours driving/walking around to explore the area (I think I ended up eating at a Wendy's after no luck). I grew up in the rust belt, so I was used to living in declining factory towns, but I had never seen a place in such sad despair as PB. I certainly hope the best for those who stay and try to reverse the declining trend. Thanks for the video!
They've been there for years, so it seems as though if they wanted to move they would have done it years ago. I think a bigger concern would be as Simmons grows bigger, would they want to move to Dallas or somewhere else? It would seem as though being in PB would make it difficult to attract talent.
Simmons owns the tallest building in little rock idk what you are trying to say? Its office rental space that simmons owns so long as it has renters they will stay.
I will say this, I grew up in St. Louis, MO. About three blocks from where they had the riots over that youngster that was killed. Way back in the 1960 to 1970's alot of my school mates had come up from Pine Bluff, and a few from Mississippi. They all moved north to find work, and St. Louis which was home to McDonnell Douglas as well as many more business. I imagine a lot of folks just moved away.
Pinebluff looks great compared to Cairo Illinois
Excellent, thoughtful video, Mike. Without an influx of employers, which is very unlikely given our current economic and trade policies, perhaps the city can grow into an exurb of Little Rock. Perhaps completion of the interstates will spur that transition.
This is not due to national policy, it’s because local and state government have not attracted employers
This has a lot to do with national policy. We have a government that allows and almost encourages businesses to move operations overseas through onerous regulations and taxes. Soaring energy prices also further prohibits growth of any kind. This is what we get from corporate and government greed. It’s not only here, there’s places like this in almost every state. Small towns in the rust belt are dying. That’s the national policy of greed and these are the results.
Pine Bluffs loss was chinas gain. When china builds new hs rail it’s because the US allowed giant corps to move there without consequence. They could import their products into the US tariff free. They didn’t move there because of taxes and regs. They did so for the super low wages. Dollars a day. Don’t pretend it’s because of democrats because that’s a massive lie. Blue states and countries generate Most of the nations GDP.
I feel like I am watching an archeological expedition on a lost civilization that disappeared without a trace. So many towns like this one. So much potential for an affordable community. But usually when you put murals up, no matter how beautiful or timely they are, it's like putting a grave marker on a freshly dug grave, crowing about achievements of the past.
the only thing letting you know that there's people here are the few cars and occasional train
@@doctolad I look at places like this and long to live there. I also love my 2010 Prius, even with the blown head gasket, it still runs well, knock wood.
Hi I'm from pine bluff, believe it or not it's not just a lost civilization, remember that people still live here
@@CricketChris513agreed I don’t live there but thought about buying some land there and some places to fix up but don’t understand why people won’t invest
No matter how much money is give to refresh the downtown, it will never solve the problems.
Money can not solve this problem.
Until gangs are treated as terrorists in our country I do not know how this gets better.
My grandparents moved to Pine Bluff when my mother was 9. My uncle was born there. My grandparents owned Orvis Brewer's Auto Service. I spent a great deal of my childhood in Pine Bluff. It just breaks my heart to see this. It was such a lovely town.
Since the really good paying jobs in the city has drastically reduced. It’s sad to see the decline of this city. When I was little Pine Bluff was a great place to visit and shop. But now it’s an eye sore and crime ridden place….
When Pine Bluff was thriving it was a railroad town, which is OK, but two of its main employers were state prisons and a big chemical weapons depot north of town. Those aren't exactly attractive. The prisons are still there, I think the weapons depot has been shut down. You could see similar a lot of places in eastern AR. When farming got mechanized a lot of people had nothing to do.
Union Pacific (former Cotton Belt RR) has a huge terminal here, still very much in use for Chicago-California trains.
Yes, the chemical weapons arsenal is gone. There was a period of time when a lot of people were employed in destroying the chemical weapons. They were incinerated in the late 90s up to the early 2000s.
Yea and a lot of people got born with mechanized farming. Billions.
@@Eric-es3vp My God ! Hadn't heard of that. Must have been an explosion?
I live here and I love how absolutely deserted it is.
How is the crime? I’m tempted to buy one of those cheap houses but I’m afraid of the crime
It appears that the abandonment of downtown is so complete that even the homeless have moved on (I didn’t see any in the video). That’s pretty extreme. Resurrection of the city center at this point is very questionable. Glad they’re making an effort, but I wouldn’t much hope in it.
The man sounded real good he had me going. We need to put some meat behind what he is saying he would make a great spokesman
You are onto something with this video. There's something oddly unsettling about that downtown.
Imagine walking in a city and being completely alone... weird
Also please please please turn the gain up in your voice over mic, we can't hear a word you're saying without going deaf from the camera audio.
When the money leaves, this the results. The question would be, why did it leave? The Masonic lodge is closed as well showing the money is all gone. There isn't any logical way to revamp this town without a major income source. There lies the problem, and how would they keep it there even if it came?
You know, when the Feds use your area for nuke launch tubes and nerve gas storage, they don't much care what happens there. RIP, PB.
Interesting. Where were the launch silos? I’ve lived in Arkansas all my life. Know where the titan two silos were. Where in southeast Arkansas were they located?
A lot of work has gone into making the downtown streets as appealing as possible. They did a really nice job, IMO. I hope the money and effort are not wasted. It looks very inviting - except for the actual businesses (or lack thereof).
Nothing wasted making it look good could be a great baby boomer retirement area how close nearest hospital and drs always important
@ 5:22 Is that the former Pines Hotel? I lived here from 1970-75.
People: *not around for miles*
You: *still uses blinker every time*
Haha, true. Guess it's an embedded habit at this point.
It's good to do the right thing when no one is around
My family moved to pine bluff when I was in the 4th grade. This was in the early 70s. Pine bluff back then was a sleepy but vibrant town.
Downtown had activity; my mother used to shop at the New Maru and other shops down there. Both mom and dad worked in offices in downtown.
Chief Pontiac was there, as was a TG&Y. Simmons bank and First Federal bank were down there, as was a couple of small theaters. The abandoned hotel was not in as bad a shape as I see it is now; it was used at Halloween as a haunted hotel.
Jefferson square was hopping with an eckerds, an otasco, a blass store, and another TG&Y.
The high school didn’t have barriers across the street and warning signs to keep out thugs.
I enjoyed living there. It makes me sad that it has decayed so much since then.
Trying out some narration are you, Mike? Great job!
I remember Pine Bluff as city where Eddie Sutton coached Arkansas to a win over UNC in the 80s. That's before the days of Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.
Thats because Michael Jordan and the tar heels couldnt wait to leave that shithole.
Supposedly the casino paid for those new sidewalks as part of the deal to let them open. The casino is supposed to help revitalize the city, by funding programs like that.
How many small towns have been revitalized with a casino? None.
I work at said casino. Saracen Casino and Resort. As of right now the casino is trying their best I beleive, but it's in the middle of being renovated. A hotel and concert hall are being added, a whole new teo story gaming floor, renovations to ALL the restaurants as well as a parking garage too. Hopefully what you say is true because I'd love to see at least a little life given outside the casino to this little crap hole of a town.
Shout out to the Communist Clintons and the Grand Freemasonic witchcraft Lodge for selling out America! And deal making with the death cult Mafia to bring in more immorality and organized crime ought to cinch all deals.
@animalkings7489 ALL brick and mortar casinos have started to feel the pinch of online gambling since it became legal across the entire U.S. Even Las Vegas is starting to feel the hurt. I feel for the Quapaw Nation and the residents of Pine Bluff, but this is a really bad time to invest into physical gambling casinos.
Great video, so sad to see. A city is either booming or busting. Better to be on the right side of that.
You did a great job in this video we need you to come to Lake Charles Louisiana 🙂
Pop’s barber shop is honestly one of my favorite barber shops, it sucks what has happened to Pine Bluff and I don’t really see a recovery any time soon
Most downtowns were killed when malls were built and all the shopping moved out.
For me as a non-american it is very interesting to see, that there are no people walking on the sidewalks at all. Even with the population decline, he said there are more then 40,000 people living in the city. Everything is empty.
I live here, and the reason for that being is that our downtown, which is where he’s currently at, has been reduced to a shell of its former self. There’s no stores, no restaurants, no tourist attractions, or anything of the nature to make people want to walk along the side walks. Its the least walkable city I’ve ever lived in
This is crazy because I have family who lives in Pine Bluff... and I've been numerous time and it does get progressively more desolate. Its a bit sad honestly. I hope they can bounce back!
Our family moved to Pine Bluff during WWII. We moved away in 1951 but continued to visit relatives in Pine Bluff until 1971. The bank building was there but has been remodeled. The shells of many fine old buildings remain, but there is nothing of the modern and vibrant place it was in the 40's and 50's. Imagine 7 movie theaters (good to see the old Community theatre is still standing). All the major chain stores plus many other stores and businesses lined Main Steet from 13th street all the way down to the Court House. Pine Bluff was a main hub for the Cotton Belt RR with shops also located there. My relatives moved away and regard Pine Bluff as a dangerous place, especially after dark. None of us who lived there and went to school in Pine Bluff during that era would ever have imagined it would be as it is now. I started school at Lakeside and then attended Gabe Meyer when we moved out to W24th. Hello to anyone who might have been a classmate then.
If you ever come to Rochester NY, I’d like to give you suggestions for routes/sights - the good and the bad!
I am coming back in a few months to Rochester. If ıt is bad please just let me know Heather. I can go somewhere else to live as a retired American.
I've got land right by the college nearby (SE AR Tech I believe). Hopefully if downtown is played right, west is the next direction. My guess though, is 2050.
Lol. I was in pine bluff 1993 to 1995 doing a job at international paper and roofed for JW Johnson construction. It was…. um…. degrading back then. Note: witnessed a reporter get hit by a pickup truck when he was exiting a bar. I was the only one that ran out to help him (he died). Everyone else just watched from a distance. And I’m not even local. I’m from Minnesota. I never understood that.
Wow that is the biggest run down downtown I've ever seen. I have never been there. But in the 80's and 90's I found a bank that offered the lowest interest rate in the country for a credit card. I took it. It did me well for many years. Right now I have about 10 channel I subscribe to from rural Arkansas. People are moving to rural AR in droves. It is one of the cheapest place to buy land. But, even those people complain that there is not enough laws to abide them. It is a very poor state. Down there with Louisiana. Uneducated folks. Lots of Hunting.
Thanks for sharing
A much larger town... StL, Mo... is getting close to this level. Over 60% of its commercial space now sits empty, and residents are fleeing like dogs with their tails on fire.
For one reason, and it ain't the humidity, folks.
Think Chicongo...
Excellent video. We often stay in Pine Bluff when we travel from Tulsa to Destin, FL. Usually just a Hampton or HI Express or something along the interstate. Never had time to venture into town. We've taken just about every possible route and this seems to be the most direct. I appreciate what you're doing with these videos. Unfortunately, the list of negative impacts resulting from NAFTA is far too long.
If that town gets any worse, either you’re eventually risking getting your car vandalized or those Hampton & Holliday Inn’s will downgrade to Ramada & Knight’s Inn until they ultimately get shut down by the city or county.
In recent years, I went all over the country yet neglected the south. Whenever I get the time to start thoroughly exploring said Deep South, I realize soon enough that burned out Southern small towns & cities aren’t as laid back as plentiful within the Midwest. I found a decent price on a Hilton in this certain small town downtown in Western Georgia. Seconds to minutes later, I knew exactly why!
@@schwenda3727Was that in Albany, Georgia? As I know that city had issues with crime.
I’ve made a video on the entirety of Pine Bluff if y’all would like to see more. It is sad to see what has happened to it. Central Arkansas as a whole is seeing tremendous growth. Pine Bluff used to be one of the strongest cities in the state and now it’s just a shell
Shells can be great for a project lol
People are moving out of the free fire zone known as Little Rock. Sheridan and Grant county are getting them. What do you expect from a 13 town?
I must say, that town has some good bones! If I were part of a financial group, I would look to invest in some small businesses. That courthouse is gorgeous!
I was in a youth authority in Pine Bluff. Place is hell!
Walmart and the big box stores killed the down towns and now the internet with Amazon has finished off what little was left. People can sit at home and not have to go out to get what they want or need.
We lived in Pine Bluff for a time in the early 2000's. It had a mall (don't know the status now) with a hotel next door, a medical center, and a community center admittedly in the suburb of White Hall. WH is where all the people went- safer with better schools. I see the biggest problem as a reputation for crime, however true, and that keeps investment away. We now live up in Little Rock, which has invested in its own downtown much more in recent years.
I clinched that segment of AR 190, and that was when I realized how abandoned Pine Bluff was.
First of all I would like to say wonderful video… I believe, Pine Bluff Arkansas, is ideal for heavy to light, small and medium to industrial scale manufacturing of all types and kinds. Arkansas is very business friendly and attracts top business talent all the time within the state…
Or logistics & distribution in particular… especially if/when I-69 is ever fully realized that direction; to which they partially built the spur for just south of town with eventual intent to link it to…
Practically midway between DFW, Houston, and Atlanta, among other neighboring & respectable sized metropolitan areas… where else within the mid-Deep South would you want a cluster of warehouses primarily located to serve that entire corner of Mid-America?
I'm not trying to be mean, but that just isn't true. Arkansas has always been one of the worst states for business due to it's high corporate tax rate. It's a little bit better than it used to be, but not by much. In 2010, Arkansas was in all the Top10 worst states for business, usually ranked about 42 out of 50 states. In 2024, it is currently sitting around 38-40. Big business just isn't going to invest in Arkansas when there are plenty of other options.
15:52 a vintage 5 Cent store sign painted on the side of the building that looks like they build a building in front of the sign, and it is no longer there preserving the 5 Cent store sign.
Ghost sign. The sequence you describe happens a lot in older cities.
I grew up near Pine Bluff; White Hall! After my schooling, my husband and I left, he was a Naval officer, we traveled to different duty stations for some years, finally ending up in Washington, DC! Then going into the corporate area of employment!
I don’t recognize Pine Bluff at all; all of our friends have left Pine Bluff for different places in Arkansas!
I literately cry driving through the town and once populated neighborhoods! The decline of Pine Bluff started in the 1960’s when the so-called “leaders” of the city held back on improving anything unless it benefited them in their pocketbooks! The small group of civic minded were out numbered and out moneyed by the “pillars” of town!
Improvements were stymied and apathy took over! Professional groups started to abandon the town!
Pine Bluff is a result of this apathy; the Saenger and the Pines Hotel were two of the leading structures of improvement interests, you can see their skeletons today!
I agree that the times and lose of jobs played a great part in the decline; however, there are many towns in the South where civic pride and love of community won out!
Pine Bluff lost out many years ago!
I work form home, I used to live in Maumelle AR then moved to Murfreesboro TN, many of the "Small Towns" outside of Nashville have development, IF job are brought back and given the fact of the trend of domestic migration in the US its possible, Pine Bluff look like it trying to prime itself to be an interesting place for future investment
Maybe someone can explain this to me.
You see this in all of the lower 48. Town where all the jobs have moved overseas or to Texas (which might as well be a foreign country).
Tons of seemingly abandoned or obsolete properties. Some arguably worthless. Some where the building is still salvageable.
Yet.......the people that own these properties still want an arm and a leg for them. Asking ridiculous money for buildings in need of a full rehab, where they would have to be given away, to make any kind of rehab worthwhile?
How are these property owners able to sit on these buildings for 20-30 years?
Because the municipality allows it. The Supreme Court ruled some years ago that cities and states could force an owner to sell the property if it weren’t generating tax revenue to their liking. If the owner refused the government could seize the property and sell it to a developer.
This is the dirty little secret of rural finance. County appraisers always over-appraise the value of a property so they can present the county as being prosperous. The owner of the building then uses that over-appraisal to get a much larger loan and/or cheaper interest rate than what they would get if it was correctly valued. Almost all of the empty, run-down buildings you see across the U.S. are actually listed as in good working condition on paper just for this nation-wide scam that has been going on for decades.
Only been to pine bluff once for a street race years ago... Besides that one street and the paper mill, that place is fucked.
Maybe they could legalize street racing downtown. Might get some more activity down there. Based on those tire marks, looks like this is a thing already.
That guy was awesome. Nice easy going and relaxed voice. Surely he must have worked as anchorman/reporter before.
Right before Covid went down, I stretched my legs at their mall midway through a daytrip. It literally shut down months or even weeks after the fact.
They still had a “We don’t give a ***k anymore clearance special” by Dillard’s and that was just about it. The mall was so down on its luck to where they literally had exterior kinda light fixtures inside of the mall primarily lighting up corridors because the regular lights were so dim & burned out… if the wiring wasn’t increasingly RUINED from prolonged neglect that such unmaintained structures of that kind face once the crowds no longer came.
Not even remotely surprised the whole downtown core in this footage looked just as completely gone.
I can't believe that Dillard's Clearance Center is still open, even after The Pines Mall closed for good.
Video request. Albany, GA
Lived and worked in Pine Bluff back in the early 2000's. Wasn't impressed with the place because there seemed to be a liquor store on every corner. Was there for only about a year and then moved on. When I did leave I took a picture of the job site through my rear view mirror of my truck. Guess my way is seeing Pine Bluff in the rear view mirror.
whoa....in 1929 my dad was born in pine bluff....last time i was there was 1983 to attend his mother's funeral....hitch hiked from austin, texas to get there....first time there so i went to the police station to get directions and they gave me a ride to where i was staying....surprisingly nice police department....they even knew my relatives there...have not been there again since then so when i saw this i was .....whoa....thanks for the memories...
Hey Arkansas keep in mind your boy, Walmart, was a big part of this.
But, in down town Pine Bluff, there is always lots of free parking.
It has a big casino hotel !
Highest crime rate per capita .
I have not been to Pine Bluff in 30 years. Have not lost anything there.
Nicely done.. Thank you.
1:17 I recognise that red house, it's the exact one beside my grandpa's old liquor store, he had to shut it down since his leg got amputated and he could barely run it anymore. By the way when I say beside I do mean directly next door, you can just barely see it for a second at the corner of your eye. I miss that place.
Lived in PB and played bass for a pro rock band in the 90s. Played at Sonny's and Fauquries. Visited PB today first time in 15years , drove around showed my kid the sites. Very , very sad
13:40 be nice if a restaurant came in next door and made that an outdoor patio. Something Italian, Greek, or otherwise Mediterranean would really fit the space
@@Nacalina007 yeah true, I just got a Romanesque vibe from it, but a string light canopy would be really nice there
They don't want to eat those types of foods here, most likely. They are not of that culture. They might go out the city to eat things like that but they wouldn't want it in their neighborhood. And the second poster, shameful for calling those types of cuisine upscale when you can make nearly anything upscale. So why would you link "upscale" to those particular cuisines? 🤔. And bbq is low brow or something? There are plenty upscale bbq restaurants.
Nah they good!
That would look pretty awesome.
Love these kinds of videos! Awfully brave of you to walk on the sidewalks next to all those old deteriorating structures, seems like a major safety hazard...
Back in the 70's Pine Bluff was a nice place to live. I had lived there all my life until about 3 years ago. Its so sad how it has went down. But theirs nothing down there but the court house where all the renovation is. So sad to see how Pine Bluff is now.
I moved to Pine Bluff in 2016 to work in the Tyson chicken processing plant. My house was burglarized three times in two years. The last time, they even stole the food out of my refrigerator.
I left very soon after.
Take a trip to Helena, AR (Now called Helena-West Helena and you will see conditions near or even worse than Pine Bluff. Trust me, I was born and raised in West Helena and still go there occasionally because a few friends and relatives still live there. The Hospital I was born in recently closed down and even churches have closed their doors...........Very sad, and so different than it was when I grew-up there.....
In the 90’s, pine bluff had more homicide per capita, than New Orleans.
Gangs, corruption, and drugs killed Pine Bluff. A lot of the HBO film about gangs in the 90s, "Bangin In The Rock" was actually filmed in Pine Bluff. My family moved away in 94. That move saved my life. I was selling and using at the age of 13.
When I lived and worked in Pine Bluff everyone called it pine box or crime bluff. But it didn't look like that.
I went to UAPB for a year and thought Pine Bluff was dead then! Looking at this....its unbelievable.
That dome building is all over the world…Tartaria (old civilization). They are using war to destroy these buildings.
I bet there is major corruption by whoever did the side walk improvements.
💯
How do you figure that from the video?
The group who funded that got millions and millions of dollars in funding over years to revitalize our city just for their best efforts is some new side walks, some new trees planted and a new library
The convention center used to be beautiful. They had a lot of great concerts there back in the 70's.
Yes that was 50 years ago.
I did some satellite work for an old pharmacy in downtown P.B. and it was quickly dying back then in the late 90s. The old pharmacist was a self-proclaimed witch doctor.
My grandma and her family is from a small town Warren, AR. You have to drive through Pine Bluff from the airport and it’s getting worse and worse. But most of the towns along the way are the same. Most people are moving to Little Rock and abandoning these towns. Sad to see what was once a thriving business districts. Now most people just go to Walmart.
I thought you were suppose to stop and yield when pedestrians were in or about to be in a crosswalk? Maybe not so in AR, since the police car rolls right on by at 10:57, even riding the double yellow 🤣.
Investment goes where it is welcomed, where it is safe and where it thrives……. and that IS NOT “Crime Bluff”!!!
3:52 Check out the burn marks in the asphalt. No shortage of $$$$ for the homeboyz with their $75,000 SRTs.
I would love to see Pine Bluff be re-vitalized & become a sucess story. Arkansas is a wonderful state. I currently reside in Mossy Creek, AR and can attest to this fact.