[Regarding affordable housing at the proposed 101 Charlotte St. development]: I agree with online commenter NFB: 10% is just not enough; we need at least 20% [“Future Vision: 101 Charlotte St. Deftly Balances Conflicting Priorities,” May 19].
We keep saying affordable housing; people are moving here because of what Asheville is — not the typical city you can find anywhere. We’re losing why people want to move here: nature and beauty. Just my opinion.
— Mari DeMauro
Asheville
We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.
We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.
And remember that even if we create more affordable housing (which would be nice but is far more complex than most seem to understand), we must not forfeit our livable city to eternal gridlock simply to create warehouses for humans who could simply choose to go find their own Asheville of 20 years ago…
Affordable housing is not complex. You build housing and rent it at affordable rates.
If you are afraid of traffic, maybe you should stop driving. Your complaint should be to bring in more lightrail or tramways like they had here in the past. I can see though that the keep asheville small people are elitists who want it to be only a rich tourist town. They are afraid their golfing tourists wont like it here anymore. Keep asheville small for the greedy. The people here act like they are in Maine or something, keep the “people from away” out. Everything small and quaint and stupid.