CityView Magazine

Publisher’s Note FIVE FOR FAYETTEVILLE A Correction The phone number for Blue Moon Cafe in our April/May issue should have read 860.4700. CityView strives for accuracy and apologizes for this error. person fairly new to Fayetteville recently asked me to name the most significant changes to the city in my lifetime. The first thing I thought of was the start of this magazine. But of course that was selfish on my part. In 2005, Fayetteville was the only North Carolina city of its size without a glossy lifestyle magazine. The first issue of CityView was published the next February and we have been working ever since to improve it for our readers and advertisers. We start this issue with a new look called “perfect” binding. We think it will look better sitting on your coffee table – let us know what you think. As CityView changes and grows, so does the city itself. This issue features our top 10 list of things every Fayettevillian should see or do. But I have a list of my own. When people ask me to name the most significant changes to Fayetteville in my lifetime, here’s what I tell them: nThe revitalization of downtown Fayetteville. The Airborne & Special Operation Museum, the new City Hall and police station and overall improvements on Hay Street were the catalysis and have changed the face of our city forever. nMethodist College. The liberal arts school, now Methodist University, began in the 1950s as a small college on the edge of town. It is now one of the finest educational institutions in the state, with a sprawling campus that reaches the edge of the Cape Fear River. nCross Creek Mall. It transformed western Fayetteville even as it changed the city’s downtown. Real estate magnate J.P. Riddle predicted the demise 14 | June/July • 2010 Marshall Waren, Publisher of downtown when the mall was first built, but what he did not live to see was its comeback. Some of the shops that left downtown for the mall corridor are now returning. It means that Fayetteville offers two distinctly different shopping and entertainment experiences. Riddle would be proud. nGolf course living. When I was growing up there were two golf courses at Fort Bragg and two courses in Fayetteville. Highland Country Club is the only one in the city still in operation. The other, Green Valley, is now a neighborhood off Ramsey Street. What has replaced them is growing exponentially – housing is exploding at King’s Grant in North Fayettevillle, Cypress Lakes and Gates Four in southern Cumberland County and Baywood in the town of Eastover. nAnd last but not least is the explosion of God’s people building churches in Fayetteville. When I was a kid there were the well-established churches downtown, but no mega churches back then. Snyder Memorial Baptist began as an offshoot of First Baptist downtown and has since grown by leaps and bounds, but others are even larger, including Village Baptist and Manna churches, reaching numbers in the thousands. There are many other changes, of course, and many more to come. Fayetteville will continue to grow and change, and with the Lord’s grace, we will be right here to tell you about it.CV

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