Four Asheville chefs will get creative with winter squash at Utopian Seed Projects upcoming Trial to Table Live Fire event. Also in this week’s food news, the third annual Taste It, Don’t Waste It! Chefs Challenge, an edible plant walk at Tempie Avery Montford Community Center, a Fish Pickin’ celebration with local chefs and more.
Safety and hospitality ambassadors for a downtown Asheville business improvement district would be perceived as a welcome addition by some — additional “eyes and ears” on the street. But others aren’t sure that such a program is a priority.
Chef Cleophus Hethington returns to Asheville for a dinner highlighting the cuisine of the African diaspora. Also in this week’s food news, WNCAP’s Dining Out for Life; a star chef Fish Pickin’ event; Hendersonville’s Cider, Wine & Dine Weekend and more.
At its meeting on Tuesday, April 2, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners will consider launching a pilot program that could transition up to 20 units from STRs to affordable long-term rentals for residents in its first year.
The mayor shared her enthusiasm about a potential business improvement district, or BID, in the city’s downtown.
Asheville Food and Beverage United seeks to interrupt “the abusive culture that just keeps being perpetuated,’” explains Jen Hampton, the union’s lead organizer. Her work in the service industry spanned over 30 years, with the last 16 in Asheville.
At its regular meeting March 7, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners will begin the application process for federal funds that provide temporary housing for those in recovery.
According to Just Economics of Western North Carolina, which has been calculating the local living wage since 2008, a single person working full time in Buncombe County needs to make $22.10 per hour to afford basic expenses. That’s a $2 hike over last year’s rate and more than double what it was when it was first calculated 17 years ago.
Reparations commissioners unanimously approved a three-month public engagement plan to gather reactions and opinions from Black residents of Asheville and Buncombe County about the commission’s draft recommendations for local government leaders.
Pay for educators, equity for underrepresented populations and housing affordability, as well as nationwide inflation, underpinned efforts to improve the quality of life for Asheville-area residents in 2023, as expressed by Xpress’ Year in Review survey of engaged citizens and leaders.
Local experts say as more baby boomers are aging, they are more curious about thoughtful planning for death. They also say the COVID-19 pandemic spurred interest in talking about death because many people did not have control over the circumstances of their deaths, and their loved ones felt helpless in the face of that fact.
Asheville’s wellness culture is touted nationwide for its outdoor lifestyle and fresh mountain air. But less well known are the mycological wellness opportunities — that is, medicinal mushrooms — in our refrigerators and cupboards.
“How do we bring literature to the spaces where people already are?” asks Jacqui Castle, an author and Lit Local Mini Bookshops.
Inside several specialty shops along the mile-and-a-half stretch from UNC Asheville to Beaver Lake, hawkers of shoes, homebrew equipment, crystals and haircuts continue to sell their wares and services, building community amid the slower traffic, and their opinions — like their specialties — vary widely.
More than 200 river rats, advocates, conservationists and economic stakeholders from a seven-county region filled Ferguson Auditorium to celebrate their successes and discuss ways to continue cleaning up one of the world’s oldest water ways to maximize its environmental and economic sway.
The women who own boutiques selling undergarments in Asheville know the search for the right bra can be a fraught experience (as many who’ve experienced a meltdown in the dressing room can attest).
“It’s a cynical and shameful ploy to deny you the ability to serve your constituents. It’s anti-democratic, and I look forward to working together with you to reject this encroachment on our rights to protect our health and the health of our mountains, rivers and streams,” Karim Olaechea, deputy director of strategy and communications for MountainTrue told commissioners during public comment.
With the city-owned auditorium closed to ticketed shows for the foreseeable future after its heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system failed in July, leaders in the city and local arts community are hoping this is finally the moment the Wolfe will get a makeover
If the application is approved at a future meeting, Buncombe hopes to get $1.6 million in federal funds allocated for rural transportation projects for Mountain Mobility, a community transportation service that primarily serves people with disabilities and older adults in Buncombe County.
Tax Assessor Keith Miller says he is “very confident” that the changes he’s implemented will improve the process used in the next reappraisal in 2025. However, consultant Joe Minicozzi of the Asheville-based Urban3, whose unsolicited, unpaid analysis was what prompted the commissioners to establish the reappraisal committee, says those changes haven’t gone far enough and that the committee itself wasn’t given a sufficient opportunity to review his firm’s work.
At a Downtown Commission meeting July 14, Assistant City Manager Rachel Wood said that portions of the 60-day downtown safety and cleanliness pilot have transitioned into ongoing services.
