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 NOVEMBER 18-24, 2015 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Is Fayetteville a sanctuary city for the homeless? It could happen. Actually, it is happening. Why? Because we live in a community where love, generosity and compassion far outpace vision and aggressive, competent and compelling leadership at both the city and county levels. Together, they are not even visionary enough to see the advantages of leveraging this pure and unfiltered outreach of Christian generosity for the betterment of the Fayetteville community. What a shame. A blind man could see why our community fails to mature socially, culturally and economically just by the way we communicate or fail to communicate among ourselves. Unfortunately, instead of seeking prosperity and solutions for our community, our city and county leadership are collectively more concerned with finding fault with each other and making excuses for their lackluster achievements. A perfect recent example is the case of Operation Inasmuch's dispute with St. Luke's AME Church on Hillsboro Street over building another 40-bed homeless shelter. A community shattered needlessly. Why? Basically, because building another homeless shelter is viewed by Hillsboro Street residents as creating another enabling haven for the homeless rather than a solution to a problem perceived to already be of epidemic proportion. This comes even after homelessness has been publicly proclaimed one of the biggest concerns and highest priorities of the community. Why? Because city and county elected officials cannot come together to address the actual problem and find feasible solutions and remedies. No, they can only sit back with their political heads in the sand while dozens upon dozens of homeless men, women, children, veterans, vagrants and exploiting panhandlers cripple local businesses, terrorize residents and tarnish Fayetteville's reputation and our q u a l i t y o f l i fe . A s t ro l l d ow n M a i d e n L a n e d e m o n s t ra te s h ow o u r e l e c te d o f f i c i a l s h ave a l l owe d o u r d ow n tow n H e a d q u a r te r s L i b ra r y to b e t ra n s fo r m e d to a q u a s i - h o m e l e s s h ave n a t t h e d e t r i m e n t o f t h e c o m m u n i t y. City and county elected officials must work together to find real solutions to problems our community faces like homelessness, crime, littering, economic development, utility expansion and, of course, the need for expanded park and recreation facilities. The solution? First, residents need to get active and vote. Second, they need to stop voting for the same old political hacks who say nothing and do nothing but serve as partisan placeholders. Third, demand that our elected officials state what their vision is for the community and how they plan to improve our city or county. Fourth, start holding our political leaders responsible. Speak out. Demand the facts, details and explanations of why things are or are not being accomplished. Fifth: Demand transparency. To be sure, no city or county resident has ever benefited from anything that goes on behind closed doors. The lack of harmony and leadership in dealing with the Hillsboro Street homeless shelter and our failure to come together with adequate solutions to our homeless problem indicates a serious lack of vision and leadership – not necessarily a good position for a community with aspirations of greatness! 2016 will be and can be a big year for Fayetteville and Cumberland County. However, vision and leadership are imperative for that success. And, that will be up to us. Thanks for reading Up & Coming Weekly. PUBLISHER'S PEN Fayetteville: Sanctuary City for the Homeless by BILL BOWMAN STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Janice Burton editor@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR Stephanie Crider stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com Senior Reporter Jeff Thompson jeff@upandcomingweekly.com ART DIRECTOR Sara Smith art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Martin, Pitt Dickey, Margaret Dickson, John Hood, Erinn Crider, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Heather Griffiths BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Karla Allen karla@upandcomingweekly.com SALES ADMINISTRATOR/ DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com ACCOUNTING Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com Beverly Pone beverlypone@upandcomingweekly.com Melissa Zalaznik melissa@upandcomingweekly.com ––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan Street 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 infor- mation on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes 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 per- son. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COMMENTS? BILL@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. A Fayetteville Police Officer checks on homeless residents in the community. Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Call 910-354-1679 for more info. November 19 Scattered Storms November 20 AM Showers November 21 Partly Cloudy November 22 Mostly Sunny November 23 Partly Cloudy November 24 Partly Cloudy THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY HIGH 74 HIGH 73 HIGH 71 HIGH 63 HIGH 59 HIGH 66 LOW 57 LOW 55 LOW 52 LOW 47 LOW 37 LOW 42