COMMUNITY CLOSE-UP
CUMBERLAND COUNTY
GETTING IT DONE Fayetteville and Cumberland County’s recently unveiled brand — Can Do Carolina — is more than words. It’s action, thanks to modest living costs, amenities, educational institutions and economic opportunity.
On a steamy August evening, Larry Keen threw the first pitch at a Fayetteville Woodpeckers minor-league baseball game. “The ball went over the plate,” he says. “I didn’t get a strike, but it was close.” Keen is Fayetteville Technical Community College’s president. His trip to the pitcher’s mount kicked off Fayetteville Tech night at Segra Stadium, when the college’s choir sang the national anthem, and the stands were filled with Fort Bragg soldiers and their families, college colleagues and students, and community members. “It reminded me of why I love Fayetteville so much,” he says. “We were all there to enjoy the day together, and that’s the beauty of
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what we have here in this city and Cumberland County at large.” The evening was evidence of how family friendly Fayetteville has become since the 1970s, when seedy bars and adult entertainment venues populated the center city, which is steeped in history. It’s named for Marquis de Lafayette, a French aristocrat, military officer and leader of colonial troops during the American Revolution. Local history recalls it’s the only namesake city that he visited. It’s where the N.C. Constitutional Convention ratified the U.S. Constitution in 1789, the UNC System was chartered and Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run. Fayetteville’s 2019 population was almost 209,000, according to
C A R O L I N A
N.C. Office of State Budget and Management. That made it North Carolina’s sixth-largest city. And it’s only getting bigger, thanks to an affordable cost of living, quality of life amenities, educational institutions, and expanding job and economic opportunities, many linked to Fort Bragg. It’s the largest U.S. military post by population and one of six military instillations in North Carolina. It’s a similar situation in surrounding Cumberland County. “We are a 350,000-person county with business and industry, history, arts and culture,” says Robert Van Geons, president and CEO of Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corp. Van Geons points to Cumberland
SPONSORED SECTION
9/21/21 3:09 PM
