pop+up
CONSTANCE
eLeCtion 2012
‘tis the season
oCtober opens With a veep, a forum anD a photo op 30 DAY only! RETAIL STORE
MENS + WOMENS
shirts art shoes dresses jeans cups hats rugs sweaters boots scarves ponchos bracelets bowls OCT 12 – NOV 12
downtown asheville 35 battery park ave facing the grove arcade (formerly john carroll + kostas)
constancepopup.com
by margaret WiLLiams It’s election season — falling leaves, cool nights, and a host of voter forums, candidate photo ops, debate-watching parties and a nearlast-minute visit by Vice President Joe biden. October opened with the second of four local League of Women Voters forums. On a particularly dreary, drizzly Oct. 1, the league gave District 1, Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, candidates a chance to meet voters and stake their positions. Republican don Guge and Democrats Holly Jones and Brownie Newman seemed to agree more than they disagreed, voicing support for such efforts as fighting childhood obesity, spurring economic development in the county and looking at possible ways for Asheville and Buncombe to cooperate or combine resources. They drew sharper lines on greenways and a nondiscrimination policy that would have added sexual orientation and gender identity to the county personnel policy. The latter was pushed by the incumbent, Jones, but failed to
14 OCTOBER 10 - OCTOBER 16, 2012 • mountainx.com
raising the roof: “It’s never a good bet to bet against the American people,” Vice President Joe Biden declared at the Oct. 2 rally held at UNCA’s Justice Center (from a Twitter dispatch by the university newspaper The Blue Banner). Photo by Caitlin Byrd
get the votes from the current board earlier this year. Jones noted her continued support for the policy change, as did Newman. But Guge — a Woodfin detective — remarked, “I am against discrimination. … but when are we going to stop creating these lists?” As for greenways, Newman — a former Asheville City Council member and vice president of solar company FLS Energy — called himself a “big fan,” Jones clarified that while the county has approved a master plan, it has not set aside or created a funding mechanism for greenways, and Guge said he was “all for” them but says the money can be better spent on such pressing issues as helping the homeless. Further, Guge and Jones said that using emi-
nent domain to acquire land for greenways wasn’t an option; but Newman fine-tuned his point, noting that while he would seek public donations and support, the approach is a legal option for acquiring property for public purposes. There’s more, but for the full story from Contributing Editor Nelda Holder, go to avl.mx/ lc or mountainx.com/election. The next day, Biden descended on Asheville. His sixth trip to North Carolina this election season, he fired up both sides of the aisle by remarking that the middle class has been “buried” in recent years. For more photos of the event, go to Mountain Xpress Reporter Caitlin Byrd’s report at avl.mx/ld.