Letter: What Asheville really needs

Posted on by Letters
Graphic by Lori Deaton

Here I am, scrolling through October/November 2022 Garden & Gun magazine, and find a full two-page advertisement on Asheville: “Adventure Capitalist: A Leader in Green City Living, Asheville is an Oasis for Outdoor Enthusiasts.” The description for Asheville being such a “greenway” and “gateway” to the outdoors sounds great.

Yet I’m thinking, “Really? Then how come our city mayor and Council keep voting in developments through conditional zoning to cut trees and mow down present structures?” The ad reads like an invitation to move here, and as it is, we are struggling to provide housing and infrastructure for our present population. I wish Asheville was like the ad; only I am clear on our teetering reality of losing our town to money-grabbers.

We don’t need ads for Asheville to bring in more people and development. We need to use those funds to provide responsible environmental and infrastructure care for our present population.

Most of all, we need a new mayor who respects sane development and a Council with morals.

— Susan Hickerson
Weaverville

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3 thoughts on “Letter: What Asheville really needs”

  1. indy499

    The US population will grom by 40 million in the next 30 years. Thoe people will live somewhere, including here. Looks like you live in Weaverville anyway

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  3. Fenix Brabbins

    A lot of us who post here have been replying to articles past just like this one with the same reply. Being that we agree with the authors of articles like this. But we feel like we’re living in the Twilight Zone. Our local government keeps spending money on advertising, which brings more people here, without spending money on our infrastructure, schools, etc. It just never makes sense. I guess we’ll still be complaining about this for another 30 yrs. At least that’s what I expect. Because as the saying goes, the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Our local government will continue this insanity. Why? We’ll never know.

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