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Is there enough support for a Wilmington subforum


NcSc74

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We were supposed to get rail, but the Federal Government wouldn't fund it. They came up with these new requirements and the ridership formula was off..... or something like that. To make matters worse, we have wonky commuting patterns around here because the metro area doesn't have a definite center. That's what happens when you have a sprawling mass of cities and towns stretching across three counties like giant amoebas. If you avoid the highway, it is possible to drive from Raleigh to Durham to Chapel Hill and not hit any rural areas. That's a distance of over 35 miles of development. The problem is that its all sprawl. Cookie cutter tract homes, strip malls, etc. If we want to get rail around here, something definitely has to be done about the growth patterns. But folks around here won't be happy until I-40 is 16 lanes wide. With 100 people moving to Wake County every day, its only a matter of time before the quality of life worsens and we start seeing Atlanta style problems. Last Friday, it took me over an hour to drive 15 miles. They expect the CSA to top 2,000,000 in a few years. Sometimes, I wish I was back in the Wilmington area LOL. I'm going to take some pics of the historical neighborhoods next time I'm in that area and post them here.

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Real metro areas have over a million people in my book.

I believe New Hanover is 3rd densest now. Wake and Mecklenburg are both denser, but that's not a fair comparison. More like apples and oranges. I like Wilmington though. I used to live in Lake Waccamaw, about 30 minutes from there. I love all the historic Victorians along 3rd St. I would kill to have those kinds of historic neighborhoods around here. We have very few Victorians in Raleigh all clustered near Krispy Kreme and the State Govt. complex. I think a good chunk of them were demolished when they built the state govt. complex.

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I know its retarded lol. How do you seperate two cities whose city limits actually touch into to different MSA's lol. And what about the people who live where Raleigh city limits spill into Durham county? I wonder what MSA they would technically be in. Oh well.

:offtopic: Well, back to the subject... keep up the good work on the Wilmington updates. :good:

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Fayetteville while having nice population numbers and growth, just isnt in the same league as Wilmington as a city or a region. Wilmington (area) has BOTH the downtown riverfront district as well as one of the nicest beaches in the state. It offers great restaurants, the movie industry, tons of tourism, a good university, diversity etc. Fayetteville basically has a military base and Hay Street.

People from all over are flocking to Wilmington as a retirement destination. I dont exactly see that happening in Fayetteville. Again, other than the base, what is the attraction to the town? The Sandhills? Also, Wilmington offers more culturally as well. If a forum is to be started, it would definitely make more sense for it to be geared towards Wilmington than Fayetteville thats for sure.

Anyone who has visited or lived in both places know this without question.

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Glad to see Wilmington with its own forum! I occasionally spend time down that way (mainly in Wrightsville Beach) and I think Wilmington is a wonderful city. The downtown area and historic district are beautiful and have so much potential. It's good to see that there is an interest in preserving its "urban -ness" and making it even more vital.

I do have to wonder, however, what in the world does Wilmington have to do with the Sandhills? That part of the state is a hundred miles away!

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Glad to see Wilmington with its own forum! I occasionally spend time down that way (mainly in Wrightsville Beach) and I think Wilmington is a wonderful city. The downtown area and historic district are beautiful and have so much potential. It's good to see that there is an interest in preserving its "urban -ness" and making it even more vital.

I do have to wonder, however, what in the world does Wilmington have to do with the Sandhills? That part of the state is a hundred miles away!

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that was something i was trying to say in another reply but dont think i said it right, sandhills isnt in the wilmington area, its fayetteville, lumberton, raeford, clinton, and such. think they made it wilmington and the sandhills so i guess more people would go to the forum. but i dont like that fact of fayetteville being thrown in like one of wilmington's surrounding little towns.
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Someone please tell me about Fayetteville. I have lived in Wilmington for 23 years and have visited Fayetteville once about 15 years ago. All I remember is a huge military base, a nice mall, and Hays Street Area. According to the U.S. Census, the defined Fayetteville Metro area(Cumberland and Hoke Counties) grew by 5,000 people between 2000 and 2006 to 341,363 (Wilmington grew by 52,000 to 326,166). I remember seeing nice pictures of the downtown area on another post. Other then the military, what industries are there? What is there to do? What brings people to Fayetteville, other than the military?
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Someone please tell me about Fayetteville. I have lived in Wilmington for 23 years and have visited Fayetteville once about 15 years ago. All I remember is a huge military base, a nice mall, and Hays Street Area. According to the U.S. Census, the defined Fayetteville Metro area(Cumberland and Hoke Counties) grew by 5,000 people between 2000 and 2006 to 341,363 (Wilmington grew by 52,000 to 326,166). I remember seeing nice pictures of the downtown area on another post. Other then the military, what industries are there? What is there to do? What brings people to Fayetteville, other than the military?
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Federal jobs rule Fayettville. If having one of the worlds largest and one of the most important military complex in your region is not a good thing then I don't know what to say. Its not the fact of having soldiers there it is the civilian contracts that gives the city its boost. Granted these jobs are not in the pay scale of bio-medical or banking but a mid level GS gig will net around 40-50K a year. That is living quite well given the cities cost of living. Most light and heavy industry has moved on but like I said if you have a decent background you can get a job making a decent living related to the base. The focus is on attracting more buisness and industrial opportunities but it will never supplant the federal job market. Cumberland county is well on its way past the 400K mark. A fact that took me by surprise. Well not really given the huge amount of sprawl that surrounds the city. Now I here the Harnett county side is exploding only making that situation worse. What the city does lack is a performing arts culture but there are venues for that. There is a minor league hockey team there and I think the NBADL team is still there or some form of minor league basketball. Also there is the Dogwood festival and other festivals throught the year and being an Army brat I always loved Octoberfest on the base. Fayetteville is a very diverse city. It can't help but to be with all of the different nationalities that serve in the army. Take a ride down Yadkin road or any road near the base and you will see shops and resturants catering to their own demographic. Fayetteville is not a huge college town but Methodist college and Fayetteville State are located their not to mention Fayetteville Tech. Tech has one of NC's largest enrollments for a 2 year tech & vocational college. Finally the city is one of NC's oldest and historical. Some very important decisions were made concerning the state during the colonial days. To anyone to deny Fayetteville of that needs to look up some NC history. One rumor has it the George Washington himself visited the village but that is still in dispute. General Lafayette of France, the cities namesake, did visit the village and the coach he rode in is on display in a local museum. The villages of Campleton and Cross Creek merged and was renamed after the revolutionary war general. So to say the least I love my hometown and when I see it being badmouthed it gets the blood pumping. No the skyline does not reflect the regions population and yes there has been issues with crime but there has been tremendous strides and revitalization going on. The only thing I can say if you want a economy comparison try Norfolk VA minus the port and shipbuilding workforce. Both cities are impacted by the huge federal employment.
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thank you ncsc74, i dont think i did that well trying to say what i wanted to say but you did a great job on that, also you left out that fayetteville was the state capital for a time before raleigh, some dont know that. and i too get mad when i hear people constantly put down fayetteville, i'm not an army brat, but a child of an army brat and i grew up in fayetteville, thats my home town and i can stand hearing the bad mouthing of it.
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Because of the Base realignment it will increase mostly some researchers believe there should be a larger increase to atleast 40,000 within 12 yrs for the base alignment. Plus Hoke county is gaining a different population boom from horse breeding & races. I can see in the future big time horse racing going on in hoke county. I predict 500,000 people will be living in cumberland county by 2030 or even more.

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the fayetteville city might have gone down in population a bit, but the surrounding places like hope mills, spring lake, vander and such have all gained since 2000. all of those place are on the border of fayetteville city limits i had a web site i found with some information but cant seem to find it again, i'll have to look for it and put a link up here.

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I wasn't trying to bad mouth Fayetteville or anything like that, I was just curious about the other side of Fayetteville other than the military. I do understand that the military base is a wonderful thing for the economy of a city, especially one the size of Fort Bragg. I know that the coming base realignment has to be a very welcome thing in the near future.

The realignment should change the projections the census made for the area the next time around also I would think.

It actually shows Cumberland County as losing 1.3% of it's population from the 2000 census(302,963) to 2006 estimates(299,060), but it has the metro which includes Hoke county as increasing to 425,000 by the year 2030. Does the shifts in the Military cause the population to decrease as well as increase? Did the effects of the Iraq war cause the slight decrease?

Like I said I grew up in the western part of the state and moved to Wilmington in 1984 and have only been to Fayetteville once, so forgive my ignorance, I didn't realize people bad mouthed Fayetteville. Just trying to learn whats there (other than the military) and how people end up there. It always interest me as to why people move where they do. I work with the public here and I am always asking people "what brought you to Wilmington". Lord knows the place is growing at an amazing rate. The projected population for Wilmington Metro in 2030 is near 500,000.

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Just to clearify things a bit, the actual population of the city of Fayetteville is increasing (due to annexations), and will increase from the current 175,000 to over 203,000 this summer whenever Fayetteville annexes portions of Fort Bragg. Spring Lake is also annexing a portion of Fort Bragg which will boost its population from about 9,000 to 12,000. Hope Mills, which boundaries actually meets Fayetteville's in certain areas is continuing to grow as well. I have heard recently that it has a population of about 17,000. However, within a 3 mile radius of Hope Mills the population swells to over 50,000. Other towns are growing in Cumberland County as well. I recently spoke to a county planner and was informed that Cumberland County currently has about 320,000 people. Interesting whenever the Census indicated a drop in population. I have also been told that by 2010, Cumberland County will have between 340 and 350,000 people. I have heard that Hoke County will have over 50,000. But our growth is not limited to Cumberland, Harnett and Hoke Counties. Residential developments are underway in northern Robeson County and eastern Sampson County. Many people are commuting to work in Fayetteville from these areas. After personally living in Raleigh and moving back to Fayetteville, I can really see the changes. So, if you have not been to the Fayetteville area within the last 5 years, you too will see a change. Unfortunately, the most obvious change is the traffic in the area. In terms of jobs, a lot of the new jobs in Fayetteville (not associated with the government) have been in the medical field. Also, there are many small businesses coming to Fayetteville. Contruction jobs are booming here as well, I am amazed at all of the contractors from the Raleigh area that are working in Fayetteville, especially since Raleigh is also booming. Our commercial construction is beginning to pick up, office buildings and business parks are currently under construction and of course signs of a retail boom are just beginning. Several shopping centers are under construction or planned, with one being a lifestyle center. It is being compared with North Hills in Raleigh or Mayfaire in Wilmington. As one can see, Fayetteville is beginning to turn heads, and will be considered a major player for North Carolina in the coming years.

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