Apparently, YOU do not need one but then, you don’t speak for the people willing to make investments in such things.

Unfortunately, travelah, as taxpayers, we all end up ‘investing’ in these ventures.

Why is it that people write these silly letters saying ‘we don’t need this’ and ‘we don’t need that’ but they never give any real reasons why? Why do we not need another hotel, Jean? Because you’re afraid it might actually create jobs and help the economy? Good gawd people!! Stop living in the Dark Ages!! You’re suffocating our city with your whining and selfish B.S.  Let them build, let the city progress, build up and not out, and we’ll actually have money in the city’s budget.

Pluto, what investment do you make when somebody else invests in a piece of property?

Its the same people that cry “Keep Asheville Freaky”  and buy into the lame hype of “Paris of the South”

BUILD, BUILD, BUILD!!!

If you are going to live somewhere with a tourism based economy, then you can expect certain things.  Hotels would be one of them.

Tom J, the trouble is we already have plenty of them, with 3 “boutique” hotels already OK’d for construction. If the speculators are allowed to build all these hotels around town, we will end up with as lot of empty buildings. Empty buildings, whether new or old, are not attractive.

No new hotels. Especially since we have this recession going on. Just take a look around Asheville this 4th July weekend. How much traffic do we have? NO MUCH! Case closed.

sounds like “Mysterylogger” and “Mike McCormick” need to debate a bit!

We definitely need more hotels.
Also more upscale condos, more sushi, more breweries, more overpriced coffee and more mexican restaurants.
While we are at it, lets also do more malls.
Why do we need more more more…?
Because of the money that can be made you silly fools. Not that any of this will ever benefit any ordinary Joe Blow Ashevillista but that’s just a minor detail.
Who cares and who cares about preservation? Build I say, build….

So, what, PatD—the owners and employees of the sushi restaurants, breweries, coffee shops and Mexican restaurant commute to town from Greenville or Knoxville or someplace?  Should we kick out the ones that occupy the restored buildings and who are the reason those buildings were restored and preserved in the first place?

What businesses exactly do or would benefit the ordinary Ashevillian? 

I think I know what you’re trying to say, but don’t be silly.

Life would boring if we can’t be silly.

What I detest about this build, build, build thing is the awful mediocre place that mainstream America has become. Look around, go anywhere in the US to witness the awful ‘more of the same’ trend. Slowly, this is coming to Asheville.

Last year I had to be in Bavaria for business. I was looking at the pristine sloping hills and small villages just outside Munich. All built and maintained in a style not changed for hundreds of years. A lifestyle adapted to modern ways but without giving up much of the beauty.
I could not help thinking. Give this to Americans and they would surely destroy it in the name of the almighty dollar.

<<What businesses exactly do or would benefit the ordinary Ashevillian? >>
Small businesses Haunted, small and locally owned.
And locally owned does not necessarily mean more Biltmore / Grove / bank types.

Once in a while I hear this moronic statement. ‘if your don’t grow you die’. I think huh?  Who comes up with stupid stuff like that?
No, it’s ‘if you don’t adapt you die’. Adapting and growing are not the same.

You say you’d rather we worked on developing small local business, but you railed against sushi restaurants, coffee houses, Mexican restaurants, and breweries.  Would you not say those are locally-owned and operated?  To my knowledge, the folks at Papa’s and Beer don’t get their marching orders from a corporate office.  Nor, for that matter, do those at Izzy’s, or at any of the city’s breweries.  The people who run Green Tea Sushi may have come from far away, but I assure you that they are not a front for some sinister arm of the Yakuza. 

Think before you speak.  And think about this—I agree with some of what you’re saying.  You mention the style of Bavaria.  Would you agree then that Asheville has more to fear from bad architecture than it does from whatever business happens to locate in some exquisite building? 

You went to Bavaria.  I just spent a weekend in Charlotte, which is mediocrity in stone.  The Asheville Mall has more character than Uptown Charlotte. That’s why I want to make sure growth in Asheville is done right.  Bad buildings will kill the charm in Asheville.  More buildings won’t, not necessarily, because there was a time when the Jackson Building was new.  We could build beautifully again if we wanted to.  That’s adaptation.

It’s also the adaptation we should be encouraging because we’re still going to grow no matter what.  People want to be here.  We are not yet faced with the delightful dilemma of a place like Flint, which plans to demolish about half of their largely-abandoned existing city.  People want to be here and if they can’t build downtown, they’ll just build in the suburbs. 

Better growth is the answer.  No growth is not.

“Better growth is the answer.  No growth is not. “

but poorly-planned growth is probably the worst option of all.

“(they’re building one at the end of South French Broad). Has anyone looked into the yellow pages of our phone book lately?”

Never listen to anyone who dosn’t know there streets in Asheville.  It’s North French Broad NOT South French Broad.

As a native Ashevillian, It’s very important to build new Buildings in Asheville, expecually new hotels in downtown.  It will boost the economy for the small businesses in downtown and will clean up the overall appearance of downtown.

Never listen to anyone who dosn’t know there streets in Asheville.  It’s North French Broad NOT South French Broad.

Never pay attention to someone who doesn’t know the difference between there and their.

<<“Better growth is the answer.  No growth is not. “

but poorly-planned growth is probably the worst option of all.>>

I couldn’t agree more.