re: Is Fayetteville, AR a good place to live?

I grew up in Fayetteville and agree with most of the posts here. I moved back 27 years ago and after looking at all factors (housing, schools, access to my work) chose to live in Springdale. NWA has grown a lot in those years.

Each part has its own flavor. Fayetteville is a somewhat liberal University town, decent nightlife, decent restaurants, good arts center, excellent schools.

Bentonville is the home of WalMart, there is new money in this area, great museum, decent restaurants, OK nightlife, excellent schools, good music venue.

Rogers and Springdale are more "workers" towns but both have great housing areas, excellent schools and again decent restaurants. Neither has much night life but there are places to go. A large influx of Hispanics have changed both of these towns but if you want great Mexican food, you come here. As to ghettos, none exist though all four have low rent areas.

Crime is low for the population, access to lakes and rivers is real close. There is a bike trail that runs through all four towns, there are great walking trails in town and excellent hiking within short drives.

Hunting is pretty good, depending on what you want to shoot. Fishing is pretty good for fresh water, bass, stripers, crappie, bream and some great trout waters. Basically you have all the things you'd want in a big city and can still be in the middle of nowhere within 10 minutes. It is a great place to raise kids.

Weather is not as bad as some people say, it does have 4 seasons and they don't handle snow well. Fortunately they don't get a lot. More freezing rain and ice.

My only real complaint is the food scene is kinda boring with limited access to good seafood. Festivals in this area are kinda boring though they do have some killer arts and crafts fairs.

All in all, NWA is a pretty darn good place to live, lots of economic opportunity. Unfortunately there are Hog fans up here but you get used to their inane bluster after a while. Most are good people but you will catch some grief for wearing your P&G attire.

NWA is too far from the coast. Hard to live somewhere that is over 10 hour drive from beach.

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For those of you that have lived in NWA

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I travel to NWA for work and I am always excited when I get to take that trip. The scenery is beautiful and the people are a lot more progressive business-wise vs Louisiana. Every time I make the trip I make sure to check out a new hiking trail. I've never been disappointed. It's truly a beautiful place to live.

depends on time of year. After heavy rains they can cloud up from the streams and sediment from flooded tributaries. Then when the lake turns over it'll cloud back up for a bit.

They're not Tahoe like since most of that water is snowmelt that gradually fills the lake. Our lakes here go up and down w/ the rainfall.

Those look great. Definitely looks like there's enough outdoors to maybe do a summer vacation there one year.

I trust that the camping is good? California has the most amazing terrain and climate for camping but all the laws and mall cop style camp rangers zap some of the old school fun out of it.

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I trust that the camping is good?

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Some nice spots to camp, but it doesn't get that cool at night mid summer.

The water, up by the Beaver Dam, is clear as you will find in the region. I fish up there, for smallmouth, all the time.