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Updates to police policy up for discussion at Council’s Sept. 25 meeting

Although Chicago-based 21CP Solutions finished its report on Asheville’s response to a police beating scandal in August, the city isn’t done hiring consultants to assess its policing approach. That’s one of the key takeaways from interim City Manager Cathy Ball’s memo discussing action items from the report, to be presented at Asheville City Council’s upcoming regular meeting.

Mountain Xpress takes 1st place for 2009 multimedia project

Mountain Xpress has won first place from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies for its 2009 multimedia project, “We are Burton Street: The Neighborhood’s Stand Against D.O.T.” The group effort involved Xpress staff and a host of citizen contributors — using video, audio and articles to tell the story of how one highway project affected a small, traditionally African-American neighborhood in West Asheville, North Carolina.

Banding together

The Burton Street neighborhood has changed a lot since DeWayne Barton was a boy. “All this used to be a wooded area,” he says, motioning toward a line of houses adjoining the neighborhood’s community garden. “The whole place used to be like a little forest. I remember, growing up, I would play out here, only […]

Burton Street residents urged to continue activism

At a March 9 forum on the controversial Interstate 26 connector, Mayor Terry Bellamy, Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Chair David Gantt and representatives of local groups urged residents of the Burton Street neighborhood to keep fighting and petition state officials to spare damage to their neighborhood. Hey, neighbor: Vivian Conley, a resident of the […]

Putting a name on the I-26 debate

There has been no shortage of stances in the I-26 connector debate. Resolutions have been passed, endorsements made. Buncombe County and the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce have supported the option known as Alternative 3. Asheville City Council and several community groups and developers have backed the Asheville Design Center-initiated Alternative 4b. (See Xpress ongoing […]