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.
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4 UCW JULY 6 - 12, 2022 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Everyone knows I am a huge Chamber of Commerce advocate. So when our news- paper was invited to assist in moderating the June 30 Fayetteville Municipal Candi- date's Forum at the Crown Coliseum along with CityView TODAY and the Fayetteville Observer, I was delighted. e Chamber's Government Affairs Committee hosted the forum under the direction of Eva Hender- son, and Gary Rogers emceed the event. e event was well attended by all incum- bents and challengers seeking city council elected positions for all nine districts and the office of mayor. Only Deno Hondras, District 9 candidate, was absent due to an out-of-town commitment. e attendance of concerned citizens, estimated at 70, was disappointing considering that this was the final forum before early voting beings on July 7. I was excited to be a part of this informa- tional exercise. However, I was equally dis- appointed in the outcome once it was over. It left me with a hollow feeling about the future of our community. Without a doubt, the candidates readily identified and ac- knowledged the Fayetteville community's needs and its citizens' concerns. Home- lessness, the crime and homicide rates, the need for affordable housing, higher-paying jobs, the desire to attract more industry, improve our image and have a cleaner, more beautiful city. But collectively, and with only a few exceptions, after listening to the incumbents' positions, they con- firmed what I and many others suspected, they are primarily about maintaining their roles within their districts and have little knowledge or concern for the needs of the cumulative 210,000 citizens. is became evident when I reviewed my notes, which revealed this sentiment was a pattern among incumbents from the mayor on down. When Mayor Mitch Colvin was asked about Fayetteville's homeless encampments on Gillespie Street and the four city center encampments encompass- ing three blocks between Rowan and Hay streets, he instinctively punted the prob- lem over to the North Carolina Depart- ment of Transportation. Colvin stated that this city council had done more for home- lessness over the last term than in 25 years. I don't remember homelessness being an epidemic problem 25 years ago. Truth be known, the situation has only gotten worse under this administration. As I listened to the mayor and the nine incumbents responding to questions about homelessness, crime, overall com- munity safety, out-of-control traffic, lack of police accountability and the shameful amount of trash and litter in our city, it became apparent that their main priority was to safeguard and secure their posi- tions. ey radiated little concern, empa- thy or knowledge of the needs of the entire Fayetteville community. Evidence of this surfaced with the incumbent's adverse reactions to the viability of term limits. And again, concerning the pending refer- endum that will appear on the November ballot for changing Fayetteville's nine dis- trict/mayor structure. is structure only allows a resident two votes out of ten in determining Fayetteville's leadership com- pared to a possible four at large seats and five districts plus the mayor. is change would give all Fayetteville residents six out of ten votes in determining local leader- ship. Six votes versus two! One would think, "what's not to like about that?" I'll close by saying everyone needs to look to the future. Go to the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce website and view the Forum video. It says it all. Fayette- ville's future is now! Voting starts on July 7, and I will make this prediction hoping and praying it doesn't turn into a sad and disappointing epitaph. "Fayetteville will ultimately get the kind of leadership it deserves." ank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR Emily Sussman editor@upandcomingweekly.com ASSISTANT EDITOR Hannah Lee assistanteditor@upandcomingweekly. com ART DIRECTOR Courtney Sapp-Scott art@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Isaiah Jones graphics@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITER Alyson Hansen Ashley Shirley Jason Brady MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Margaret Dickson, Cynthia Ross, Dan Debruler, Kristy Kepley-Steward, David Bozeman COVER Design by Courtney Sapp-Scott and Isaiah Jones 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 JULY 07 FRI JULY 08 SAT JULY 09 SUN JULY 10 MON JULY 11 TUE JULY 12 90 72 89 72 89 72 90 72 93 73 93 73 Scattered Thunderstorms Scattered Thunderstorms Scattered Thunderstorms Scattered Thunderstorms AM Thunderstorms PM Thunderstorms Association of Community Publishers Chamber candidate's forum leaves hollow feeling by BILL BOWMAN Photo courtesy of Pexels. BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COMMENTS? BILL@upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200.