Asheville City Council dishes out housing grants, passes rezonings, takes criticism and goes behind closed doors in a short meeting Above: A map of a proposed subdivision on South Charlotte Street, bordering downtown, from city documents. Compared to the multi-controversy cavalcade that was the last meeting of Asheville City Council,

From the Atlantic to Salon, national media and urbanists celebrate Asheville as an example — and draw all the wrong lessons Above: Fireworks over downtown Asheville. Photo by Bill Rhodes. Periodically, the national media will rediscover Asheville. Most commonly this consists in the jet set finding out that we have good

In a packed three hours, Asheville City Council hits issues including burying power lines, housing, graffiti and the surveillance of protesters Above: power lines over a stretch of grass behind the Aloft Hotel and city parking deck at 51 Biltmore Avenue. The city will pay $250,000 to bury the lines so

The rising use of credit checks, just to allow one to rent housing in Asheville, excludes much of its working class and increasingly pushes them out of the city they make possible There was an important point raised in the Asheville Citizen-Times‘ June 30 forum on family homelessness, and one that hasn’t gotten

Skyline of downtown Asheville, looking toward the Flat Iron building. Photo by Max Cooper. By David Forbes The doldrums are over. “Real estate rebound in Asheville, N.C.” blared a recent headline from the Wall Street Journal. It’s the latest in a long, long line of major media outlets to refresh