Views

Mass production can ease housing woes

Details

Tuesday, 14 July 2026

Written by John Hood

I agree with homebuilders, would-be homebuyers, business executives, trade associations, legislative leaders, and Gov. Josh Stein that one of North Carolina’s biggest challenges is the lack of affordable housing across broad swaths of our state.

“In high growth regions, rising development costs and insufficient supply have intensified affordability pressures,” the Stein administration observed in a recent strategic plan, “while in rural and disaster-impacted communities, limited housing stock and infrastructure gaps continue to impede recovery and long-term economic competitiveness.”

True enough. But I wonder how many state leaders would agree with one of my favorite ideas: expanding the use of manufactured and modular housing.

Just as mass production has driven down the cost of food, clothing, furnishings, vehicles, electronics, and other goods, homes built largely or entirely within factories would meet the needs of many North Carolinians without recourse to elaborate planning schemes or massive taxpayer subsidies.

This is no theoretical matter. Manufactured homes already play a substantial role in housing affordability. They account for about 13% of North Carolina’s current housing stock, with the share soaring to a quarter or higher in some of our rural counties. Yes, some are aging “trailers” with cramped quarters and limited amenities. But modern (post-1976) versions are attractive homes with efficient layouts and modern conveniences nearly indistinguishable from stick-built starter homes of similar size and capacity.

As for modular houses, they are transported to or assembled on permanent foundations and designed to comply with state building codes. Although manufactured houses can also be permanently sited, what distinguishes them from modular ones is that the former meet federal rather than state standards.

Mass production can slash the cost of producing homes by 50% or more per square foot. While the final differential isn’t always this large, because of the price of land and other fixed costs — a recent Harvard University study found that a double-wide on a median quarter-acre lot was 70% of the cost of a comparable site-built house — manufactured and modular housing are economical choices for many customers and ought to be easier for North Carolinians to acquire and live in.

State law does not allow counties or municipalities to impose regulations based on the age or perceived value of housing units. But North Carolina localities can use zoning and other means to restrict where factory-built housing can be sited. Many do so, confining them to what are still dismissively described as “mobile-home parks.” Localities can also regulate “appearance” so onerously that many manufactured homes are, for all practical purposes, excluded. Many parcels of land are also under covenants that restrict factory-built homes.

I don’t favor legislative action to nullify private contracts. But I do think the General Assembly should protect the rights of current and prospective homeowners from local regulators. What some snooty neighbors or heavy-handed planners may view with disdain, North Carolinians of modest means — young couples, seasonal workers, downsizing seniors, etc. — may well view with relief, pleasure, even excitement.

“Manufactured homes have a huge potential for expansion if the zoning and financing were improved,” wrote Laurie Goodman in a 2023 paper in Business Economics. “These homes can be built off-site which makes it much more economic in terms of labor costs; the factories can be run 24 hours a day with no forced time off due to bad weather.”

Some argue that factory-built homes may work as residences but not as means of accumulating wealth. I don’t think housing ought to be a household’s primary nest egg. But the truth is that when manufactured homes are permanently sited and the owners have title to the land as well as the structure, they tend to appreciate at about the same rate as other homes.

When my colleagues and I opened the doors of the John Locke Foundation in 1990, one of the think tank’s first recommendations was that North Carolina be more welcoming to factory-built housing. It was a good idea then. Now it is an imperative. 

Editor’s Note: John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy with American history (FolkloreCycle.com).

One County. One 911 Center. One Standard.

Details

Tuesday, 14 July 2026

Written by Kirk deViere

When you call 911, you are having the worst moment of your day. You are not thinking about which building answers the phone, or about county lines and city lines. You are thinking about one thing. Get me help, and get it now. That is the only standard that matters, and it is the standard I am holding this whole effort to.

Where Things Stand

On May 18, the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners adopted Resolution 2026-5-18, which puts the County position in plain writing. The next day, I sent it by letter to Mayor Mitch Colvin and to every member of the City Council. The position is simple. One countywide 911 center that serves everyone, the City of Fayetteville, our eight smaller towns, and the unincorporated county alike. 

The County as the Lead Administrative Agency, with the 911 professionals as County employees. Shared governance with the City, where the County Manager and the City Manager steer it together. Mental health crisis response built in as a core part of the system. And baseline 911 service at no direct cost to every town in the county.

And this is not a new ask. At a joint meeting with the City back in November 2025, the Board voted for this same path. So the letter is not a first step. It is a renewed invitation to finish what we started together. The goal is not to win a vote. The goal is an agreement, one that saves tax dollars and protects the health, safety, and welfare of the people we both serve.

One County, Two 911 Centers

Cumberland County is one of the last counties in North Carolina still running two separate 911 centers. The County runs one. The City of Fayetteville runs the other. Two budgets. Two sets of technology. Two chains of command. One county. The State 911 Board and the North Carolina Department of Information Technology have pushed consolidation for years, through policy and through grants. We are behind, and being behind costs us time and money.

And this is not for lack of study. A full programming and planning study for a consolidated center was completed back in 2016, and you can read that study here. Across several attempts since 2007, this county has looked hard at consolidation for a decade. The studying has been done. What is left is the doing.

We Agree on Almost Everything

Here is the part that surprises people. The County and the City are not far apart.

In 2025, the Mayor and I jointly stood up a Public Safety Working Group. Not politicians in a room. The people who answer and respond to your calls. Municipal Fire Chiefs and Police Chiefs. The Sheriff. Our volunteer fire departments. Both 911 center managers. Cape Fear Valley EMS. They studied it and voted unanimously for full consolidation, under joint governance, with mental health crisis response built in from day one, and they recommended the existing County center as the home. You can read their full report here.

The public is with us, and the numbers come from a survey of both residents and public safety professionals that anyone can read. Among the public safety professionals, roughly 80 percent preferred either joint or County governance over a City run model. Among residents, nearly three out of four said they would support a joint center that delivers better technology and faster response times. Both groups said the same thing in their own words. They are tired of how long this has dragged on, and they want it settled. You can read the full survey results here.

So we agree on one center. We agree on joint governance. We agree on protecting jobs. We agree on building in mental health. One real question is left. Who runs it.

My Position. The County Should Be the Lead Administrative Agency.

Words matter here, so let me be clear. Lead Administrative Agency does not mean the County runs your emergency. It means the County is the administrative home. 

Budget. Human resources. Technology. The building. Reporting and accreditation. The emergency decisions stay exactly where they belong, with the Sheriff, the Fire Chiefs, the Police Chief, the Emergency Services Director, and the Medical Director. And this is not just my promise. The resolution writes it down, and it puts those same public safety leaders on a formal Public Safety Communications Council that guides how the system operates.

So why the County for the administrative home? Three plain reasons.

We already run this at a county wide scale. Our modern, accredited center already dispatches for the unincorporated county and all eight towns, runs the dispatch system both sides use, with a new digital system live as of June 15, and is the backup when the City system goes down, all from the building that houses our Emergency Operations Center. 

Consolidation does not start something new. It finishes something we are already doing.

The County is the entity responsible for mental health across the county. A County run center lets us put behavioral health clinicians in the room and mobile Crisis Intervention Teams in the field, partially funded through our Alliance Health partnership and connected to Cape Fear Valley Health Systems. 

The County Health Department and the County Department of Social Services work alongside our teams every day, on substance use, public health, child welfare, adult protective services, and family crisis. These are county functions, not city functions. The call center has to live where the rest of that system already lives.

The partnerships are already in place. The County works directly with Fort Bragg, and we are bringing the installation into our 911 coordination now and into the consolidated center going forward. When a disaster hits, the response has to move seamlessly across the county and the installation alike, and on the County side that coordination already works. These are relationships we would build on, not build.

The Facts Behind It

You will hear that Fayetteville answers more calls, so Fayetteville should lead. The City does answer more incoming calls. But dispatching a response, not answering the phone, is the work that runs the system, and there the two centers are nearly even. In the 2025 calendar year, the County dispatched 203,660 calls and the City dispatched 212,925, a gap of less than 5 percent. Those figures come from County Emergency Services, drawn from the state 911 routing system and our own local dispatch system.

And that near even number still understates the County load. The County dispatches for all county and municipal fire departments, and for every law enforcement agency outside the City of Fayetteville. The City processes its own medical calls, but the County carries emergency medical dispatch and resource management across the whole county, plus Animal Services dispatch. Capacity is not a question either. Over the past three years, the County center absorbed seven City call rollover events without missing a beat. The City absorbed two from us.

On standards, the County center is already an accredited Center of Excellence in Emergency Fire Dispatch, earned again in October 2025. Our proposal commits to full Triple Accreditation within four years, with hard targets. Answer the call in 10 seconds, 90 percent of the time. Process the emergency in 65 seconds, 90 percent of the time, for fire, rescue, and emergency medical services.

Why the County

Here is a fair question. The big metros let their city run the consolidated center, so why not here. In Raleigh and Greensboro, the city operates the center because the city is the hub of the county. In Cumberland it is the other way around. Fayetteville is our largest city, but it is not the hub of this county. The County already serves the whole county, and it is the backup when the City system goes down.

On governance, that same working group made a deliberate choice. It did not try to decide who administers the center. Its chair had watched the fight over control wreck past consolidation attempts, so the group left that call to the elected boards. That is the question in front of us now. The City says it should administer the center, and that is a fair view to put forward. But this has never been about one government taking over the other. That same group even recommended that the current City 911 manager lead the consolidated center. The goal is to put the best of both under one roof.

There is also the matter of who pays. One 911 center instead of two saves taxpayers money. And here is the part people miss. The money the State sends for 911 does not cover the full cost of running a center. The rest comes out of local General Fund dollars, the same dollars that pay for core services like emergency medical services and public health. A 911 center is exactly that kind of core service, and it serves every person in the county. So the local share should come from the government whose tax base is the whole county, which is the County. That spreads the cost fairly, keeps city residents from paying twice, once to the City and once to the County, and saves the City, which no longer has to fund a center of its own.

And the answer holds up for everyone it touches. Nobody loses a job, since the County proposal protects existing positions, brings everyone to salary parity, and preserves the accreditations the dispatchers have earned. It saves money, with the City standing to save an estimated $3 million a year (based on public budget numbers) compared to running its own center. And the small towns are protected, because Eastover, Falcon, Godwin, Hope Mills, Linden, Spring Lake, Stedman, and Wade all receive complete baseline 911 service at no direct cost, as a core County function. That is what fairness looks like for the whole county, not just the largest city in it.

A Word on House Bill 1220

There is a bill in Raleigh called House Bill 1220. One part of it would let this Board decide, by majority vote, to operate one 911 center for the whole county, run by the County and held to the standards of the North Carolina 911 Board.

In recent weeks, that 911 language was added to House Bill 1220. Senator Tom McInnis already had our adopted resolution in hand, at his request, so the County position was in writing. The moment I found out it was moving, I went to work with Senator McInnis, Representative Wheatley, Representative Colvin, and others from our delegation, and I kept my fellow commissioners informed. Mayor Colvin and I then spoke with Senator McInnis together, and he agreed to hold the 911 language, to give the County and the City room to reach an agreement on our own. As a former state senator, I know that sometimes a legislative step helps resolve a local issue in the best interest of citizens. I believe that is what he intended, and I thank him for it.

Here is the part that matters most. That language does not have to run at all. If Mayor Colvin and I can report that the County and the City have reached a final agreement, through a joint letter or a joint resolution, there is no need for it. What matters now is finishing an agreement more than ten years in the making, so that the people who live here get the best emergency services we can provide.

The Goal Is an Agreement

So here we are. The hard work is done. The professionals have studied it and agreed. The community has shown it wants one system. The structure is close. The savings are real. The mental health piece is ready. What is left is an agreement. Not a winner and a loser, but a deal the City can stand behind, the County can stand behind, and our eight towns can count on.

Because at the end of all of it, this comes back to one person. The person who picks up the phone on the worst day of their life and needs one system, one standard, and one fast answer.

One county. One 911 center. One standard. Let us finish this together.

Troy's Perspective: Teen Takeovers in Fayetteville

Details

Tuesday, 14 July 2026

Written by Troy Williams

Fayetteville has seen a rise in organized 'teen takeovers,' where large groups of young people gather without authorization and often coordinate through social media. These events threaten community safety and disrupt daily life, making it crucial that we act now. Fayetteville's Cross Creek Mall has experienced recurring unauthorized pop-up gatherings that have caused disruptions, altercations, and reportedly led to temporary business closures or evacuations.

During the July 4th weekend in Raleigh, thousands of teenagers attended several gatherings, which culminated in a large fight near a movie theater. This incident included gunfire that injured two adult bystanders. Additionally, there were two more shootings at different locations, resulting in a total of eight people injured by gunshots. In response to these events, Raleigh officials are now considering implementing a youth curfew.

Unpermitted meetups have become a statewide issue, raising significant public concern. Law enforcement officials are compelled to closely monitor online flyers and group chats as a precautionary measure to ensure public safety. However, these actions are merely responses to the problem, not solutions. The critical question remains: how can responsible adults prevent these incidents from recurring?

We should consider whether modern parenting is contributing to the creation of troubled kids, as parents take on the role of Dr. Frankenstein when children behave like little monsters. Reflecting on our parenting approaches can help us better guide our children and prevent behavioral issues that lead to community disturbances.

The causes of the childhood mental health epidemic are multiple and varied. One social psychologist argued convincingly that smartphones and social media are the culprits, taking a toll on children's well-being.

When law enforcement becomes the response to the challenges we face in raising our children, we must ask ourselves: Where did we go wrong, and what can we do differently? We need to find solutions to the issues that affect our ability to raise children in today's culture with stronger parenting, stronger families, a solid faith foundation, better mentoring, accountability, education, discipline, love, and community involvement.

Will curfews solve our youth problems? I seriously doubt it, and there are valid arguments on both sides of this issue. My concern about curfews is that they may lead to increased police interactions with young people, which likely won’t result in positive long-term outcomes. I haven't seen any data that would convince me otherwise.

However, "teen takeovers" pose a public safety risk to everyone, and if law enforcement is our only option, that's what we will have to use.

Tattoo You, Tattoo Me

Details

Tuesday, 14 July 2026

Written by Margaret Dickson

Sometime in the last several decades, I realized that I was seeing more and more people with more and more tattoos.

I am not talking about an old tar with a dark blue anchor on his bicep or a crusty guy with a heart emblazoned “Mama” on his chest.  No, indeed.  I am talking vibrant colors in intricate designs covering most of the real estate of an arm or a leg, maybe even on a neck or face. And, not just on curmudgeons, but on young folks, both men and women.

So startled and—yes—fascinated by this new development was I that I began investigating, a process that culminated in an observation visit to the internationally-known Bill Claydon’s Tattoo World on Yadkin Road, which closed last year to the deep regret of tattoo aficionados everywhere. A friend, who incidentally had a rose on her breast as well as something on a wrist and an ankle, and I watched while a young soldier received a highly colorful and curvaceous dragon tattoo wrapping about his calf. The design had been chosen by his 4-year-old son, who was not present for the actual procedure. The tattoo artist said the work would take 6-8 hours, so they took several breaks to sip something and have a snack. I asked the soldier whether getting a tattoo was painful; he acknowledged that it was uncomfortable at best and painful at worst. He said he would “self-medicate” when he got home.

I also wrote several Up and Coming Weekly columns about tattoos, which generated reader responses along the lines of “what’s your problem, lady?” I asked readers to tell me about their tattoos and why they got what they did, and their responses were enlightening. Their tattoos commemorated important markers in their lives—a marriage, a new baby, the loss of a loved one. Most were proud of their tattoos, although some regretted them, especially ones that addressed a relationship that no longer existed. One woman wrote that she loved her tattoo, but that she deliberately put it on her upper thigh where her grandmother was not likely to see it!

Fast forward to 2026, and tattoos are everywhere on all sorts of Americans as well as people in other cultures. The desire to decorate one’s body apparently transcends geographic boundaries. 

Over the decades, we have also learned more about tattoos’ repercussions.

Tattoo regret is a real thing, especially among people who got them on a whim, when they were very young, and when they are in a highly visible place on one’s body. Tattoo removal is also a real thing, though it can be painful and expensive, requiring multiple sessions. Black and blue inks are the easiest to remove, with lighter and brighter colors more difficult and sometimes impossible to get rid of entirely. Some people opt for tattoo cover up to hide a regretted tattoo, perhaps the name or initials of a lost love.

There is also growing concern about tattoo ink being carcinogenic as it travels through the human body, perhaps causing cancers such as melanoma and lymphoma, although there are no direct causal studies.

Tattoos and the desire to decorate one’s body continue to fascinate me.

Do you have a tattoo or more than one?  Do you love them or regret them? Do they speak to a special person or event in your life and do they bring you happy memories?  Would you encourage your loved ones to get inked?

I would love to read your tattoo story and to share it with Up and Coming Weekly readers. Bring ‘em on!