Thursday’s thumbs

If you’re in NW Arkansas, hop on a bike

It’s just a couple of days from a three-day weekend and the year’s first Razorback football game. What’s not to be excited about? And what’s more exciting than Thursday thumbs! Here’s this week’s edition:

The bike-ification of Northwest Arkansas continues to pick up speed thanks to continued private investment in public capacity by the philanthropic arms of the descendants of Walmart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton. Springdale will install one-way protected bike lanes on Maple Street between South Pleasant and Holcomb streets, with the help of a grant from the Walton Family Foundation to the advocacy group Bike NWA. The effort is also advancing bike-friendly work in Fayetteville and Siloam Springs. The foundation, we learned Tuesday, also has chipped in $3.9 million for construction of 50 new miles of natural surface trails in the central part of Bella Vista. That will give the city about 100 miles of trails for mountain bikers, hikers and other nature lovers. Such commitments from the Waltons are changing the face of Northwest Arkansas by building on its strengths, among them its natural beauty and topography. A lack of facilities is no longer an excuse for Northwest Arkansas residents and visitors. Get out there and ride.

Maybe we’re jumping on the Arkansas Department of Transportation’s bandwagon with this down-turned digit, but the agency has a point: The constitutional amendment a group called Driving Arkansas Forward hopes to get on the November ballot would create four legal casinos in the state. The group has pushed the amendment as a way for Arkansas to get money for highways and roads. In a statement released Wednesday, however, the Department of Transportation noted the amendment doesn’t direct a cent to the agency responsible for the state’s highways. Instead, it would dedicate 55 percent of tax revenue from casino gambling to the state’s general fund. That fund is allocated at the direction of the state Legislature, which would be under no obligation to spend it on highways and roads. The DOT takes no position on the amendment, but says people need to be clear about what it does and does not do. It’s a fair concern. After all, recent years have shown us what to expect when state lawmakers are handed a big pot of money to spend. How many lawmakers are either in prison or on their way there because of the skulduggery involving the General Improvement Fund money they had access to? The DOT may not take a stand on this amendment, but we do: Vote against it if it manages to get on the ballot. If Arkansans want to adopt legalization of casinos, there are much better ways to do it than this.

It might be nice if members of the U.S. Congress had control over the day-to-day behaviors of the nation’s chief executive. The best possible move they could make, for President Trump’s good and that of the nation, if they had that power would be to kick the president off Twitter. Some Bella Vista folks at a recent chat session with U.S. Rep. Steve Womack of Rogers, who represents our Third Congressional District, wanted to know what Congress could do to rein Trump in, not so much in matters of policy as in his personal behavior choices. Womack accurately noted Congress is constitutionally designed as a check and balance on the president’s policies, not on his personal style. For that, we are grateful. Congress needs all the time it can get to accomplish real policy changes for the country. Devoting time to regulating this president’s less-than-desirable behaviors would overtax the institution’s capacity. Not to mention the fact there are quite a few members of Congress whose behaviors are, at least, questionable. “Govern thyself” seems to be good advice.

We and others applauded when the Arkansas House of Representatives in 2010 made the extraordinary decision to livestream (broadcast via the Internet) its sessions and committee meetings so that people all over Arkansas have access to at least their public discussions and deliberations. It’s been an outstanding tool for more fully understanding the issues facing Arkansas and the way our lawmakers go about deciphering potential solutions. But the state Senate has remained technologically in the dark, refusing to step into the 21st century world of communication and governance. The good news this week is the Senate has authorized two of its committees to look into what it would take to begin video streaming those important meetings. One member from Lonsdale (between Benton and Hot Springs) opposed the measure, claiming it would change the nature of the Senate. Maybe initially a few senators will mug for the video cameras, but if exposure to the voting public changes the nature of the Senate’s deliberations, it might suggest the nature of what has been happening down there needs to be changed. Mama always told us not to do something unless it could be shouted from the rooftops without bringing us shame. We’re hopeful state senators follow through and make government more accessible to the people who put all 35 state senators in that Capitol chamber down in Little Rock. It’s promising to see they’re taking a serious look at adding video streaming to give Arkansans another tool for involvement in the way their state is run.