CityView Magazine

in the marketplace Growing Together as many cities. That's not entirely uncommon in a community like ours, where military families come and go from here to places all over the world. But none of my moves were military related, so most of my stops were in non-military towns. I bring this up to say that I have a unique perspective on popu- lations and how they impact the communities that support them. I BY BRANDON PLOTNICK have had the distinct privilege to live in all sorts of different places around the country. Through a combination of family moves and career ladder moves, I've lived in some 10 states and probably twice happens. It just makes sense: Make your community a place that people want to stay, and once they get there, that's exactly what they'll do. By no means am I saying that we've got a great handle on all those extra things. Anyone who drives out Ramsey every aſternoon, or down Skibo on a Saturday will tell you that our traffic situation isn't all that great. Personally, I don't find traf- fic to be a big issue here. An annoyance at times, maybe. But certainly not a problem. But it's all relative. I've sat in traffic on the 405 freeway in Los Angeles. Traffic here doesn't com- pare to that. But if you've lived in, say, Stedman most of your Sustained growth will help continue to make our area a wonderful place to live. estimates from the July 2011 year-over-year marking period and they showed a pretty big jump for our community. It wasn't a jump that matched the trend we showed in the 2000- 2010 census. In that decade, we weren't among the top 100 out of the 366 metro areas measured in terms of population growth. We were growing then, but a lot of other places were growing a lot faster. But something happened last year. Suddenly we shot up Recently, the U.S. Census Bureau released the population and for 2010-2011 we were one of the top 50 fastest growing metro areas. There are a variety of reasons we can attach to that. Of course the growth with BRAC is a huge factor, as we see the surrounding areas have grown fast as well. But it's not just about BRAC. When communities start to grow, a number of challenges life, of course the traffic here will seem terrible. My point is this, a growing community is a positive thing. It means people want to be there. It means your business community is offering them things they want and need. It means your government officials are striving to provide need- ed services. It means there are entertainment offerings and community festivals that provide civic pride. It means your community is doing a lot right. So make a point to thank the people who have moved into our area. Sustained growth will help continue to make our area a wonderful place to live. It's not perfect by any means, but it's home. And frankly, I want to spend my time in a hap- py home. CV are faced. The need to handle additional traffic, crime, pollu- tion, social services etc. all grow, too, and how the communi- ties respond to those needs is where sustained growth really 16 | May/June • 2012 ordinator for the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at 910.433.6766 or at bplot- nick@fayettevillencchamber.org. Brandon Plotnick is the Marketing & Communications Co-

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