Kimberlee Archie, the city’s first equity and inclusion manager, and Libby Kyles, CEO of the YWCA of Asheville, have left high-profile jobs with a mission of improving racial equity in the city within a month of each other.
Author: Asheville Watchdog
Showing 127-142 of 142 results
From AVL Watchdog: Debate fact-checker: zingers, jabs and lies
In their first public face-off, the candidates vying for the increasingly competitive 11th District congressional seat, Republican Madison Cawthorn and Democrat Moe Davis, touted their differences on just about all issues and hurled accusations, with each calling the other “fast and loose” with the facts. Who was telling the truth?
From AVL Watchdog: Come back tourists; oops, never mind
Buncombe County’s Tourist Development Authority began advertising for tourists to visit Asheville again — on the same day that the county’s top public health official said coronavirus cases were “rising at an alarming rate.”
From AVL Watchdog: Asheville Police calls: Roadmap for defunding?
Of 911 calls and requests for assistance to the Asheville Police Department, less than 1% involve a violent crime, an AVL Watchdog analysis of police dispatch data shows. Much of the time, police are summoned to routine calls such as traffic accidents, domestic disputes and loud parties or non-violent crimes like shoplifting, trespassing and prostitution.
From AVL Watchdog: Travel industry controls North Carolina’s room tax laws
A bill that would have changed the distribution of Buncombe County’s controversial hotel tax to better benefit local government is likely dead until at least next year. The change would have reduced the share of room tax money to market and advertise Asheville as a tourist destination.
From AVL Watchdog: What’s in a name? For Asheville, signs point to history of racism
Vance, Patton, Woodfin, Henderson, Weaver, Chunn, Baird — their names are familiar to anyone living in Asheville and Buncombe County today. All were wealthy and influential civic leaders. They were also major slaveholders or slave traders and white supremacists.
From AVL Watchdog: How tech can help Asheville’s economy
In 2019, if you were to ask anyone what drove Asheville’s economy, they’d tell you beer, arts and crafts, outdoor recreation, hotels and restaurants. In short, tourism. Today, with those businesses only just beginning to ramp back up and tourists staying home, talk of diversifying Asheville’s economy is picking up.
From AVL Watchdog: The race for the GOP nomination in the 11th Congressional district could embarrass Trump
As the race for the GOP nomination heads to the June 23 climax, Bennett appears by many indicators to be locked in a desperate race against 24-year-old political neophyte Madison Cawthorn of Hendersonville. A victory by Cawthorn, a political unknown until weeks ago, will be seen as a humiliating defeat for Bennett, a longtime GOP functionary.
From AVL Watchdog: Asheville arrest data suggest discrimination against Black people
African Americans in Asheville are three times more likely than white people to be searched by police in traffic stops and are disproportionately charged with common crimes such as marijuana possession in disparities that experts in police bias called shocking, an AVL Watchdog analysis of police data found.
From AVL Watchdog: Families in fear at stricken nursing home
In its second article on COVID-19 hotspot Aston Park Health Care Center, AVL Watchdog speaks with the families of some residents. Unable to see their loved ones in person, they are faced with the difficult task of waiting and hoping.
From AVL Watchdog: COVID ravages Asheville nursing home, half of patients infected
By Friday morning, 55 elderly and infirm residents at the Aston Park Health Care Center in southwest Asheville and at least 30 of its staff have tested positive for COVID-19.
From AVL Watchdog: Pandemic put pause on Mission’s troubles
As Mission Health begins to reopen for elective surgeries and procedures put on hold during the first wave of the ongoing pandemic, the unresolved question that roiled the community just three months ago remains: Was HCA’s purchase of Mission Health healthy for Asheville?
From AVL Watchdog: $5M TDA relief bill for small businesses helps hotels too
Coronavirus relief is just the latest topic in an ongoing debate over whether the Tourism Development Authority, with its mission to bring ever more overnight guests to Buncombe County, is good for county residents — or just good for the hotel industry that has controlled it since its inception nearly four decades ago.
AVL Watchdog: Katie Button is ‘scared of losing everything’
“To be honest, if we don’t get the right help on our loans from our banks and lenders, we won’t be able to pay our bills and we will be in default of our loans, and that’s when it all crumbles. That is the fear. “
From AVL Watchdog: Political candidates staying home during COVID-19
With baby kissing, hand shaking and door knocking out of the question, candidates in key races from Congress to the County Commission are sidelined and struggling to connect — virtually — with voters. Campaigning in the era of COVID has been upended.
From AVL Watchdog: A post-pandemic Asheville faces a daunting return
In its first story, news nonprofit AVL Watchdog looks at many possible paths to recovery from the COVID-19-induced economic crisis unfolding in Asheville and Buncombe County.