Editor’s note: This essay is part of a series in which local experts were asked: “What would it take to solve the Asheville area’s affordable housing problem?” Housing in Asheville is simultaneously booming and in crisis. The summer of 2015 seems to be culminating in trends that are several years deep. Construction has been on […]
“Why is the focus on “affordable housing” and not on “affordable living”? The official “affordable housing” definitions focus narrowly on rent; transportation costs are ignored.”
“For every job created with a subsidy that doesn’t provide a living wage, let’s provide a genuinely affordable home.”
“We must address the housing crisis now, before it’s too late. I believe this can be done by requiring employers to pay their employees a living wage — which, like affordable housing, is also an endangered species here.”
“First, in our market of skyrocketing property values, we must acknowledge the need for some amount of subsidy to fill the gap between low-wage workers’ ability to pay rent or a mortgage and the landlord/developer’s need for a fair return on investment. “
“The free market isn’t good at providing housing for low- to moderate-income folks. … For builders, a lower-cost home is almost always a lower-profit home.”
“We believe that a rigorous case-by-case evaluation and review of proposals and programs by groups that are on the front lines of the problem is the best way to reduce workforce housing costs.”
“Safe, affordable housing is a step toward opportunity and success but not the final destination. It’ll take accessory units, manufactured homes, cooperatives, land banks, increased density, small homes and apartments to address the lack of supply.”
“Every day, our case managers work to find safe, affordable places for our clients to live. Now, however, we simply cannot find those homes.”
“the current debate over the Confederate flag symbolizes not only racial but also social and class divisions in Southern society, all papered over by the election of a black president but exposed by the massacre in Charleston.”
“Maybe the two local country clubs could open [their golf courses] to the riffraff once a week, or the Grove Park Inn could run a Tuesday Plebeian Special. And the often empty local courses could open as general-use parks now and then, to benefit non golfers.”
A healing retreat held by the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors helps adult children of fallen soldiers cope with the lose of a parent.
“Wouldn’t it be nice have a few more parks, squares, green spaces, libraries and Urban Trail stops named after other important figures in Asheville’s and Western North Carolina’s history? You might be surprised by how many are not white males.”
“Unfortunately — especially given the feelings of paranoia that drones, by their very nature, tend to spur in a lot of people — open discussion and debate have not featured prominently in the equation in North Carolina. “
Winston-Salem Journal editorial page editor John Railey’s new book, Rage to Redemption in the Sterilization Age, combines a chronicle of a bleak period in our state’s history with a poignant personal memoir.
From $4 a la carte tapas to a glorious $100 private dinner, Asheville Beer Week gives you lots of options for brews and meals.
Beer Week is here! Need to know where to go and what to do? All things Beer Week are right here.
Thanks to a fortuitous series of events, the school is finally able to mitigate its carbon footprint. This spring, solar panels are sprouting out of the ground in Moon Field.
During the past 15 years, no band has had a bigger impact on the sonic trajectory of independent music than Animal Collective. But within that talented membership, none has had a greater reach than Panda Bear, aka Noah Lennox, who performs at The Orange Peel on Saturday, May 9.
Dr. Richard Hudspet is Blue Ridge Community Health Services’ new chief medical officer. He most recently served as the Medical Director for Community Care of Western North Carolina. Here’s the full release from BRCHS:
When I was in college back in 1969, we could smoke in class, and when I later started working in a medical research lab, we could smoke there too, even while handling blood and urine samples. We smoked on airplanes and in hospital rooms, at the bank and in movie theaters and courtrooms. Today, that dumb, tobacco-friendly world is (mostly) long gone … except, that is, when I visit Warren Wilson College’s gorgeous campus.
