“I grew up in the depths of the Great Depression, when money seemed to be the driving factor for almost everyone around me, because nobody had any.”
Tag: Jerry Sternberg
Showing 1-21 of 24 results
Letter: Racism with a capital ‘R’
“How despicable to think that a grown woman cannot make her own statement about her interpretation and experience regarding working with President Trump.”
Letter: High-rises, trailers are not the answer to affordable housing
“Creating multi-income, multiuse developments and requiring affordable units in new multifamily developments is a much better way of solving this problem and maybe actually helping some folks along the way.”
An unvarnished look at affordable housing: The Gospel According to Jerry
“As soon as outraged neighbors show up at municipal meetings screaming and shouting about traffic, quality of life and property values, our elected officials quietly slide down in their chairs and hide their faces behind their computer screens, concealing their shame about discouraging developers, both public and private, from increasing our woefully inadequate housing inventory.”
The great threat: The Gospel According to Jerry
“The newcomers worshipped at the feet of the Right Rev. Wilma Dykeman, a local deity whose writings took on the prominence and influence of the Holy Grail.”
Thank God it’s over!: The Gospel According to Jerry
“Heroic young men and women who’d stepped up to defeat our dreadful enemies returned to us, many arriving at the same train station on Depot Street from which they’d departed.”
Kingdom at war: The Gospel According to Jerry
“It seemed that the whole world was at war, and the tiny river kingdom of Asheville was neither exempt from the traumatic effects nor absent in playing an important integral part in its prosecution.”
Council: Yes to RAD zoning, no to short-term rentals
Two years in the making, the proposed form-based code for the River Arts District isn’t a done deal yet. At its July 25 meeting, Asheville City Council sent the code back to the Planning and Zoning Commission for deliberation on removing short-term lodging from the uses permitted in commercial areas of the district.
Blue Ridge Honor Flight brings veterans home: The Gospel According to Jerry
“Grown men don’t cry, but it was hard to keep a dry eye as we walked through these profoundly evocative memorials, knowing the gut-wrenching agony of the families of all these thousands of men and women who, had they survived, might have been on the bus with us this very day.”
The Gospel According to Jerry: Luck of the draw
“It was so bizarre that I started to laugh — but then I realized that there was something very unfunny about the situation.”
The Gospel According to Jerry: The long arm of the law
“As most of you may know, the sheriff is the most powerful official in Buncombe County, answering to no one but the voters.”
Back in the day, Asheville’s nightclubs were hopping
“But the best thing about most of these clubs was their food, probably subsidized by the under-the-counter liquor sales and occasional other nefarious activities, such as backroom gambling.”
Rodriguez and Hauser appointed to Planning & Zoning
In a brief session, city council appointed Guillermo Rodriguez and Tony Hauser to vacant seats on the city’s Planning & Zoning Commission. Council’s next meeting will be Nov. 10.
Booze and bucks in Buncombe
“Local enforcement of federal and state liquor laws has long come with a big swig of hypocrisy.”
The Gospel According to Jerry: Moonshine memories
“Moonshine” was produced by the light of the moon, to prevent law enforcement from detecting the smoke from the fire required to distill the resulting alcohol. All that was needed to distribute joy and pleasure (or pain and suffering, depending on one’s viewpoint) to consumers was a delivery system.
If the creek don’t rise: Flooding, money and politics in the River Arts District
City plans to improve infrastructure, expand public space, increase access and encourage private development in the River Arts District have triggered considerable controversy. Xpress reached out to the city, RAD business and property owners, and organizations involved in the now flourishing area’s revitalization to try to answer some key questions.
Letter writer: Thousands of small solutions exist for Asheville’s white-supremacy problem
Reading Jerry Sternberg‘s opinion piece, “Gospel According to Jerry: Confessions of a Recovering Racist” [Feb. 11, Xpress], inspired a lot of feelings in me: Irritation, disgust and confusion were the big ones, but there was also a sense of relief. Here is someone with white-skin privilege talking about racism in Asheville, acknowledging that he is a recovering racist and asking about solutions.
Thank you Jerry Sternberg
I would like to thank [frequent Mountain Xpress Commentary contributor] Jerry Sternberg for bringing the subject of domestic violence to the attention of Xpress readers by offering the proceeds from his book, The Gospel According to Jerry, to Helpmate, the local nonprofit agency providing shelter for [domestic-violence] victims and their children, a 24-hour hotline, counseling, […]
The Gospel According to Jerry
Ever wonder why Asheville is such a clown town when it comes to local politics? Our City Council works very hard with good and honorable intentions, but they seem to trip over their personal agendas, egos and lack of pragmatism. My conclusion is that this is because they’re elected by, and only hear the drumbeat […]
The Gospel According to Jerry
MooI was 14 years old when V-J Day was declared in August of 1945. It happened that my crazy Aunt Johanna, whom I just loved, was visiting us from Philadelphia. She asked my dad if I could go back to Philadelphia with her. My dad said it would cost too much for a train ticket, […]
The Gospel According to Jerry
An expert is a person from more than 50 miles away with a briefcase. Recently the city of Asheville hired a group of experts called Goody Clancy all the way from Boston, Mass., to tell us what we should do with our downtown in order to appease our no-growth activists. It seems like we go […]