Building up is not the answer

Posted on by Gene Zimbalkin

So PAC-man Russell has won a seat on the City Council with the help of Asheville Citizen-Times’ endorsement, which is about as surreal as their endorsing Brother Christopher (at least we know where he stands on the issues). PAC-man Russell, on the other hand, promises to preserve the beauty of Asheville while simultaneously paving it over. This one smells. Follow the money.

Regarding the Ellington travesty: Asheville will be adjusting to this bloat forever. How much better for our City Council to have shown some backbone and required The Ellington to adjust to Asheville. Shame, shame.

Finally, regarding the love affair most of our City Council has with the mantra of “smart growth” as an answer to Asheville’s development woes: Smart growth will do nothing to stop the negative effects of development in our city. Building up does not lessen sprawl, but just adds to overall city congestion. What would be a good start is muzzling and leashing the folks at the Tourism Development Authority—enough with the ads already. We’re not going to grow out of the challenges facing Asheville, such as increasing traffic congestion, housing affordability, crime, infrastructure strain and others.

Let’s think about where Asheville is headed and get ready for the next City Council elections in two years. And let’s not further open the door to the corporate fascism beginning to stink up Asheville.

— Gene Zimbalkin
Asheville

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One thought on “Building up is not the answer”

  1. Foto-Jennic

    It’s better to build up than out – – –

    But I agree that the mammoth Ellington is a little grotesque for the so-called “Land of the Sky.”
    It will change the downtown views considerably, but for the past 100 years it really has been Biltmore and Grove Park that run the show.

    Back in the 1920’s there was supposed to be another gigantic skyscraper built downtown. That was the original plan for the Grove Arcade, until a little dip in the stock-market changed history.

    I’ve been watching our trillion dollars of reserves in China very carefully. The easiest way to destroy an “evil” capitalist country is to drop a bomb on their economy. Wouldn’t it be odd if history repeated itself?

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