Fayetteville is the All American City with it ALL! - 1/5/2022

I have lived in Fayetteville for 21 years and I LOVE IT! Fayetteville is a military town and that is what brought my husband and I here originally. Since January 2000 this city has grown. There are parks throughout the city with basketball, baseball, playgrounds, skateboarding facilities, walking trails, pools, senior activities, gyms and more. The downtown area has an outdoor park with an outdoor arena which the city holds festivals, concerts and other outdoor activities, to include 4th of July and New Year's celebrations. The downtown area has created housing options in the area and many businesses are now located in the old downtown district. The Fayetteville has many new large companies coming to the area which will create lots of jobs. The explosion of new restaurants to the area has been exciting. Fayetteville is a diverse inclusive city with a lot to do from shopping, eating out, swimming, golfing, attending a theatrical performance, visiting the art museum, visiting the Airborne Museum working out at one of the many gyms throughout the city, fishing, kayaking, and boating, or walking along the Cape Fear River Trail. The area has many educational opportunities, from Fayetteville Technical Community College, Fayetteville Sate University, to Methodist College. The public school choice allows for families to pick the school focused in the academic area that is right for their child. This city is getting it all! We have annual festivals throughout the year. If you are bored in Fayetteville you really need to pick up a copy of the Fayetteville Observer newspaper or go on the City of Fayetteville, NC website and find out what activities are going on.

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Fayetteville - it's not Fayette-nam any more - 10/1/2021

I've lived in the area for a little over ten years - after moving around to many, many places in my career - and I find that Fay is overall pretty much average. Most of the complaints about the crime rate, traffic, the weather, the schools, etc., are not much different than in other places that I have lived, but of course there's lots of room for improvement. Advantages are fairly mild winters, a reasonable cost of living [the BestPlaces CoL lowballs the housing costs due to the fact that Fay has a wide variety of high-end gated communities, tract houses, and crappy trailer courts], being not far from some nice Atlantic beaches, and the presence of a large military base in the area. Disadvantages are fairly hot, muggy summers, a lack of nicer restaurants and cultural venues, a long drive to the mountains, and the presence of a large military base in the area.

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Fayetteville - it's not Fayette-nam any more - 10/1/2021

I've lived in the area for a little over ten years - after moving around to many, many places in my career - and I find that Fay is overall pretty much average. Most of the complaints about the crime rate, traffic, the weather, the schools, etc., are not much different than in other places that I have lived, but of course there's lots of room for improvement. Advantages are fairly mild winters, a reasonable cost of living [the BestPlaces CoL lowballs the housing costs due to the fact that Fay has a wide variety of high-end gated communities, tract houses, and crappy trailer courts], being not far from some nice Atlantic beaches, and the presence of a large military base in the area. Disadvantages are fairly hot, muggy summers, a lack of nicer restaurants and cultural venues, a long drive to the mountains, and the presence of a large military base in the area.

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Patriotic, Raw, Real! - 5/22/2021

I’ve lived here for 3 years so far. My first impression is still much the same. It is one of the most patriotic places I’ve ever been in the United States. That said, it’s the real deal. Freedom isn’t free. Most who live here can hear Fort Bragg train. The rest either read about, see, or knows some of those costs personally. Sad, but real truth. Fayetteville is what you choose to make it. One can be a help, or a hindrance. Lots of retired military here.

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Don't move to North Carolina - 5/6/2021

I have lived here long enough to know that this is the worst place to live. Just the other month a high school child was murdered across the street. The school they went to only gave a call not much else. So sorry for their family. The school is the worst. They only care about themselves. It's so bad I have to homeschool my children. Please do yourself a favor and don't move here. I don't think any of North Carolina is good. I have been trying to talk with the State school board and they refuse to answer their phone, email and voicemail. Even the mall isn't safe. People are murdered across the area. It's bad when you live in the best saught after school system and all night and every night you hear cops roaring by.

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Don't come here unless you have to - 2/19/2021

I've lived in this hell hole for about 10 years now and its been utter hell from the drugs to the gangs to the suicides. Had a good friend of mine have a gun pulled on him at a gas station for gas. If you have any other option than Fayetnam you'd do well to steer clear. This place is rotten to the core and it shows in every aspect just the air of the place and the feel of the people drain you everyday and it leaves you with less than when you came both financially and mentally. Getting out in a couple of days this place will not be missed.

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FayetteNam is still a relevant term - 9/21/2019

The crime rate is significantly higher than other cities of this size. The city management is in crisis mode as of 2019 and any City Department you ask for standards from or what the standard is, won't respond. The police chief has,it seems like, weekly CYA sessions. All that adds up to an unresponsive management that is not beholden to the people. This is a city whose website claims transparency and All American yet does not seem to understand what that means. Be prepared to accept lower standards, be prepared for propaganda and smoke and mirrors: this city is well-versed in social media and propaganda. It's current police chief fits well within the parameters of a just listen to what I'm saying, don't look over here approach. The city itself has diversity in regards to age groups, ethnicity and economic groups. That variation doesn't mean you have the best of each of those. Expect an income of 20 30% less than equivalent cities with a 20 to 30% drop in quality of life. The lower price for housing does not compensate for the lower per capita income or household income. if you looking for investment property as rental income than this may be okay however investment property from a homeowners perspective your property appreciation will be far below the national average. If you drive through the city and actually talk to residents you will see that a higher the normal subset's caliber doesn't equal other cities of this size. The job market here is it okay if you're looking at a minimum wage to $13 an hour job. The council's policies I'm not addressed or incentivized decent businesses with decent wages to set up shop here. The prospect of upward mobility is definitely decreased in the City compared to other cities of its size. All of that is a direct reflection on the policies of a city council and mayor out of touch and focused on their own interests. All you have to do is look at current projects, that are pending or have now less support, that would benefit the city, county and state to see that the council and mayor are definitely influenced by social movements. Be prepared to accept different definitions for standards, different definitions for values, and a different definition for All American. Just drive through the city and you will see horrible driving: speeding tailgating, music so loud it vibrates of panels of your car. Don't be fooled by the hype and the propaganda.

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A wonderful place to live - 5/6/2019

People love to hate Fayetteville but it's amazing here. I moved her because of the army like everyone else but I came with an open mind and didn't let anyone else's opinions sway me. Let's start. There are tons of things to do. I have plans every single weekend, and a lot of these events are free or very inexpensive. If you aren't in the military you won't deal with traffic. The cost of living is extremely low, I have a 3 bedroom home in a safe quiet neighborhood for only $900/month. Something I couldn't even dream of in Maryland. The people are incredibly kind. There are tons of restaurants and activities to keep you entertained. I'm strongly considering moving back here after we're out of the army.

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3rd world hell hole - 11/9/2017

High crime, pawn shops, housing projects, police sirens, titty bars, and vagrants. Nobody comes to this town unless they have to per Army orders.

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Overall Experience - 4/19/2016

I would not choose to live here again, if I wasn't a military, cause I there mostly nothing to do in Fayetteville, NC, it just a military town, that why there is mostly African American. The schools there are horrible and crime is so ridiculous, I live here for 3 years and my child doesn't like there at all, can wait to get out of here. I current moving to Fort Stewart, GA.

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not enough - 10/27/2015

This is a military town so ultimately the focus is more restaurants, bars, and clubs. Not enough educational activities to advance your mind on other cultures, religions and backgrounds. Gotta travel for culture

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Crime - 1/25/2015

Dangerous everywhere.

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It Is A Concern - 10/21/2014

I live in Fayetteville and have been here for about 18 months due to being stationed at Fort Bragg. I did not want to live on post so I ended up right outside of the Reilly Rd gate. I live in a quiet residential area with access to lots of businesses and restaurants just minutes away. Although my street is quiet, I must admit that the crime rate here is very high. There has not been one week that has gone by where I have not seen the news announce a violent crime that occurred. What is worst is it has been at least three occasions where my teen-aged sons have recognized either the victims of the suspects. Even though my boys weren't close friends with any of them it is still very scary to me that even a acquaintance or a friend of a friend could so easily fall victim to or commit violent crimes right here where I live. I find great concern with this I guess it's just too close to home. I will be moving very soon and I am now looking for a nice laid back area where it is safe for children over and also enjoy my surroundings. Any Suggestions are welcomed!

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God Bless Our Troops - 7/30/2013

Fayetteville is a transient location. Given it's proximity to Ft. Bragg the roads and the restaurants for that matter are full of young people. Put a 19 year old, likely out on their own for the 1st time, with a new job,a regular paycheck and it naturally follows he's going to buy a new car. Young drivers and visiting drivers just don't mix good with seasoned residents, over the city's traffic issues or with immature driving skills. Fayetteville and surrounding areas could've been "planned" a lot better but pick your battles. Avoid making doctor appointments during rush hour, for instance. Eat out on a week night and wisely spare yourself that predictable weekend parade of hotheads, growing families and longer wait times. Lastly, remember our troops get paid on the 1st & 15th each month... so organize your garage sale accordingly!

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Fayetteville has major issues (including a bickeri - 12/10/2012

At this time, I don’t think I would recommend Fayetteville as a “good place to live”. They need to work on a myriad of issues and wheels turn slower than pond water. I moved down here from DC and traffic is horrendous. DC may be a snarled mess but at least it is organized. Bad drivers and lousy traffic enforcement have only augmented the problem. I've lived in many places from Maine to California and drivers in Fayetteville are the worst. I've had two people hit my truck in the last 2 years and 3 people hit my 16 ft. trailer while in tow (all in the sake of being in a hurry) in the last year. I'm a home owner in Fayetteville and have been for 4 years. My neighborhood was recently annexed. More revenue for the city, but I have yet to see the benefits for my neighbors and I (other than the city sewer which I had to pay $5k to hook up to anyway – I wouldn’t call that a huge favor by any means). Infrastructure is easily an "F". New sidewalks and re-surfacing of roads do not count as a major overhaul and improvement of city infrastructure. The city seems to have this misconception that all the big box stores and major venues need to be parked on one main drag. Essentially, a huge city population is packed into a small city. Fayetteville is woefully behind. Scooping up neighborhoods in huge annexing swaths is not solving any problems besides giving the city more money to spend on…….? I don’t even know …………well, definitely not school systems, roads, and other infrastructure. Time Warner is the only cable company in Fayetteville (North Carolina allows this monopoly to occur) and provides the very least in customer service with degrading infrastructure and increasing costs. The school system is “come and go” and it really depends on where you live. The kids, for the most part, are terrible and disrespectful (I'll lay blame on the parents). Schools have no enforcement of grades (I’ll lay the blame on the federal government with this No Child Left Behind junk) and no accountability of students during after-hours tutoring and other events. Kids have foul mouths at the mall and other establishments. I’m certain that my 8 year old has the entire cuss-word vocabulary down. Older kids blast PA systems while driving since they believe that everyone wants to hear a rapper rapping about drugs, money, and sex while unleashing a tirade of “N” words and “F” words. City services could use improvement (I've never lived in a city that says they will be in your neighborhood to pick up leaves in February.......leaves in the street for 4 months! Give me a break. Sure, if they don’t all blow down the street by then). City parks and recreation is less than desirable (worst I’ve ever experienced). The city is talking about investing a large sum of money in the city’s parks and recreation – if the city council can stop bickering like a bunch of kids about whether it should go forward or not. Property taxes are fair, but I’m not sure what overseas account the money goes into since it’s not spent improving infrastructure in the city. (Like I’ve said, a new monument, small bridge, a useless downtown parking garage, sidewalks, and road resurfacing is about all I’ve seen). Bottom line is; Ft. Bragg has completely over grown Fayetteville and there is little that the city is doing to keep up. The 295 by-pass is currently in the works but the majority of money for that project has been appropriated from federal and state funding. Fayetteville just completed a multi-million dollar memorial park, which is nice; but I don’t think they have their priorities straight. I’m looking at jumping ship, hopefully, within the next year. I’d like to just hang my hat here since I’m about to retire from the military. But, I’m not sure I want to jeopardize my children’s futures by hanging around in Fayetteville unless they really start fixing things and getting their collective act together. This is also the first state that I’ve lived in that charges a road usage tax RUT. Title, tags and RUT is what you pay. $1500-1800 property taxes aren’t enough I guess. My motorcycle alone was $120 or so for the RUT. I guess motorcycles have the foot print of a truck or something. I’ve been trying to figure out all this junk with the money and it would seem that we (in Fayetteville) are paying for improvements elsewhere (like Raleigh).

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Fayetteville probably needs a new city council - 12/10/2012

I don't think I would recommend Fayetteville as a good place to live at this time. I moved down here from DC and traffic is horrendous. DC may be a snarled mess. But at least it is organized. Bad drivers and lousy traffic enforcement have only augmented the problem. I've lived in many places from Maine to California and drivers in Fayetteville are the worst. I've had two people hit my truck in the last 2 years and 3 people hit my (well lit) 16 ft trailer, while in tow (all in the sake of being in a hurry) in the last year. I'm a home owner in Fayetteville and have been for 4 years. My neighborhood was recently annexed. More revenue for the city, but I have yet to see the benefits for my neighbors and I (other than the city sewer which I had to pay $5k to hook up to anyway – I wouldn’t call that a huge favor by any means). Infrastructure is easily an "F". New sidewalks and re-surfacing of roads do not count as a major overhaul and improvement of city infrastructure. The city seems to have this misconception that all the big box stores and major venues need to be parked on one main drag of street. Essentially, a huge city population is packed into a small city. Fayetteville is woefully behind. Scooping up neighborhoods in huge annexing swaths is not solving any problems besides giving the city more money to spend on…….? I don’t even know …………well, definitely not school systems, roads, and other infrastructure. Time Warner is the only cable company in Fayetteville (North Carolina allows this monopoly to occur) and provides the very least in customer service with degrading infrastructure and increasing costs. The school system is “come and go” and it really depends on where you live. The kids, for the most part, are terrible and disrespectful (I'll lay blame on the parents). Schools have no enforcement of grades (I’ll lay the blame on the federal government with this No Child Left Behind junk) and no accountability of students during after-hours tutoring and other events. Kids have foul mouths at the mall and other establishments. I’m certain that my 8 year old has the entire cuss-word vocabulary down. Older kids blast PA systems while driving since they believe that everyone wants to hear a rapper rapping about drugs, money, and sex while unleashing a tirade of “N” words and “F” words. City services could use improvement (I've never lived in a city that says they will be in your neighborhood to pick up leaves in February.......leaves in the street for 4 months! Give me a break. Sure, if they don’t all blow down the street by then). City parks and recreation is less than desirable (worst I’ve ever experienced). The city is talking about investing a large sum of money in the city’s parks and recreation – if the city council can stop bickering like a bunch of kids about whether it should go forward or not. Property taxes are fair, but I’m not sure what overseas account the money goes into since it’s not spent improving infrastructure in the city. Bottom line is; Ft. Bragg has completely over grown Fayetteville and there is little that the city is doing to keep up. The 295 by-pass is currently in the works but the majority of money for that project has been appropriated from federal and state funding. Fayetteville just completed a multi-million dollar memorial park, which is nice; but I don’t think they have their priorities straight. They also spent billions on downtown, which is nice once again, but not in line with the best interests of the tax payers. I’m looking at jumping ship, hopefully, within the next year. I’d like to just hang my hat here since I’m about to retire from the military. But, I’m not sure I want to jeopardize my children’s futures by hanging around in Fayetteville. And for those that don't agree with me - you can keep kidding yourselves all you want.

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Reply - 11/28/2012

You need to stop with all of your anger boiling over, get a grip. Instead of complaining so much, put forth more effort to learn how to read the fine print from the cable and phone companies and any time you sign a contract. Learn how to spell, please. It is people like you that give the south a bad rap. And most of all pay your mortgage payments on time and you would not be losing your home, Oh also, try living within your means rather than buying more house than you can possibly afford to pay for. I have friends that live in NC and it is a beautiful state with a lot of diversity and am giving consideration to moving into the area myself. From the sounds of it you would complain not matter WHERE you live. Everyone has ups and downs in this life, get used to it. Look for the good in people, I am quite sure the people in that area are quite hospitable and friendly. Sperling is a good tool for getting information about different areas. Please do not use it as a forum for venting your anger.

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It depends on what your looking for - 12/12/2011

We have watched Fayetteville grow by leaps and bounds in the 7 years we have been here. Due to the majority of the city being military the economy booms and will continue to do so because the military base here is a large major one.

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So many schools and no where to live - 6/9/2011

I am determined to get my son into a great elementary school in the Fort Bragg/Fayetteville area! Although I have never been there and have been warned about moving to certain areas, I need to stay positive! I would love to find him a great school and find a place to live near there but I am very nervous about getting there and seeing the house I saw online look completely different face to face. I am going to stay positive regardless of all the negatives I hear about Fayetteville and living on Fort Bragg. Anyone have any suggestions for me?

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jobs and quality of life - 9/20/2010

This place sucks with a capitol S! First off, the job base is literally saturated with as many as twenty people a day looking for the same job with the same qualifacations. Most jobs stay open for three weeks. That computes to an average of 300 people per job in this place! This level of saturation also explains the extrodianarily low wages here in Fayettnom, as the locals know it. The saturation point also leads into a whole range of negatives. Since there are so many people looking for work here, there is a total disregard for facts among employers as they relate to any claims made against an employee. Hense they fire here people for broad completely non substantiated claims on a regular basis. There are absolutly NO CHECKS & BALLENCES here in which one can demand a mediation of hard facts. This even applies to the school system where the rights of children are abused under the same repressive situation as the employees. I would be glad to give specific examples if one dares to ask. And all of this assuems that one can even find jobs here to begin with, since the point of saturation is so high in this place, concidering that the local employment security commission and the local job base in general consistently descriminates in favor the military personell and the ex military personell. Businesses offer terrible service here due to the high number of transients about. THERE IS NO CUSTOMER SERVIce HERE! The entire system scams the people here. The cable companies lie and get you in on their contracts at one price and then tripple up on their charges two payments later. The phone companies are guilty of the same crime of extortion here. The mortgadge companies hold your check payments until they are late, then attempt to extort late charges and extra fees from you. If you refuse to pay then, as in all of the above cases, they just stick all of this into you credit file since there is no check here to keep them from doing so! Many people are losing their homes in foreclosure because of this activity, and there is NOTHING THAT THE PEOPLE CAN DO ABOUT IT! The Police constantly stop people at random, then just issue tickets for traffic offenses even though they are innocent and the courts here completely supports them. Fayettevile NC has some of the highest taxes in the entire state of NC and has the least to offer in terms of services rendered. Think that you can just take all of this to court? Just try too and many many have already. You will not even be able to find a lawyer to take this repressive system on, especially when it comes to labor laws. For God's Sake and your own, don't ever make the mistake of moving to this place. I wonder if the Mofiosa has not taken this government over here.

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