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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THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET Calling N.C. Home by MARGARET DICKSON look like if we were a full 18.5 percent bigger than we were in 2000? The very thought of that for myself makes me want to burst into tears, but that is exactly what has happened to North Carolina, and for states, growth can be a very good thing. We North Carolinians did a terrifi c job fi lling out our U.S. Census forms earlier this year, giving our state one of the highest completion rates in the nation. Now we are reaping what we have sown, with initial census fi gures showing that over the last 10 years, 1.5 million more people are calling North Carolina home. That means that North Carolina is the fi fth fastest growing and the 10th largest state in our country, having recently edged out New Jersey. Our population is offi cially 9,535,483, give or take the babies born, new immigrants and dearly departeds since we sent in our forms. This is more than twice the number of Americans in our entire new nation according to the fi rst census in 1790 which recorded just under 4 million of us, although women, Native Americans and enslaved people were under-recorded. Says Ferrel Guillory, director of the Program on Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “It clearly puts North Carolina among the mega-states of America.” If your fi rst inclination is to worry about traffi c congestion, think again. More vehicles on our roads is certainly an issue, but it is more important in my mind that people want to live in North Carolina. This seems to me a positive development in sharp contrast to the middle decades of the 20th century when N.C.’s economy was not what it is now and when our state was below national growth averages. Numbers can be manipulated, of course, but if you divide 1.5 million people by 365 days divided again by 10 years, you fi nd that, on average, more than 400 new people arrive in our state every day. Some are born here, but if we follow the national fi gures, 40 percent of the newcomers come from other states and nations. They come here for many reasons, but the bottom line is that they would not come for any reason if North Carolina were not attractive economically and educationally, if our state’s economy and job opportunities were not better than other states and our education offerings more attractive. The fact that people are coming here means our economy is expanding, albeit slowly in this time of recession. I would hate for us to be in the position of some mid-western and WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM northeastern states whose growth is small and economies stagnant, or — heaven forbid! — of poor Michigan, the only state which actually lost population over the last decade. Another very signifi cant and positive aspect of our growth is that it increases our eligibility for about $400 billion in federal funding to states and local governments for education, health care, transportation and other vital services. It can also ramp up political clout as it did in 2000 when North Carolina gained an additional seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. We fell about 15,000 warm bodies short of gaining another Congressional seat in the current census. So, who the heck are all these new people? Some of them are young families doing what young families do — reproduce. Most of them, though, have chosen to come here from elsewhere for reasons as unique as the individuals. Some come for work. They are particularly drawn to our urban areas to work in technology jobs, education, the fi nancial sector, and once they arrive, they put down roots and begin families. Retirees have fl ocked to North Carolina in droves, particularly to our coastal and mountain communities, making us one of the top three retirement states. Sometimes their adult children follow, and assist their senior parents. In our community, we are seeing growth both from active-duty military families and the civilian employees who accompany them, as well as from the defense industry that wants proximity to an expanding Fort Bragg. Like you, I suspect, I have met recently-arrived North Carolinians who simply took a shine to our state and wanted to live here for reasons as basic as a cost of living lower than wherever they were. Many people come from other nations for work or for education. The U.S. Census Bureau does not track the legal status of immigrants. As a Tar Heel born and a Tar Heel bred who will someday be a Tar Heel dead — though not soon, I hope, I say welcome to all 1.5 million people who have joined us since 2000 and a prosperous and happy New Year to all 9.5 million of us. MARGARET DICKSON,Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? editor@upandcomingweekly.com DEC. 29, 2010 - JAN. 4, 2011 UCW 5 THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET What do you think you and I might