Pitts: Fayetteville metro a half-million strong ... no, really

Someone sent me an article link that said “Fayetteville, NC. is one of America’s fastest growing big cities.” 

It had Fayetteville third on the list of U.S. metro areas in terms of growth. Population listed: 524,588.

I was like: whut.

My first thought is some hapless chucklehead had gotten us mixed up with Fayetteville, Arkansas — as has happened with many a news release I have received over the years. 

More:Pitts: Fayetteville to Raleigh ... by train? The idea lives on but obstacles remain

But then in successive Google searches of .51 seconds and .49 seconds, I found that our Fayetteville is much bigger than the ones in Arkansas OR Georgia. 

And just to show you how I am, I want to reiterate for the umpteenth time that our Fayetteville is the only one the Marquis de Lafayette, the namesake for all the Fayettevilles, visited in person. 

More:These Fayetteville restaurants are open on Christmas Day or offer catered meals

Anyway, it took a couple of more clicks before I realized the word “metro” was doing a lot of work in that article, put out by 24/7 Wall Street, a financial opinion and commentary site.

Fayetteville, the city of my birth and where I usually am located when I compose these words, has a population of around 210,000. 

More:Hoke, Harnett counties experienced major population growth since 2010, Census results show

The Fayetteville Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)  — now that is a different story. MSAs are determined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and that body considers the Fayetteville Metro to be Cumberland, Harnett and Hoke counties. 

So that’s how we get to more than a half-million folks. Who knew? (Well, the federal government knew and probably a great many other public officials and regular people who follow such things.)

It is this statistical area — let’s call it the Fay MSA for short — where we are growing by leaps and bounds: 37.9% growth in the last five years, according to the story, which cited the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. That puts us just behind Manhattan, Kansas, and in front of Longview, Texas, out of 381 U.S. metros with available data.

Now I know the kazoos are blowing and the ticker-tape is already floating down to Hay Street over this great news. But after we get all that swept up, let’s go deeper and get real over our growth.

A whole county — Harnett — was added to the Fay MSA in the summer of 2020, in the middle of the five-year time period covered by 24/7 Wall Street. That’s some 135,000-plus folks right there. That increased Fay MSA by 30% in one fell swoop, according to a news release at the time put out by the Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corporation (FCEDC). 

Some of the growth in Harnett, one of the state's fastest-growing counties, is doubtlessly driven by its status as a Triangle bedroom.

But they are still rolling with the Fay MSA.

Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin said the continued growth makes a statement.

“I think we’re finally starting to recognize who we are,” he said. “The largest city in the metropolitan area, brings a lot of commerce.”

He said the city will continue to take a more regional approach in marketing the community to the rest of the country. He cited the area's major universities and community colleges, the half-million people and better coordination with the federal government and the state Department of Transportation, with expansions on Interstates 95 and 295. 

“A lot of our municipal peers benefit from the metro statistics,” he said. “Raleigh does for sure and that’s how it became a contender for Apple and Google. 

“This is how you get it done.”

The Economic Development Corporation release cited the definition of an MSA: “A geographical zone with an urban center of 50,000 residents or more, that has close economic ties throughout the adjacent counties. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget determines MSA size and mandates that each member county show 25% more of economic integration with the urban center.” 

Large companies often consider MSA size and workforce numbers in the search for a new location, the release added.

I get all that, and that’s all great. 

But an MSA is still a bit of a wild ride, innit? 

It sounds like how they would arrange populations in some futuristic movie, where  — if you’ll recall the “Seinfeld” joke — we would all be wearing the same jumpsuit. 

The movie aspect is also enhanced by just the unreality of this geographic grouping.

To the federal government and at least some companies, the MSA is a thing, but is it in reality?

How many times have you seen this conversation:

Person 1: “Where are you from?”

Person 2: “Me? Oh, Fayetteville-Hoke-Harnett. What about you?”

On the other hand, I can easily see how this larger grouping will increasingly make sense in our post-pandemic, everybody-can-work-anywhere environment, where work is somehow both mobile and commuter-driven. My wife, for example, works at one of her two jobs in Moore County, and it often takes her to Hoke, too.

I can say Harnett County has been a part of my life from early days. My mom was the original commuter, driving nearly an hour one way from Fayetteville for more than 30 years to teach science to high schoolers there. 

You know how teachers bring their work home? So I heard stories about her students a lot, meaning Harnett County kids were figuratively at my dinner table a great deal.

Years later, after she retired, I asked her why she did not just teach in Cumberland. She said she fell for the Harnett County students because they reminded her of herself and the rural kids where she grew up near Carrollton, Georgia.

Who knew we would all one day be citizens of the Fay MSA?

And we are a half-million strong. Plus.

Now, where is my jumpsuit?

Myron B. Pitts can be reached at mpitts@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3559.