For months, residents have pressured elected leaders to fulfill their commitment to reparations for Asheville’s Black community. Plans are now in the works to form a joint city and county Reparations Commission by July, says Asheville City Manager Debra Campbell.
The free virtual program will share strategies for working with elected leaders to create and implement sustainable policy changes; a panel discussion will focus on effective ways to address inequity in public policy, education and the justice system.
The yearlong campaign begins April 1 and seeks to outfit at least 100 residents and businesses with solar energy systems by the end of 2021.
Signed by Asheville City Schools Superintendent Gene Freeman on Feb. 5, the agreement with Raleigh-based Forthright Advising drew the concern of Asheville City Board of Education member Joyce Brown during a Feb. 15 meeting of the board.
At the Tuesday, Feb. 16, meeting of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, members will vote to accept an additional $1.75 million grant for the Safety and Justice Challenge from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
The increased attention and plaudits paid to high-profile Black chefs in America in recent years simultaneously sheds ambient light on their overall scarcity.
Market managers and vendors at the markets participating in the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s Double SNAP initiative, which matches Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits dollar-for-dollar on edible items, saw SNAP transactions nearly triple from 2019 to 2020, and 80% of responding vendors said they’d experienced sales growth due to the program.
The $600 checks represent the first federal assistance many in WNC have received to cope with the economic fallout of the pandemic since the first coronavirus relief package was signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27.
Xpress Assistant Editor Daniel Walton and local community figures discuss how the year’s events have accelerated many of the issues that were already facing Western North Carolina.
Xpress contributor Mark Barrett unpacks the surprisingly static results to emerge from a politically tumultuous year in Western North Carolina.
Tax records examined by Asheville Watchdog reveal that in the decade leading up to the $1.5 billion sale of Asheville’s community-owned hospital system, a steadily increasing amount of Mission’s revenue went to salaries and bonuses for an increasingly crowded suite of non-clinical executives.
Because the monument stands on city property, Asheville City Council will have the ultimate say; Council is expected to take that vote at its regular meeting on Dec. 8.
From the fate of the Vance Monument to a proposed affordable housing complex on land acquired through urban renewal, city officials move forward with longstanding projects.
Members of the Vance Monument Task Force voted 11-1 on Nov. 19 to remove the monument from the center of downtown Asheville, marking an end to 12 weeks of intense public comment and community division.
Throughout this year’s agricultural season, migrant farmworkers have struggled to find child care for young kids who would usually spend their days in classrooms.
Callers expressed their frustration after Mayor Esther Manheimer announced Asheville City Council would not discuss the creation of a $1 million reparations fund at its Nov. 10 meeting.
The evangelist’s grandchildren say his son’s pro-Trump politics brings “shame.”
The directors of MANNA FoodBank, Bounty & Soul and Beacon of Hope say their organizations are persevering to meet the community’s ongoing need in an ever-shifting landscape.
On Tuesday, Nov. 10, members will consider a resolution to establish a reparations fund with $1 million. As of Nov. 6, meeting documents did not indicate where the money would come from or what initiatives would be funded first.
As of Oct. 27, over 3.4 million votes had been cast across the state through mail-in and in-person early voting, according to the nonprofit Civitas Institute’s VoteTracker. Those watching the election say they haven’t yet seen anything out of the ordinary thus far — but they’re leaving as little as possible to chance.
Community members generally applauded the decision as a step in the right direction. But the newly approved resolution exempts property under contract to be sold to White Labs, a move commenters found disheartening.
