Letter: Taxpayers’ money should go to help Black and white communities

Posted on by Letters
Graphic by Lori Deaton

City Council and county commissioners and mayor voted to spend $18,000 to build framework and wrap it in plastic to cover the Vance Monument until the [Vance Monument Task Force makes a recommendation] to decide when the Vance is coming down (maybe a couple of months).

And the mayor and her people (listed above) paying painters to paint the strip around the Vance, and then in a few months, it will be washed off, then the city (taxpayers’ money) is going to pay $2,600 a month for rental for the metal framework around the Vance.

The money should be going toward the Black and white communities. (Some white communities are suffering also.) We need to elect new Council and county commissioners who know how to spend our money in the right places, not to please someone who doesn’t like to look at the Vance.

Most people who went downtown didn’t even notice the Vance except for vacationers.

— Roy Heath
Asheville

Editor’s note: The Black Lives Matter street mural was funded via donations to the Asheville Area Arts Council, which continues to collect funds to maintain it, according to its website.

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8 thoughts on “Letter: Taxpayers’ money should go to help Black and white communities”

  1. Mike R.

    I agree fully with the writer. A much better response would have been to post a well worded sign next to the monument that speaks to the now divisive life of Vance and what that may mean moving forward. Shrouding the monument was plain stupid, a waste of money AND to add insult to injury, wasn’t even’t engineered properly to ensure the covering stayed intact. We’re lucky the whole thing didn’t blow over and kill someone! Wind loading on tall/temporary structures needs to be evaluated.

  2. bsummers

    OK XPress, I’ll bite. Why is “Black” capitalized, and “white” is not?

      • bsummers

        Thanks Able. But to be honest, after reading that & looking for more info, I’m actually sorry I asked. This is a little microcosm of how f***ed up America is right now.

        But capitalizing the term white, as is done by white supremacists, risks subtly conveying legitimacy to such beliefs.
        https://apnews.com/article/9105661462

    • Mike H

      What a f’d up mess… when capitalizations matter in this way to write about whites, Blacks and browns. What if it were male and Female? Or Father and mother? Or teacher and Lawyer? This country is going to hell at the speed of light.

  3. Big Al

    Pre-COVID, Asheville city government responded to the money.

    When COVID made the money dry up, they responded (but only symbolically) to terrorism in the form of violence, vandalism and looting.

    Greed and Cowardice. Maybe THAT is what the Vance monument should be “re-purposed” to represent.

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