Fayetteville probably needs a new city council
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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.
Michael | Fayetteville, NC