Leaders of the Council of Independent Business Owners have filed a lawsuit seeking to block the formation of the WNC Regional Air Quality Agency’s proposed Clean Air Community Trust Fund, calling the body illegal and objecting to its funding source. CIBO leaders have also sent letters asking state officials to delay their approval of the … Read more
To those Americans who harbor the usual culinary prejudices, haggis — a traditional Scottish dish made from the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep minced with onion, suet, oatmeal and seasonings and boiled in the deceased sheep’s stomach — may seem like something to be avoided at all costs. And thus Bad Haggis, which … Read more
Arms and fingers articulate unfamiliar body languages. Feet beat unusual rhythms. A kaleidoscope of exotic colors swirls to strange and wondrous music. It’s Folkmoot, the world-famous two-week international dance festival — and the world is coming to your doorstep. The first public performance of the 17th annual Folkmoot USA happens on Monday, July 17 at … Read more
Sam Edwards is many things: eternal child, up-and-coming pop-culture icon, architectural innovator, writer. That last item, though, is what he wants to be known for. Edwards is the author of From Outhouse to White House to Treehouse (Parris Press, 1999), a memoir that includes his misadventures working for Jimmy Carter’s re-election and John Glenn’s presidential … Read more
The still-mysterious inferno that claimed the lives of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald and eight other women at Asheville’s Highland Hospital in 1948 was only the physical manifestation of an incendiary torment that had stalked her, like a relentless suitor, for nearly two decades. But a violent death in a madhouse before the age of 50 was … Read more
I want a house. I dream of buying my own home: one with a garden space, an airy kitchen with windows, open rooms with high ceilings, friendly neighbors, and a place for a dog. In my apartment building, neighbors’ beds thump against the walls at night; their stereos rattle my china; and their cigarette smoke … Read more
We’ve come to think of owning a home as a quintessential part of the American dream. As Asheville Community Development Director Charlotte Caplan explained to a gathering of new homeowners on June 10: “Owning a home is not like owning an object. It makes you part of something. You belong to this place.” That’s a … Read more
Although Madison County officials had little luck in lifting the veil of secrecy surrounding a proposed resort, they may have hit on a solution that its uneasy neighbors can accept. The Madison County commissioners held a public hearing June 29 on whether to grant a request by the mysterious Ark Foundation to rezone its property … Read more
In the dance of state politics, the question of where to spend taxpayers’ money usually comes down to a dip here, a spin there and a pirouette along the way. But for the Regional Water Authority of Asheville, Buncombe and Henderson, a small phrase slipped into state Senate bill 1381 — which nobody will own … Read more
Make French Broad bridge a work of art Kudos to Pam Myers for wondering, “Can the [new I-26 Connector] bridge over the French Broad be designed as a work of art? Let’s find out” [Xpress, June 28, “Beyond the urban trail”]. The answer is yes. If you want something to cherish and identify as our … Read more
