Fayetteville, North Carolina - a surprisingly nice downtown

[LSyd]

work sent me to Fayetteville back in May of this year, and thankfully i managed to find the time to get out of the sprawl to the surprisingly nice downtown. while there's room for improvement, it was much nicer than i'd expected and been lead to believe.

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[Universal Soulja]

Nice Post....I always wondered what it looked like there

[IberiaCLT]

I know many, many, many North Carolinians who say Fayetteville is the worst NC city and crime ridden. Ive driven past Fay a few times but never visited (been to Raleigh, Winston, Greensboro, Asheville, Wilmington, Statesville, Boone, Lake Lure, West Jefferson, Blowing Rock, Chapel Hill, Cary, and some other smaller towns) but it looks better than I expected.

Poor city gets no love from tarheels

[Pan-Afro-Man]

I'm gonna add my photos here too when get a chance. I'm station here for the Army Corp of Engineers but I've been busy with all the projects going on here & oversea. Hopefully I get a chance during my Christmas Leave.

[miami305]

Originally Posted by Pan-Afro-Man

I'm gonna add my photos here too when get a chance. I'm station here for the Army Corp of Engineers but I've been busy with all the projects going on here & oversea. Hopefully I get a chance during my Christmas Leave.

Thank you for posting pictures of my hometown!!!

[desertpunk]

Awesome thread!

[Oaktowntwinz]

Great pictures. I've never been so, like you, I'm very surprised by the character of Fayetteville's downtown. Also, some awesome churches. Glad they didn't destroy those buildings in the name of progress.

[Quadrilateral]

Fayetteville's downtown went through similar struggles to the other city centers in NC. Lots of businesses left, the retail left, the people abandoned it for the suburbs and it sat dormant like a stonehenge to a city that once was. They're trying to revitalize the historic city center; it's slow-going. Fayetteville is really hurting from the lack of business presence.

One cool thing about Fayetteville is that it's the only major city in NC with a river that runs through the city (a navigable one at that--the Cape Fear River). It also sits on the Fall Line, so there are a few waterfalls in the city limits. Your photo caught one of them. There's another really good one in Clark Park, and there's Carver's Falls which was turned into a zipline course by the owner (not thrilled about that).

[drewdave]

^ Don't forget about Wilmington--same river, and probably safe to say a better, more vibrant downtown.

[Durhamite]

I knew it would take a photo genius to bring out the best of Fayette-nam. Much like Durham, Fayetteville gets a bad rap, although Durham has progressed much more rapidly with revitalizing downtown.

Back in the 1970s, early 80s, Hay Street was the place to be in the ville for red light district activities. With Ft. Bragg being such a large military facility and loads of soldiers needing some action, Hay Street acquired quite the reputation:

http://thetrad.blogspot.com/2009/07/...-bragg-as.html

Basically, the holy rollers had the most prominent block rip down (500 block)....:

http://photos.fayobserver.com/mycapt...tegoryID=59710

It was quite the lil vegas strip....of course, the city wanted to clean up image, closed most of the bars and chased all the pimps and hookers out of town...most of em anyway..


Great photos...you should do Wilmington and Durham one day, especially Durham, the capital of NC grit in my opinion.

[LSyd]

thanks for the replies everyone

Originally Posted by Durhamite

I knew it would take a photo genius to bring out the best of Fayette-nam. Much like Durham, Fayetteville gets a bad rap, although Durham has progressed much more rapidly with revitalizing downtown.

Back in the 1970s, early 80s, Hay Street was the place to be in the ville for red light district activities. With Ft. Bragg being such a large military facility and loads of soldiers needing some action, Hay Street acquired quite the reputation:

http://thetrad.blogspot.com/2009/07/...-bragg-as.html

Basically, the holy rollers had the most prominent block rip down (500 block)....:

http://photos.fayobserver.com/mycapt...tegoryID=59710

It was quite the lil vegas strip....of course, the city wanted to clean up image, closed most of the bars and chased all the pimps and hookers out of town...most of em anyway..


Great photos...you should do Wilmington and Durham one day, especially Durham, the capital of NC grit in my opinion.

thanks for the awesome links. i need to share them with my friends at Bragg.

one of these days i'll get to the rest of NC.

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[Durhamite]

Originally Posted by LSyd

thanks for the replies everyone



thanks for the awesome links. i need to share them with my friends at Bragg.

one of these days i'll get to the rest of NC.

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Thanks, I know you've never been a big fan of our fair state (save Asheville), but if you really spend some time in the core areas of the Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point); Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill), I think you'd be surprised at what's really here.

Lol, over the years, I always thought, LSyd doesn't realize it, but RDU and LSyd fit like a glove...if he just gave the place a chance...growing and progressive, old and historic, high academic mindset with still a down east, down home NC flavor and vibe....ok, I am a little biased.

Keep up the good work...been following your photo sets in this and other forums....some awesome stuff and getting better over the years.

[Sean in New Orleans]

Nice!

[Quadrilateral]

Originally Posted by drewdave

^ Don't forget about Wilmington--same river, and probably safe to say a better, more vibrant downtown.

Wilmington isn't a major city. It's a college town with a lot of tourist traffic. But it's true that it has a better downtown than Fayetteville and actually a pretty good one for its size.

[drewdave]

I don't know anyone that doesn't class both Wilmington and Fayetteville as 2nd tier NC cities.

[WeimieLvr]

Originally Posted by Quadrilateral

Wilmington isn't a major city. It's a college town with a lot of tourist traffic. But it's true that it has a better downtown than Fayetteville and actually a pretty good one for its size.

Not to derail a thread with some beautiful photos, but some misinformed posts just require a factual response.

Wilmington, population 362,000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington,_North_Carolina
Fayetteville, population 374,000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayetteville,_NC

Wilmington is as major as Fayetteville, I'm afraid...as is Asheville (population 425,000...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asheville,_NC) with the Swannanoa and French Broad Rivers running through downtown. So Fayetteville is certainly not "the only major city in NC with a river that runs through the city".

[krazeeboi]

Originally Posted by WeimieLvr

Not to derail a thread with some beautiful photos, but some misinformed posts just require a factual response.

Wilmington, population 362,000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington,_North_Carolina
Fayetteville, population 374,000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fayetteville,_NC

Wilmington is as major as Fayetteville, I'm afraid...as is Asheville (population 425,000...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asheville,_NC) with the Swannanoa and French Broad Rivers running through downtown. So Fayetteville is certainly not "the only major city in NC with a river that runs through the city".

Yeah, I was going to say what's the logic behind calling Fayetteville a major NC city but not Wilmington?

At any rate, this is a great thread. Downtown Fayetteville has some really nice bones!

[QueenCityDrag]

Bigger than I had thought. I like the people pictures the best.