“Smart growth involves tradeoffs, especially as we move to replace energy-wasting urban sprawl with more energy-efficient urban density as the national paradigm.”
Tag: Bill Branyon
Showing 1-21 of 22 results
Letter: Advice for reading Branyon
“A tip for reading Bill Branyon’s letters: Ignore all modifiers — mostly the adjectives, although the adverbs and adverbial phrases are also colorfully irrelevant.”
Letter: Standing up for efforts of local Sierra Club
“So, sorry, but local development will proceed, and my view is that our city and county are doing all that they can to preserve our unique local identity and still allow for affordable housing, environmental protections, family farm protections and all of the many factors that make WNC a place in which we want to live.”
Letter: We can’t freeze Asheville in time
“But the solution to our overlapping affordability and climate crises can’t be to try to freeze our city in time, to shut our borders or to blame anyone who hasn’t lived here long enough to earn the right kind of Asheville cred.”
Letter: Sierra Club criticism was baseless, unfair
“He heaps venomous scorn, most of it unfair and baseless, on an organization staffed exclusively by conscientious volunteers who selflessly devote their time and energy to doing what they can to preserve and protect the environment of Western North Carolina.”
Letter: Sierra Club critique flames out in Woodfin
“Attacking one of the nation’s largest and oldest organizations devoted to protecting our environment and going after a great public servant like Ken Brame was pathetic.”
Five takeaways from Buncombe’s 2022 primaries
The Buncombe County Board of Elections won’t officially certify the results until Friday, May 27, and the N.C. Board of Elections will issue its own certification Thursday, June 9. But even with those steps still to come, there’s plenty to learn from the unofficial results.
Letter: Branyon favors humane, ecological positions
“His plan to hold a countywide referendum on how much more development we want may prevent the continued destruction of our tree canopy in the city and destruction of our remaining forests, including Big Ivy, in the rural areas left in the county. “
Letter: We support progressive Branyon
“It is exactly because Bill is running as a progressive that we support him. Bill’s candidacy is about infusing new vitality into our stagnated democracy and bringing issues of vital concern to public attention.”
Letter: Branyon will seek referendum on development
“With true citizen input, Buncombe County will have a framework for our development future.”
Letter: This Democrat respects views of moderates and progressives
“Then there’s Mr. Thomson’s concern that my candidacy will cause Buncombe County to lose its only African American commissioner. And though I agree this is an important issue, I felt it was more important to oppose Mr. Whitesides because he voted to subsidize the Pratt & Whitney plant by $27 million of our tax dollars — a plant that will be making parts for one of the most lethal weapons on Earth, the F-35 Lightning.”
Letter: Branyon will investigate incentives deal
“Bill will work to investigate how Raytheon Technologies’ subsidiary Pratt & Whitney was approved for almost $100 million dollars in varied tax incentives to build a fossil-fuel-intensive airplane parts plant here.”
Letter: Prevent more weapons factories with Branyon
“We need to get rid of the atrocity that is the P&W factory and prevent the county Board of Commissioners from recruiting more weapons factories to Buncombe County.”
2022 Primary Voter Guide: Buncombe County Board of Commissioners District 1 — Democratic
Candidates for the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners District 1 Democratic 2022 primary share their positions with Xpress.
Letter: Branyon will stand up for our county
“He will stand up for our county against powerful influences like those who think they know better than their constituents. “
Letter: Keep progressive momentum with Branyon
“Mr. Branyon will also try to make Buncombe’s economy humane with a $17.30 minimum wage, rent controls, a permanent freeze on middle- and lower-class residential property taxes, a referendum on how much more development we want and protection of our remaining forests, such as Big Ivy.”
Short-story glory
A review of local author Michael Hopping’s new book, MacTiernan’s Bottle. The book’s title is also the name of the first masterpiece. This story will captivate every WNC artist who’s ever worked odd jobs to support their creativity, or agonized over the heartbreaking question of whether to give up their art or not.
Bill Branyon bagged it
As a fellow wordsmith, I was smitten by Bill Branyon’s commentary in the Nov. 2 Mountain Xpress [“Let’s Bag It”]. Henceforth, Stephanie Miller will no doubt curtail her public verbal comments to fewer sentences adorned with four-letter words full of nasty connotations. Mr. Branyon certainly put Miller “in her place” with great skill. Of course, […]
Bill Branyon has more in common with Billy Graham than he would like to admit
For a self-proclaimed freethinker, Bill Branyon certainly seems unable to form his own philosophy [“We Still Cogitate,” March 9 Xpress]. He criticizes right-wing Christians while lauding the belifs (or non-beliefs) of Socrates, Nietzsche, Vonnegut, Ghandi and Marx … uh, that's Groucho Marx. Branyon and most fundamentalist hypo-Christians could still learn a bit from the teachings […]
Ralph and Hillary, Barack and Sarah
I’m voting for Obama, but I think Nader would be the best president. I trust that Ralph would have a huge effect on the biggest barriers to world peace: uncontrolled capitalism, militarism, ecological devastation, sexism and racism. Though I’m often dismayed by Barack’s views, I do know he’s at least a guaranteed revolution in racism. […]
The talking magnolia
The extensive resistance to building right on top of the disputed magnolia tree in City/County Plaza proves there’s still plenty of vitality in Asheville’s old democratic bones. Many usually apolitical people have joined the fight, saying something like, “This is the last straw.” But the last straw in what? If the magnolia could speak, I […]