The March 19 Mountain Xpress featured summer camps for kids. One camp, Five Farms, takes kids to five different farms. Teaching children how vegetables are grown is laudable, but last year many of the participating farms raise animals for food. I’m sure campers enjoy getting to know and interact with the goats, chickens and other […]

Asheville has the distinction of being named Tree City, USA, for the past 33 years. While not every tree in our city grows near a utility power line, many of those we encounter every day in our commutes do. The recent effort of Duke Power to clear utility power line rights-of-way of tree growth is […]

I love this city; Asheville, it’s great, right? The mountains are beautiful in the background, we have lots of bars and restaurants here, good art and mostly lovely weather. But what else do we have? Hmmm, we have a vibrant and eclectic community, according to word of mouth. But, do we have people who represent […]

Geez-o-pete. Again? Is or is not Stewart David and his cadre of chain letter writers the most published submitters of Letters to the Editor ever? Is David a stakeholder at MX or have something on Jeff Fobes? To me it seems that anything Stewart sends in gets published. I am just sick of being beat […]

On May 6, I will cast my vote for District Attorney Ron Moore in the Democratic primary. Over 20 years ago my husband and I decided to raise our family in Asheville. We were attracted to this safe, progressive community because of the people and the natural beauty. I continue to be awed by every […]

Every Tuesday afternoon a group of Asheville Middle School students and I walk a block and a half from the middle school to the Asheville Downtown Market, where we gather on a couple of cozy sofas in a corner of the Hi-Fi Cafe to talk philosophy. Our group of young philosophers, Plato’s Cafe, is part […]

I cannot tell you how shocked I was to read about the eviction of Hi-Fi Cafe at the Downtown Market.  There are no businesses of this style in this area.  The quality of this little coffee bar, both the food and the coffee, is exceptional. I have been a regular customer there for two years […]

Charlie and Troy Ball provided the following response to reader concerns about Hi-Fi Cafe and their plans for the building they own at 45 S. French Broad Ave.: There have been a lot of questions regarding our plans for the building at 45 S. French Broad. While we are founders and co-owners of Asheville Distilling, […]

I felt compelled to write a letter to the editor after reading about the horrible incident at Candler Elementary School. A 9-year-old boy, who loves My Little Pony, brought a backpack to school that had a character on [it]. His classmates called him vicious names and teased and tormented him. I won’t get into all […]

Every four to five years Asplundh Tree Expert Co.,  the tree pruning company hired by Duke Energy, comes to WNC to trim trees back from the power lines.  Duke Energy claims that “maintaining trees and vegetation along their power lines helps to ensure reliability, minimize outages and enhance safety for customers, Duke’s employees and contractors.”  […]

The first time I met Todd Williams was in front of the Asheville Brewing Co. on Coxe Avenue about eight years ago. He was on one of his many bike rides through downtown, and we chatted about cycling and beer – two topics near and dear to our hearts. Over the years I’ve come to […]

In the Mountain Xpress, an article was published by writer Kristin D’ Agostino [“Going Up?” Feb. 19] about the elevator in the Flatiron Building in which she only mentions or refers to three of its four elevator operators. Neil Mobberly works the morning shift from 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and Brian Moretti works the […]

We have all these new grocery stores opening in Asheville, yet we have NO grocery stores for the residents in the downtown business district. The French Broad Food Co-Op and Amazing Savings [recently renamed Hopey & Co.] are too far to walk and too close to drive and find parking. This affect’s Battery Park Residents, […]

I was pleased to see the announcement on your website that Xpress won four North Carolina Press Association awards this year and the accompanying article in your March 5 issue [”Xpress wins four North Carolina Press Awards”]. Congratulations to the current and former Xpress writers who won awards. However, I am disappointed that Xpress has […]

I certainly don’t expect my local alt-weekly to be any kind of ally to the many, many queer and trans folks who have been living and working in this town since at least the 1970s — after all, we’re out here trying to make a living, avoid daily street harassment and smashing the patriarchy, while […]

As an outdoor regional writer, I appreciated your article on WNC presses [“Pressing Matters: WNC’s Small But Mighty Publishing Houses,” Feb. 26 Xpress]. But I would like to add Milestone Press to your list of regional presses. Mary Ellen Hammond and Jim Parham have been publishing quality outdoor adventure guidebooks for our region for 22 […]

It was just over two years ago when Greenpeace activists went into the coal plant in South Asheville and hung banners. They did it to point out that coal is destroying our mountains, destroying our air, causing climate change and poisoning our water and our lands. They were arrested for this action. And yet, the […]

I’m writing as a citizen and resident of Jackson County to voice my support for Ron Robinson for N.C. Senate, 50th District. The seat is currently occupied by tea party extremist, Jim Davis. As a person deeply concerned about the degradation of our natural environment, I see candidate Robinson as someone I can trust to […]

I hope that I am not alone in my supreme discomfort at the casual discussions our City Council is having regarding placing a larger surveillance network of cameras in downtown. Is this a surveillance network that we will hand operation over to the police, whose department is mired in malfeasance and investigation? Draconian broad surveillance […]