In all these years of debate about Fayetteville's "gateways," its appearance rules and regulations, its Unified Development Ordinance and other initiatives to spruce up the city's image, I've too often let myself imagine "developers" as some hulking, singular presence that is mindlessly trying to block every effort at bringing the city's appearances into the 21st century.

And I was wrong. I saw that last week after the Fayetteville Association of Realtors held its annual State of the Real Estate Market luncheon. Association president Dave Evans talked about the clear link between economic development and the Realtors' business — selling residential and commercial properties. The housing market is driven by the economy, he said. If we want to have more people buying houses, we've got to have more businesses setting up shop here. And if we want to attract those businesses, we need to be more, well, attractive.  We need improved walkability with more sidewalks and crosswalks, he said. We need to hide the parking lots of new buildings and bury more utility lines. We've got some "cool things happening" here, he said, including the International Folk Festival, the passage of the parks-and-recreation bond, the new baseball stadium.

But we're not getting all that much prettier. It's still ugly out there. Too many of our elected officials still think that beautification means improving our "gateways," which they translate as putting up more attractive signs and a few shrubs at the main entrances to the city. And they're so wrong about that. We do need attractive gateways, but they need to be classy welcomes to attractive corridors. Raeford Road starts out great at both of its ends — in Haymount and at the Hoke County line. Things go very wrong fast. So much of Raeford Road is a horrific montage of ugly storefronts and even uglier signs, all at war with each other. And the road is lined with utility poles carrying all sorts of wires and cables that would be so much more attractive if they were underground, with wider sidewalks (when there actually are sidewalks) lining both sides of the road.

And what about our prime shopping district, on Skibo Road? Have you ever seen such an ugly collection of utility wires and poles? Sidewalks? Easy street crossings? A pedestrian-safe environment that encourages people to walk between stores? Hah! Maybe not in our lifetime.

And do you fly in and out of Fayetteville Regional Airport from time to time? Pretty decent terminal and really convenient parking. And the terminal is about to get a great facelift and much better facilities to make traveling even more pleasant. I've always enjoyed the experience of "Fayetteville International" a whole lot more than traveling up to the bigger, more crowded RDU. But here's the thing: The airport is arguably our most important gateway. We take great care to make it attractive. And then what does a visitor see as he or she drives from the airport to, say, downtown? Warehouses, fast-food joints, old and seedy-looking motels, ugly billboards. Few sidewalks. Little landscaping. It's enough to make a hot business prospect throw in the towel and head back to the airport — and I've heard more than a few stories about that happening.

We can find the money to hire more cops and cut down on crime. We can get the voters to approve a bond issue that will give us recreation centers, pools, playing fields, senior centers and even a riverfront park. We can get the city and yes, even the county, to agree to help fund a downtown ballpark. But we can't get more and better sidewalks and crosswalks. We can't get safe pedestrian crossings on Skibo Road, or anywhere else except downtown. We can't spend some money on burying utility lines, which should be an annual line on the city budget — or the PWC's. And we surely can't find a way to create codes that actually give us attractive signs outside businesses.

And then we wonder why it's so hard to get people to come here and open businesses that pay anything better than the going rate at chicken slaughterhouses or call centers.

Last week we heard from the leader of the Realtors association, telling us that he does get it. Whatever he's got, I hope it's contagious.

Tim White is the Observer’s editorial page editor. Follow him on Twitter @WhatTimSaid. He can be reached at 486-3504 or twhite@fayobserver.com. You can discuss this column online by going to fayobserver.com/opinion and clicking on today’s column.