Up & Coming Weekly

4 UCW FEBRUARY 17 - 23, 2010 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM PUBLISHER Bill Bowman bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Janice Burton Joy Kirkpatrick editor@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITER Stephanie Crider stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Tabitha Kidd tabitha@upandcomingweekly.com Elexis Joseph-Lawson Lexi@upandcomingweekly.com Steve Rogers Steve@upandcomingweekly.com OFFICE MANAGER Suzy Patterson suzy@upandcomingweekly.com –––––––––––––– GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alicia Miller art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Soni Martin, D.G. Mar tin, Pitt Dick ey, Margaret Dickson, Bob Cogswell, John Hood, Shanessa Fenner, Erinn Crider, Shannen Dill, Karen Poppele, Takeema Hoffman, Renee Gibbs, Heather Griffi ths, Chanel Coleman –––––––––––– 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. Subscriptions can be purchased for $30 for six months or $60 for 12 months, delivered weekly by first class mail. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. STAFF Internet Directory ............................ 12 Calendar ........................................... 16 Concert Connection ........................ 22 TV ..................................................... 23 Movie Review .................................. 24 Movie Schedule ............................... 25 Free Wheelin' Feelin' ....................... 26 News of the Weird ........................... 27 Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 27 Classifieds ........................................ 28 Games .............................................. 30 Dining Guide .................................... 31 INSIDE The Making of the Multimodal Trans-Disaster by BILL BOWMAN BILL BOWMAN, Publisher COMMENTS? Bill@upandcomingweekly.com. PUBLISHER'S PEN Our community is haunted by bad decisions. When you live in the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community you have to wonder "will anyone ever come and rescue us from ourselves?" Sometimes I think our city and county must be situated directly over an ancient, sacred Indian burial ground and the disturbed and annoyed spirits of these faithful departed have cursed our community unmercifully with the inherent inability for making sound, reasonable and common sense decisions. No kidding! This can be the only explanation for the illogical behavior and thought processes of our civic and governmental leaders when it comes to making major decisions that affect our community. These poor decisions torment our very existence and diminish our sense of security, well being and the very quality of life we are trying to achieve. Could we really be cursed? What other explanation could there be as to why our community leaders cannot make good decisions when it comes to city/county growth and development? Here's just one recent example: Many people have asked me where I think a downtown parking deck should be located. My response: "I don't know" followed by, "... but, I can almost guarantee that it will be built in the wrong location." Why? Because, this seems to our destiny (or curse). How else can one explain the track record we have for mis-locating facilities? Let's name them: the Crown Coliseum, the county jail, the baseball stadium, the Chamber of Commerce's recent move to Haymount and the Festival Park Plaza (Lundy building that was built wrong side out). Of course we can't forget the ongoing saga over the proposed location of the Fayetteville Museum of Art complex. And, have we so soon forgotten Up & Coming Weekly and Dave Wilson's citizen-led revoke against the proposed Cumberland County Ethanol Plant E-85? A scam that nearly scarred this community for life but, ultimately was derailed by Wilson and a handful of concerned citizens who made themselves heard and ultimately saved this community a huge embarrassment and Cumberland County taxpayers $875,000. The parking deck decision is still pending, but concerned citizens foresee another very unhappy ending with the city council's decision to build the federally-funded Multimodal Transportation Center at the corner of Winslow and Franklin Streets downtown. Why? Downtown leaders (i.e. business owners) think the location is too small and does not allow for future growth, but mostly because thousands of dollars were paid to a Charlotte-based consulting fi rm to advise the city on this critical issue and when their location recommendations were not convenient to the council's they chose to ignore their fi ndings and recommendations. The city not only rejected their number one location choice by the Amtrak Station, but their number two site of Moore Street, as well. What do they know? It's not the fi rst time we have brought in experts only to ignore their fi ndings and recommendations. It's not the fi rst time we've spent thousands of dollars to seek their expert opinion. In fact, we are a city big on "studies" but small on action. Local residents are all too aware of this problem, but what do they know? This "know it all" attitude was refl ected by city leaders during a recent meeting of the Downtown Alliance when Assistant City Manager Kristoff Bauer stated "We (city staff) have identifi ed the site that works the best for the council." Doesn't that statement sort of sum it all up? I'm sure every one of the concerned citizens in attendance was pleased to hear that such a convenient and accommodating decision was made on their behalf. However, it is this kind of bias and unilateral decisions that continue to net us catastrophic and irreversible results. The old adage of "where there is smoke, there is fi re" may be true in this situation. The city needs to slow down, listen and maybe even heed the advice of the experts. Respecting the voices and opinions of the people they represent wouldn't hurt either. 24 24 7 / Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sponsored by Thursday February 18 High 49° Low 28° Sunny High 54° Low 36° Mostly Sunny High 48° Low 3° AM Clouds/ PM Sun High 51º Low 34º Showers Friday February 19 Saturday February 20 Sunday February 21 Monday February 22 Fayetteville Regional Airport www.fl yfay.com Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Call 910.354.1679 Call 910.354.1679 Tuesday February 23 High 51º Low 31º Showers High 52° Low 29° Sunny

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