Xpress readers engaged with a wide range of local issues in 2023 — from concerns about downtown Asheville to infrastructure priorities, a possible single-use plastic bag ban, education issues and more.
Tag: vance monument
Showing 1-21 of 115 results
Letter: Now’s the time to reimagine monument spot
“Before we rush headlong into anything we may have to tear down again in a few years, shouldn’t we at least give creative minds a chance to come up with some fresh concepts?”
It’s time we stopped honoring racists
“Imagine there’s a small town called Bondageville, named after its distinguished founder, Samuel Ashe Bondage.”
Letter: Reimagining Asheville’s obelisk
“Couldn’t the dimensions of the old obelisk yield a new and beguiling one, perhaps composed of a transparent composite material?
Letter: Asheville’s obelisk, take two
“The obelisk wasn’t the problem. Vance was the problem.”
Letter: Hopes for Asheville’s reparations
“My hope is that the people who lived in Asheville in the ’60s and ’70s (Black) will actually see or benefit somehow from funds awarded to the reparation cause.”
Letter: A lost opportunity for the Vance Monument
“I believe that a simple, tasteful plaque acknowledging our city’s (and country’s) complicated past would have done wonders to heal wounds and begin to explain what ‘diversity’ truly means.”
Letter: Getting Zeb Vance’s context just right
“White supremacy wasn’t merely a footnote to Vance’s public career, after all, and he would have been the first to tell you so.”
The monumental toppling of Zeb Vance
“Instead, perhaps Asheville and Buncombe County should follow the British model of ‘retaining and explaining’ controversial monuments and statuary.”
Letter: Think about unity and future in Pack Square redesign
“The name I would like to see the people of Asheville and Buncombe consider is Unity Future Park and Unity Future Square. I think a clock tower can go where the Vance Monument is.”
Year in Review: Historians consider local historical events from 2022
Reparations, the Vance Monument and the future of Pack Square Plaza are on the minds of local historians, as 2022 comes to a close.
Letter: How it sounds behind the drum kit
“I point my speaker toward what used to be the Vance Monument. I find that I have to turn up the volume a bit just so that I can hear the music with which I’m playing. I may be violating a noise ordinance, and if anyone asked me to turn it down, I would do so.”
Letter: Overlooking the elephants in Asheville’s room
“Take, for instance, objections recently raised in the Mountain Xpress to increased housing density, open-space reduction and infill construction.”
Letter: Thumbs-down on monument ideas
“Notwithstanding the pontifications of the City Council and their attorney, the Vance Monument was a gift to the people of Asheville, largely paid for by Vance’s friend George Willis Pack, on property donated by Pack on the condition that it be retained forever.”
Letter: Put historic monument back up
“Put the historic monument back up and remove the Vance name and then install the names of people who made Asheville what it was.”
Letter: Asheville’s 21st-century monument
“I think the monument should celebrate protest.”
Letter: The ‘story’ Pack Square could tell
“The final piece in the ‘anywhere USA aesthetic’ has concluded with the dismantling of a time capsule dressed in ancient Egyptian fashion at Pack Square, done with such haste it’s partial and in legal limbo.”
Local historians reflect on the Vance Monument, one year after its removal
While some historians were already telling fuller stories before the monument’s removal, others have been inspired by its absence.
Letter: Public business should be conducted openly
“We the people need to be informed, but it is hard when they are having meetings by Zoom all the time.”
Year in review: In 2021, readers shared thoughts on pandemic, growth, Vance Monument and more
Xpress readers offered up a raft of thought-provoking letters to the editor, commentaries and comments about local affairs in 2021.
Letter: We don’t feel safe in Asheville
“I live in Asheville, and I’m wondering why people care more about the homeless than the police who are deciding to quit because of the people in charge not backing them up, and [people] running around shooting up places?”