insideyournwa.com

Let’s face it, if you lived in NWA during 2007 you probably had a good year. Our unemployment rate is low, crime is even lower, and we saw some great changes for our future.

I am not saying there weren’t bad times for people, nor that we don’t have some issues, but over all Northwest Arkansas is a pretty darn good place to live in this author’s opinion.

In 2007, a lot of things happened to affect NWA and in turn affect insideyournwa.com. Here is a short list of a few of my favorite things in 2007 and some of my not so favorite things.

Coffee: If anyone reading this has read more than one post or listened to one of our radio shows you know that coffee is a big part of our day here at insideyournwa.com. While if you haven’t all you have to do is drive 2 minutes in any direction in NWA and see the lines of cars at Starbucks to realize that coffee is in fact a big deal to people. This year the best coffee award goes to a staple favorite of mine. This coffee house staffs the best people that actually put time and care into your beverage. Don’t care if someone puts time into your beverage? Considering that I am paying $4 for my coffee I want someone who cares. They also have the freshest coffee because they roast their own beans. That’s right I am again talking about Kennedy Coffee on Hwy. 102 in Bentonville. The only downside is no drive thru but you cannot beat them when it comes to service, quality, or price.

Least favorite in coffee: this one is easy for me and it is served in two different brand of coffee houses that I frequent. Starbucks brand Verona is the worst coffee that I have ever had yet they still serve it by the gallons when that is the coffee they are brewing at Starbucks or Barnes and Noble cafe. People just don’t seem to care because by the time they drink it they have put in so much half and half and sugar you can no longer taste any coffee. Please people try your coffee black - just one sip - before you mess with it. Let’s not stand for Verona and get it taken off the shelves!

Best Burger: Ok guys this is a hands down no brainer. There is a new place out toward Centerton (hey don’t complain about the drive, trust me it is worth it) that has wonderful food. They have great homemade breakfast lunch and dinner. From roast beef and potatoes to fried green beans to burgers they have it all. Have you guessed it yet? J-Bo’s Cafe right on the main road on the way to Centerton (14th st.) is the winner of the 2007 best burger award for insideyournwa.com. Which burger you ask? The cheddar bomb burger of course. This burger is best described with the name of the burger - there is so much cheese on this burger it looks like a bomb went off and there is a cheese mushroom cloud. It comes with their cheddar fries and great service and is a bargain for under $8. I dare you to finish this meal! Visit their website here for more details - tell them insideyournwa.com sent you.

Best Delivery NWA:Here is a surprise for you - if you read the best burger award above you will be happy to know they will also deliver their food within a certain distance. J-Bo himself has delivered more than a dozen times to our office and the food is always hot fresh and fast. They take pride in their business and I can’t recommend them enough.

Worst Delivery:Normally I would just focus on the positives, but there is a severe lack of customer service in our society. I have to hit on this really quick and give you the short story about Jimmy John’s in Bentonville. Jimmy John’s slogan is “subs so fast you’ll freak” and is extremely accurate if you think that so fast could be anything. It would make me freak if it was so fast it took nearly two hours for my order to be delivered just down the street. Well that is what happened when I tried to get Jimmy John’s to deliver to me. The staff and management were very unapologetic to me on the phone and in fact the manager on duty hung up on me the second time I called to check on my order. So shame on you Jimmy John’s you make a good sandwich but you need to look at your delivery operation.

Best news for NWA:There are a ton of things that could go here and even saying this I am sure that I will get a ton of emails proclaiming what was better in the news this year but this is what I have picked. Rogers has finally stopped talking about needing new roads and started putting them in. You can see a ton of progress on the new North/South road that will connect Walnut to New Hope. This is going to be huge for elevating traffic on that stressed area. Now do I think they should have had more done in the Pinnacle area before allowing a million square feet shopping center open? Yes. At least they are working on constructing roads to help that problem. In NWA there is no secret that the roads are a problem - and now in one small part at least there is no secret about what we are trying to do.

Worst news for NWA:First off don’t forget there are many many bad things in the news as well and you could pick anything. Since insideyournwa.com is focused on the impact on real estate that the news has the worst news in 2007 for NWA is the large builders that threaten to put banks in a tight spot. We have all seen the empty houses and heard the doom and gloom on the news about the mortgage problems. I do not want to discount the trouble that some people are in due to predatory lending or borrowing above their means because everyone promised double digit returns. There are a lot of good people that are in trouble all across the country and NWA is no different. On a larger economic scale however in NWA we have had some extremely large builders that are now threatening to go under and that could cause a huge problem for area banks. There is a trickle down effect on our economy and there could be harsh ramifications if something isn’t done. I don’t believe that the problem is necessarily with empty houses because people need a place to live and a bunch of people move in our area every day. Some of the builders will have to rent or lease-purchase homes that would have sold before completion in 2003 but they can fill up. The larger problem is that the people with empty houses also have a bunch of empty land. The land is in every stage; raw, cleared, roads/utilities installed, and anywhere in between. The problem is there are over 1500 vacant lots on the market right now and that isn’t going anywhere with all the empty houses. Builders cannot get rid of the land because they bought it from a speculator who in turn bought it from another speculator and so forth until the land price is so overblown that they have to much money in dirt to liquidate. All of that being said I believe our area is strong and although we are not in best case scenario mode I personally know we have some of the best minds of our time working on solving this and I am confident that we will pull through.

NWA’s best kept secret:Craigslist.org. For those of you that haven’t tried it you should - it is a free classified ad system that is huge on the east cost where it originated. I have sold a few things on it in our area so I know some of you know about it. Go check it out it has a category for anything you could want to buy or sell and has job postings too. Best part it is all free to post or to buy.

About time award goes to Olive Garden - I haven’t been able to eat Olive Garden at a normal meal time since the one in Fayetteville opened because of how busy they are. Thank you for putting on in Rogers to get rid of some of the strain so I can go back to eating at lunch and dinner times.

Most bizarre story for NWA is easy for 2007, the story of the Centerton Mayor that lived under a fake name since 1980 because Satanists ran him off from his home. No I didn’t make that up. Here is the full story if you would like to read it.

There are many more wonderful things and not so wonderful things in NWA and I encourage you to leave your best/worst of in the comment sections.