A potential street closure between Coxe and Ashland avenues has drawn the ire of bicyclers, pedestrians and other greenway proponents because it would break up the connectivity of a citywide greenway project.
Street closures are typically handled with little fanfare or controversy, but the closure of Wallack Street, as requested by neighboring property owners, has attracted extra attention because the street lies within the Greenway Master Plan.
According to a city staff report, the Greenway Commission voted in November to recommend denial of the closure.
The issue is scheduled to appear before Asheville City Council at its Tuesday, Feb. 10, meeting. A public hearing was held in December, but Council deliberation has been delayed twice in order for Council members to receive more information on the matter from city staff.
Also, in the realm of "New Business," Council member Carl Mumpower is up in arms about new city signs near City/County Plaza that are written in English and Spanish. Mumpower has requested that the signs only appear in English.
Council also plans to hear a report on the city's annual audit and deliberate adopting its 2009 Strategic Operating Plan.
City Council meets at 5 p.m. on the second floor of City Hall. For the complete agenda, go here.
— Brian Postelle, staff writer
Street closures are typically handled with little fanfare or controversy, but the closure of Wallack Street, as requested by neighboring property owners, has attracted extra attention because the street lies within the Greenway Master Plan.
According to a city staff report, the Greenway Commission voted in November to recommend denial of the closure.
The issue is scheduled to appear before Asheville City Council at its Tuesday, Feb. 10, meeting. A public hearing was held in December, but Council deliberation has been delayed twice in order for Council members to receive more information on the matter from city staff.
Also, in the realm of "New Business," Council member Carl Mumpower is up in arms about new city signs near City/County Plaza that are written in English and Spanish. Mumpower has requested that the signs only appear in English.
Council also plans to hear a report on the city's annual audit and deliberate adopting its 2009 Strategic Operating Plan.
City Council meets at 5 p.m. on the second floor of City Hall. For the complete agenda, go here.
— Brian Postelle, staff writer
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Mumpower is right! English is our language.
Is the city going to put Ukrainian, German, and French as well.
By Chad Nesbitt
02/09/2009
aww come on guys...might learn a little spanish that way. In Mexico and many foreign countries they put english on signs. Even in France there is english in some places on the signs.
By nuvue
02/10/2009
Sr. Mumpower es un barril interminable de risas.
By cecibothwell
02/10/2009
De veras, Sr. Mumpower tiene miedo de otras idiomas; tal vez crea que es una conspiracion en contra los Estado Unidos por los estranjeros illegales.
By Dionysis
02/10/2009
¿Me pregunto si él leyó nunca las muestras escritas en inglés cuando él estaba en Vietnam?
By cecibothwell
02/10/2009
"¿Me pregunto si él leyó nunca las muestras escritas en inglés cuando él estaba en Vietnam?"
Uno pregunto bueno. Sr. Mumpower, que dice?
By Dionysis
02/11/2009
Spanish on signs, who cares. In other countries, you often see many languages on signs (including English, for which I am grateful) so good idea.
I disagree with the street closing though.
By cwaster
02/11/2009
When will Asheville include French (well, the Canadian version) on it's street signs in honor of our Quebec nationalists to the north?
By travelah
02/11/2009
Those who whine and grouse about such an insignificant matter seemed to be animated by excessive xenophobia. Evidently, they've never traveled beyond this country, where English signs, etc. are prevalent. Or, maybe they have and, being people of principle, complained about the sight of English displayed in non-English speaking countries. Not.
By Dionysis
02/11/2009
I wasn't aware there was such a large Quebecois community in Asheville, travelah. Have you been a defender of their movement for a while now?
By Piffy!
02/11/2009
pfghkp, are you referring to legal residents or illegal?
By travelah
02/11/2009
Just how many illegal French Canadians are estimated to be in this country?
By Dionysis
02/12/2009
This is one thing I agree with Mumpower on. If people are going to reside in the USA, they need to know its national language. Let's not let this double-language signage propagate any further.
By hal
02/14/2009
Darn tootin'. And while we're at it, we ought to pass legislation to straighten out the following problems. (Few of which occur in less mongrel languages like Spanish, where the rules tend to rule.)
-c
There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?>
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?  Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run  and feet that smell?>
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling  it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.
American English is a hodge-podge of immigrant languages (including those first immigrants across the land bridge to Alaska) and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
***
And by the way, it is an interesting factoid that China is about to become the largest English speaking country in the world, while the U.S. is on a trajectory toward Spanish/English bilingualism. For "nativists" like Mumpower (another strange word), would a return to
Cherokee be the best solution?
By cecibothwell
02/15/2009