The public weighs in on the budget’s ‘moving parts’ while Council gets an earful, wrangles over numbers and disagrees on a few key points Above: Mayor Esther Manheimer during the June 9 budget hearing. Photo by Max Cooper. As the Blade (and some of the area’s other media as well)

If Ashevillians had any doubt about the impact of the hotel industry, the entitled whining of its representatives over the room tax reveals their oblivious greed Above: The Hyatt Place hotel under construction on Haywood Street, one of several going up in downtown. The recent Asheville Citizen-Times column penned by Michael