The View from the Blade: Answers in Winter

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The View from the Blade: Answers in Winter

  • AVLBlade

    Founded as part of a union fight for workers' rights in local media, the Asheville Blade is the source for hard-hitting journalism, in-depth analysis and sharp views in our rapidly-changing city....
Mayor Esther Manheimer presiding over a Council meeting last year. Photo by Max Cooper.   Welcome back, Ashevillians. As the cold, largely basically snowless January has lingered on, I'm sure many of you have had plenty of questions. Is the bus system going to improve? What's the meaning of life? Why is pay so lousy? What are our elected officials up to? What are these strange creatures called “tourists” and why do they keep showing up? As we're a small news site backed by our readers, the Asheville Blade can't answer all of these. But we can tackle a few at least. Our latest pieces will, hopefully, fill in some gaps in our collective knowledge and spur some discussion going forward. Raise Wrangling — In December, a Blade investigation revealed that despite the city of Asheville touting that it pays its full- and part-time employees a living wage, there was a big exception — about 140 workers tagged as “temporary or seasonal” made less, sometimes far less. This included civic center workers, crossing guards, life guards, park rangers and more. Despite the title, some had worked for the city for years or even decades. Now, after over a month and repeated requests, city officials agreed to field questions about these workers and their pay. Additionally, a majority of Asheville City Council members are considering changing the situation and giving these employees a raise, though others want to. An Interview with Mayor Esther Manheimer — Elected in 2013, Mayor Esther Manheimer's first full year in office proved to be, to put it mildly, a contentious one. 2014 saw the departure of a police chief amid major controversy about the future of the APD, battles over everything from Pack Place to graffiti and major concerns about wages, housing and segregation. A lawyer by training, Manheimer's also advocated a sometimes-controversial course of close cooperation between elected officials, technocrats and consultants to extensively plan for the city's future, especially by putting resources into “innovation districts” to spur economic growth. Now, in an in-depth interview with the Blade, Manheimer defends the city's way of doing business, explains her perspective on these controversies and talks about lessons learned and the turf battles she's seen. The Moveable Meeting — Council's last meeting, however, got the year off to quite an unusual start. As a burst pipe in City Hall, due partly to the cold, forced a move to the U.S. Cellular Center. With the new location came a number of surprises. Usually controversial incentives for a corporation passed without much fuss, while citizens witnessed the rare site of Council unanimously rejecting a redevelopment.  Also, while public comment at local meetings is usually more of an epilogue than the main event, this one saw the latest round in a fight over the role of the powerful Civil Service Board and earful from a local resident over the lack of access for elderly and low-income people downtown. Searching for a Pot of Gold — But much of the city's business doesn't just happen when Council meets. With a growing population, many decisions start among Asheville's 44 boards and commissions. In this case, the Asheville Transit Committee had to hammer out priorities with limited resources, while the bus system tries to deal with increasing demand and calls for reform. Don't Feed the Tourists — Amid the debate about our fine city's recent kudos from (or targeting by, depending on who you ask) Good Morning America, more and more locals are asking about the strange creatures known as "tourists." Are they dangerous? How do they migrate? When do they become angry? Indeed, despite a long, long history of regularly descending on the area, few still know important facts about these bashful but potentially lethal and brutal creatures. Fortunately, science writer Leigh Cowart, making her Blade debut, has a public safety announcement that reveals all you need to know to keep you, your family and community safe.  That it's also a much-needed bit of humor in our city's ongoing tourism wars and identity wranglings is a major bonus. All of us striving to survive — let alone thrive — in this amazing and often frustrating city have to remember to laugh once in a while.