A consultant’s revised traffic projections for the Asheville area has finally arrived, and the N.C. Department of Transportation has responded by proposing the same solution it was pushing several years ago: Widen Interstate 240 through West Asheville to eight lanes now, or by the year 2025 high volumes of traffic will bring motorists to a […]

A true education goes beyond old-fashioned book learning. Consider the Asheville Area Arts Council’s Arts-in-Education initiative. Now in its second year, the local program funds a variety of projects in Buncombe County — bringing artists into classrooms, showing teachers how to incorporate the arts into the curriculum, artist residencies and performances at schools, and bigger […]

Can you land a nollie 180 with a crooked grind? All you have to do is mount a skateboard, swoop down a steep concrete wall, hop up on a rail (feet still planted on your board, naturally), “grind” along the rail with your board nose-down, then land smoothly back on the ground and coast away. […]

Some might consider a bit of meandering dialogue “healthy.” Others might call it “wasted verbiage.” But after three-and-a-half hours, almost anyone might call it butt-numbing. “I’ve been to a lot of City Council meetings, and I’ve never heard so much wasted verbiage,” local financial planner Walter Plaue told Council members at the end of their […]

Both the heartstrings and the budget strings got tugged at Asheville City Council’s April 16 work session. Council members voted 4-3 to give the Asheville Youth Sports Program $15,000 to replace football/cheerleading uniforms and concession equipment destroyed in an electrical fire last Thanksgiving in a city-owned building at Memorial Stadium. The split vote reflected disagreement […]

One woman alone can make a difference — but a group of committed women can bring about real changes in their lives and in society as a whole. That’s the word from the Western Carolina Women’s Coalition, which held its “Women Cultivating Change” conference March 8-9 at UNCA. “This conference is a time to explore […]

“We are on the path of separating politics from the people. … We are failing as a society, because we’re creating an elitist government.” That declaration by former Asheville Mayor Leni Sitnick set the tone for a recent breakfast forum organized by the League of Women Voters on the topic of campaign-finance reform. The League, […]

“There’s no longer that ‘us-vs.-them’ attitude between staff, the board and owners.” — FBFC board Co-Chair Michelle Crane Good often follows on the heels of trouble. A couple of years ago, the French Broad Food Co-Op appeared to be at war with itself. Owner/members complained that the manager and board were mismanaging the business. Employees […]

The only folks who ever hear what’s said at the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners’ pre-meetings are the regulars. And that, according to quintessential regulars/perennial county watchdogs Don Yelton, Jerry Rice and Eric Gorny, is a grave disservice to Buncombe County residents. All three men are as regular as the furniture at the commissioners’ biweekly […]

It’s an old wound: the perennial sore spot called “annexation.” At their April 2 work session, Asheville City Council members reviewed seven areas the city might annex: a one-mile section along the Leicester Highway (west), Sherwood Heights (north), Huntington Chase (east), Bell Road (east), Mill Stone (south), Forest Lake (south) and Kensington-Windsor (south). The annexations, […]

Both Vice Chair Gary Semlak and At-Large Member Leslee Thornton cited personal reasons for their sudden resignations from the board of the Regional Water Authority of Asheville, Buncombe and Henderson. In the past year, however, both have been outspoken about their frustrations over several pending disagreements between Asheville and Henderson County. For more than a […]

“It’s not your fault; you’re not alone. … In the long run, if more of us speak out, we can put these people behind bars.” — local rape victim “Annie Jones” (not her real name) Take a walk down any street in any town in America: Haywood Street in Asheville, for example. Chances are, many […]

Here’s one reality: The aging Asheville Civic Center needs $10 million worth of maintenance and repairs just to keep ticking along for a few more years. Here’s another: Like many local governments across the state, the city of Asheville is facing a multimillion-dollar budget crunch. So where does the dream of a $115 million Civic […]

If there was any question whether Asheville’s main roads are dangerous for pedestrians, those doubts were erased on Jan. 12. That’s the night when Bernard and Carol Budish of Minnesota — both 82 years old — were killed by a hit-and-run motorist on East Tunnel Road. The elderly couple was apparently attempting to cross the […]

Asheville Police Chief Will Annarino was a popular guy at City Council’s March 5 work session. Three photographers and one WLOS TV cameraman fixed their lenses on the tall, imposing lawman as he made his pitch for cracking down on people soliciting money, jobs or rides from motorists on city streets. Annarino had Council members’ […]

The Buncombe County commissioners rode the education circuit on Feb. 26, holding joint meetings with the county and Asheville city school boards. Like dutiful students, the five commissioners took notes and asked questions. But the lessons school-board members offered them included as many challenges as answers — particularly when it comes to maintaining school funding […]

“In the faith community, we’re all in this together,” says the Rev. L.C. Ray, who works with at-risk kids in the Asheville area as director of the nonprofit One Youth at a Time. He’s talking about AIDS, which has had a disproportionate impact on local minority communities. “We’re talking about an epidemic here that is […]