Every December, I like to do a post that features the most-read stories on Cross Creek Divide for the calendar year. I don’t know how you feel about 2021, but it flew by for me. Most of us put politics to the side while we tried to gain some sort of control back in our daily lives. Omicron wrecked all that, and now we face more unknown.

On top of that, the City of Fayetteville has a leadership crisis. Our local politicians didn’t accomplish much, choosing instead to yell at and censure one another rather than come together for the betterment of our community. I chose not to write about this drama. It doesn’t deserve your attention.

We can only hope that 2022 will improve. A lot of new folks have decided, for whatever reason, to enter the political fray. You’re going to see a lot of new names up and down your ballots this year, and this is a good thing. I hope you’ll value a person’s ability to cross partisan and racial lines as you assess their credibility as a leader. We can’t keep fighting all the time.

Now, for the top three posts of 2021:

Basement Bailouts for Prince Charles Holdings: Our city council bought up more of the unfinished parking deck that your tax dollars paid to build.

Mayor Colvin Ignores His Own Reality: A look at the racial arguments against the “Vote Yes Fayetteville” movement to bring At-Large seats back to the Fayetteville City Council.

The Carolina Cabinet With Nat Robertson: I was on the radio back in May with Nat Robertson and we discussed a lot. At one point, I argued that Donald Trump should take credit for the vaccine and encourage his supporters to get it. This was the headline in the Washington Post last week:

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Happy New Year. As always, thanks for reading.

-Matt Richardson