“Survivors will be without law and order, without medical care, without food, and suffering from radiation sickness. There will be no help.”
Letter: Focusing on things that matter
“As parents, teachers, employers, employees and citizens, what we do at the local level has consequences for our community, state, nation and the world.”
Letter: Three cheers for Chandler at water department
“Although there are many, many heroes deserving of recognition and acclaim during these weeks, none stand out quite like Clay Chandler and his people at the Water Resources Department.”
Letter: Public housing residents get no relief
“Recent letters and news reports have shown clearly that for relief after the flooding, public housing residents in Asheville have more problems and got dumped on, evicted and neglected by the city again.”
Letter: Bear cartoon misses funny bone
“Poking fun at people who lost their homes and businesses is no laughing matter.”
Letter: Volunteers have offered water, kindness and hope
“What stands out to me the most is the overwhelming kindness, empathy and generosity that characterize the people involved in the recovery and rebuilding of Asheville and all of Western North Carolina.”
Letter: Grandfather’s photo links to local history
“The recent picture of the ‘old-timers’ in the Mountain Xpress of the exhibit titled ‘Striking a Chord’ contains a photo showing my grandfather James Sylvester.”
Letter: Hope comes with cleanup
“Seeing the progress made every day by the efforts of so many people and organizations gives me hope that our beautiful, funky little city shall rise again.”
Letter: Stop the destruction of the Nolichucky Gorge
“This illegal mining threatens to permanently alter one of the Southeast’s premier whitewater rivers, with catastrophic consequences for local communities, wildlife and future generations.”
Letter: Hot showers and clean clothes are human rights
“Why can’t we make this a permanent fixture? The dignity of a hot shower and clean clothes was made evident in the wake of Hurricane Helene.”
Letter: Our hero
“It turns out it was Steve Shoaf, Asheville’s director of water resources from 2009-15, who recognized the need following the 2004 flood (among others) and advanced the idea before his retirement.”
Letter: Where will all the dead trees go?
“One way or another, how we handle this mess will have big impacts on our natural environment.”
Letter: Separate valid political speech from antisemitism
“It is beyond time to separate out legitimate criticism of the U.S.’s and Israel’s actions from real ‘antisemitic’ behavior and speech expressed predominantly by white supremacists.”
Letter: We should ditch standardized testing
“If we want to continue and give our youths the best lives possible, why are we torturing them with this idea of standardized tests defining their lives?”
Letter: Our gritty, chicken-loving city
“But since reading the concerned words of Joan and Joy, I shall aspire to be a better and kinder citizen as we all work to rebuild and reinvent our gritty, chicken-loving town.”
Letter: Why so hard to apply for disaster nutrition program?
“The locations should have been multiple, the phone lines should have been accessible, and the deadline should have been longer than seven days.”
Letter: Thanks to all the Helene heroes
“This has been a spiritual experience that none of us will ever forget. COVID separated us; Helene united us!”
Letter: Respect the research on infill housing
“The simple truth is that unnecessary restrictions on supply push prices up. That’s what a commonsense understanding of supply and demand would suggest. That’s what studies show happens in the housing market.”
Letter: Tax assessor’s dismissal was justified
“He should not receive any county benefits going forward. And the county should not be afraid of a legal challenge.”
Letter: Stop the Merrimon Avenue madness
“Stop the madness. I will never vote for another one of the current Council or mayoral positions who chose to kowtow to the cycle lobby, who now don’t even use the lanes because they, too, like the idea of living.”
Letter: Edwards lives his ‘mountain values’
“I have seen in him exactly what all of our constituents need in a quality representative, no matter which side of the political aisle you’re on.”