With all city precincts reporting, Marc Hunt and Chris Pelly have won seats on Asheville City Council. Incumbent Jan Davis has come in a mere 40 votes ahead of Lael Gray, meaning the race is likely headed for a recount. With all precincts reporting, the A-B Tech sales tax referendum has passed. (Photos by Bill Rhodes)
A flier funded by local businessman Chris Peterson and bearing a mocking, photoshopped picture of Asheville City Council member Cecil Bothwell, encouraging voters to back Council member Jan Davis and candidate Mark Cates has led to a condemnation by an advocacy group and public criticism. Davis has released a statement asserting he is unhappy with his inclusion in the flier, noting, “I do not believe in trickery and dirty campaigning.” Cates, meanwhile, has released a statement saying he understands’ Peterson’s view.
Asheville City Council members and staff are looking to clarify the city’s goal of building a trolley system, in light of a proposal to build a shuttle service.
You hear much about “Asheville, the bastion of the progressive,” as in “making progress toward better conditions; employing or advocating more enlightened or liberal ideas, i.e., a progressive community. “Making,” “employing” and “advocating” are all about action taken to achieve progress. The question then is, where’s all this “action”? Few even voted in the last […]
Allow me to add my endorsement and wholehearted support to re-elect Jan Davis to Asheville City Council. His deep roots in the community and his four decades of civic and governmental service uniquely equip him to be the ideal member of Council. During his two terms, he has demonstrated his leadership skills in facilitating, uniting […]
In the latest installment of our ongoing series of interviews with Asheville City Council candidates, Jake Frankel talks to Jan Davis about issues ranging from economic development and incentives to affordable housing and campaign strategy. (Audio from the interview included).
For weeks, Asheville has seen rumors swirl that New Belgium is considering the city for a new brewery and looking for economic development incentives. Today, Sept. 22, City Council member Jan Davis publicly confirmed the rumors at a Council of Independent Business Owners forum. He tells Xpress that while he welcomes the company, he’s skeptical about the need for incentives.
I'll be voting to return Jan Davis to Asheville City Council this fall, and I encourage Xpress readers to do the same. Jan has been a steady hand on Council since 2003, and has always had a pragmatic view about how to get the best outcomes for all stakeholders in city policy. I often see […]
As the upcoming and very important City Council elections approach, I encourage my fellow Asheville residents to vote for Jan Davis. Mr. Davis has served our city very well for the past eight years as a cohesive and coalition-building voice on City Council. Davis is a life-long resident, a successful downtown small-business owner and former […]
With one day left in the filing period, the Asheville City Council race is heating up, as the field has grown to eight candidates vying for three seats. After remaining publicly noncommittal for months, Council member Jan Davis filed for another run. Haw Creek Community Association President Chris Pelly and activist Lael Gray also officially joined the race.
A week after appeals to the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners for more funding went unmatched, the WNC Media Center continues to drift towards closing its doors April 30.
Early this morning, in the food court of the Biltmore Square mall, members of the Council of Independent Business Owners gathered to hear elected officials from Buncombe County and the city of Asheville summarize their situations and goals.
Free speech at the Transit Center $60 million in water improvements needed to keep pace with growth Parking on downtown Asheville’s south side could become much easier in the near future. While the Buncombe County commissioners were considering funding a large parking deck on Coxe Avenue at their Sept. 16 meeting (see county commissioners’ report […]
Buses may get bigger ads City to partner with Chamber on tourist signs Sometimes you have to be content to go to Raleigh with the resolution you have, not the one you want. That’s what happened on Aug. 10, when Leicester residents came before the Asheville City Council for the third time, seeking its endorsement […]
Editor’s note: News reporting inevitably involves many judgment calls. Typically, the quest for balanced reporting would call for including comments by Carl Mumpower’s critics as well as his friends and supporters. But those critics have been vocal and their concerns widely reported, both in this paper and elsewhere. Rather than repeating them here, we have […]
City green-lights Civic Center roof replacement Some gated communities can expand City to help fund water hookups for affordable/green housing Through snow and rain and heat and gloom of night … it leaked. Over the years, the Asheville Civic Center’s roof—probably the ailing facility’s No. 1 structural woe—has gotten less than glowing press. Celebrities have […]
The Asheville City Council’s Dec. 11 meeting—the last one in 2007—saw some shuffling of seats as the newly elected Bill Russell replaced outgoing Council member Bryan Freeborn, and incumbent Jan Davis got the nod as vice mayor. This seat taken? New Council member Bill Russell (right) takes a seat vacated by Bryan Freeborn as re-elected […]
