Day: May 2, 2007
Press your spaceface close to mine
Perched beside the headwaters of the ancient French Broad River, outside the tiny town of Rosman, near Brevard, there is a magic window. Peering through it, you can look back through time all the way to the beginning of things, back when the universe was new and humans weren’t here at all. Further, even, to … Read more
Asheville City Council
If someone new to Asheville wanted a crash course on the city’s top concerns and hot buttons, City Council’s April 24 meeting would have served as a suitable primer. In the six-and-a-half-hour session, Council members touched on a greatest-hits package of Asheville’s perennially controversial topics, including homelessness, development, traffic and the environment. Whose park?: A … Read more
Buncombe County Commission
It was a night of hisses and cheers, of impassioned statements and more than a few mumbled expletives. But hours of public comment at the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners’ April 24 meeting—mostly opposing the measure—did not deter the board from adopting a countywide zoning ordinance. Read it and weep: Commissioners passed a new zoning … Read more
The Green Scene
Logging Shope’s slopes The portion of Pisgah National Forest that the U.S. Forest Service has dubbed the “Shope Creek Project Area” is home to black bears, salamanders, cerulean warblers and wild trout, among other critters. There are patches of trees estimated to be 150 to 200 years old, and streams that are virtually untouched by … Read more
Public to brainstorm for proposed performance center
With no concrete plans—much less any concrete poured—the nonprofit group Asheville Area Center for the Performing Arts keeps plugging away at its dream of creating a performing-arts center in downtown Asheville adjacent to the Pack Square Park, which is now under construction. The proposed $85 million facility is far from becoming reality, though the group … Read more
Citizen-Times publisher faces business critics
For Jeffrey Green, who’s been publisher of the Asheville Citizen-Times only since last fall, the city’s most heated debates have offered a quick trial by fire. Talking business: CIBO member Mac Swicegood, left, shows Asheville Citizen-Times publisher Jeffrey Green some of the newspaper’s recent cartoons that have rankled the business group. photo by Jon Elliston … Read more
Get on the bus with LaZoom Tours
It wasn’t all that long ago that Asheville’s tourists made an astonishing discovery: There’s more to the town than the Biltmore Estate. No one is certain who it was that leaked the secret, but ever since the word got out, downtown has never been the same. Ever since that remarkable day, a variety of curious … Read more
The other S-word
If you’ve picked up a newspaper or tuned into an Asheville City Council meeting in recent months, you’ve probably run into the word: socialism. Workers of the world … debate: City Council member Carl Mumpower, left, says he see socialist impulses behind some city policies. Fellow Council member Brownie Newman was described by one critic … Read more
Ahead of the pack
When controversial American Idol contestant Sanjaya sang his teary farewell, he cleverly improvised “Let’s give ‘em something to talk about … other than hair.” While Bonnie Raitt may not get it, chances are Aussie rocker Andrew Stockdale—front man of Wolfmother—shares the sentiment. Wolfmother is more than just arena rock with curly locks. Known for his … Read more
