A spiritual mecca. A source of healing. A polar energy center. God’s country. These are just a few of the epithets Asheville has collected in the latter half of this century. And in the past few years, Asheville’s reputation as a spiritual center has gone global. A case in point is the Clairvision School, one […]
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Buncombe County Commission
Flash-flood warning! Water prices will soon rise in the city and county, if the Regional Water Authority of Asheville, Buncombe and Henderson has its way. The Water Authority’s proposed $19 million budget for the coming fiscal year calls for a 9 percent increase in water rates, according to Asheville City Assistant Manager Doug Spell. He […]
Notepad
Family adopts stream: Robin Hanes and her sons Austin (left) and Emmett have adopted a section of Lynn Cove Creek in the Beaverdam area. Quality Forward, a Buncombe County nonprofit dedicated to improving quality of life in the area through beautification and education, started the Adopt-A-Stream program to recognize and encourage efforts to keep our […]
Letters to the editor
Parking-plan insanity at the airport I recently read in the Citizen-Times that the Asheville Regional Airport is getting a new parking deck, because it’s running out of parking space. Funny, I’ve been flying out of the airport at least once a week for the past three years, and I have never had trouble finding a […]
Letters to the editor
Natural law and a free-market economy Social engineers (zoning boards, city planners, environmentalists and meddlesome neighbors) think they know natural order and natural beauty when they see it. But they look only on the outward appearance while God, biologists and Libertarians look into nature’s heart. The most complex society on earth is the Ecosphere. The […]
Roadkill blues
Call it the Stomp Factor: the music’s ability to pound you into a pulp, and to make you like the beating. Mississippi bluesman T-Model Ford has enough raw Stomp in him to leave you jaw-broke and bloody, flashing your ruined-teeth grin up from the ground where you lay. It’s not merely Ford’s hot ‘n’ humid […]
Roadkill country
Hasil Adkins has really tried. But for the man who found youthful epiphany in the twangy AM-radio voices of Jimmy Rodgers and Hank Williams; who used to bang on old tin cans, grease drums and water buckets, because the music was in him so strong and there were no better instruments at hand; and who […]
Roadkillers
Fat Possum Records, the uppity little label from Oxford, Miss., is home to some of the truest American music alive today: raw, reckless, ragged and right. On Sunday, June 21 (that’s right, Father’s Day), the Grey Eagle offers a phat dose of greasy roadkill, one of only two North Carolina stops for the Eye Scratchers […]
Elemental Art in Asheville
It may be hard to understand why someone would choose to work with iron, the old-fashioned way. Smithing is hot, noisy, dangerous, hard work. Nevertheless, there must have been a lot of such folks at one time, and they must have been proud of their profession: Smith is still the most common last name in […]
Buncombe County Commission
If the new county budget were a piece of steak, it’d be a Weight Watchers special. That’s right, folks, it’s budget time in Buncombe, and commissioners ordered this one lean and well done. What county budget staff have put on the table is a $190 million, revenue-neutral spending schedule for the coming fiscal year (which […]
Notepad
Jocassee Gorges update Sherri Evans-Stanton wants to set the record straight about the possible state acquisition of more than 9,000 acres of land from Duke Energy Company for a state park in the Jocassee Gorges area of Transylvania County. Evans-Stanton, assistant secretary for the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation, stresses that, under the plan […]
Realizing a profit while enforcing child support
How can Buncombe County earn a profit while enforcing child-support laws — and still pass all the support money on to the kids? Here’s a clue: It has to do with federal dollars. The federal government benefits when absentee parents make their child-support payments: When parents carry the load, the feds end up dishing out […]
A soft, safe journey
Listening to Byron Ballard conduct the last rites for an indigent county resident, I’m struck by how lyrical her words are — how perfectly they seem to blend with this bright spring day in Riverside Cemetery. She’s standing in the shade of a tall poplar that’s nestled in the heart of the valley, amid the […]
The art of summer fun
Even the calendar admits that summer’s nearly here — that paradisal time when thoughts turn to swimming, cycling, hiking, camping and other outdoor pleasures. But why not sprinkle a little music, theater and dance, and perhaps a summer festival or two, amid that heady agenda? What follows is a sampling of summer arts events for […]
Attention kids!
We know you’d rather stay in the motel room and watch the Cartoon Network, but the adults won’t let you. And they’re probably right: It’s your summer vacation, and you came all the way here (or maybe you live here), so why not get out and do something? Here are some parent-friendly, but still potentially […]
Go jump in the lake
Lakes never meant much to me until I moved to the mountains. My family never spent vacations at lakes. When I was a young ‘un, we’d load up the wagon every summer and head to the beach — the ocean beach. There, I got a lesson in survival: Hurricanes, shark attacks and rip tides that […]
Notepad
No sign of the times Bye-bye, yard-sale announcements tacked onto telephone poles. So long, diet and weight-loss posters. Scram, lost-dog and -cat fliers. If Mayor Leni Sitnick has her way, Asheville’s public rights-of-way will soon be rid of these illegal public proclamations. Already, such signs “are being removed in record numbers,” according to a press […]
No apple for the teacher
Fund for Investigative Reporting Part-time college instructors in Asheville say local colleges are exploiting their considerable talents, in exchange for low pay, meager benefits and little chance for advancement. “We’re like vendors, or freelance teachers,” said Wayne Robbins, who makes more per hour waiting tables than he does teaching part-time at A-B Tech and UNCA. […]
Buncombe County Commission
When the phone rings at the Buncombe County Animal Control office, it’s most likely a citizen calling to report a roaming, barking or biting dog. Loose animals, in particular, are a big problem in the county, says Animal Control Director Barbara Bellows, though people also call to report abused animals, or to have their own […]
Letters to the editor
Why Asheville needs plans Some members of our community have expressed criticism lately that Asheville has too many plans and visions, and that these plans conflict with property owners’ rights. These criticisms were voiced again at the recent Charlotte Street planning forum, along with the sentiment … “It ain’t broke, so quit trying to fix […]
A long time coming
David Crosby just might be the luckiest man alive. The legendary two-time Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee — co-founder of both The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and often called the most brilliant vocalist and lyricist of our time — survived a 20-plus-year cocaine-and-alcohol addiction so extreme that it landed him both […]