On the Record: Council member Sage Turner talks West Asheville, live music and her quest for reelection

The afternoon sun is blazing when I meet Asheville City Council member Sage Turner in front of the giant mural of Dolly Parton and RuPaul on Haywood Road in West Asheville. Fortunately, Turner is holding two cans of LaCroix sparkling water that are beading with sweat. She presents one to me, and I accept. Popping the tab, I let her know she is my final interview for Xpress‘ limited series, “On the Record.”

Like fellow Council member Kim Roney, Turner was first elected in 2020 and is seeking reelection. And similar to my previous five sessions for “On the Record,” I’ve convened with Turner to listen to an album of her choosing and discuss her connection to the local arts scene.

Unlike previous interviews, we are not stationary. Instead, Turner has invited me to walk the neighborhood she’s called home for the past 25 years as she plays The Doors’ self-titled 1967 debut album on her phone.

The opening track — “Break on Through (To the Other Side)” — begins with its iconic driving ride cymbal and rim-click combo before the rest of the band joins in, and Jim Morrison declares, “You know the day destroys the night/night divides the day.”

As a child growing up in Charlotte, Turner first heard the album on a visit with her cousin Daren Dortin in Cincinnati. “I remember picking up the vinyl and being like, ‘Boy, what is this?’” As soon as the needle began circling the record’s grooves, she continues, Dortin jumped behind his drum kit and played along. “It was the first time I remember just recognizing that music is inspiring, cool and hypnotic.”

West Asheville’s evolution

Turner and I head east along Haywood Road, and I soon learn her connection to the local arts scene is primarily through her love of music and swing dance. Most Friday nights, she says, you can find her cutting loose at either Cork & Keg Bar in downtown Asheville or Eda’s Hide-a-Way in Weaverville.

But long before she purchased a pair of dancing shoes, she hosted open jam nights at her West Asheville home. “Friends from all over town would come sometimes and camp out, and we played music on my big deck for hours into the night,” she says.

Over the past two decades, the Council member has witnessed her neighborhood’s growth as it has morphed from a couple of dining options along Haywood Road into a bustling strip of coffeehouses, restaurants, tattoo parlors, bars and retail shops. Oh, and murals.

“We’re covered in artistic murals,” she says, pointing out the giant fox on the side of Haywood Country Club.

West Asheville’s music venue options, however, aren’t as robust as they once were, she continues. The Mothlight’s closure in 2020 and Isis Music Hall’s decision to shutter in 2023 come up. “Maybe that’s just the natural flow of business,” she says. “You know — not everybody’s going to make it [last] for 30 years.”

But the city’s overall music scene, she continues, is thriving. She points to the recent success of the second annual AVLFest  — a multivenue, multiday celebration in early August that featured hundreds of musicians and DJs performing across Asheville. “That’s pretty impressive,” Turner says.

On buskers and middle housing

Midway through our walk down Haywood Road, a riding lawn mower encourages us to turn right onto State Street. Somehow we’re already on the album’s final track, ironically titled “The End.” The detour eventually leads us to Hudson Street and Sevan Court.

“This is one of my favorite housing developments,” Turner says, pointing to a parcel of land with several identical homes as well as a larger row of apartments. “It’s called a cottage court.”

This type of development includes a cluster of small, detached, single-family residences constructed to specific standards and arranged around a common open space, creating a higher density of properties than traditional zoning permits.

Not surprisingly, the cottage court leads the conversation toward Asheville’s housing crisis. While the issue impacts community members across the board, Turner says, “I’ve heard for years now that the artist community can’t afford to live where it works. We’ve seen it with the loss of buskers in downtown.”

Turner says she’s paying attention to what other communities are doing to address housing challenges, pointing to parts of California and Texas as examples. She also notes that in 2019, she met with Artspace, a Raleigh-based nonprofit real estate organization that develops, owns and operates affordable housing and workspaces for creative entrepreneurs.

Unfortunately, the meeting occurred right before the COVID-19 pandemic, which stalled all progress after the initial discussion.

The pandemic similarly disrupted plans for updates to the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium. In January 2020, Xpress reported on the city’s proposed $100 million makeover for the location. Priorities swiftly shifted amid masking and social distancing mandates. Within the last two years, Council has approved just over $1.6 million in upgrades and repairs to the site, including a $205,000 contract to fix the site’s HVAC system.

Today, Turner says, the community debate remains how best to approach the auditorium — is it a matter of maintenance or relocation? “That conversation has been had five to 10 times over the decades,” she says. “Everything’s so tight right now, and with all the issues in the city, I don’t know that that’s near the top just yet.”

Jump for joy

Despite some setbacks brought on by the pandemic, there have been successes during Turner’s time on Council. She says the accomplishment she’s proudest of, as it relates to the arts, is the plan to upgrade McCormick Field. On Aug. 28, the city held a groundbreaking ceremony for the $38.5 million renovation project.

To offset costs — about $500,000 a year in debt services — Turner says the city plans to host live shows at the stadium as well as family experiences during the offseason. “Some new arts are coming in there,” she says. “And that’s a big deal.”

Our conversation, much like the path we wound up taking on our walk through West Asheville, meanders. I learn, for example, that Turner was recently in Kentucky visiting Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. The reception was terrible, and she needed to phone in for a city meeting.

“So I climbed and sat in a tree,” she says. “It was quite funny.”

I also learn that in her free time, she likes to restore houseboats — “from electrical to flooring and fiberglassing.” And that she’s been involved in volunteer work and has served on dozens of boards and committees for over two decades.

“You feel good about it,” she says of her service. “You’re helping people, you’re meeting people, you’re doing something good, you’re investing in your community. Some people like to go to bars and stuff. I go to volunteer things.”

Our walk ends where it began — in front of Dolly and RuPaul. I tell Turner that this is one of my daughter’s favorite murals. Turner offers to pose in front of the design for the article. I place my LaCroix on the sidewalk and start snapping away. I begin on the other side of the street before I gradually make my way closer to her. And then, unprompted, Turner jumps, soaring between the Queen of Nashville and Queen of Drag.