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Tuesday, 28 October 2025
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Written by John Hood
Most North Carolinians think our country is on the wrong track. That’s what 55% of respondents said in the latest High Point University survey, with 54% of likely voters offering the same critique in the latest Carolina Journal Poll.
I count myself in that majority. America has faced worse times, to be sure, including in my lifetime. What I find most disconcerting at the moment, though, is how little public dialogue is devoted to what I perceive to be the biggest problems facing our state and nation. Transfixed by devices and bamboozled by clickbait, we seem incapable of focusing on high-priority issues.
Consider these five challenges, defined by five troubling statistics:
• The first is $1.8 trillion. That’s how much the federal government borrowed over the fiscal year that ended September 30. Federal debt held by the public — that is, not counting money “borrowed” from federal trust funds — now stands at $30.3 trillion, or 98% of America’s gross domestic product.
If present trends continue, the debt will soon surpass annual economic output and reach 111% of GDP by 2030. Our federal government now spends more on debt service each year than it does on national defense. I wish I could blame Washington’s recklessness entirely on the politicians who serve there. But voters keep reelecting them! Unless we boot out irresponsible panderers and reward those willing to make tough decisions, American greatness will inevitably fade.
• The second number is 38%. That’s the share of annual health care spending financed by federal dollars — which, as I’ve just indicated, includes a vast amount of borrowed dollars. Adding in state dollars spent on Medicaid and other health plans pushes the government share of medical expenditures up close to half. Unless Congress and state legislatures accept the need to reform these programs, rather than expand them or shift their costs around, balanced budgets will remain forever out of reach.
• The third number is also 38%. According to independent tests, that’s the share of North Carolina eighth-graders who lacked basic math skills in 2024. The same assessment found 35% of eighth-graders lacked basic reading skills.
In 2019, before the COVID lockdowns, those figures were 29% and 28%, respectively. They were too high back then. Too many of our students were unprepared to work, go to college, or shoulder other responsibilities of adulthood. Still, in value-added terms, our schools in 2019 were more effective than those of all but a handful of states across the country. Now we’re far down the list.
• The fourth number is 1.6. That’s the average number of children born per American woman in 2024. It’s the lowest fertility rate yet recorded. The causes of this trend may be hotly debated, as are the effectiveness of potential policy responses, but the effects of slowing population growth are hard to dispute. Economic vitality and innovation will decline, as will the ratio of workers to retirees. A higher savings rate won’t be enough to compensate. Nor will advances in robotics. Human flourishing requires plenty of humans!
• The final number is 35%. That’s the share of North Carolina children living in single-parent households in 2023.
Unlike the figures discussed earlier, this one hasn’t gotten worse over time. The comparable figure a decade ago was 37%. Nevertheless, to have more than a third of our kids living with only one parent or guardian is a tragedy. Parenthood is a hard-enough job when performed in pairs, with plenty of support from extending family. Growing up in a single-parent household is a well-established risk factor for living in poverty, struggling in school, chronic unemployment, substance abuse, and other adverse outcomes.
These five problems aren’t the only ones worth worrying about, I grant you. But it’s hard for me to imagine a thriving nation in the absence of real progress on each of these fronts. Future generations of North Carolinians and Americans will thank us if we tackle these problems — and condemn us if we fail to do so.
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).
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Tuesday, 21 October 2025
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Written by Kirk deViere
The deViere Dispatch is a regular communication from Kirk deViere, offering thoughtful perspectives and timely updates on Cumberland County initiatives, decisions, and opportunities for community engagement.
His insights help demystify complex issues and provide candid commentary on government, leadership, and the decisions that shape our daily lives. Mr. deViere currently serves as Chairman of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners, representing District 2. He previously held office as a North Carolina State Senator for two terms and as a Fayetteville City Councilman for one term.
I strongly encourage our Up & Coming Weekly readers to Google and read CityView’s October 12 article by Tim White, the former editorial page editor of The Fayetteville Observer, titled: Here’s What Would Make Fayetteville a Grand Arts Mecca. In it, White shares his opinion on what “would transform Fayetteville into an unavoidable stop for arts and entertainment in North Carolina.”
Well, in my opinion, Mr. White has forfeited the right to offer such an opinion. Kirk deViere is far too much of a gentleman—and politician—to say this outright, but I’m not. Tim White is an uninformed hypocrite.
His article merely regurgitates the negative talking points of a few disgruntled and misinformed downtown Fayetteville property owners. White has zero credibility when it comes to commenting on city or county matters in which he has no direct involvement or understanding.
It is both foolish and disingenuous for him to claim a deep love for Fayetteville—its arts, culture, dining, and “cheery” downtown experiences. Really? If he “loved” and enjoyed Fayetteville so much, why did he choose to live in Moncure, a town in Chatham County, 40 miles away? Mr. deViere’s Dispatch is spot-on. We need more truth-tellers willing to bring transparency to local government and call out this kind of hypocrisy.
It’s precisely this type of illegitimate commentary that likely led The Assembly to apply bold yellow editorial disclaimers to its content—and why CityView continues to solicit support and donations to the point of ad nauseam. Jus' sayin'!
Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly newspaper.
—Bill Bowman, Publisher
The deViere Dispatch, Oct. 14
The recent CityView editorial column paints an appealing picture of downtown Fayetteville as an arts mecca, with the Crown Event Center (originally pitched as a “DPAC-like” Performing Arts Center) as the missing puzzle piece that would complete the vision. It’s easy to understand the nostalgia for lost cultural venues and the desire to see downtown thrive with pre-show dinners and post-show drinks within walking distance.
But there’s something critical that the CityView article glosses over: this wasn’t actually about lacking “visionary leadership” it was about inherited flawed plans masquerading as vision.
The Project That Changed Beyond Recognition
The downtown facility wasn’t killed by commissioners lacking imagination. It was a project that ballooned from $80 million to $178 million (including the parking deck), with costs more than doubling from original estimates. More troubling, this wasn’t even the performing arts center many residents envisioned and had been pitched. It was an event center with a flat floor designed primarily for conventions, yet consistently marketed as something it wasn’t.
When only 28 people from user group workshops essentially designed a multi-million dollar facility, and their own cautionary notes about size and scope were ignored, that’s not visionary planning—that’s a runaway project detached from community input.
What the Community Actually Wanted
Here’s the part that should give downtown advocates pause: the community survey used to justify the downtown location actually showed majority support for renovating the existing Crown Complex before evaluation criteria were weighted to favor downtown. The data existed (https://bit.ly/ECFS2021 - slide 13), but was interpreted to support a predetermined outcome.
The Gateway Argument: Investment vs. Abandonment
The CityView article makes a compelling emotional point about the Crown Complex area: it’s become a “dilapidated landscape” that deters job-seekers arriving at the airport, a once-bustling corridor along US 301 that declined after I-95 diverted traffic. The argument goes: why turn away from this “entertainment asset” and key gateway when it needs investment?
But this framing by the skilled writer presents a false choice. The question isn’t whether to invest in the Crown Complex area or abandon it. It is whether to invest wisely in what exists versus pouring $178 million into a fundamentally flawed project.
In fact, the commissioners’ decision actually directs investment toward the Crown Complex. The board has instructed the county manager to develop a framework to modernize the existing Crown Arena and Theater that will increase use and programming of the facilities. This represents exactly the kind of investment the gateway argument calls for by improving the corridor that first-time visitors see, rather than abandoning those existing facilities.
Consider the math: if renovating and modernizing the Crown Complex was the community’s stated preference in the survey, and if that approach provides more usage days than the downtown facility while addressing the “dilapidated” gateway problem, isn’t that actually more responsive to both community input and the gateway concern?
The article dismisses the Crown Complex location as “the city’s ragged edge” near “shabby old motels,” but you don’t revitalize a struggling corridor by abandoning the anchor institutions that could drive its renewal. You revitalize it by investing in those anchors intelligently, which is precisely what a fiscally responsible Crown Complex renovation and some strategic master planning could accomplish.
The Parking Problem Nobody Solved
The romantic vision of walking from dinner to show to drinks collapses when you realize there was no on-site ADA parking, and the proposed $33 million parking garage (never acknowledged as part of the project by some) was located behind the courthouse without a connection to the facility.
The Real Question About Vision
Yes, Fayetteville needs quality arts venues. Yes, downtown Fayetteville revitalization matters. And yes, the Crown Complex corridor deserves investment as a key gateway. But is it visionary leadership to commit the full debt capacity of Food & Beverage tax revenue to a facility projected to be used only 144 days per year? That’s actually fewer days of use than existing facilities would provide.
Is it visionary to rush a groundbreaking ceremony and rip up a 200-space parking lot with a flawed replacement plan, approving $26 million in spending within two weeks of a new board taking office, leaving no time for value engineering or addressing critical flaws?
The article is right that Fayetteville deserves better than a dilapidated gateway, but the solution isn’t to abandon that gateway for downtown at any cost. The solution is to invest wisely in improving what exists while exploring future development opportunities for the downtown site that don’t require fiscal recklessness.
A Different Kind of Vision
Real visionary leadership sometimes means having the courage to stop a project that’s gone wrong, even when it disappoints people. It means being willing to say: “We can do better than spending $178 million on a misrepresented facility that would sit empty most of the year, with parking we haven’t properly planned, funded entirely by one vulnerable revenue source the state can eliminate at any time.”
It also means recognizing that you can address the gateway problem and practice fiscal responsibility by investing in Crown Complex modernization. This is an approach that the community survey actually supported and that provides more programming flexibility.
The question isn’t whether our community deserves to be an arts mecca with an impressive gateway. The question is whether pursuing that vision requires abandoning fiscal responsibility, ignoring what the community survey actually said they wanted, and turning away from strategic investment in existing entertainment infrastructure.
Perhaps the real missing piece isn’t visionary leadership, it is the willingness to build that vision on a foundation of honest planning, accurate information, and sustainable financial principles that invest in all of the community’s corridors, not just downtown Fayetteville.
(Top Photo: The Crown Event Center location in downtown Fayetteville is currently unoccupied. Bottom Photo: This artist's rendering shows what the original plan for the Crown Event Center entailed. The project cost ballooned from initial estimates.)
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