“Pea shoots, baby!” exclaimed gardener Patryk Battle. In a scene reminiscent of Stalking the Wild Asparagus author and eat-almost-anything enthusiast Eull Gibbons, Battle waved the viney snippet of green under the nose of a male guest at the Appalachian Harvests gala, held Oct. 25 at the Grove Park Inn. The event served up a smorgasbord […]

The first thing that hit me as I approached Asheville’s paving crew was the sweet aroma of oranges. It was a coolish summer morning in West Asheville, and I’d come prepared to choke on asphalt fumes while I watched the crew in action. Asheville has about 366 miles of streets, and roughly 65 percent of […]

Let’s play politics — or would you rather have a root canal? Just for the sake of argument, however, take a minute to consider what it means to define yourself politically. We’re not talking strictly Republican vs. Democrat, either. Our local ballots this year will include both Libertarians and Reform Party candidates. (What you won’t […]

Stop the presses! N.C. Gov. Jim Hunt and Sen. Jesse Helms actually agree on something: Both men have endorsed the $3.1 billion in college and public-television bonds up for voter approval on the Nov. 7 ballot. If enough voters check “yes” on the ballots, WNC stands to gain nearly $300 million for its three universities […]

This race started out as a sleeper: A few months ago, Republican incumbent Charles Taylor was seen as a shoo-in to keep his seat in Congress. Then, reports of delinquent taxes, Russian deals, bank investigations and potentially illegal HUD payments surfaced in Raleigh, Charlotte, Asheville and even national newspapers. At an Aug. 24 meeting of […]

When it’s cold, windy and wet, the gas-fired heaters at the Asheville Transit Center simply don’t do the job. Sure, they get red hot and blast heat downward. But they’re hung too high above waiting riders to do any good, especially in windy conditions. Months ago, Asheville City Council directed Transit Services Director Bruce Black […]

To get more people out to vote on Nov. 7, maybe someone should offer free pizza at the polls. The combination of free pizza and extra school credit seemed to work for the Asheville Pizza and Brewing Company, which hosted Kids Voting/Buncombe County on Oct. 3, the night of the first debate between presidential candidates […]

“If you don’t vote, you’re not free.” That’s what John Hayes was told one day by a young woman who was only 8 years old when Martin Luther King Jr. led the civil-rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in 1965. “If you need a reason to vote, think of the people who died so […]

The Water Efficiency Task Force appears to have accomplished its mission — promoting education and conservation. So members of the Policies and Priorities Committee of the Regional Water Authority of Asheville, Buncombe and Henderson have recommended dissolving the citizens’ group. “After much discussion, we decided the WET Force had completed what its original charter called […]

After months of bitter infighting and a rancorous labor dispute, the French Broad Food Co-op’s new leadership is setting its sights on charting a viable course for the embattled Asheville institution. The new board of directors has come a long way since its first meeting, back on June 28, when the tension was so thick […]

If you’ve ever had a gripe about traffic on Merrimon Avenue, raise your hand. Asheville City Council members seem to think there’s a problem with traffic on the four-lane thoroughfare, too. But it’s a state-maintained road, which ties city officials’ hands. The best chance for Council members, residents and business owners to suggest improvements to […]

The two 7-year-olds lean over the Kids Voting ballot, reading carefully. “Should wearing a helmet while bike riding be required by law?” Emma Tilson reads aloud. Easy one: She checks the “yes” box, and so does her pal, India Good-Prochaska. For another question, though, they fall bak on the old eeny-meeny-miney-mo method: “Should there be […]

Hay named to Economic Development Commission Usually, Mayor Leni Sitnick reserves her personal comments and recommendations for the end of City Council discussions. But when she took the lead at the Sept. 5 work session, several Council members objected. At issue was who gets to serve on the Economic Development Commission. Earlier this year, Council […]

Free speech seems to have its limits. When the selection committee for the Dr. Marketta Laurila Free Speech Award announced that anti-abortion activist Helen Gordon would be one of three people honored this year, the protests began. Even Marketta Laurila, the award’s namesake, recently asked that her name not be associated with any award given […]

Lead paint tastes sweet, enticing children to nibble on paint chips flaking from window sills in older homes. And that’s one reason one out of every 23 children in the United States has lead poisoning. But a more important reason for the problem is improper maintenance and repair — by contractors, renovators, painters and homeowners […]

If, one day, you happen to be zipping down Kimberly Avenue, don’t be surprised to see a host of “Slow down” and “We have little children” signs dotting the spacious yards. Apparently, Kimberly Avenue homeowners are willing to try just about anything to get motorists to obey the posted 25-mph speed limit, as Asheville City […]

Go ahead and call Rob Messick a tree hugger: He won’t be offended. On a damp Friday, we stood beside the Blue Ridge Parkway a few miles north of Mount Mitchell, eyeing a heavily wooded slope that plunges 600 feet in elevation in less than a half-mile. There’s no trail at this point, just a […]

Keep the decibels down. In fact, keep them out of the county’s noise ordinance altogether. “Decibel-based ordinances are not effectively enforceable,” announced Reorganizing Commission member Charlie Mann at the Aug. 15 Buncombe County Board of Commissioners meeting. The commission was charged with reviewing the county’s noise ordinance, which requires sheriff’s deputies to measure decibel levels […]