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 AUGUST 31 - SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Well, last week was not a good week for me. Actually, the past thirty days have been pretty much of a disaster for the entire Fayetteville-Cumber- land County community. ey say bad news comes in three, well the recent actions, decisions and events add validity to that adage. First, the City Council fails to ap- prove the resolution to put the Vote Yes Fayetteville initiative before city voters. is issue is not dead yet, only severely wounded. It appears the courts will have to intervene. However, it's a near-perfect ex- ample of how our city leadership disregards its citizens and restricts voting participation and involvement in local government. Currently, citizens of Fayetteville are allowed only two votes in a city election where nine district represen- tatives and the mayor are elected. Ap- proval of the Vote Yes proposal would add four at-large districts giving every citizen six votes to decide the leader- ship in our municipality. Six votes versus two. What's not to like? On Aug. 22 it was voted down and rejected 6-4 by the mayor and five inexperienced council members who put fear and personal agendas ahead of the welfare of the citizens of Fayetteville. en secondly, came the stunning announcement from the Arts Coun- cil that there will be a rebranding of a successful Fayetteville tradition that brought over 25,000 citizens to historic downtown Fayetteville to celebrate the Christmas holidays and launch the holiday shopping season. A Dickens Holiday is no more. I strongly doubt that the idea to dis- mantle one of Fayetteville's most suc- cessful events was the came from the Arts Council board and staff. ose of us that worked the Dickens Holiday over the years know how much time and effort they put into making this community event diverse, accessible and inclusive. is was decades be- fore Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, became "a thing." It's laughable that any so-called "internal review" would or could find otherwise. And since the city of Fayetteville and Cumberland County provide funding to the Arts Council many know where the mandate origi- nated, and where the resistance has come from. It appears to be racially motivated. Fayetteville is a very diverse com- munity but not a racially divided community, as those in our city and county government would like to have us think. e leadership of city and county governments has mastered the game of playing the race card to amass personal power and prestige without regard for their constituents and without responsibility or concern for the consequences that result. is kind of behavior in government will continue until all citizens, Black and white, who love this community stand up and say "enough is enough!" is tendency to create divisiveness by encouraging and promoting divi- sion and making false accusations of non-inclusion will only continue to deteriorate the foundation of our community. As I write this editorial, my store- front has been trashed, people have defecated in my parking lot, and the unhoused are meandering through downtown streets heading to their encampments in our city center while officials ignore this blatant situation, and the citizens of the community sit by in darkness, silent and afraid to speak up for fear of being canceled. Many are leaving this community to live elsewhere. ose who remain, sitting on the sidelines, no longer get involved or contribute their time, talent and resources. Fayetteville and Cumberland County are in a bad place with a severe leadership crisis at all levels which takes me to the third hapless development last week. We lost one of the most intelligent, hard-working and dedicated CEOs since John Swope. Her departure should serve as a resounding wake- up call to anyone who loves and cares about this community. Public Works Commission executive Elaina Ball came here because she wanted to make a difference. She was aggres- sive, methodical and not afraid to take on the major challenges facing Fayetteville and Cumberland County. She steered us away from the Bern- hard Capital Partners ruse, took on the Texfi contamination situation that would have turned Fayetteville into a toxic wasteland in 20 years. In addition, she was dealing with the Chemours problem, working to bring clean water back to the Gray's Creek community. Anyone who is close to Ball or works with her knows that her biggest frustration came from local govern- ment processes moving slowly and with little sense of priority or sense of urgency. Communications between local agencies were often extremely poor if not nonexistent. Ball is a dedicated CEO who helps those that help themselves. She has moved on to bigger and better oppor- tunities and we are pleased that she has left her mark here and a commu- nity better off than it was. We wish her the best. In the meantime, it is my hope these situations over the past few weeks provide a wake-up call to our local leadership. e clock is ticking and our time is running out to make Fayetteville a vi- able community we can be proud of. ank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly. STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com MANAGING EDITOR April Olsen 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 WRITERS Alyson Hansen Ashley Shirley Kathleen Ramsey Jason Brady R. Elgin Zeiber Chayenne Burns CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Rep. Richard Hudson, Christy McNeil, Katrina WIlson, Cynthia Ross COVER Design by Courtney Sapp-Scott Cover photo courtesy of Pexels. MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@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. 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 Association of Community Publishers Bad news comes in three by BILL BOWMAN BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COMMENTS? BILL@upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. e annual Dickens Holiday will undergo a rebranding effort due to false accusations of non-inclusion. It is yet another example of personal agendas taking priority over what is good for the community as a whole.