Whole lotta thumb-lickin’

I find it interesting that our county commissioners are already licking their thumbs to count money from the Ellington project that has yet to be approved. Where did the county’s housing-fund plan initiative come from, and why now? I strongly believe that this is not their idea, but is a result of a lobbying effort by The Ellington’s development team.

This team, in addition to spreading their usual quota of manure about the wonderful benefits of their project, is also playing big-boy politics—and it smells. Look for more of these Washington, D.C.-style high jinks as the City Council date for reconsideration of the Ellington project approaches. Look also for additional peculiar endorsements to pop up, including at the City Council’s Oct. 16 meeting. At that meeting, look for the development team to throw us a bone or two, while using smoke and mirrors to obscure negative impacts of key issues raised about the project, such as the building’s scale and traffic impact on our downtown core.

— Gene Zimbalkin
Asheville

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