Letter: Is this the city centerpiece we want?

Posted on by Letters
Graphic by Lori Deaton

[Regarding “A Dark Cloud: Downtown Dodged a Mall, but Substation Now Looms,” Aug. 10, Xpress, and “Update on City of Asheville and Duke Energy Partnership to Identify a Suitable Site for Duke Energy Rebuild of Critical Power Infrastructure in Downtown Asheville,” Sept. 16, Xpress website:]

So this city/area that gets its tourists from its mountain beauty is going to have a new landmark in its center?

Trees, etc., give way to a maze of “electric hardware”? How creative … not! But surely it will draw tourists. Who created this idea? Maybe it wasn’t “created” but “sold” to Council members.

— Emily L. Cooper
Asheville

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7 thoughts on “Letter: Is this the city centerpiece we want?”

  1. JS

    Downtown Asheville isn’t the mountains…it’s a city center. It should have dense, mixed development that includes housing, as well as a power station to keep it all running for decades to come.

    2
    • El Gordito

      We can put the power station somewhere else. They have this crazy technology called “wire”. I’m sure we can find someone willing to set one up to their pig farm.

  2. Grant Millin

    If someone would look into why a Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) substation hasn’t been drawn up for the Rankin site… and those plans were made public.. there might be a way to visualize high quality infrastructure that may not look like a theme park scale jungle gym. Preposterous state of affairs here in Asheville as is… once again.

    • Mister Blister

      Or we could just put it somewhere else. Downtown is too dense. Plenty of room in South Asheville!

  3. Curious

    ” . . . a new landmark in its center. . . .”
    Is the letter writer implying that the new substation is to be built on the site of the Vance Monument?

    • MV

      That’s actually a good idea. With lots of micro homes above! Imagine the power…

      1
  4. R.G.

    Surely we can figure out how to capture energy from the legs of tourists as they pedal pub cycles around…or perhaps we could redirect some hot air from all the consultants?

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