Tattoo town Sure, Asheville’s renowned for the art that’s produced, displayed and sold here. You can’t walk a block, it seems, without hitting a store full of artful objects of one kind or another. But on your way to just about any downtown location (and in many other parts of Asheville), you’d have to be … Read more
In an era of increasing governmental secrecy (see “Secrecy Nation”), Haywood County Board of Commissioners Chairman Mark Swanger is a maverick. His guiding principle is openness: open meetings, open documents, open government, period. During the past year, Asheville and Buncombe County have held secret meetings involving selected City Council and Board of Commissioners members — … Read more
The Asheville Civic Center has been dissected, debated and dissed for years, yet a decision on what to do with it remains elusive. A Sept. 8 public forum, co-sponsored by the Civic Center Commission, the League of Women Voters and Mountain Xpress, aimed to take the public’s pulse on this divisive issue. Following a tour … Read more
A city plan to build a $21 million, five-story parking deck in downtown Asheville’s Battle Square has come under fire from residents of the Battery Park Apartments. On Sept. 6, about 50 people gathered in the historic structure’s newly renovated rooftop meeting room to formally launch a campaign to block what would be Asheville’s largest … Read more
Katrina delivers wake-up lessons We Americans have a great opportunity before us to take a close look at how we have been living our lives up to now, the effect it has had on the planet, and how we can change our focus to be forward-thinking. The devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the destruction of domestic … Read more
“GET OUT OF THE DAMN ROAD!” screamed a female in a passing SUV. We were taking up only one of the four lanes running through the commercial district in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Perhaps she was impatient to reach one of the corporate franchises lining both sides of the highway. I, too, felt some impatience with … Read more
