Mayoral, City Council candidates discuss key downtown issues at Pack’s Tavern on Oct. 14

At the Oct. 14 Asheville mayoral and City Council candidate forum at Pack’s Tavern, contenders discussed pressing downtown issues highlighted in a survey by the Asheville Downtown Association.
From cleanliness to crime and toplessness to construction, the seven candidates voiced their opinions on key issues affecting the city and its residents. (pictured: John Miall and Jonathan Wainscott; photo by Max Cooper)

Knife fight in Pritchard Park sends one to Mission Hospital

Around 4:45 p.m. this afternoon, Asheville Police received a call that two men were fighting in front of the Decko Gecko sculpture in Pritchard Park in downtown Asheville. When officers got to the scene, Lt. Wally Welch explains, they found that one man had been struck in the head with a cane and cut with a knife; the other man had been cut on his cheek. ***WARNING This post contains a graphic image with blood*** (Photo by Max Cooper)

Place your BIDs: Property owners propose downtown business improvemen­t district

Amid talk of higher taxes and better services, City Council may soon decide whether downtown Asheville gets a business improvement district. Many city residents first encountered the term in 2009, when Boston-based consultants Goody Clancy recommended the idea in their draft of what became Asheville’s Downtown Master Plan. Council adopted the plan later that year, […]

Downtown Asheville depends on us

Reports of the Downtown Market closing have been greatly exaggerated. A plucky group of 25 artists, craftspeople and antique dealers have banded together to keep the central core of the market open until First Bank or the successful bidder acquires the building later this month. The building did not go dark on July 1 as […]

“Aliens” among us

There must be “aliens” among us. I see them daily in the Asheville area, running red lights and never using turn signals. I have experienced several near misses by these folks. And apparently, there are more alien drivers in Asheville than in the Chicago area, where I drove accident- and ticket-free for 37 years. I […]

An Asheville native reflects, laments

I grew up here, attended preschool at both First Presbyterian downtown and Asbury United Methodist, [and visited] the north branch of the library when it was behind First Union Bank. I frequented Beanstreets and Reader’s Corner. I’ve watched this town and all the changes it’s been through. Businesses come and go, and some preschools might […]

The Asheville miracle: A startling look at downtown 20 years ago and the folks who transforme­d it

The Grove Arcade, boarded up and abandoned, before it was renovated in the 1990s. About 200 people attended “The Asheville Miracle: The Revitalization of Downtown,” a presentation sponsored by the Downtown Asheville Residential Neighbors (DARN) on May 25 at Diana Wortham Theatre. Xpress reporter Michael Muller covered the meeting as it took place via Twitter, […]