In the 1980s, Asheville was a sleepy little town with not much going on — parking was free, there weren’t coffee shops on every corner, and few people were to be seen on the streets after dark. Not much going on culturally either, especially when it came to writing.
Author: Xpress Contributor
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Proving the naysayers wrong, one property at a time in Asheville
The early ’90s was an interesting time. So much work had been done in the ’80s, particularly by the city, trying to bring downtown back, but it was still pretty much a ghost town, particularly after 5 o’clock. The buildings on the corner where Malaprop’s and Mobilia are now had stood empty and boarded up for years.
Oh Asheville, my Asheville
Almost 25 years ago, I rode a Greyhound bus from Jackson, Miss., to Asheville with nothing but two suitcases of clothes and a plastic pink flamingo.
Growing up in Asheville
Congratulations on 20 years! It seems Green Line and Mountain Xpress have been a big part of the community far longer. I suspect that comes from my political side, though. I appreciate the opportunity to reminisce about the city and 20 years of memories about the place I love —particularly downtown and West Asheville. A […]
Inside out: Cultivating philanthropic leaders to spearhead community change
“Amid a shifting social, economic and political landscape, communities of color in Asheville are examining creative and innovative strategies to facilitate community change,” Tracey Dorsett writes in this commentary.
It was rough, it was a ghost town
I moved to Asheville in 1973. Here’s some of what I remember: Most of downtown was boarded up.
Getting from then to now
Haywood Street was virtually empty two decades ago. In 1990, we (the members of Earth Guild) bought the old Bon Marché building. We renovated the Haywood Street level for Earth Guild, which we moved from its original location on Tingle Alley. We made our home on the top floor. In the mid-’90s, the second floor and basement level were renovated into office suites and, in 2002, the basement was redeveloped for the N.C. Stage Company. The building became a model for mixed use in downtown and spurred the redevelopment of many other buildings in its block and on adjacent blocks.
The view from the county commission
Downtown Asheville was largely boarded up in 1994 but starting to show signs of life. I had purchased my law office building on Church Street eight years earlier and was starting to see a decrease in uninvited overnight guests who “rested” in my parking lot or occasionally on the office front porch. Thankfully, my office staff witnessed fewer instances of drug dealing, and less evidence of prostitution and other criminal activity in the Church Street area by then.
Citizens saved downtown Asheville
I’ve always thought that the turning point for Asheville, especially downtown, was when the downtown Strouse-Greenberg mall project was voted down in November 1981.
How Green Line put me on my career path
I can trace my professional and personal roots back to the predecessor of the Mountain Xpress — Green Line. When people ask why I do what I do, part of the answer is my time as a reporter for the Green Line in the early ’90s. At the time, I was assigned to write a […]
The Julian Price-Xpress connection
In the early 1990s, Julian Price and Jeff Fobes began working together to transform Jeff’s tiny monthly eco-newspaper called Green Line into the snappy, colorful, popular weekly — chock-full of local news and features — that we know today as Mountain Xpress. The Xpress offered Julian a place to express his quirky, contrarian outlook via […]
Western Carolina Medical Society: The difference between hospice and palliative care
In this article, Dr. Janet Bull, medical director at Four Seasons Compassion for Life in Henderson County, explains the difference between palliative care and hospice as part of a series presented by the Western Carolina Medical Society. This is a frequent question that people often ask us at Four Seasons Compassion for Life. First of all, […]
Corporate experience but with a new flair
The years 1996-2003 were a great time to be in Asheville. Little did I know I was a part of the root-feeding system of a most successful alternative newsweekly. Mountain Xpress was just becoming known when I was offered the position of advertising director. To watch the product grow year after year was one of […]
How citizen-based reporting got the news
In the early ’90s, more than 20 people filed for the Asheville City Council primary election. Instead of Mountain Xpress reporters interviewing the candidates, the paper asked for community volunteers to help. A group of volunteers met with Julian Price in an upstairs room on Page Avenue. We were given a set of questions to […]
We were dirt poor, but had a wealth of pride
One of the first connections I made when arriving in WNC in 1991 was with Green Line and Jeff Fobes, and right away I got the go-ahead to do a piece on the proposed passenger rail service to Asheville. Now, 20-plus years later, rail service to Asheville is still “proposed” (dream on), but Green Line […]
Tapping into the local debate
In the days before commenting on websites, Facebook and other social-media platforms, Mountain Xpress got readers talking each week. Every issue featured two, three and sometimes four commentaries, often from wildly different worldviews. The Aug. 31, 1994, Xpress featured four, including the first “Gospel According to Jerry [Sternberg].” Readers reacted strongly to Sternberg’s support for […]
Covering local government, one meeting at a time
Talk about the people. Find the drama. Look where no one else is looking. That’s what Mountain Xpress publisher Jeff Fobes told me and Neal Evans when we started covering local government in 1994. Neither of us was on staff for the nascent publication, despite what the masthead said. Seemingly there were 15 or so […]
The day Hazel Fobes showed me up
When I look back at the early ’90s, I can remember a lot of issues that everyone worked on. Specifically, though, when I think about Green Line and then the Mountain Xpress, I am reminded of publisher Jeff Fobes’ mother, Hazel Fobes. She attended meeting after meeting, waiting to speak her opinion on all kinds […]
Pre-millennial Asheville: No renovation required
In 1994, the year Mountain Xpress started, I was sharing a $365/month place in Montford with my sister. It was a narrow little flat in a Victorian-era home, its backyard adjacent to the property where Zelda Fitzgerald died in a mental-hospital fire in 1948. The same apartment, no bigger but much refurbished, rents for $950 […]
An Xpress roll call
Miles Building, Elwood Miles, hot summer days, sketchy Lex Ave (Welcome to Wally World), Grey Eagle in Black Mountain, Leni Sitnick, Julian Price, Be Here Now, Gatsby’s, Danielle Truscott, Marsha Barber, phones with cords, fax paper rolls, boot leather and notebooks, Carey Watson, Wanda Edney, paper ballots for Best of WNC, Patty’s little girls roaming […]
Xpress made the community’s housing a priority
I moved to Asheville in 1989 and remember how excited I was to read the Green Line. As Western North Carolina director of the Self-Help Credit Union, I’ll always remember the day that Julian Price walked into our little office at 12 ½ Wall Street and made a substantial deposit. I know his support of […]