Up & Coming Weekly

October 24, 2017

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 OCTOBER 25 - 31, 2017 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 REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR Earl Vaughan Jr. GRAPHIC DESIGNER Elizabeth Long art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Martin, Pitt Dickey, Margaret Dickson, John Hood, Erinn Crider, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Paul Hall SALES ADMINISTRATOR/ DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Erica Walls erica@upandcomingweekly.com 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 wel- comes 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 Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Cover photograph courtesy of Bryan Meeks of Orbicular Media: https://orbicular.media/ Cover art/Various ads with art graphics designed with various elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. HIGH 72 LOW 49 HIGH 68 HIGH 73 HIGH 61 HIGH 60 HIGH 64 LOW 44 LOW 53 LOW 37 LOW 37 LOW 43 OCTOBER 26 OCTOBER 27 OCTOBER 28 OCTOBER 29 OCTOBER 30 OCTOBER 31 Sunny Sunny Partly Cloudy AM Clouds/PM Sun Sunny Sunny Break out the scarf and boots! JASON BRADY, Columnist. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcom- ingweekly.com. (910) 484-6200. Editor's note: With the election right around the corner, former city council candidate Jason Brady has some salient thoughts on the future of the greater Fayetteville area. Publisher Bill Bowman yields this space to Brady this week due to the relevance and timeliness of the topic. Since I'm no longer a candi- date for Fayettev ille Cit y Council, I can w rite about t his topic w it h- out break ing an agreement I had w it h Bill Bow man. We agreed t hat I not bring my candidacy into my column. So, today I want to write about my campaign issues that obviously didn't resonate with voters, but which I think are still relevant. I didn't pull them out of the air. Instead, months before I filed for office, I started a conversation with people. It was an informal conversation at first. I simply asked people what they disliked about living in Fayetteville. Let me emphasize again – it was an unscientif ic sur vey. I used social media, direct mail, hand-delivered sur veys and just pure conversations w it h people who would listen and answer. Heck, I even jotted notes on paper napk ins and paper place settings from t he Greek Pancake Break fast. The most telling thoughts people had about Fayetteville came from my first two questions: 1. What three things don't you like about living in Fayetteville? 2. What three things do you like about living in Fayetteville? I included other questions to gauge opinions about local government. I asked if they believed Fayetteville and Cumberland County spent tax dollars wisely. I asked for their take on the bond referendum for parks and recreation ame- nities, and I asked what they thought about spending $33 million on a baseball sta- dium and if downtown was the best place to build it. I received interesting answers and more fodder for future columns. But first, about the first two questions and answers – on which I based my cam- paign message. While I asked for three reasons some- one might dislike living in Fayetteville, the responses seemed to center mostly on four dislikes. They may have been worded differently, but the core thread about our city was obvious. They are listed below in no particular order: • Lack of professional-level jobs, the kind of full-time jobs that pay a sal- ary that can entice a family to live in Fayetteville. We have plenty of low-pay- ing, part-time jobs. We don't have jobs that keep young people in Fayetteville. The only young people coming back are those whose families own businesses and can employ them. • A trashy appearance, especially along the gateways into the city. It's not just trash, but the appearance of property. Despite efforts of people like Councilman Bobby Hurst, who spearheads the Fayetteville Beauti- ful efforts, we have more people who don't care how we present our community to visitors who could be potential employers. • Violent crime. People hear about gunfights in crowded park- ing lots or dead bodies f loating down the Cape Fear River. Violent crime has risen nationwide for two consecutive years, and Fayetteville is no exception. • Finally, people dislike the traf- fic. The responses about traffic var- ied. For some, it's those "damned" center medians the highway de- partment is putting on ever y street, making it nearly impossible to get where you're going. For others, it's the sheer volume of traffic coupled with crazy aggressive drivers who'll change a lane and cut you off like it's the right thing to do. The reasons people like living in Fayetteville, sadly, have nothing to do with our cit y. Rather, it's because of Fayetteville's position in relation to other amenities: family who live nearby, militar y-affiliated services and proxim- it y to the beach and mountains. Our soon-to-be elected council has a lot of work ahead to address these types of issues. I hope voters are smart enough to elect representatives who can work toward solutions and not for candidates based on superficial motives. What is important to Fayetteville citizens? by JASON BRADY The most telling thoughts people had about Fayetteville came from my first two questions: 1. What three things don't you like about living in Fayetteville? 2. What three things do you like about living in Fayetteville?

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