Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1061042
4 UCW DECEMBER 12-18, 2018 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM PUBLISHER'S PEN STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/ EDITOR Stephanie Crider editor@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly. com ASSISTANT EDITOR Leslie Pyo leslie@upandcomingweekly.com SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR Earl Vaughan Jr. EarlUCWSports@gmail.com REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Elizabeth Long art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Martin, Pitt Dickey, Margaret Dickson, John Hood, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner SALES ADMINISTRATOR/ DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com ––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan St. P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: (910) 484-6200 FAX: (910) 484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and information on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the pub- lisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. ©2018 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Cover photos credited to the following: Soldiers walking in a line in desert, a U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Alejandro Pena; Color photo at bottom credited to VisitFayettevilleNC.com, the rest are con- sidered public domain via wikimedia. Various ads with art graphics designed with elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. I had to laugh at all the crazy comments flooding social me- dia about wanting to silence the dozens of trains that pass through our commu- nity every day. Some people love it, some hate it, and some just don't pay any attention to the trains anymore. ey have gotten used to them. Ahhh! Urban living. I'm sure few of the people complaining one way or the other have ever lived in or spent the night on Wa- bash Avenue in down- town Chicago, Illinois. ere, you constantly hear the rattling and clanging of the Chicago Transit Authority's rapid transit system, the Chicago "L" (short for "elevated"). e "L" is Chicago's primary mode of urban transportation, and, with a top speed of 55 miles per hour, you can bet it makes a lot of noise starting and stopping. I grew up in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at a time when electric- powered street cars were the main mode of transportation. Talk about noise! To this day, I can still close my eyes and see the sparks flashing rain- bow colors off the electric powerlines. I can hear the clanging of the warning bells and the screeching of metal on metal as the street cars came to a not- so-subtle stop. It happened all day and all night. So, it's hard for me to take all those so- cial media comments seriously. Besides, who takes social media comments seri- ously anyway? Social media has a Wild West mentality where people can write anything regardless of the truth or facts. e mantra often seems to be, "Fire, ready, aim." at pretty much describes all the hullabaloo over District 2 Councilman Dan Culliton's suggestion that the city consider "quiet zones" downtown and get the good folks at the railroad to stop blasting those obnoxiously loud air horns as they come through our fair city. Sure, the blasts are for safety, but some- times it sounds like the engineers at CSX may be having a little too much fun at our eardrums' expense. People on both sides of this issue are opinionated. It would be nice if that much energy and passion could be directed toward annexing Shaw Heights and bringing consistency and much- needed services to the poor and under- served in that community. Well, the train horn issue will be around for a long time. It is too early to waste intellectual energy on an issue like "quiet zones." Besides, this issue will take care of itself in good time. After all, have you noticed no one has mentioned how much it will cost to comply with the state and federal regulations to convert our down- town railroad crossings to gated, railroad-safety- approved standards? My guess? Hundreds of thousands, if not mil- lions, of taxpayers' dol- lars. at's one sound no one is going to like hear- ing. en the controversy will be — you guessed it — who is going to pay for it! Stay tuned. is is going to get interesting. I would love for Fayetteville to have quiet zones, tranquil days and peaceful nights. But where will the money come from? Someone needs to do a cost-benefit analysis. If this is the way we go, fine. But, add it to our already long list of citywide priorities, and let's see where it fits in. Regardless, I really like the way Culli- ton thinks. He's attentive to what's going on in his district. He's respectful to his colleagues and constituents. He's out there doing his job — and that's pretty impressive. at's leadership and some- thing you can blast your horn about. Stay tuned. ank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly. Hear the whistles blow — again and again and again by BILL BOWMAN BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COMMENTS? BILL@upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. I would love for Fayetteville to have quiet zones, tranquil days and peaceful nights. But where will the money come from? Photo credit: www.metrolinktrains.com HIGH 58 LOW 36 HIGH 55 HIGH 58 LOW 48 HIGH 62 HIGH 55 HIGH 54 LOW 40 LOW 42 LOW 35 LOW 43 DECEMBER 17 DECEMBER 16 DECEMBER 14 DECEMBER 15 DECEMBER 18 Mostly Cloudy Sunny Partly Cloudy Rain Rain Sunny DECEMBER 13