As election season moves into high gear, the focus tends to be on the two main political parties and their candidates. But while that approach makes sense, it overlooks some key facets of this unique community. Asheville is often viewed as a liberal city, both politically and culturally. A majority of current City Council members […]
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Letters to the editor
Surrendering to peace This past Sept. 11, I participated in a wonderful event in Pritchard Park called Peace on Earth Peace with Earth. It was attended by an estimated 700 people, who were writing a new story for human presence on Earth. It marked and celebrated the work and the life of Gandhi. It was […]
Balm the world to peace
Local sightings of Black Mountain’s most famous ambassador of peace are disappointingly rare, even by those of us who count him as a close friend. E-mails are returned from Sidney, Chicago, Hamburg, Paris, Antigua, Belfast, Tokyo, Copenhagen, the left coast, the Great Plains, the front seat of Dan the Van or a jet cabin above […]
Asheville City Council
The Asheville City Council narrowly shot down a proposed revision to the Unified Development Ordinance that would have allowed cell towers in high-density residential areas. The new language, said Urban Planner Shannon Tuch, included provisions that the towers be disguised and not be too close to residential buildings. But affordable-housing advocates on Council maintained that […]
Gone but not forgotten
Members of Asheville and Buncombe County’s new public-access TV station, URTV, are still smarting from the departure of its general manager, Kurt Mann, last month. Last Thursday afternoon a number of them gave the station’s board of directors a talking-to on the matter, voicing support for Mann and the job he was doing, and calling […]
Getting high in WNC
photos by Melissa Smith A deep breath and you’re off. After hours of anticipation, the anxiety that was festering in the pit of your stomach has subsided, giving way to a rush of excitement. You watch in silent awe as the world around you transforms itself as you drift higher and higher. Altitude! It’s an […]
Asheville City Council
“I’ll be able to send out a lot of nice letters to tell people of your actions tomorrow.” — City Manager Gary Jackson Asheville’s water system continues to be a bugaboo for City Council. At their Sept. 19 work session, Council members agreed in principle to reduce the new capital-improvements fee for a handful of […]
Letters to the editor
Making life more bearable I believe your article on the controversy surrounding Bartram’s Walk [“Bartram’s What?,” Aug. 9] contained the first printed concern I have seen about encroachment of development upon the habitat of the black bears in our area. For 15 years, I have lived and hiked on the Haw Creek side of Cisco […]
A Meadow Grows In Brooklyn
Still life with lamp, sofa, Richard Buckner: His new album is about the “ethereal meadow in my mind.” Drive by the bodegas on Flatbush Avenue, exit the Canarsie Line subway at Broadway Junction, or walk through the factories-turned-lofts in Williamsburg, and the borough of Brooklyn just isn’t the sort of place you associate with meadows […]
Boots, routes and border disputes
Writing’s on the rock: Ellicott Rock, along the Chattooga River, is history in plain sight. photo by Danny Bernstein The sign, which reads “Ellicott Rock,” points down and toward the river. No mistaking it — I drop my pack on the trail and scramble down. I reach the rock, marked “N G” to designate the […]
Asheville City Council
“I sunk to my shins in places where I used to walk on hard ground.” — Council member Robin Cape After a long and heated debate, the Asheville City Council dramatically scaled back the controversial plans for Richmond Hill Park in the wake of a state citation for failure to adequately control erosion. Approved in […]
Letters to the editor
Mastering development After reading in the Xpress about the grassroots resistance to hillside development, and [having moved] here myself to escape sprawl, I not only sympathize with the grassrooters, but warn them that unless they can convince the local politicians to stop talking and start moving on the problem, sprawl will come as sure as […]
Top drawer
Two cute • Who they are: Emily Storrow and Aaron Gilmour • What they’re wearing: On her, a floral dress she bought on a recent trip to California and a teal bag from Urban Outfitters. On him, a navy velvet newsboy cap from Head to Toe in Black Mountain. • Why we love it: There’s […]
The other Timberlake
Nothing ’bout Britney in this page turner: a first-edition copy of Timberlake’s Memoirs. A public announcement in the June 21, 1762 issue of The Gentlemen’s Magazine described new guests to England: “Three Cherokee Indian Chiefs arrived in London from South Carolina. They are well made men, near six feet high, were dressed in their own […]
Culture watch
Making Papa Proud It takes a certain kind of writer to wrestle the grit and guts of insight into a short story worthy of Hemingway, but Brian Railsback did. No doubt using his most terse and muscular prose, the WCU Professor of English penned the piece “Clean Break,” recently given top honors at the Ernest […]
His large wit
Iron Weed: Lyle Lovett has been mauled by bulls, played Owsley in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and even survived a short-lived marriage to failed stage actress Julia Roberts. “It’s just more of my songs.” That was Lyle Lovett’s deadpan, tongue-in-cheek reply when asked to describe the music on his last album, My Baby […]
Now what?
“I think that the Maxwell Street use and the Staples signs are wrong. What support I will get on Council to make considerable changes to these issues is yet to be seen.” — Council member Robin Cape The uproar over Asheville’s alleged failure to enforce its Unified Development Ordinance will take center stage at City […]
All in the family?
After serving as a volunteer victim advocate in Buncombe County criminal court each week, I find myself in the grip of conflicting emotions: disheartened by the complex problem of domestic violence, yet humbled by the strength some of these women display. On Wednesdays, Courtroom 4 is where cases are heard in which the defendant was […]
The sound of one wheel slipping
To dream the improbable dream: Mountain unicyclists Bill Spears, left, and Adam Masters don’t care that their sport is weird. photos by Kent Priestley Riding a unicycle can be a lonely endeavor. This is partly because of the extreme concentration it requires, but mostly because it’s hard to find anyone else who does it. The […]
The Green Scene
Temperatures were boiling as several hundred people crowded into Mars Hill College’s unair-conditioned Moore Auditorium for an Aug. 3 public hearing on a pair of sewage-treatment plants proposed for Madison County. The Scenic Wolf Mountain Wastewater Treatment Plant, as it’s called, would discharge 300,000 gallons of treated effluent daily into Puncheon Fork Creek, a tributary […]
Letters to the editor
Reality pales by Hanke’s comparison I wanted to take a moment to express my appreciation for the work of Ken Hanke, and to make sure you understand what a treasure you have in this man. I am not a rabid movie fan. At least, not of current films, although like most cinema buffs, I have […]