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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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM MARCH 28-APRIL 3, 2018 UCW 5 Not your grandfather's North Carolina by MARGARET DICKSON OPINION MARGARET DICKSON, Columnist. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. As a Tar Heel born and bred, stories about what is going on in our state jump out to me. Two such stories recently caught my eye. ey reflect not specific events, what is sometimes called spot news, but trends that shape North Carolina's present and its future. Native North Carolinians of my generation remember a state of small towns where many of us lived our entire lives. Even Raleigh and Charlotte were not the metropolises they have become, sporting populations of 65,000 and 134,000 respectively in 1950. Tar Heel Andy Griffith romanticized and memorialized this North Carolina when he created Mayberry, where people were always kind and the right way always won the day. ose days, romanticized and otherwise, are long gone. e UNC Carolina Population Center released data earlier this month showing that 43 percent of North Carolina's popula- tion was born somewhere else, including 49 percent of adults. Says demographer Jessica Stanford of the center, "is growth reflects how attractive North Carolina is to migrants of all ages with a range of educational, employment and retire- ment opportunities." U.S. Census data show that North Carolina remains the ninth most populous state, with 10.3 million folks now calling North Carolina home. All counties, however, are not equal in the migration department. ree quarters of Currituck County's resi- dents came from elsewhere, probably because of its coastal location just south of Virginia Beach. Brunswick County, once a sleepy place in southeastern North Carolina just north of Myrtle Beach, now has a non-native popula- tion of 53 percent, including many retirees, and Union County, now a bedroom community for Charlotte, reports that 51 percent of its residents were born outside North Carolina. e military has brought thousands of non-na- tives to our community as well. e flip side of this urban change is North Caro- lina's rural areas, where people tend to stay put. Edgecombe County, in eastern North Carolina and whose large town is Rocky Mount, has the highest percentage of Tar Heels born and bred at 80 percent. Patterns are similar throughout rural North Caro- lina, both east and west. e demographic and economic divide between urban and rural areas of our state and nation is not new, but it is growing and is profoundly threatening to North Carolina as we have known it. If you sub- scribe to a "rising tide floats all boats" philosophy, then you can see how a booming knowledge-based economy concentrated in our urban hubs coupled with fading economic models of manu- facturing and small farming in our rural areas threaten our overall well-being. Rural communities face significant challenges in funding public education, handling high unemployment, improv- ing access to high quality medical care, securing access to high-speed internet connections, and creating transporta- tion options to get to more prosperous urban areas, among many. ese are not issues to be solved by local economic developers or creative educators who can make do without financial resources. ese are issues that require thoughtful and innovative state and federal government policies, not just robbing Peter's urban areas to pay Paul's rural bills. ey are also issues to consider and to put to candidates running for Con- gress and the North Carolina General Assembly in 2018. If they do not see the urban-rural divide as an issue and have some ideas to address it, then they probably should not be setting public policy and spending public money. State Sen. Erica Smith, who repre- sents eight rural counties in northeast- ern North Carolina, put it bluntly to e News and Observer. Smith said, "We are not going to be the thriving state that we can be until we close this gap." She is correct. e myth of Mayberry notwith- standing, life is composed of change, and North Carolina is in the throes of significant transition, both positive and negative. Not addressing it serves no one, neither Tar Heels born and bred nor people who chose to come here for what- ever reasons. Tar Heel Andy Griffith romanticized and memorialized small-town North Caro- lina when he created Mayberry. one year special $ 15 for UP & CoMING WEEKLY rEadErs oNLY you save 89% off Tv GuIDe MaGaZINe Get A GreAt DeAL from tV GuiDe mAGAzine start Your subscription online, By Mail or Call online: tvguidemagazine.com/newsoffer mail: complete order form below call: 1-800-365-1940 WHeN CaLLING use PRoMo: K6fNsWPZZ Every issue delivers inside scoop on your favorite shows Breaking news keeps you in the know Highlights help guide you to what's worth watching Your favorite stars take you behind the scenes 28 Pages of easy-to-use primetime listings GrEaT rEasoNs To sTarT YoUr sUBsCrIPTIoN