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Old 09-15-2016, 06:43 AM
 
512 posts, read 1,630,590 times
Reputation: 222

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Hello everyone. So I've perused some of the Fayetteville forums and wow let me just say that I've never heard so many negative things about a city before. I was stationed in Dover AFB it wasn't the greatest, but it wasn't the worst. So I've come to ask those who would like to have a mature conversation on what would need to change in Fayetteville to become more desirable. North Carolina is a rapidly growing state. There are a lot of cities that are getting attention outside of the obvious Charlotte, Triangle and Triad areas.


Before I go further, let me provide a little background on me. I'm no stranger to the area. My family is from the Deep Creek road area. I hear you snickering and praying for my folks, it might be a little rough in that area, but it's always felt like home (I don't know if that's a good thing). I've spent plenty of summers being shipped down to my Aunt's house being a kid (originally from DC). I enlisted into the Air Force from there and pretty much know the city like the back of my hand. It's felt more home than where I'm from.


Pros


1. Cheap
2. Friendly people (locals)
3. Slow pace (I'm 35 with kids) it's not a super congested city compared to DC
4. Hmmmm...... Not sure what else


Cons


1. Crime
2. A lot of run down neighborhoods (not Detroit or Baltimore level)
3. Mind set of some of the people
4. Not enough pride for the city


Fayetteville overall is not a bad area. It's not as bad as some make it out to be, however I'm not such a homer, that I cant see the negatives. I realize I have a personal connection to the city so maybe my view is a bit skewed however it's not a bad place to live. So since I've wrote enough and most people's attention span is short I'll stop here.
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Old 09-15-2016, 08:23 AM
 
Location: The City of Medicine
1,422 posts, read 1,464,675 times
Reputation: 1333
Quote:
Originally Posted by Renownedtheworldaround View Post
Fayetteville is what happens when you take Jacksonville away from the coast and double the size of the city. If you're not working for the Military, you might as well be working retail.

IMO Part of the problem is that cities like Fayetteville and Jacksonville have relied so much on their military bases, that they failed to adequately diversify their job base/economy to include more stable sectors of employment. What I'm saying is anecdotal, but when there aren't many good paying jobs available, it gives people more opportunities to commit crimes.
What are we doing to attract young professionals and the creative class? What can we do to encourage them to try us out as a city

How can we make sure most of our inhabitants are gainfully employed and have good paying jobs?

How can we use our existing resources and allocate our future resources to ensuring that our citizens have a good QOL

I believe Fayetteville should be asking questions like this, and even if it isn't the case, they still should find the right questions to ask
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Old 09-15-2016, 10:41 AM
 
512 posts, read 1,630,590 times
Reputation: 222
Quote:
Originally Posted by Renownedtheworldaround View Post
What are we doing to attract young professionals and the creative class? What can we do to encourage them to try us out as a city

How can we make sure most of our inhabitants are gainfully employed and have good paying jobs?

How can we use our existing resources and allocate our future resources to ensuring that our citizens have a good QOL

I believe Fayetteville should be asking questions like this, and even if it isn't the case, they still should find the right questions to ask



Very good questions? I know the city has created development plans to try and attack some of these very same questions. Just encase folks are wondering what the city is trying to do City of Fayetteville, North Carolina Website : Redevelopment Projects


Other questions I would ask is how well are we utilizing the talent pool from the colleges and universities in the area such as Fayetteville Tech, Fayetteville State University and Methodist Univ. I would however would like to focus on attracting jobs to the area outside of military. Lets face it to land a high paying job in the area you have to have an in demand skillset, training or a clearance (Fort Bragg).
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Old 09-15-2016, 11:02 AM
 
Location: Chapelboro
12,798 posts, read 16,228,596 times
Reputation: 11220
I think one of the problems with Fayetteville is that it has tied itself almost exclusively to the military and the folks who aren't military have jobs that depend on the military (restaurants, retail, etc). There are a few blue collar jobs still in Fayetteville, but very few white collar jobs beyond the usual healthcare and law. There's not a tech industry or a financial industry.

I grew up in Fayetteville (Terry Sanford, go Bulldogs) and most of the really smart kids I went to school with left. The ones who stayed had jobs in healthcare or teaching. I can look at my facebook friends and most of the people who were the top of the class are gone. I know folks from my year who are in Raleigh, Wilmington, Apex, Pittsboro, Chapel Hill, Southern Pines, Florida, Kansas City, New Bern, Charlotte, Greenville SC, Winston-Salem, California, pretty much all over.

Education and job opportunities for well educated folks is the key. The high schools in Cumberland County aren't that bad. A kid can get a decent education there, but what after that? Methodist is trying, but it's not there really. Fayetteville State is not really a great HBCU like NC Central or A&T. The universities in the area are not the caliber that you have in the Triangle, of course, but they're also not up to snuff in comparison to the Triad, Charlotte, Wilmington, Boone, Asheville, Greenville — pretty much anywhere else of size in the state. Elon U in Alamance County(!) was just named one of the top private regional universities in the country.

I think Renowned hit on it — what can Fayetteville do to attract young professionals and creatives or retain the best and brightest who grow up there? Fayetteville can always attract some healthcare professionals, because everywhere needs healthcare, but frankly healthcare in Fayetteville is not up to snuff, either. I'd much rather have a relative in Moore Regional hospital than in Cape Fear Valley.

What can the city do to attract other professional industries beyond healthcare and the military? Well, one thing is has going for it is it's relatively inexpensive. Maybe capitalize on that and offer attractive space for business incubators. I think developing other amenities like more attractions along the river or something could help, too. If you can attract the young professionals with cheap space you've got to keep them and you've got Raleigh 1.5 hrs away with a lot of fun stuff going on and Wilmington 1.5 hrs away with the beach and all that fun stuff. A growing company needs to hire good people and part of that is making a pitch for not only the company being an exciting place to work, but also the area a good place to live with stuff to do.

One other thing that Fayetteville has going for it, good or bad, is it is attractive to retired military folks. These are the folks who set up businesses like the indoor skydiving place in Raeford. I think it's great to court these folks — a lot of them retire at 40 after 20 years in the military, but I would also like to see Fayetteville not only cater to military and retired military. It could be a lot more than pawn shops and gun ranges, y'know?
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Old 09-15-2016, 11:03 AM
 
Location: Chapelboro
12,798 posts, read 16,228,596 times
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Cross-posted with you jayman, but we're thinking along the same lines.
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Old 09-15-2016, 11:40 AM
 
512 posts, read 1,630,590 times
Reputation: 222
Quote:
Originally Posted by poppydog View Post
I think one of the problems with Fayetteville is that it has tied itself almost exclusively to the military and the folks who aren't military have jobs that depend on the military (restaurants, retail, etc). There are a few blue collar jobs still in Fayetteville, but very few white collar jobs beyond the usual healthcare and law. There's not a tech industry or a financial industry.

I grew up in Fayetteville (Terry Sanford, go Bulldogs) and most of the really smart kids I went to school with left. The ones who stayed had jobs in healthcare or teaching. I can look at my facebook friends and most of the people who were the top of the class are gone. I know folks from my year who are in Raleigh, Wilmington, Apex, Pittsboro, Chapel Hill, Southern Pines, Florida, Kansas City, New Bern, Charlotte, Greenville SC, Winston-Salem, California, pretty much all over.

Education and job opportunities for well educated folks is the key. The high schools in Cumberland County aren't that bad. A kid can get a decent education there, but what after that? Methodist is trying, but it's not there really. Fayetteville State is not really a great HBCU like NC Central or A&T. The universities in the area are not the caliber that you have in the Triangle, of course, but they're also not up to snuff in comparison to the Triad, Charlotte, Wilmington, Boone, Asheville, Greenville — pretty much anywhere else of size in the state. Elon U in Alamance County(!) was just named one of the top private regional universities in the country.

I think Renowned hit on it — what can Fayetteville do to attract young professionals and creatives or retain the best and brightest who grow up there? Fayetteville can always attract some healthcare professionals, because everywhere needs healthcare, but frankly healthcare in Fayetteville is not up to snuff, either. I'd much rather have a relative in Moore Regional hospital than in Cape Fear Valley.

What can the city do to attract other professional industries beyond healthcare and the military? Well, one thing is has going for it is it's relatively inexpensive. Maybe capitalize on that and offer attractive space for business incubators. I think developing other amenities like more attractions along the river or something could help, too. If you can attract the young professionals with cheap space you've got to keep them and you've got Raleigh 1.5 hrs away with a lot of fun stuff going on and Wilmington 1.5 hrs away with the beach and all that fun stuff. A growing company needs to hire good people and part of that is making a pitch for not only the company being an exciting place to work, but also the area a good place to live with stuff to do.

One other thing that Fayetteville has going for it, good or bad, is it is attractive to retired military folks. These are the folks who set up businesses like the indoor skydiving place in Raeford. I think it's great to court these folks — a lot of them retire at 40 after 20 years in the military, but I would also like to see Fayetteville not only cater to military and retired military. It could be a lot more than pawn shops and gun ranges, y'know?



Again excellent post. What do you attribute to the stagnant growth thus far? Is this the fault of leadership, the citizens or both? One of the major hurdles I see with attracting jobs is what was mentioned before the proximity to Raleigh and it's strong academic offering. I wonder how Greensboro and Winston-Salem manage to overcome those obstacles, especially being sandwiched between Charlotte and Raleigh, not to mention Greensboro and Winston-Salem competing against each other.
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Old 09-15-2016, 11:47 AM
 
2,841 posts, read 2,954,619 times
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I'm from Bladen County (White Lake), my mother worked in fayetville 20 yrs. The city was very much visited by us from that way.

in my opinion if you haven't noticed young professionals and creatives are typically (liberal) and liberals are (typically) very "monkey see, monkey do" so unfortunately fayetville is on the wrong side of the culture wars.

Until it reaches a critical mass of liberals to tell each other life there is good it wont start to collect a cache.

Honestly based on the military and support components alone fayetville should be punching similar to greensboro/winston but in my opinion people not familiar with fayetville pound its reputation in the ground

But honestly I do find people in fayetville have a gruffer patina than other cities and no idea why
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Old 09-15-2016, 11:49 AM
 
Location: Chapelboro
12,798 posts, read 16,228,596 times
Reputation: 11220
Well, I think the main difference there is Greensboro and W-S had better higher education and a lot of diversified industry and Fayetteville pretty much put all its eggs in the military basket. The military is such an overarching presence in Fayetteville.

It might be better to look at some other military towns that are successful at being MORE than a military town and use that as a guide. I think they'll have to look beyond NC, though, because Jacksonville is no great shakes either and it's right at the beach.
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Old 09-15-2016, 11:51 AM
 
Location: Chapelboro
12,798 posts, read 16,228,596 times
Reputation: 11220
Hey_guy, I think politics do play into it a little bit, but it's more than that. I've gotta run, but just off the top of my head I think Fort Collins CO is an attractive military town and I believe it is pretty conservative. I'd have to do a little research to verify that, but that's my impression.

Fayetteville doesn't have the Rocky Mountains or the beach for natural beauty, but they do have the Cape Fear River and could do more with that like Wilmington has done.

Right now the military is THE engine that drives Fayetteville and while they gotta feed that to survive, they really need to diversify, too, to have a healthier scene.
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Old 09-15-2016, 11:52 AM
 
2,841 posts, read 2,954,619 times
Reputation: 3513
Quote:
Originally Posted by poppydog View Post
Well, I think the main difference there is Greensboro and W-S had better higher education and a lot of diversified industry and Fayetteville pretty much put all its eggs in the military basket. The military is such an overarching presence in Fayetteville.

It might be better to look at some other military towns that are successful at being MORE than a military town and use that as a guide. I think they'll have to look beyond NC, though, because Jacksonville is no great shakes either and it's right at the beach.
yeah but there is no high profile high octane employers in Greensboro or Winston Salem besides the unis i guess

I mean I do agree UNCG is important to greensboro's success but because of a cultural center and not that it's placing graduates with good careers in the community
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