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/1418713
4 UCW OCTOBER 13-19, 2021 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Janice Burton OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR April Olsen editor@upandcomingweekly.com PRODUCTION MANAGER/ GRAPHIC DESIGNER Dylan Hooker art@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITER Elaina J. Martin REPORTER Jeff Thompson MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Margaret Dickson, Pitt Dickey, D.G. Martin, John Hood, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Crissy Neville COVER Design by Dylan Hooker –––––––––––- 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 publisher. 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 Army Airfield, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. © 2020 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Various ads with art graphics designed with elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. PUBLISHER'S PEN 82 64 82 83 79 82 63 64 83 66 64 65 THU OCT 14 FRI OCT 15 SAT OCT 16 SUN OCT 17 MON OCT 18 TUE OCT 19 86 64 86 63 84 61 76 54 74 51 75 54 Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny Mostly Sunny Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Association of Community Publishers Publisher Bill Bowman's editorial that encourages voters to support the "Vote Yes" campaign advocating for the restructuring of the Fayetteville City Council on page 5 originally ran in the Oct. 6 issue. In the spirit of transparency, we run it along with this submission that opposes "Vote Yes" written by Jimmy Buxton, the President of the Fayetteville Chapter of the NAACP. We think voters should decide the way forward for Fayetteville. Our city is currently being flood- ed with a disingenuous campaign to change the structure of our City Council. You might have received a mailer asking for your signature in support of changing local elections from district-based to a hybrid model of district and at-large elec- tions. To recap, district elections mean that individuals within specific neighborhoods will elect someone to represent them downtown. At- large means that the whole city gets to vote for a candidate. Fayetteville does NOT need to change how we elect our local representatives. Let's not fall victim to the arguments presented by the Vote Yes Fayetteville committee. Let's talk about those arguments. To begin, there is no connec- tion whatsoever between crime in Fayetteville and the way we elect our municipal representatives. ere is crime in cities and towns regardless if they have district or at- large elections. is is a scare tactic to make you think that the city is out of control which is not. According to the 2020 Fayetteville Police Department's Annual Report, crime in our city has been in a five- year decline. is report was com- piled by a Police Department that received an increase in their budget this year. Citizens in Fayetteville can contact and share their opinions with ALL members of City Coun- cil. Our elected officials constantly discuss is- sues outside their own district. Changing our elections will not fix the issue of priority focus, it will worsen them. Running a politi- cal campaign at-large versus a district wide campaign requires BIG MONEY. is means that at-large represen- tatives will focus more on obtaining sufficient finances for an election that happens every two years rather than the needs of our city. Besides, who do you want to represent YOU? Someone that lives and understands your com- munity or someone who simply has the money to run and win? e financial interests of at-large candi- dates will overshadow the interests of marginalized communities. ere is a criticism about our district maps and how they are gerrymandered and confusing to voters. According to the Census Data and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, our city districts have to be redrawn anyway based on population changes. is issue can be fixed by showing up to the City Council's redistricting meet- ings and advocating for our com- munities. Changing the structure of our elections is not needed at all. e institution that creates the biggest confusion among voters is the N.C. General Assembly, not how we elect our local leaders. e purpose behind this push is to take away the power of commu- nities across our city. It is insult- ing to utilize the election of our two African-American mayors as a talking point. Marshall Pitts Jr. and Mitch Colvin have a combined leadership of 8 years in a city first settled in 1783. Do not sign the petition. Vote "NO" to "Vote Yes." 'Vote Yes' is an anti-voter initiative by JIMMY BUXTON JIMMY BUXTON, President, Fayetteville Chapter of the NAACP. Comments? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com 910- 484-6200.