| Title |
Excerpt |
Author |
Date |
| Ashevilleans love a parade — but enough to fund it? |
Asheville’s annual holiday parade has marched, motored, biked, skated, danced, twirled, drummed and sung its way through the city for 60 years, leaving candy and, more recently, compact fluorescent light bulbs in its wake. Until this year, the event has been sponsored by the Asheville Merchants Association, but now that… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/31/07 |
| Oh say can you see? |
A subcommittee of the Pack Square Conservancy held an Oct. 22 work session to evaluate developer Stewart Coleman’s proposed Parkside project. The 11-story, mixed-use building would be built adjacent to the Asheville City Hall on a parcel that’s the subject of an ongoing legal fight. The Conservancy board, which is… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/31/07 |
| Doors of dreams |
Mountain Housing Opportunities will hold its 2007 Doors of Asheville fundraiser at the Orange Peel on Thursday, Nov. 29. This annual event will feature an auction of more than 30 works of art with doors and housing as the central theme. Four doors: The MHO auction includes Ian Brownlee’s “Special… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/31/07 |
| El Dia de los Muertos in West Asheville |
West Asheville’s Rainbow Mountain Children’s School will celebrate the Day of the Dead, or El Dia de los Muertos, on Friday, Nov. 2. The holiday is celebrated by people throughout Latin and South American cultures, but the practice actually began with the Aztecs. According to tradition, the spirits of loved… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/29/07 |
| Slammin’ it: The spoken word returns |
Asheville once hosted one of the most vibrant poetry slam scenes in the country. The legendary Green Door slams drew participants from throughout Western North Carolina, upstate South Carolina and East Tennessee, and featured performers from the national slam circuit (such as Chicago’s Mark Smith, founder of the first slam).… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/24/07 |
| The hub of wellness? |
Buncombe County’s HUB Alliance served up its latest initiative, the “Rejuvenation Cluster,” at its Oct. 16 meeting, which took place in Asheville’s Public Works Building. Big med on campus: UNCA will break ground for its new Health and Wellness Center next spring. Image Courtesy Unca The HUB project describes itself… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/24/07 |
| Grab your cape, crusader! |
The Super Hero 5K race is flying into Asheville and Asheville Brewing Company wants you to don your red cape, flash shoes, power tights, and magic bracelets and join the fun on Saturday, Nov. 10. The event is a fundraiser for Asheville Fire and Rescue and the Asheville Police Department,… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/19/07 |
| Land swap for ParkSide development? |
Xpress has obtained an e-mail (see below) from J. Patrick Whalen, chair of the Asheville Downtown Commission, to commission members that includes a proposal that the city swap land with developer Stewart Coleman, to relocate his proposed ParkSide building. According to the e-mail, commission members feel that the city “should… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/19/07 |
| Scrub, scrub here, scrub, scrub there |
“This is a pretty big iron,” Parks and Recreation Department employee Brandon Rogers quips while washing the giant flatiron at the intersection of Wall Street and Battery Park Avenue. “You could do 12 pairs of pants at once with it.” Looking buff: Parks and Recreation employee Brandon Rogers is charged… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/17/07 |
| Unsmashed pumpkins in the park |
Local Halloween artists are gearing up for a jack-o’-lantern carve-off to benefit Pritchard Park. More than 50 downtown-business owners are expected to deliver orange entries for Pumpkins in the Park, a fundraiser sponsored by Glazer Architecture, Loretta’s, Mayfel’s and Quality Forward. Here’s how it works: The competing businesses will carve… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/17/07 |
| Thoughts at the end of the season |
As September turned to October, I had two very singular conversations over a four-day period—one with a scientist born in Pennsylvania and the other with a mystic who drew her first breath in India. Yet what they had to say differed little in terms of either analysis or prescription. Hoping… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/17/07 |
| Garden Journal |
Fall color combos: Larry Newlin will discuss attractive plant combinations for fall at the Reems Creek Nursery on Saturday, Oct. 20, at 10 a.m. He’ll also describe flowering shrubs, perennials and grasses, and explain how blending plants of varying textures and forms can promote a sense of harmony and dynamism… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/17/07 |
| Uniquely Asheville |
We come here to build chateaux or straw-bale homes. We live in high-rise condos and under bridges. We are bleached and black and tanned and tattooed and pierced and brown and broad and tall and tiny. Our schools teach English as a second language to native speakers of more than… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/17/07 |
| Affordable homes in the River District |
The community is invited to attend a public meeting to review architectural plans for residential and retail/office development along Ralph and Choctaw streets. The meeting will be held at the W.C. Reid Center on Tuesday, Oct. 16, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Mountain Housing Opportunities, Sitework Studios Landscape Architecture, Mathews… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/12/07 |
| Learning to lend a hand to the aging |
Most of us don’t get much preparation for becoming caregivers to disabled family members — it just happens. What do you do when your aging parent shows signs of dementia? Or breaks a hip? How can you sustain your own quality of life when you’re caught up in maintaining an… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/12/07 |
| Pack Square board gets presentation on controversial project |
Developer Stewart Coleman, together with five of his business associates, presented plans for his proposed ParkSide building to the Pack Square Conservancy Board at its regular meeting on Oct. 3. Charlotte architect Mark Fishero, lead designer of the high-rise, narrated a PowerPoint presentation of the design. The Conservancy must approve… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/10/07 |
| Garden Journal |
Garden treasure: Fairview’s Imladris Farm wants you to traipse all over the countryside and support local farms along the way, so they’ve organized a treasure hunt. Clues will lead participants across Buncombe County. Successfully solved puzzles will lead to locations and identify items to be purchased. The first three participants… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/10/07 |
| Asheville’s planners are on the map |
The North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association accorded the city of Asheville an “Outstanding Planning Award” for its mapAsheville Development Mapper during an event held in Chapel Hill on Sept. 28. The awards program recognized the Asheville project in the “2007 Special Theme, Innovations in Planning Services, Education… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/09/07 |
| Fifty ways to green your louvers |
The Asheville chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the WNC Green Building Council will present a lecture on sustainable design and building at the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, Oct. 11, at 7 p.m. Award winning architect Mike Nicklas will offer a talk titled 50 Ways… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/09/07 |
| Take me to the (nameless) river |
RiverLink believes it’s difficult to love and protect a water body that is nameless. As Gertrude Stein might have put it, “River is a river is a river is a river.” In pursuit of love and protection, the nonprofit initiated a Name That Creek project, an effort to locate unnamed… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/05/07 |
| Facing the end |
The WNC chapter of the Final Exit Network will present a program including skits and discussion concerning the right-to-die movement at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville on Sunday, Oct. 7, at 2 p.m. The public is invited to attend the free event. The right-to-die movement coalesced when Derek Humphry… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/03/07 |
| Let them eat falafel |
Almost two months after receiving an eviction notice, the Ali Baba restaurant is still serving up assorted Middle Eastern dishes at its shoebox-size site in the Grove Arcade. The restaurant’s owners aren’t taking the order lying down. They’ve filed a lawsuit charging the arcade’s management with breach of the 10-year… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/03/07 |
| Into the wild blue yonder |
One hundred and one World War II veterans were milling about in the boarding area of the Asheville Regional Airport, and every one of them had a story to tell. West Asheville resident Bob Parks recalled being an Army Air Corps tail gunner stationed at Guadalcanal: “We were shot down… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/03/07 |
| Garden Journal |
Shroomin’: The Asheville Mushroom Club presents a mushroom fair and exhibit at the North Carolina Arboretum on Saturday, Oct. 6, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The program will introduce the great variety of fungi growing in Western North Carolina and offer a chance to get outside and explore mushrooms… |
Cecil Bothwell |
10/03/07 |
| Study finds rightward tilt in North Carolina newspapers |
Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog group, has released North Carolina data for its new report, “Black and White and Re(a)d All Over: The Conservative Advantage in Syndicated Op-Ed Columns,” which it describes as “a comprehensive and unprecedented analysis of nationally syndicated columnists from nearly 1,400 newspapers, or 96… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/30/07 |
| Buncombe County Commissioners |
Imaginineering Buncombe: Commissioners David Gantt (left) and David Young pitch ideas during a brainstorming session at last week’s retreat. In the background, Planner Cynthia Barklow takes notes. photo by jonathan welch With little fanfare, the Buncombe County commissioners voted unanimously to cancel Progress Energy’s long-term, dollar-per-year lease of river frontage… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/26/07 |
| Making histories |
William Faulkner was undoubtedly thinking of Asheville when he penned his widely quoted aphorism about the past not being past. Thanks to a handful of wealthy investors and a frenzy of borrowing early in the last century, Asheville blossomed. Then, a busted real-estate bubble followed by the Great Depression set… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/26/07 |
| Tried and true |
Few local enterprises have enjoyed the kind of widespread, ongoing support and kudzu-like growth achieved by the nonprofit Organic Growers School. The annual event’s wide-ranging classes and workshops draw enthusiastic, standing-room-only crowds. Each March, upward of 1,000 teachers and students gather for an intensive, daylong exchange of knowledge about organic… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/26/07 |
| Miles away |
Deborah Miles, founder and director of the Center for Diversity Education at UNCA, was recently awarded the 2007 Evan Mahaney Champion of Civil Liberties Award from the Western North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “We are honoring Debbie for conceiving and operating this decade-old program, which has… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/26/07 |
| Garden Journal |
Way back when: The Henderson County Curb Market will host its annual Ol’ Timey Day on Saturday, Sept. 29, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be live entertainment, craft demonstrations and antique farm equipment on display. All items sold at the market must be either hand made or… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/26/07 |
| Duncan and Hogan join ACLU forum panel |
Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan and Asheville Police Chief William Hogan have announced that they will participate in a panel discussion on How to Exercise Your Right to Dissent to be held at UNCA on Thursday, Sept. 27. The top cops will join Asheville City Council member Robin Cape and… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/25/07 |
| DOT drops an I-26 Connector alternative |
The North Carolina Department of Transportation has revised the project alternatives for the I-26 Connector project in Asheville. Alternative 5, which would have crossed the French Broad River parallel to the Smoky Mountain Parkway, has been eliminated from further consideration due to operational concerns. Studies in progress on the other… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/24/07 |
| Immigration the focus of talk by UNCA prof |
Mark Gibney, Belk Distinguished Professor at UNCA, will present a talk on “American Immigratinon: How Did We Get Here?” at the Jewish Community Center (236 Charlotte St.), on Monday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m. Gibney teaches courses on civil liberties, immigration/refugee law and policy, constitutional law, international law and human… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/21/07 |
| The Garden Journal |
Heritage Crafts Weekend: The North Carolina Arboretum’s newly renovated Heritage Garden presents a weekend of demonstrations, plant sales and musical performances on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 22 and 23, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Handmade products will be available for purchase, and regional nurseries will sell plants… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/19/07 |
| Old dogs, new tricks |
While tuning his guitar during a visit to WPVM’s studios for a recent live radio performance, Chris Smither said: “The biggest change I’ve seen in music during my career is that people [play] in tune now. You listen to some of the old vinyl records, and it jumps out at… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/19/07 |
| War-injured Iraqi child to visit Asheville |
Ten-year-old Salee Allawe lost both legs to a U.S. air strike in Iraq in November of 2006. Since July, she has received medical treatment and has been fitted for prosthetics at Shriners Hospital in Greenville, S.C. Allawe and her father Hussein Allawe were brought to the area by No More… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/17/07 |
| Buncombe County commish preview: Sept. 18 meeting |
The Sept. 18 meeting of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners bodes to be a relatively quiet one. An amendment to the county’s animal-control ordinance will be accompanied by signing of a new contract with the Asheville Humane Society, among a few other actions, according to the agenda posted on… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/16/07 |
| Energy independence day |
Asheville City Council member Brownie Newman, who is currently running for reelection, is utilizing a creative and public-spirited campaign tactic — he’s giving away light bulbs. Not just any old light bulbs, and not just a few of them. Over the course of his campaign he plans to distribute 2,500… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/14/07 |
| Recs and the city |
The Asheville Parks and Recreation Department has announced a wide range of programs for children and adults this fall. Here’s a partial rundown. East Asheville recreation for toddlers Parks and Rec will offer toddler activities this fall at the East Asheville Recreation Center, 906 Tunnel Road. All programs are for… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/13/07 |
| Mr. Mumpower goes to Washington? |
Asheville City Council member Carl Mumpower has tossed his hat into the 11th Congressional District ring. Mumpower announced his candidacy for the seat currently held by Heath Shuler on Wednesday, Sept. 12. Mumpower, a pyschologist by trade, has served for six years on City Council, where he has focussed attention… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/12/07 |
| Eating local |
Whether driven by health consciousness, energy awareness, parochialism, fear of tainted Chinese imports or all of the above, Western North Carolina residents are showing increased interest in locally produced food. That, at least, is the conclusion of a five-year assessment conducted by the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project. No middlewoman: Local… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/12/07 |
| Garden Journal |
Womyn work wonders: The Womyn’s Community Garden can always use some extra help. Participants work in the garden on the third Saturday of every month from 1 to 6 p.m. and every Tuesday afternoon from 5:30 to 8 p.m. The garden is located at 46 Dortch Ave., across from the… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/12/07 |
| Mud in your eye: Local business shaped from clay |
Potters have long gravitated to WNC due to the easy availability of high-quality natural clay and source materials for glazes. It’s easier to move a ceramists to the mountains than to move mountains to ceramists. For one thing, wet clay is heavier than fired ware (though, of course, less fragile).… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/11/07 |
| The PARI of the South |
The Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute is a former high-tech spy base and NASA tracking station that has morphed into an educational and research facility. PARI is now open for public tours each Wednesday at 2 p.m. Tours are led by specially trained Friends of PARI volunteers, who provide an in-depth… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/10/07 |
| A friend in deed |
George Willis Pack (1831-1906) was a great benefactor of Asheville and Buncombe County. He and his father had made a fortune logging in Michigan, and when Pack moved to Asheville in 1885, he was determined to repay his perceived obligation to the society in which he had prospered. He would… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/05/07 |
| Lex make a deal |
A handful of families control most of the property on downtown Asheville’s North Lexington Avenue, but the Lantzius name is pre-eminent. Vancouver resident John Lantzius and his kin own the lion’s share of properties on both sides of the road between College Street and the Interstate 240 overpass, along with… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/05/07 |
| Hands across the water |
Since 1993, the Building Bridges program has challenged participants to reach across racial barriers throughout Western North Carolina. To date, more than 1,200 attendees have completed the nine-week series at venues including churches, schools and community centers. Speaking for the cause: Oralene Graves Simmons, founder of Asheville’s MLK Prayer Breakfast… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/05/07 |
| An apple for your I |
Stories that depend on magic can all too easily become fairy tales—childish and cute, often far-fetched and always divorced from the real world of grownup love and tragedy. They frequently come off as self-referential and self-centered as a spoiled 7-year-old. Asheville-based novelist Sarah Addison Allen’s Garden Spells (Bantam, 2007) is… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/05/07 |
| Up on the roof |
The tallest vegetation in downtown Asheville is almost certainly to be found in the roof garden at the Battery Park Apartments. Residents of the downtown landmark tend herbs, flowers and vegetables as part of a project intiated by the Council On Aging and the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project. Basil, catnip,… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/05/07 |
| Garden Journal |
Take a hike: Asheville Parks and Recreation will offer a wide range of outdoor adventures this fall. The department’s first Senior Trek of the season will be held Friday, Sept. 14, on the UNCA Perimeter Trail—a 2.4-mile loop—followed by a visit to the Botanical Gardens. The low-impact trekking club offers… |
Cecil Bothwell |
09/05/07 |
