Army mounting to redesign Pack Square With the ground sinking under the Pack Square fountain, and construction crews gearing up to fix it, the Downtown Commission wants to get in on the dig. The commission is seeking public participation in redesigning Pack Square. Commission Chair Carol King asked Council for $7,500 — and members unanimously […]
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Notepad
Watching the watchmen Having faith in the folks who police our society is one thing; having empirical data showing that they’re doing a good job is quite another. To that end, a team of assessors from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) will come to town later this month, to take a […]
Letters to the editor
Support low-power FM radio I am a supporter of creation of a Low Power FM (LPFM) radio service, as outlined in the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in docket MM 99-25, which called for creation of 1,000-watt and 100-watt commercial and noncommercial LPFM stations nationwide. It has come to my attention that the FCC intends […]
America’s undeclared war on boys
This interview by Editor Charlotte Hayes is reprinted, with permission, from The Women’s Quarterly, a magazine of the Independent Women’s Forum (PO Box 3058, Washington, DC 22203; (703) 558-4991). The Women’s Quarterly: You are writing a book called The War on Boys, which is scheduled to come out this summer. What is the war on […]
The stool rule
Asheville has something to be proud of at the onset of the millennium: On Jan. 1, our fair city began enforcing the new pooper-scooper ordinance decreed by City Council on Oct. 27. Although I understand the argument for adopting the new law, I take issue with our city leaders for enacting it. Like, there aren’t […]
While Rome burns
Back in 1991, I flew to Manhattan to speak at a meeting of the Horticultural Society of New York. I had a great time. And the return flight from Newark to Charlotte stands out in my memory, because that particular trip was — for the first and last time in my experience — underbooked. As […]
Blasting on
“We could have made an album of gastrointestinal noises, and it would have been fine with Atlantic Records.” — Bottle Rockets lead guitarist Brian Henneman Never let it be said that the pride of Festus, Mo. — the Bottle Rockets (long heralded as “the best bar band in the country”) — can’t heat up a […]
It takes two
Jim Hurst and Missy Raines are among the most highly regarded players in acoustic music today. But there’s something else about Hurst that Raines likes even better. “He listens,” she says. The bassist adds, “He’s a very mature player … incredibly sensitive to what’s going on, what’s best for the song, and what I’m doing. […]
Bohemian rhapsody
On a history-making evening in January, Asheville will rub cultural shoulders with big cities the world over. In collaboration with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, the Asheville Lyric Opera Company makes its formal debut with a performance of La Boheme. “Asheville has embraced opera for years, but there has never been a grassroots professional company here,” […]
In the belly of the beast
Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros — originally written as a parable of individual resistance to the Nazi occupation of France — endures today as a cautionary tale for anyone trying to sort out his or her own place in the technological morass of the 21st century. The setting is an Asheville-like small city that’s swamped by a […]
Honky-tonk’s exiled prince
There’s a joke among music critics that Hank Williams Sr. almost single-handedly popularized country music worldwide after his death — and that Hank Jr. nearly killed it, long before his own. Now, there’s a new Williams face, an eerily familiar one, coming soon to a stage near you. Hank Williams III is the grandson of […]
Musical marvels
Superheroes they’re not. But for T Lavitz, playing in Justice League is yet another chance to jam with a super group. That’s something the Dixie Dregs/Jazz Is Dead keyboardist is used to. Last year, he toured briefly with a band called the Hillbilly Funk All Stars — featuring Richie Hayward and Kenny Gradney from Little […]
Of memory and reflection
Photographers Benjamin Porter, Eric Baden and Larry White met more than 20 years ago at the Apeiron Workshops in Millerton, N.Y., where they learned their craft. Silver to Blue, a current exhibit of their black-and-white photographs, celebrates their friendship, which began in that region’s Silver Mountains and still thrives, today, in the Blue Ridge. Porter’s […]
Here comes the neighborhood
Back-bedroom views of the Pisgah range: a nice selling point for the urban homes now under construction at 86 Patton Ave. David Mallett, the 74-year-old owner of the building that once housed the Piedmont Electric Co., hopes the four new condominiums and six apartments will be finished by May. Stacked up against some of the […]
Call the Code Queen
A major challenge in renovating old downtown buildings is complying with strict fire and safety codes, and with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Making structural changes to satisfy regulations can be very expensive, but federal tax breaks can help take the sting out of it. All of downtown is a designated national historic district, […]
Back to the future
Asheville’s urban center is fairly dense, but there are still some unused nooks and crannies and plenty of unrenovated buildings. Eventually, however, they’ll all be reclaimed — and, in the meantime, the central business district will continue to expand, anyway. So what’s on the horizon? Where will the first new buildings go? Could any of […]
Notepad
Smart growth and human health Designed for community leaders and activists alike, Western North Carolina Tomorrow is sponsoring an emerging-issues symposium, to be held at the Grove Park Inn, on human health and the environment in the 21st century. Keynote speakers, including Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher and a bevy of acknowledged academic experts, will […]
Letters to the editor
Say no to the new Home Depot I am writing with great concern regarding the proposed Home Depot on Acton Circle, in West Asheville. As a resident of the community bordering the proposed development, I drive by this site every day, [going] to and from work. It is absolutely unsuited to a 20-acre “large box” […]
Does anybody really know what year it is?
Hello, it’s me again, and I am in the midst of Y2K with the rest of you. For better or worse, it inevitably came — and, curiously enough, it didn’t kill anybody I know. Toaster ovens and blenders did not run amok, like in a Stephen King story (damned shame — that would have made […]
Nonviolent resistance: a revolutionary discipline
From Oak Ridge to Fort Benning to Seattle, from the ancient redwood forests to the desert lands of the Western Shoshone nation at the Nevada Test Site, citizen dissent is rising, and the revolutionary discipline of nonviolence is passing to a new generation. In the 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. brought the strategy and […]
Asheville City Council
Speedway foes and advocates alike were spilling out of the full-to-bursting chambers at the Asheville City Council’s last formal meeting of the millennium. But, faced with passionate public comments about the proposal, City Council decided not to rule, just yet, on a request that could lead to a new speedway complex being built on city-owned […]