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Tuesday, 18 February 2025
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Written by Margaret Dickson
The eyes of America, indeed the eyes of the world, are on Washington as newly re-installed Donald Trump attempts to take Presidential power to new heights by slapping tariffs on friend and foe alike, ceding control to unelected billionaires, and pushing such pressing issues as renaming the Gulf of Mexico. Millions of Americans reel from the speed and audacity of what is unfolding at the highest level of our government.
That said, there is a great deal going on in North Carolina, and our new Governor is off to a solid start. The General Assembly? Not so much.
Josh Stein was sworn in on New Year’s Day and has hit the ground running. His immediate focus has been western North Carolina, hard hit by Hurricane Helene last fall. With many residents still out of their homes and businesses struggling to reopen, Governor Stein has been all about recovery.
A new public-private partnership will provide $30M in grants to help small businesses make it through the winter and head into warmer weather and the tourism that comes with it. In addition, the NC Department of Commerce has expanded an existing jobs recovery program aimed at Helene survivors.
With the General Assembly back in session, Stein is also lasering in on public education, what he calls the “launching pad of our state’s future.” Using a combination of federal, state, and local funds, North Carolina spent more than $17.2B in the 2022-23 school year, the largest slice of the state budget. That eye-popping number is misleading. The General Assembly is actually reducing education funding.
The price of public education, like virtually everything else, has risen over time. The percentage of public resources directed at public education has declined dramatically. Even as North Carolina’s population has more than doubled to 11 million people and counting, the percentage of public education spending declined from more than 52 percent of the state budget in 1970 to a relatively meager 39 percent in 2023-24. In other words, public schools are now expected to do much, much more with much, much less.
Layer on the fact that the General Assembly shifted $6.5B of state education tax dollars to private and religious entities last year under the slyly named Opportunity Scholarships, it is obvious that the legislature put public education on a starvation diet.
The General Assembly has engaged in more hijinks as well.
The 2023-24 state budget decreed that only legislators can decide “whether a record is a public record and whether to turn over to the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, or retain, destroy, sell, loan, or otherwise dispose of, such records.”
In plain English, if legislators do not want you to see something, you will not.
Then there is the General Assembly’s stripping the Governor of appointment power to the NC Board of Elections buried inside a bill dealing with Hurricane Helene relief. It is a sure bet that there is more to come as the legislative session unfolds.
A quick Google of the term “eyes wide shut” yields definitions along these lines—"an idiom to describe someone who intentionally ignores or refuses to acknowledge something that is happening. It can also imply a deliberate choice to remain unaware or uninvolved, even when what is happening is clear and even dangerous.”
It implies being an ostrich who does not want to understand.
We Americans are apparently quite good at that.
(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)
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Tuesday, 11 February 2025
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Written by Bill Bowman
I am pleased to see Fayetteville’s Downtown Alliance organization taking an active role in surveying Fayetteville residents on how they felt about the City Hall electees wanting more revenue from the paid parking program to offset the deficit that currently exists with the program.
From those people I talked with downtown about the possibility of raised parking rates came back with an emphatic “hell no! Not only did the city staff propose a rate increase of 25%, but they also recommended rolling back the enforcement hours from 9 a.m. to 8 a.m. and extending the enforcement hours from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. This is not unusual for Fayetteville government elected officials to take three giant steps forward toward progress and then four steps backward toward regression.
At first thought, I felt the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce and the Woodpeckers baseball team would have significant objections to this, as would every Downtown event promoter.
The Downtown Alliance has sent out a survey to request input on how residents feel about these proposed changes and how they would impact the success of downtown businesses and organizations.
Because Up & Coming Weekly newspaper is located downtown and has written countless articles supporting Downtown Fayetteville, its businesses, organizations, and cultural amenities, I want to make sure there is no misunderstanding about where our newspaper stands on this issue and the many other concerns that affect the prosperity of our Historic Downtown Fayetteville.
To this end, I have submitted my survey to the Downtown Alliance and printed it below so we can go on the record in support of a beautiful, welcoming, hospitable, and prosperous Downtown community. I strongly suggest our readers do the same. You can find the survey at bit.ly/40M3qem.
Enjoy. Feel free to contact me at 910-391-3859 if you need more information on this topic or have any questions.
And, by the way, Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly. Fayetteville’s community newspaper for over twenty-nine years.
DOWNTOWN ALLIANCE PARKING SURVEY
Part 1: Downtown Parking Issues
Downtown business owners have identified the following issues with downtown parking as having a negative impact. Please consider each and rate each item on a linear scale from 1 (least) to 5 (most) as affecting your business, your customers, and visitors. You can give the same rating to multiple items if you feel that way. There's no need to rank or prioritize your answers.
1. Lack of informative signage
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2. Pay Station-Kiosks that do not work
4, 5
Your comments on this issue.
Most impact: Dysfunctional Pay Station-Kiosks reflect poorly on our Downtown image as does the broken clock atop of the Market House
3. Enter/Exit Equipment in decks do not work
3
Your comments on this issue.
Again, malfunctioning equipment reflects poorly on our city, as does a Parking Deck without an elevator.
4. Loading Zones and 20-minute quick pickup spaces being used as parking spaces that go unticketed
3
5. How does limited on-street parking, caused by business owners and workers parking all day in those spaces, impact the access of customers and visitors to your business?
4, 5
Your comments on this issue:
This is a widespread problem for downtown merchants, and its history dates back to the 1950s. And the remedy to this problem can be found only with the merchants and businesses themselves and their influence over their staff and employees.
6. Does uneven enforcement of on-street parking, where some individuals park without paying and are not ticketed, affect parking availability for customers or visitors?
3
Your comments on this issue.
If this is really happening, then it should be addressed with the City and management of the Parking Company.
7. Misinformation about parking on key websites and lack of current parking information for the public (City, CSDD, etc.)
4, 5
Your comments on this issue:
Without a doubt, miscommunication and NO communication about Downtown Parking are huge hinderances to bringing residents, visitors, and guests into the Downtown community. The City and the Downtown merchants both fail to market, promote, or advertise the charm, uniqueness, cultural, and historic significance of Downtown, let alone the countless amenities and ease and availability of safe parking.
With thousands of new residents coming into our community every month, how will they know about what Downtown Fayetteville offers? They have no preconceived negative attitudes about our downtown community. They only need to be invited. A case in point is the Franklin Street Parking Deck. It's a beautiful-spacious building, reasonably priced, and conveniently located in the heart of Historic Downtown.
But how would a visitor, guest or newcomer know that? Fayetteville and the Downtown District must do more to create awareness and "tell their story" rather than allowing others to create negative narratives about downtown and our community.
8. Enforcement and revenue is focused on ticket writing of customers and visitors, an average of 60 tickets a day
4, 5
Your comments on this issue:
Wow! This is bad and is perceived as a predatory practice with a tremendous negative effect on Downtown's image and BRAND. At 60 tickets a day, Fayetteville celebrates over 15,000 negative opinions of our downtown area. And, like all disgruntled customers, these 15,000 tell at least ten additional people about their unfortunate downtown experience. This is not the scenario that develops a welcoming image or develops a prosperous downtown business community.
9. Lack of effective signage.
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Part 2: Current Paid Parking Statements
1. Monday-Friday Paid Parking 9-5 is acceptable
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Your comments on this issue:
Absolutely, agree. The schedule has proven itself to be feasible and accepted and follows the trends of other cities and downtown districts.
2. Parking should be free on Nights & Weekends
4, 5
Your comments on this issue:
Again, absolutely! And it should be widely advertised and marketed. This schedule has proven feasible and accepted and follows the trends of other cities and downtown districts.
3. Increasing the hourly rate for on-street and deck parking is okay
1
Your comments on this issue.
Until Downtown Fayetteville becomes a "must-see" destination, high parking fees will deter visitors, growth, and development.
4. Extending paid parking back to 7 p.m. is acceptable
1
Your comments on this issue.
Absolutely unacceptable. Again, this only creates a profound and negative image of our community.
5. Increasing the Event Rate only in the Hay Street Deck from $5 to $10 is a good solution for fixing the City's revenue gap.
1
Your comments on this issue.
The revenue gap is a problem and the responsibility of City Hall. They should find a solution that doesn't negatively affect the Fayetteville community. A little DOGE in the city and county governments would go a long way to lowering our taxes and enhancing our quality of life.
6. Short-term street-level parking that is evenly enforced would positively impact the number of customers and visitors circulating to downtown businesses.
4
Your comments on this issue.
Sure, short-term street-level parking (evenly enforced) would greatly benefit downtown businesses and organizations. Two-hour minimums have worked beautifully for years and should be reinstated. Additionally, when Downtown decides to market and promote itself, businesses (merchants) should implement a "FREE Parking" promotion when customers and clients utilize the parking decks while patronizing their businesses. This would be E-Z to do.
The Downtown Alliance thanks you for completing the survey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the paid parking program or the proposed changes, please share them below.
Every thriving city has a vibrant downtown community. Businesses, organizations, visitors, guests, and prospective new residents gravitate to a city's downtown community and use their first impression as a barometer of its vibrancy and hospitality. Unfortunately, our Fayetteville downtown community, with its unique businesses and all it has to offer historically and culturally, has a perpetual tarnished reputation that is perpetuated mainly by the government's self-inflicted rules, laws, and regulations (i.e., parking fees) that run contrary to developing a thriving, prosperous Historic Downtown. Even more detrimental is the LACK of enforcement when enforcing self-inflicted rules, laws, and regulations. I am referring to patron safety, the growing homeless population, the numerous panhandlers, and the constant abundance of street litter.
SOLUTION: Downtown Fayetteville is an easy turnaround if only the people and agencies influencing the downtown community would dissemble their protective silos and start communicating and cooperating with one another.
Downtown needs ONE solidified voice to start marketing, promoting, and creating positive awareness of the Downtown community. Creating enthusiasm and showcasing the amenities, businesses, and historic and cultural aspects of Downtown is easy. Up & Coming Weekly newspaper has been doing it for twenty-nine years. In other words, Downtown needs to create its own awareness, tell its own story, and take control of the NARRATIVE. Our community's negative (mostly false) aspects are primarily communicated through traditional outside media (TV), social media, and poser journalists claiming to provide local news. For some unknown reason, Fayetteville, as a community, fails to take control of our own narrative and convey Fayetteville's unique and fascinating story. How often have you heard "Fayetteville is its own worst enemy?"
It's all under our control. Yes, City Hall must stop implementing rules and ordinances that impede Downtown Fayetteville's growth, development, prosperity, and BRAND.
Yes, Downtown residents, businesses, and organizations must unite to aggressively tell their stories and create positive countywide awareness of what Downtown Fayetteville and Cumberland County have to offer its citizens, visitors, and guests.
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