Some Council members were ready to put the peddle to the metal in the search for new transit system funding on Jan. 28. Not so Council member Vijay Kapoor, who convinced his peers to set the throttle to idle until the board’s next meeting, when the issue will be part of the formal agenda.
Press release from Down Home Haywood County: On Feb.15, Down Home Haywood will host its monthly community organizing meeting which is open to all. Chelsea Hoglen, Haywood Chapter Organizer, explains: “We will proceed with the New Year by introducing our new campaigns based on the 2020 priorities that we chose at our January meeting. […]
After months of disagreement, Asheville City Council is set to hear an updated climate emergency resolution produced jointly by the Sunrise Movement and the city’s Sustainability Advisory Committee on Energy and Environment during its Jan. 28 meeting.
Most downtown visitors and business folk see the need to fix crumbling sidewalks and improve other infrastructure on and around Haywood Street. But as the project to renovate the area kicks off, the impacts of the construction on retail stores and other downtown denizens remain to be seen.
When she was just 17, Melissa Colin decided to join the military as a combat medic. “When I first went in, I actually really loved it,” Colin recalls. “I had just gotten out of high school; I had to have my parents’ signature and all that.” Shortly after enlisting, however, she was sexually assaulted, which […]
Holding onto hope — even when things appear darkest — was a key aspect of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message at the height of the struggle for civil rights in the 1950s and ’60s, says local civil rights icon Oralene Simmons. And that notion still rings true today, more than 50 years after King’s […]
More than six years after first approving the project, Asheville City Council is circling back to the mixed-use development known as the RAD Lofts. During a public hearing at Council’s meeting of Tuesday, Jan. 14, officials will be asked to substantially scale back their affordability requirements for 235 housing units at the site. The previously […]
When the taxman comes calling to inspect each of Buncombe County’s 127,000 individual properties for the purpose of establishing their tax value this year, in many cases he won’t be a man at all. Reveal 250, a high-definition camera system deployed using flyover technology, and Cyclomedia, a vehicle-based 360-degree measurement system, will be among the […]
Not everyone is reaping the benefits of the booming industrial hemp sector. Although hard numbers are in short supply, a 2017 survey by the Marijuana Business Daily, a Colorado-based website, found that 81% of cannabis-related business owners nationwide were white. A Thursday, Jan. 9, panel will explore the lack of representation of people of color in the growing industry and some possible solutions.
From new communities to one-on-one engagement, local nonprofits, faith organizations and city-funded initiatives aim to provide housing and support for some of Asheville’s most vulnerable residents.
Downtown traffic is about to get a lot worse, according to Asheville City Council member Sheneika Smith. “Because this project is so massive and we’ve already accommodated for almost 1,000 parking spaces — which is equivalent to, we’ll say, 500 vehicles flowing up and down this major area where our bus terminal is — I […]
Asheville City Council will consider two requests for Land Use Incentive Grants and a Housing Trust Fund Loan request for new affordable housing developments during its Tuesday, Dec. 10, meeting.
During their Dec. 3 meeting, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners were told that while corrective measures to right years of financial mishandling are beginning to take hold, the county’s most recent audit still reflects the previous mismanagement.
A group of West Asheville residents proposed changes to House Bill 972, the law that legalized needle exchanges throughout the state, that would greatly restrict where and the programs operate.
On Nov. 26, Asheville City Council declined to allow tiny home communities in Highway Business zoning districts, saying those areas should be reserved for higher-density, transit-oriented forms of development. Activists with the Sunrise Movement urged Council to pass a climate emergency resolution advanced by the group without changes of any kind. And a group of bear advocates asked the city to help investigate whether local black bears are being caught in illegal snare traps.
Asheville City Council will consider a zoning change that would allow tiny homes on wheels to operate as permanent residences within the city’s Highway Business zoning district during its Nov. 26 meeting.
The Asheville Regional Airport received a boost from the federal government to update its infrastructure and expand the airport’s terminal.
Even as the 10-year anniversary of President Barack Obama’s March 23, 2010, signing of the Affordable Care Act approaches, many consumers still struggle to understand what the law can do for them, says Daniel Murphy of locally owned Hummingbird Insurance. “We talk to people literally every single day who say that they don’t have health […]
After more than 10 years of providing job training and placement services to Asheville residents who face barriers to employment, Green Opportunities now finds itself confronting an uncertain future. A reliance on program-based grant funding, a lack of consistent leadership and $200,000 of accumulated debt have contributed to the nonprofit’s financial woes.
“In my opinion, there are no problems with the TDA. The problems lie elsewhere,” said Vice Chair Himanshu Karvir during the tourism authority’s Nov. 20 meeting. “The problem lies with individuals that have nothing to do with our industry and have no idea how hotels operate, how the TDA operates and what the occupancy tax does for our community.”
Press release from the Alzheimer’s Association Western Carolina Chapter: The Alzheimer’s Association – Western Carolina Chapter is expanding its base of public policy volunteers in Buncombe and Henderson counties to support the organization’s advocacy efforts locally and nationally. Alzheimer’s Ambassadors are needed in Henderson County to serve as an in-district contact for a targeted member […]
