“The affordable housing problems of Asheville will not be solved by destroying our heritage.”
Tag: tourism
Showing 64-84 of 162 results
Golden goosed
TDA projects roaring year for Buncombe visitation
At its March 25 regular meeting, the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority board unanimously approved a projection that occupancy tax revenue would exceed $27 million for fiscal year 2021-22 — 15% more than projected for the current fiscal year, which ends in June, and 9% more than the year before the pandemic.
Council to hold final hearing on new hotel rules Feb. 9
Members will discuss the final proposed guidelines to streamline future lodging development — and residents will have one last chance to weigh in — before the city’s hotel moratorium expires on Tuesday, Feb. 23.
Infectioner’s sugar
Letter: Artsville fails to impress
“Your city is a prissy little bourgeois phony art town filled with middle-class housewives doing arts and crafts.”
Tax me no questions
By the numbers: COVID-19 cases in WNC, tourist markets
Masks are required, bars are closed and isolation fatigue is setting in. As Buncombe enters this new phase, Xpress took a look at the COVID-19 stats — both in Western North Carolina and in some likely points of origin for short-term visitors.
Letter: TDA’s shortcomings add to tourism feedback loop
“Compared to its peers, the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority doesn’t do a particularly good job.”
Letter: Fix city’s economy or say goodbye to Asheville’s ‘character’
“It’s hard to adapt to catastrophe when your city’s income inequality is so bad it resembles a Charles Dickens novel, and narcissistic politicians perpetuate it in order to further their careers.”
Letter: In defense of tourism-based businesses
“When it is safe, I hope the tourists come back in droves to help put our friends and families back to work.”
Letter: Build foundation for a less tourist-dependent Asheville
“Tourism must shrink as a proportion of our local economy. We have to start building the foundation on which a new, less tourist-dependent Asheville can thrive.”
Letter: Shame on Asheville for its systemic racism
“Segregation and economic apartheid have been standard operating procedure for all my life in Asheville, and that has not changed.”
Letter: Asheville, racist and unequal as it ever was
“In the area of diversity in hiring, Asheville is just as segregated, racist and unequal as it ever was, and while whites promote Asheville as a tourist and artistic mecca, African Americans are still cleaning rooms in expensive hotels instead of front desk or management positions and not being hired in banks, restaurants and trendy bars in downtown, Biltmore and West Asheville.”
Letter: TDA needs to listen to concerns
“This kind of denial of how tourism has negatively impacted people who live here will only infuriate them more.”
Letter: Tourism imposes tax on the rest of us
“In order to house, clothe and feed your family with an income that insulting, you need support from subsidized housing, subsidized transport, food banks and other charities.”
Readers shared views on development, politics, the environment and more in 2019
How did Xpress readers process all the local news and changes this year? Here’s a look at the topics that generated the most commentaries, letters to the editor and online comments in Xpress in 2019.
Letter: Hotels, businesses must examine how they treat local workers
“The people of Asheville have had enough of being exploited, and it is time to abolish the Buncombe County TDA.”
A Variety of A Tax
ASHEVILLE, N.C.
Letter: Downtown hotels should pay living wage
“As real estate prices climb and cost of living goes up and up, the only solution is to pay workers more.”
We’re full!
ASHEVILLE, N.C.