Mountain Xpress 04.20.22

OUR 28TH Y EA R OF W E E K LY I NDE PE NDE NT NEWS, A RTS & EVE NTS FOR W E STE R N NORTH CA ROLI NA VOL . 28 NO. 38 A PR I L 20 -26, 2022

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C ONTENT S

FEATURES

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NEWS

NEWS

UNDER REVIEW 8

BEAR WITH US Controversial rule change allows bear hunting in three former sanctuaries

12 CHILLING EFFECTS? One year after freeze, farmers, scientists talk the future of WNC apples

Asheville’s population was too low to qualify for a recent study of the best music cities in the U.S. But local musicians who reviewed the rubric believe Asheville’s reputation holds up to some of the study’s top-seated cities.

COVER PHOTO Cindy Kunst

ARCHIVES

19 ‘ICELESS’ City loses its cool over ice shortage, 1919

WELLNESS

COVER DESIGN Scott Southwick

26 AFTER THE OVERDOSE Community paramedics introduce medication-assisted treatment for opioid abuse

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LETTERS

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CARTOON: MOLTON

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CARTOON: BRENT BROWN

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COMMENTARY

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NEWS

15 BUNCOMBE BEAT

A&C

20 COMMUNITY CALENDAR 32 DOWN THE RUNWAY Color Me Goodwill highlights upcycled fashion and homegrown talent

26 WELLNESS 28 ARTS & CULTURE 42 CLUBLAND

A&C

46 FREEWILL ASTROLOGY 34 ‘IT WAS LOVE’ Celebrating Poetry Month with Mildred Barya

46 CLASSIFIEDS 47 NY TIMES CROSSWORD

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O P I NI O N

Send your letters to the editor to letters@mountainx.com.

Kudos for opposing ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law Kudos to Sarah Carter for her commentary “‘Don’t Say Gay’ Law Denies Identities and Truths” [April 6, Xpress]. It would seem that the GOP is now using gay and trans kids as their political football, not giving a damn about the damage they are doing to them.

Carter talks about kids having to kill part of themselves to avoid being bullied. Sadly, a part of themselves is not all that is being killed.

Laws like “Don’t Say Gay” and anti-trans laws only exacerbate an already high percentage of gay and trans kids attempting to take their own lives.

As a trans woman who didn’t start her transition until much later in life, I cannot fully appreciate what it is like to be LGBTQ+ as a child, but I do know what it’s like to be picked on for being different.

Legislation of this kind will only teach straight kids that it is OK to bully their trans and gay classmates even more.

To all of the marginalized youths out there, wear that “S” on your chest and be proud of who you are.

— Penelope B. Stephens Asheville

Tourism survey raises questions

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[From the April 6 Xpress newsletter:] “‘The mood toward tourism in Asheville may be shifting toward the positive,’ writes Xpress’ Brooke Randle in the article “Tourism Survey Reveals Changing Attitudes, Long-standing Issues.”

Survey results from a random sample of 382 Asheville and Buncombe County residents were presented at the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority’s recent annual planning session.”

I was not one of the 382 surveyed — 382 of a city-county population of ... how many?

Shame on the Tourism Development Authority for thinking we residents are so easily duped.

— Cynthia Heil Asheville

Branyon will investigate incentives deal I support Bill Branyon for County Commissioner District 1.

Bill will work to: • Investigate how Raytheon Technologies’ subsidiary Pratt

MOUNTAINX.COM

C AR T O O N B Y RA N D Y MO L TO N

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& Whitney was approved for almost $100 million dollars in varied tax incentives to build a fossil-fuel-intensive airplane parts plant here, particularly when our county has said that mitigating the worsening effects of climate change is a high priority.

Uncover how the approval process for the P&W plant did not include authentic public discussion or input and how the one public comment session held on its approval (with all callers but one opposed) was followed by the county commissioners’ unanimous approval of $27 million in local tax incentives, with no response to public concern or questions.

Make every decision as a commissioner with climate change in mind.

Implement a countywide referendum on development.

Take a humanitarian and community safety approach to the crisis of homelessness.

Institute rent controls in selected areas and a $17/hour minimum wage.

Support our public school educators by advocating for reduced class size, increasing teacher pay and providing adequate funding for teaching assistants and for substitutes.

Work with labor and management to follow the example set by Mission Hospital nurses and promote unionization of many sectors of the Buncombe County economy, including

the restaurant and hotel sector. Also work to transcend Raleigh’s prohibition against unionization for government employees, including teachers, city and county workers.

Check out: branyonforcommissioner. org.

Early voting begins on Thursday, April 28, and ends on Saturday, May 14. Primary day is Tuesday, May 17.

— Tom Craig Asheville

Ullman knows how to build coalitions For more than four decades, first as a journalist, then as an urban planning consultant, I’ve watched organizations and communities struggle to overcome challenges that too often overwhelm them.

Success stories almost always involved leaders who inspired others to work together.

I’m convinced Maggie Ullman can be one of those leaders. That’s why I’m voting for her in the City Council primary on May 17 and why I’m looking forward to supporting her in the general election in November.

Because of her sustainability work on the city of Asheville staff and with other communities in the Southeast, I knew of Maggie before I met her. She earned a reputation for building coalitions across broad ranges of interests — including housing, equity, transportation and climate action. Maggie gets the big

CARTOON BY BRENT BROWN picture: how so many problems are interdependent and why solutions must also be interconnected.

Doesn’t that sound like a skill set we need? Let’s put Maggie to work for us — for all of us — on the City Council.

— Ben Brown Asheville Editor’s note: Brown reports that he is volunteering with Ullman’s campaign. He also notes that he became a partner in the North American urban planning firm PlaceMakers LLC in 2008. He and his wife, Christine, have lived in WNC for 25 years.

Biological diversity, contraception and density Until the end, I didn’t consider Perrin de Jong’s elitist, sprawling NIMBY letter [“Open-space Proposal Costs Too Much to Bear,” March 30, Xpress] worth a response, but then I saw his employer, the Center for Biological Diversity. I know that they know better because I went to college with founder Kierán Suckling and helped distribute their iconic Endangered Species condoms.

Kierán certainly knows that slowing metropolitan growth is about contraception and not land use because I discussed it with him in 1984, and he knows that urban unit density helps car mileage, walking, bus usage and above all, affordability to frugal workers with far smaller footprints than lawyers, as do condoms by reducing demand and therefore rent.

As for fifth homes, the rich are highly speculative and will only speculate on limited supply, so without unit density limits, it is the speculators who will go away, and the only remaining buyers will be buying to meet human needs, so it is the fifth homes that depend on unit density limits, not the first ones, and frankly, I think he’s speaking for himself or maybe for lawyers, but not for Kierán or the Center for Biological Diversity.

— Alan Ditmore Leicester

Editor’s note Due to changing health recommendations related to COVID-19, readers are encouraged to check with individual businesses for the latest updates concerning upcoming events.

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OPINION

Wilma’s disciples

“Wilma Dykeman’s shadow covered all of us and inspired us to speak out.”

Three generations of female environmental leaders

BY JOHN ROSS Wilma Dykeman’s The French Broad, first published in 1955 as part of the Rivers of America Series, was to conservation in Western North Carolina what Rachael Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring was to the national environmental movement.

Wilma fought with her editors and persuaded them to include the chapter asking, “Who Killed the French Broad?” That chapter and subsequent books, articles and talks she gave galvanized conservationists in the watershed.

Among the most prominent were Karen Cragnolin and Jean Webb.

Both have passed in the last few months, Karen on Jan. 22 and Jean on March 29. But whether you are hiking a greenway along the French Broad, jouncing through a rapid or exploring a River Arts District gallery, you feel their achievements.

And happily, the next generation of dedicated women leaders is carrying on their legacy.

EARLY HISTORY In 1973, Webb pioneered Quality ’76 as part of local efforts to commemorate the nation’s bicentennial.

It was among the area’s first environmental organizations. “Jean was passionate about nature and committed to community service,” remembers Jim Stokely, Dykeman’s son.

Under her leadership, the group — renamed Quality Forward in 1976 — worked to connect people with their watershed. A tireless champion of safe public access to the river, Webb led litter cleanups, tree and flower plantings and trash-retrieval efforts.

She fostered local participation in Stream Watch, a state government program designed to encourage citizen involvement in protecting water quality.

In 1983, while still leading Quality Forward, Webb became the first president of the French Broad River Foundation, newly formed by the Land-of-Sky Regional Council. In partnership with Land of Sky, the foundation started RiverFest, a community celebration designed to bring people down to the river.

Over the next dozen years, the nonprofit staged the annual festi6

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val, raised funds for river-related conservation projects and fostered collaboration with local governments. It also developed two river parks and teamed up with UNC Asheville’s Environmental Quality Institute to establish the Volunteer Water Information Network.

VWIN continues today, using citizen scientists to monitor water quality. In the 1990s, the foundation was folded into RiverLink, and in 2007, Quality Forward became Asheville GreenWorks.

“Without Jean Webb, the River Arts District, the greenways and the parks might never have happened,” notes Stokely.

A ZONE OF OPPORTUNITY What evolved into RiverLink started out in 1987 as a Chamber of Commerce committee aimed at developing an attraction that would encourage tourists to stay an extra day after visiting Biltmore Estate. The group hired Cragnolin, an attorney, a former editor with Prentice Hall and a liaison who fostered public/private collaborations in the Middle East. A ceaseless dynamo, Karen understood how to get things done.

In the first half of the 20th century, Asheville’s riverfront had thrived, with manufacturing facilities producing textiles, leather and wood products. Plant closings in the 1960s and ’70s left the riverbanks lined with abandoned buildings and junkyards.

Many considered the urban riverfront an industrial wasteland — but not Webb and Cragnolin.

Karen saw the area for what it truly was: a zone of opportunity. A Boston native and former Washington, D.C., resident, she had to have been familiar with The Rouse Co.’s riverfront festival marketplace developments throughout the Northeast.

And the 1980s was precisely when WNC residents began to realize that the city’s history had economic value. A 1981 referendum killed a plan to raze 11 city blocks for an urban mall — the beginning of downtown’s rebirth.

A few years later, Cragnolin and her family moved to Asheville, where she began focusing her superb legal and communication skills on riverfront revitalization. Among other

MOUNTAINX.COM

— ECO co-founder Mary Jo Padgett “Wilma Dykeman’s shadow covered all of us,” says Padgett, “and inspired us to speak out and support citizens who were becoming more and more concerned about water quality, air quality, land use, land conservation, forest management, etc., in our mountain area.”

JOHN ROSS things, Karen tirelessly led the campaign to create The Riverfront Plan.

The 66-page document spelled out how urban land along the river could be rescued and its economic and environmental vitality restored. The document has since been updated and renamed The Wilma Dykeman RiverWay Master Plan.

ACROSS THE REGION Webb and Cragnolin were Dykeman’s disciples, and so is Hendersonville resident Mary Jo Padgett. In 1987, she co-founded the Environmental and Conservation Organization, which grew to include members in Buncombe, Henderson and Transylvania counties as well as upstate South Carolina. ECO volunteers brought VWIN to Henderson County, and as ECO’s executive director, Padgett collaborated closely with Cragnolin.

“Having Karen and Jean ‘in the neighborhood’ encouraged me to seek appointment on the Henderson County Planning Board in order to raise consciousness on land use issues,” Padgett explains.

She also helped form the Mills River Partnership, which enlists farmers, conservationists and local officials to protect the watershed, a source of drinking water for Hendersonville, Henderson County and South Asheville/Buncombe.

After taking time off to pursue other interests, Padgett returned to ECO as interim director in 2015.

That year, the organization merged with the Western North Carolina Alliance and the Jackson-Macon Conservation Alliance to form MountainTrue. Today, French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson and others at MountainTrue are carrying on that work.

PASSING THE BATON Today, a second generation of Wilma’s disciples leads major environmental organizations in the French Broad watershed.

Julie Mayfield, MountainTrue’s co-director, was a voice for sustainability during her five years on Asheville City Council. She’s now seeking a second term in the state Senate, running on a platform of balanced economic growth, education, equity and environmental responsibility.

In August, RiverLink hired Lisa Raleigh as its third executive director. An environmental strategist with a doctorate in environmental science, Raleigh spent more than a decade as director of development at Colorado Rocky Mountain School.

Anne Keller, RiverLink’s board chair, says Raleigh “is passionate, experienced, knowledgeable about rivers and watersheds, a successful fundraiser and generally a wonderful addition to the Asheville community.”

Raleigh is leading a $1 million capital campaign to fund the transformation of a former auto junkyard into Karen Cragnolin Park. The property is seen as a key link in the 17-mile Wilma Dykeman RiverWay. Based on my work as a RiverLink board member and my research into the watershed’s environmental and economic evolution, I’m convinced that generation after generation will follow in the footsteps of Webb, Cragnolin, Padgett, Mayfield, Raleigh and a host of others I don’t even know as Wilma’s disciples.

Asheville resident John Ross serves on RiverLink’s board of directors. His newest book, Through the Mountains: The French Broad River and Time, was a finalist for the 2021 Reed Environmental Writing Award, sponsored by the Southern Environmental Law Center. X

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NEWS

Bear with us

Controversial rule change allows bear hunting in 3 former sanctuaries

BY JESSICA WAKEMAN jwakeman@mountainx.com On Feb. 4, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission approved a rule change regarding the state’s most famous animal: the black bear.

The rule change altered the name of the state’s 22 “designated bear sanctuaries” to “designated bear management units,” and allowed hunting bears with a permit at Panthertown-Bonas Defeat, Standing Indian and Pisgah Designated Bear Management Units.

Regulated hunting is a component of the NCWRC’s 2012-22 Black Bear Management Plan. North Carolina is home to 17,000 to 20,000 black bears, according to BearWise, an educational organization about living responsibly alongside bears.

In 2020, hunters reported killing 3,748 bears statewide, according to an

NCWRC report compiled by Colleen Olfenbuttel, black bear and furbearer biologist for the NCWRC’s Wildlife Management Division. The area designated the Mountain Bear Management Unit, which comprises Western North Carolina, reported 1,429 bears killed.

According to a NCWRC fact sheet provided to Xpress, permitting hunting in the three areas will “[address] local human-bear conflicts by locally managing bear densities, removing problem bears and reversing human-conditioned behavior being observed in local bears.”

“We’re seeing an annual 5-6% increase of the bear population in the mountains,” says Justin McVey, Western North Carolina’s wildlife management biologist for NCWRC, whose region includes the former sanctuaries where hunting will be allowed. “We’re really happy with how many bears we

BEAR BOUNTY: Bears in Asheville can have as many as five cubs per litter, given the availability of anthropogenic food sources, says Justin McVey, Western North Carolina’s wildlife management biologist for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. Photo courtesy of BearWise have. They’re healthy. And we don’t really need any more bear growth.”

However, critics of the NCWRC’s rule change dispute that the bear population is growing uncontrollably.

And they particularly oppose one of the hunting methods: using dogs to chase a bear to corner the animal, or chase it up a tree, and then it is shot.

“To me it’s not a hunting issue — it’s a cruelty issue,” says Bill Lea, a retired U.S. Forest Service employee and photographer of black bears. “I probably wouldn’t fight it nearly as much if they were hunted in a more ethical manner.”

THRILL OF THE HUNT Taylor Frizsell of Black Mountain began hunting as a child with his father. Today he owns 13 dogs, mostly Plott hounds, for hunting black bears on both public and private lands.

He likes to hunt large male bears — “300-plus” pounds, he says. “Our dogs are taught to stay back and bay, which [means] stay within a couple feet and try to keep [the bear] at bay until we can get there and assess what they’ve got,” he says. People who think hound hunting is cruel are “misinformed,” he says.

“Cruel is not a word that I associate with bear hunting,” Frizsell continues. “As far as what we consider ‘fair chase,’ you’re giving the bear an opportunity to be natural, to run from a predator. And the dogs are a tenth of the size of most of the bears they run.

They’ve got heart to be able to pursue them and actually catch them.”

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He eats the bear meat himself — “you can do spaghetti, hamburgers” — and gifts it to landowners who let him hunt on their property.

As for hunting in the three newly opened areas, Frizsell says, “It’s crossed my mind.”

BEAR NECESSITIES In 1971, the NCWRC established 28 bear sanctuaries across 800,000 acres in the state to protect breeding female bears. Sanctuary space has decreased over time, and there are currently fewer than 500,000 acres of protected land for bears.

Black bears are typically afraid of humans, says Lea. They also prefer to find food in the easiest way possible.

Their diet is meant to be berries, insects and carrion (dead animals), according to Bearwise.

But the lure of campsite treats or a trash can of delicious garbage — “anthropogenic food sources,” McVey explains — is too tempting. Black bears can become so habituated to humans that they lose their fear — which poses danger to humans, pets and the bears themselves.

Black bears have cubs every other year, and the number of cubs varies based on food availability. Two or three cubs per litter is common. But bears in Asheville can have as many as five cubs per litter, given the availability of anthropogenic food sources, McVey explains.

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N EWS “We used to consider ourselves lucky hunters when we seen three to four cubs with a bear — you went back and told your buddies about it,” says Frizsell, the hunter. “And now it seems like every [female] bear you see has three to four cubs.”

But opponents of the NCWRC’s rule change, like Rosemary Jackson, a bear biologist who lives near Standing Indian Bear Sanctuary, maintain the black bear population is self-regulating.

“The Western NC bear population is naturally regulated by food availability, specifically mast [plant] abundance, so it is not necessary to hunt bears,” Jackson wrote Xpress in an email. “Wildlife agencies try to regulate the bear population to fulfill management objectives. Instead of managing bear numbers, we need to manage human behavior.”

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT Bear hunts in the designated bear management units will only be allowed with a permit and limited permits will be available. “The commission is currently evaluating each designated bear management area to determine the permit allocation, including the number of permits that will be issued, number of hunts that will be allowed, and the days those hunts will be allowed to occur on each area,” Olfenbuttel, NCWRC’s black bear biologist, says in a statement to Xpress.

Both North Carolina residents and nonresidents may apply for permits, Olfenbuttel says.

Bear hunting has a split season — one in mid-October to November and another in mid-December — that varies by region. It’s mandatory for hunters to submit a premolar tooth from a bear to NCWRC for tracking purposes. Hunters can kill one bear per season and “bears under 75 lbs. and females with cubs cannot be harvested,” per regulations.

Permitted hunting methods in the three newly opened areas include firearms, archery (bow and arrow, or crossbow) or dogs and firearms combined, McVey says. Hunting with dogs is prohibited in all or part of 21 North Carolina counties.

Frizsell has hunted throughout the South and says “we catch the most healthy, beautiful-looking bears I’ve ever caught [here],” he explains.

“We’ve hunted a lot of places where the bears are malnourished — they’re overpopulated but underhunted.”

Yet opponents of the rule change accuse NCWRC of catering to hunters’ wishes rather than looking out for what’s best for bears. “I say there’s nobody representing the wildlife,” says Lea. “But the bear hunters are

certainly well represented by these decisions.” (“The NCWRC is the state agency that is responsible for the conservation of wildlife in NC,” McVey wrote in an email. “Black bears have a phenomenal comeback story in NC thanks to the efforts of the NCWRC.”) NCWRC has previously permitted hunting in bear sanctuaries.

The Daniel Boone Designated Bear Management Unit has allowed hunts since 2009, and the Mount Mitchell Designated Bear Management Unit has allowed hunts since 2006. Both are located in Pisgah National Forest.

Lea is suspicious that bear hunting is still allowed in those areas more than a decade later if hunting was permitted there to control the population. “They’ve opened them and they’ve never closed them,” he claims. “You can give a gift to the bear hunters, but it’s impossible to take the gift back because of the political pressure they will exert.” He worries that the floodgates are now open for bear hunting. “Changing the names of the bear sanctuaries to the ‘special units’ just tells you that it won’t be long before they open the rest of the bear sanctuaries,” he says.

When asked in an email if NCWRC has discussed permitting hunting in

HUMAN-BEAR CONFLICTS

NOTHIN’ BUT A HOUND DOG: Taylor Frizsell of Black Mountain owns 13 dogs, mostly Plott hounds, for hunting black bears. Photo courtesy of Frizsell the other designated bear management units, or whether Lea’s allegation was speculation, McVey replied that he was “not aware of plans for additional bear hunting opportunities at this time.”

If there’s one area of common agreement, it’s that humans need to follow the BearWise’s guidance on coexisting with bears: restricting their access to our food.

The U.S. Forest Service recommended additional use of bear boxes in 2018, citing an “increase in close and serious bear encounters in Panthertown, where campers have had to leave campsites and hikers have retreated from a local trail.”

Friends of Panthertown, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the public backcountry, say the installation of two large bear boxes in the backcountry decreased bear sightings “significantly” in 2020 and 2021. The organization opposed permitting bear hunting in Panthertown-Bonas Defeat.

McVey notes that reducing humanbear interactions isn’t the only reason to permit hunting. Hunting is an alternative to other bear deaths resulting from overpopulation, like disease or roadkills, he says. The latter can “occur when you have too many bears in an area,” he explains.

“We want to curtail the growth before we have those kinds of negative mortalities,” he says. X

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11

NEWS

Chilling effects?

One year after freeze, farmers, scientists talk the future of WNC apples

BY BROOKE RANDLE brandle@mountainx.com Spring in Western North Carolina is notorious for unpredictable weather. On a single Saturday earlier this month, residents in Asheville seemingly experienced all four seasons in 24 hours, with moments of snow and hail alternating with gusts of wind and clear, sunny skies.

While fluctuations in weather amount to mere annoyance or snarky social media posts for most residents, the turbulence can have a major impact on local farmers, particularly apple growers.

Trey Enloe, a fifth generation apple farmer at Bright Branch Farms in Hendersonville, recalls Easter weekend last year, when WNC saw below-freezing temperatures for several nights in a row. The frost destroyed most of his apple blossoms — decimating the crop for the season.

“I think it got down to 22 degrees.

There’s really not much you can do at that point,” Enloe says. “There’s certain things horticulturally you can do to save a degree or to buy yourself a little bit of leeway, but usually by about 29 degrees, you lose about 10% of your crop. By 25 degrees, you’re supposed to lose about 90% of your crop.”

The late freeze caused millions of dollars in damage throughout the region, as well as price hikes and supply chain issues for many local farmers and distributors. How worried should they be about WNC’s tumultuous weather?

GROWING PAINS Last year’s frost, along with this spring’s turbulence, may lead some to ask if cold snaps are becoming more frequent in Western North Carolina.

According Kenneth Kunkel, a researcher with N.C. State University’s Asheville-based N.C. Institute for Climate Studies and lead author of the N.C. Climate Science Report, the science is still out.

“There is some evidence that this type of weather pattern has become a little more frequent, but the scientists who work directly on that topic kind of disagree among themselves about whether we can expect that to be the case in the future,” he 12

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WEATHER WARY: Trey Enloe, a fifth-generation apple farmer in Hendersonville, says that apple farmers face the potential of losing some crops to frost damage every spring. Photo courtesy of Enloe explains. Although North Carolina’s climate has warmed at an accelerating pace over the past few decades, he continues, conditions that can cause late freezes are not definitively tied to climate change.

Kunkel says that the most likely effect of a warming climate will be hotter temperatures in spring and fewer chances for late freezes. Those warmer temperatures could eventu-

ally produce a different set of weather-related issues, such as increasingly hot summers or extended periods of drought, that could make apple growing more difficult.

Climate change has already shifted agriculture in some areas of Europe and in the western U.S., Kunkel points out. Some grape growers, for example, have been forced to use different varieties of grapes that are

STUDENT-LED ACTIVISM better suited to warmer temperatures and longer periods of drought.

He says the same may one day hold true for apple varieties in WNC. “If we continue to warm, at some point, some crops become less suited for the local climate. I don’t think this would be the case in the mountains anytime soon. But generally, fruit trees require a certain amount of cold in the winter,” Kunkel says. “We might get to the point that some of the varieties that are grown around here are no longer optimal.”

DEEP ROOTS Such changes would alter an apple-farming tradition that has existed in Western North Carolina for well over 100 years, says Terry Kelley, director of Henderson County’s Cooperative Extension.

North Carolina ranks eighth among the country’s apple-producing states, with Henderson County growing roughly 85% of the state’s apples.

Kelley attributes that concentration of apple farmers to WNC’s ideal growing conditions.

“We’re south enough that we get warm temperatures in the daytime, but our elevation is such that we get cold temperatures at night, and that helps the fruit to build up sugars,” he explains. “We also get a lot of sunlight, which enhances the coloring of the fruit to give them their red and yellow appearances.”

Enloe says that apple farmers face the potential of losing some crops to frost damage every spring but that in most years, the loss is negligible. An apple tree produces a lot of blossoms, he says, and it only takes 15%-20% of those blossoms to make a full harvest’s worth of apples. Kelley adds that it is not uncommon for farmers to lose up to 30% of blossoms in a single year due to changes in the weather.

Nevertheless, he continues, “Last year was very devastating.” Kelley says apples in North Carolina are valued at about $30 million annually and that the losses due to frost in spring 2021 reached roughly $20 million.

As far as mitigation goes, Kelley says farmers have few options for protecting apple trees against harsh weather conditions. Wind machines, which mix cooler and warmer air and prevent cooler air from settling, are one solution, but their expense puts them out of reach for most farmers.

“We can’t control when the trees are blooming, and so we want to make sure that we do everything we can to protect them. But it’s a matter of economics as well,” he explains.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 14

The importance of social sustainability Warren Wilson College senior Elias Goldstein believes sustainability is impossible without recognizing the ways environmental and social issues are related. As a co-leader of the school’s Community Oriented Regeneration Efforts work crew, he’s working to do just that.

“We’re doing a lot of environmental sustainability, but we’re also partnering up with different crews that are handling social issues on campus,” he explains. This includes CORE’s partnership with Warren Wilson’s student-run Queer Resource Center and the college’s Inclusion, Diversity & Equity Office.

“They’re doing a lot of work around helping people who are traditionally more marginalized in our community and society at large,” he says of the groups. “They’re doing a ton of work to make those voices seen and heard.”

Below, Xpress speaks with Goldstein about environmental issues that still need to be addressed on campus, ways to avoid activist burnout and the ELIAS GOLDSTEIN importance of combating systemic racism.

The interview has been condensed and lightly edited.

What sustainability efforts on your campus are you most proud of?

I wouldn’t say that I’m proud of environmental efforts on campus. We’re still in bed with Duke Energy, and we’re advertising that we get over 25% of our food from on-campus when the reality is more like 10% or 15%. If we could really dig into getting as much food as possible from our campus and other local sources, that would be huge. But we have Sodexo, a giant multinational corporation, running our cafeteria.

I’m very proud of CORE. We’re managing all the compost on campus. All the food that comes from the cafeteria, we collect and turn into compost. Also, we run a free store. We collect donations from all over campus and set it up like a retail store in our warehouse, and people can take whatever they want for free.

How do you keep yourself motivated in light of the lack of meaningful efforts to combat climate change?

Try to avoid burnout as much as possible. The CORE crew — along with and Y crew and Queer Resource Center — are about to host an Earth Day Parade on campus. A lot of different groups on campus are invited to make floats that demonstrate how they represent sustainability environmentally. It’s going to probably mean a lot of people are driving trucks and tractors around campus and burning gas. It’s not necessarily environmentally friendly, but it is really important for social and community sustainability to have a parade. We need to have times to just chill out and celebrate each other and build the community.

What’s one thing you would like to see Xpress readers do to promote sustainability in WNC in the coming year?

Get involved as much as possible, even if it’s just contributing to Asheville Survival Program, Asheville for Justice, Asheville Poverty Initiative or Bounty & Soul. We’re not going to solve the environmental issues of the world in the coming year, but we can put far more into the mutual aid programs in our local communities. All of these organizations are trying to curb systemic racism and poverty and gentrification, and there’s nothing more valuable than that in my opinion.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Xpress reached out to Warren Wilson College for a response to some of Goldstein’s claims. Brian Liechti, director of sustainability, notes the college’s ties to Duke Energy are based on necessity. “Duke Energy is the only provider here in Buncombe County,” he says.

He also points out that the college has multiple LEED-certified buildings on campus and “many tactics to reduce energy consumption.” Furthermore, Liechti says the campus’s 300-acre working farm, 11-acre garden and 600-acre managed forest “serve as a living laboratory for the sustainable, energy-wise practices that are brought to life through academics and our work program.”

“We are proud of the many other sustainability initiatives we have on campus,” Liechti continues. “Some of these include divesting 100% of its endowment from fossil fuels, the Guaranteed from Seed program to prevent deforestation, the Warren Wilson College Phenology Stewardship Program to contribute climate change data and research to the USA National Phenology Network, composting nearly all of the waste from the dining halls through a closed loop compost facility and converting all of our campus vehicles to propane Autogas.”

Additionally, Brian O’Loughlin, general manager for Sodexo Food Services at Warren Wilson College, states: “Sodexo has been working with the students and the college for many years to run the most sustainable dining program possible. We do so in many ways, such as purchasing from our campus farm and garden, sourcing locally through companies like Mountain Food Produce, Dynamite Roasting Co., Four Sisters Bakery and others. We also compost all food scraps, recycle all recyclable products and run a vegan cafe.”

— Justin McGuire X

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N EWS DOWNSTREAM EFFECTS Apple losses not only impact farmers, but also those who buy and harvest the fruit. Josie Mielke, who co-owns Urban Orchard Cider Co. in Asheville, says she’s been buying apple juice made from locally grown apples since opening the cidery nearly nine years ago. The Asheville native says that promoting local farmers is a crucial piece of her business’s philosophy.

“When we conceptualized the cidery, one of the main driving factors was that Hendersonville produces 85% of the state’s apples,” Mielke explains. “We were really into the local food movement, farm to table, etc. And so that just became part of our mission — to support the farmers as local as possible.”

While prices for locally produced apple juice have remained steady over the last few years, Mielke says, the 2021 spring freeze caused the cost to jump 25%-30%. It was the first time her business experienced such a dramatic shift in price and availability.

“It was hefty, very hefty,” she says of the increase. “And as a company that already is making a premium product — and on the backside of

the pandemic, where the supply chain is already a disaster and inflation is high — it’s been another tough addition to have to pass down the cost to consumers.”

Despite the costs, Mielke says she prefers to continue supporting local farms as much as possible, although she admits that she would seek products outside of WNC if the area was consistently impacted by crop-killing weather.

“We’ve had partnerships with these farmers for close to a decade now. That being said, we can’t have a season where we can’t make cider.

So if we had to, we would look outside of Hendersonville and go as regional as we possibly could,” she says. “For now, we’re going to do our best to keep our buying power in this area.”

Fewer apples to harvest also leads to issues within the labor market, says Enloe. People who typically travel to WNC to pick apples during harvest seasons found themselves without a job last spring, leading them to seek more consistent locations for work.

“The guys that used to come into town from places like Florida or other states to help pick apples

knew that they weren’t there last year,” he explains. “So there was less labor to help with apples that were here. Labor is always a tough issue, but it’s especially tough in a year like last year.”

THE LONG VIEW Nearly one year after the devastating freeze, help is finally on the way for local farmers. In March, state Rep. Tim Moffitt and state Sen. Chuck Edwards worked with N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler to provide $12 million in relief for apple farmers impacted by freeze damage in Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Polk, Rutherford and Transylvania counties.

The Agricultural Crop Loss Program was originally meant for farmers impacted by Tropical Storm Fred but now also includes relief for those who lost apples, berries and grapes last spring. Farmers had until April 15 to apply.

“Spring freeze events have always presented risk to farmers and will continue to do so. … The 2021 season was particularly damaging, with back-to-back freeze events occurring later in the season while fruit crops

were in full bloom,” Troxler tells Xpress. “We have some of the best farmers in the world, and they are the lifeblood of our state’s economy.”

“We’re very appreciative for it,” says Enloe, who applied for the funding. “I’m not exactly sure what it’s going to turn out to be, but any kind of help is always good.”

And despite the topsy-turvy weather thus far this spring, Enloe says the chance of an abundant apple harvest is looking fairly good — though he’s still holding his breath until summer officially arrives in June.

Regardless of the changing climate and predictions of more severe weather, Enloe believes apple farming will exist in Western North Carolina for another 100 years. The most critical challenge to the apple industry in North Carolina, he says, may be urbanization rather than weather.

“I think that’s really probably the No. 1 threat to agriculture: housing.

If somebody sells their orchard, it’s never going to be anything else,” he says. “I would probably consider that more of a threat than any kind of climate issue, at least in the near future.” X

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BUNCOMBE BEAT

Council discusses budget priorities, concerns in work session Normally, Asheville Council City Council member and frequent city bus rider Kim Roney likes to arrive around a half-hour early to city meetings. But on the afternoon of April 12, her bus never arrived, leaving Roney scrambling to get downtown and causing Council’s scheduled work session on the fiscal year 2022-23 budget to start about 20 minutes late.

The delay foreshadowed one of several issues related to the city budget — transit — that members of Asheville City Council discussed before their formal meeting that day. Members also discussed parking revenues, personnel costs and weighed funding options for the newly approved updates to Memorial Stadium.

Asheville Director of Finance Tony McDowell explained during a presentation that after the city replaced old gating equipment at one of its parking decks in November, the new technology started malfunctioning, resulting in roughly $800,000 in lost parking revenue for the city.

The city had budgeted a parking fund subsidy of $1.5 million to support city transit services but will now be unable to make that transfer because of the lost revenue caused by the malfunction, McDowell said.

Asheville Budget Manager Taylor Floyd said the garage equipment is “mostly operational,” but, “There are still some bugs. … Issues are still popping up with the equipment. But there’s nothing like the widespread or complete lack of operational capacity that we saw over the winter.”

In addition to parking revenue shortages, McDowell warned that bus driver shortages will likely delay the

DRIVING DOLLARS: Asheville Director of Finance Tony McDowell warned that bus driver shortages will likely delay the implementation of evening hours and other increases in service outlined in the Transit Master Plan, in spite of $1.1 million being allocated to Asheville’s Transit Fund in the fiscal year 202223 budget. Photo courtesy of the city of Asheville implementation of extended evening hours and increased bus frequencies on routes S3 and S6, in spite of $1.1 million being allocated to Asheville’s Transit Fund in the fiscal year 2022-23 budget for the implementation of Phase 1 of the the 2018 Transit Master Plan.

(The city announced in an April 8 press release that it would reduce service for the WE1 route between the ART Station and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Tunnel Road beginning April 13 due to “continued driver shortages.”)

And while Council unanimously approved $4.3 million in updates to Memorial Stadium, which includes a six-lane track among other renovations, members disagreed over where the funding for the project would come from. Capital Projects Director Jade

Dundas recommended the city allocate $2.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to cover the majority of the expense, with other funding coming from existing city bonds, contingency funds and unspent fleet replacement costs.

“I’m concerned, personally, about using rescue plan dollars for this,” said Council member Sage Turner. “I support the track and I knew that this ask was coming. But I’m wondering if there are other funds instead of ARPA, because I’m having a hard time personally tying rescue funds to this funding.”

“I’m just wondering what proposed ideas do Council members find to be more important than the health and welfare of a community that’s waited 30 plus years for this opportunity,” Council member Antanette Mosley

shot back. “Which application do we feel is more worthy than the request of an historic Black neighborhood?”

City Manager Debra Campbell said that the city will present other options for funding, including pulling funds from other capital projects and applying for a Tourism Product Development Fund Grant from the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority. A work session on the city’s ARPA funding allocations is scheduled for Monday, April 25, at 10 a.m.

McDowell also told Council members that roughly 61% of the city’s budget is allocated to personnel costs for city employees. This coming year, he explained, the city will need to allocate an additional $1.1 million to the Asheville Police Department as the department continues hiring staff, as well as $1.9 million to cover additional overtime pay for the Asheville Fire Department. The city is also anticipating a 5% increase in its employer health insurance contribution (roughly $500,000) plus a 1% compensation adjustment (around $740,000.)

The next budget work session is scheduled for Tuesday, April 26.

Council expects to vote on proposed changes to city water, stormwater and solid waste fees at its regular meeting that evening.

In other news During Council’s formal meeting, Office of Equity and Inclusion Director Brenda Mills announced that her office was fully staffed as of February. The new employees include outreach coordinator Darian D. Blue; training consultant Marcus Kirkman; and research and data analyst Alayna Schmidt. In August, the department was left with no permanent staff members after a wave of resignations and public criticism from former employees.

— Brooke Randle X

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N EWS

BUNCOMBE BEAT

NC-11 Republican candidates debate sans Cawthorn The elephant has long symbolized the Republican Party. And at Rockin’ the Red, the GOP’s April 11 primary debate for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, there was indeed an elephant in the room: Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s absence.

“That chair’s empty,” said candidate Bruce O’Connell of Candler, gesturing to Cawthorn’s designated place on stage at the WNC Agricultural Center in Fletcher.

Cawthorn was the only one of the eight Republican primary candidates not to participate in the debate.

“Congressman Cawthorn’s team was made aware of the event well in advance and chose not to attend,” Jeff Brewer, Transylvania County GOP vice chair, told Xpress following the debate. (Luke Ball, communications director for Cawthorn for NC, responded to a query from Xpress about his absence with an emailed statement: “Congressman Cawthorn agreed to two GOP primary debates, announced in a press release sent last month. He has participated in those and will review debate requests for the general election after the primary. He did not attend on Monday because it was not one of the two primary debates he agreed to.” Cawthorn did attend the Henderson County Republican debate on March 26 and an NC-11 GOP forum on April 2.)

“Does he not respect y’all enough to be here?” O’Connell asked, to enthusiastic applause from the audience. “I’m telling you, there’s something wrong when your congressman won’t show up.”

Among the seven candidates who did show up to Rockin’ the Red, many repeatedly called the hour-

EMPTY CHAIR: Rep. Madison Cawthorn did not attend the NC-11 Republican primary debate on April 11, but his seven opponents did. Photo by Jessica Wakeman and-a-half-long debate, hosted by Transylvania and Buncombe GOP leadership, a “job interview.” In asking WNC voters to hire them, several drew on business or military experience to explain their fit for the role.

ON THE RESUME “In business, we consider past performance as a predictor of future performance,” said state Sen. Chuck Edwards, who in addition to representing Buncombe, Henderson and Transylvania counties also operates seven McDonald’s franchises. “That is exactly what we need in Washington, D.C.: conservative principles, and with a proven track record.”

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Most candidates lauded former President Donald Trump throughout the night, including Edwards, who compared himself favorably to the former president. “Chuck Edwards is a businessman that loves this country, with conservative principles, that has a track record of getting things done,” he said. “That’s exactly why we sent President Trump to the White House in 2016: He’s a businessman with conservative principles that loves this country and has a track record of getting things done.”

Edwards repeatedly cited his three terms serving in the N.C. General Assembly as the experience that made him best suited for Congress. “No one else up here can say that they have actually cut your taxes,” the senator said. “No one

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APRIL 20-26, 2022

else up here can actually say that they have outlawed sanctuary cities or passed legislation to protect the Second Amendment or balanced budgets or passed substantial election reforms.”

Matthew Burril, a financial adviser from Fletcher, also touted his business credentials, along with his faith. “I am your conservative Christian businessman in this race,” he said. “I am 100% prolife. I am also a 100% defender of the Second Amendment. We will never have a bureaucracy like the [federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], or the socialists in Washington, take away our First Amendment rights ever again. …

As a Christian man, my faith guides everything I do.”

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O’Connell, who owns the Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway, implored voters not to vote for a politician. “Donald Trump’s policies were spot on,” he said. “He was a businessman; he wasn’t a politician. He went to Washington with a different approach. He didn’t care about politics.”

Meanwhile, two military veterans touted their service. Rod Honeycutt of Alexander, a U.S. Army colonel who retired after 37 years in the military, told the audience, “I have spent my life defending that flag.

I’m now home to protect our district, from politicians … and people who don’t respect our children.”

Wendy Nevarez, a Navy veteran from Asheville, emphasized that serving the American people must be a congressperson’s priority. “Yes, running the federal government … is extremely important to run efficiently and effectively,” she said.

“However, there’s a double bottom line: We’re not doing it for profit; we’re doing it for people. … If a businessperson only has profit [in mind], they’re not going to be thinking about the American people.”

BASHING BIDEN Many of the candidates were vocal in their critique of Democratic President Joe Biden. Michele Woodhouse, the Hendersonvillebased former chair of the District 11 GOP, shared her belief that the president had stolen the 2020 election from Trump. “We weren’t paying attention before the 2020 election because they started stealing that election the minute Hillary Clinton conceded that she had lost. They started their plan right then.”

Woodhouse continued, “We know the election was stolen. …

Had they needed North Carolina to steal it, I’m sure [Democratic N.C Attorney General] Josh Stein had Rubbermaid tubs in the back of his minivan that were ready to do it.”

Questions about the three biggest failures of Biden’s presidency and three biggest successes of Trump’s presidency also gave candidates an opportunity to attack the current administration. Kristie Sluder, a social worker from Weaverville, suggested Trump had focused on problems that Biden has ignored. “[Trump] was right about the wall,” she explained. “He was right about the media. He was right about the Marxist agenda in our country. He was right about the globalists.”

Inflation was a popular response to the question about Biden’s failures. Sluder also mentioned “the

border [and] 100,000 overdoses from fentanyl last year [and] children being thrown over the border wall like they’re bags of trash, left in the desert to dehydrate.”

Answering the question about Biden’s failure, Nevarez recalled the 13 U.S. service members who died during an attack outside the Kabul airport in Afghanistan in August.

“I find it a shame that the first thing that the folks announce up here was not the 13 people — my brothers and sisters — who died in Afghanistan when Biden botched our withdrawal,” Nevarez said. “We did not think about the veterans when they came back from Vietnam.

We don’t think about the veterans when we’re making policy. … And their lives mean something to me.”

Honeycutt also touched on military matters as he criticized Biden’s response to the Russia-Ukraine war. Noting that he had managed four sites on Ukraine’s border with Russia during his military service, he blasted “weak leadership that started in Afghanistan and rolled over to Ukraine.” He continued, “We could have helped that country. We used to be the country that had the backbone to go help. We watched. I’m embarrassed we did that. … That’s not who we are as Americans.”

Woodhouse concurred with Nevarez that these service member’s deaths would be the current president’s legacy. She also mentioned Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Biden appointee confirmed April 7.

“Joe Biden put forth someone who will spend the rest of her life on the Supreme Court who sympathizes with pedophiles, who supports the grooming of our children,” Woodhouse said, referencing allegations that Jackson had imposed unusually lenient sentences for defendants convicted of possessing child pornography.

Burril contrasted the economic climate under Biden with the “roaring economy, where working families had hope and opportunity,” under Trump. And he compared current cultural trends to the freedom of expression he felt with the former president in power.

“Donald Trump allowed me to push back against the political correctness that I’ve been dealing with for 30 years of my life,” he said. “Oprah Winfrey started it all wherever she started the hyphenated American. … Donald Trump gave me my voice back to push back against all those people who tell me that I’m the problem.”

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FEA T U RE S

Q&A: Ashley Featherstone of Asheville-Buncombe Air Quality Agency Growing up in Hendersonville, Ashley Featherstone assumed she would move away for work. “I was always told that you could never find a job here,” she recalls. “There are [fewer] jobs here than there are in places like Atlanta and Charlotte.

But I just decided that I was going to find a job.”

And she did: Featherstone is the director of the Asheville-Buncombe Air Quality Agency based in Asheville.

After studying at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, Featherstone worked for several companies before resettling in Western North Carolina. She began working in 2002 with the thennamed Western North Carolina Regional Air Quality Agency. She became director in 2020; the agency renamed itself in 2021.

Featherstone spoke with Xpress about the ozone, the finer points of fine particulates and why you should never burn your trash.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What constitutes good air quality?

Most importantly, we must be in compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. Here in the southeast, we’re most concerned with our ground level ozone and fine particulate matter. Over the years, our air quality has been getting better. The standards get adjusted every few years because we keep finding health effects at lower and lower levels of air pollution. So even though our

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UP IN THE AIR: Ashley Featherstone, director of the Asheville-Buncombe Air Quality Agency, says a family of four burning their trash creates more pollution than a municipal waste incinerator burning waste for multiple households.

Photo courtesy of Featherstone quality is improving, there’s always more work to be done.

What does “ground-level ozone” mean? I thought the ozone was high up in the sky.

Ozone up in the stratosphere above the Earth forms a protective barrier that helps protect us from the harmful rays of the sun. Ozone at ground level is actually very reactive. It can exacerbate asthma and other breathing conditions. Ozone is what we call a secondary air pollutant. Instead of being emitted directly from pollution sources, it’s formed in the atmosphere when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds combine in the presence of heat and sunlight.

So what is “fine particulate matter”?

The fine particulate matter is emitted directly from sources like combustion, whether you’re burning diesel fuel or wood. You can also get fine particles from road dust and other sources like that. Those are significant health concerns, as very fine particles can cause all kinds of breathing problems that exacerbate other conditions like heart disease and COPD. Also, fine particles are related to visibility. In the summertime when you can’t see the mountains or buildings very well that haze is water molecules in the air attaching to a fine particle and expanding. We’ve got better visibility down in the Great Smoky Mountains National

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Park and everywhere around here in the southeast. That’s good news because tourism is important, and people from Atlanta want to come here for the weekend to see the beautiful mountains.

Can the community get involved with the WNC Regional Air Quality Agency?

We have our governing board with appointees from the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners and Asheville City Council. We also have a Citizens Advisory Committee, which is made up of a diverse group of residents from the area. We’re working with this group of folks to identify projects in the community to reduce emissions and [create] awareness about air quality initiatives. Right now, we’ve been advertising for advisory committee members and taking applications.

One thing we are engaging with our advisory committee is [seeing if we] can partner up with other organizations in the area that are also seeking to reduce pollution and take advantage of some of the grant funds that are out there.

Can people contact the agency to report polluted air?

Part of why we’re here is to address any concerns that people have about air pollution. They can call us if they have questions about air pollution, and we investigate a wide variety of complaints. Sometimes people don’t know who to call when they’re having these problems. We have a

fugitive dust rule, where you’ll see a lot of particulate matter or dust from construction sites. We also get a lot of odor complaints and [concerns about] open burning compliance.

We’ve had so many improvements in air quality over the last 20 or 30 years.

What has been your proudest achievement working at the agency?

The community partnerships and programs that we’ve done have been really fun. For instance, we did a school bus retrofit and a fire engine retrofit. Since we got good feedback on those, we were able to get grants to equip these bus and fire engine diesel engines with diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs). The DOCs have been EPA-verified to reduce particulate matter emissions by 20%, hydrocarbon emissions by 66%, and carbon monoxide emissions by 41%.

Engines manufactured after 2007 have these and other control devices installed on them at the factory.

Many of these engines operate for 20 years so retrofitting pre-2007 engines was a priority between 2003 and 2013.

What’s the weirdest or worst thing that you’ve ever heard of someone trying to burn?

Unfortunately, people burn all kinds of stuff. One of the troubling things is copper wire. You see a lot of people burning copper wire because there’s a plastic coating on it. If they burn the plastic off, that gets them down to the metal that they can then sell. Of course, tires are terrible to burn. Lots of times we go out and find people burning furniture, mattresses, tires, clothes — just household garbage in general.

Think about what’s in our garbage nowadays — all the plastics, dioxins and mature carcinogens. A family of four burning their trash in one barrel puts out more pollution than a municipal waste incinerator burning waste for many households! That’s because municipal waste incinerators are highly regulated with control devices and proper combustion.

What’s one simple thing you like to do to be more sustainable?

Combining trips when driving and turning off lights and other devices when not in use to save energy. I also take my own bags to the grocery store and try to avoid using plastic bags for produce. I frequent the Hard 2 Recycle events with Asheville GreenWorks and recently signed up for the food scraps drop-off program that the City of Asheville and Buncombe County have initiated.

— LA Bourgeois X

ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES

by Thomas Calder | tcalder@mountainx.com

‘Iceless’ In August 1919, a collective shiver appears to have run down the spines of local residents and visitors alike, when it was discovered that Asheville had run out of ice.

“If the present ice producing facilities of the city are insufficient to supply the growing demands, some public-spirited company of citizens should establish a factory which will take care of the local needs and place Asheville people beyond danger of ice famine at the flood tide of summer business,” The Sunday Citizen wrote in its Aug. 3, 1919, edition.

Otherwise, the paper continued, the city’s reputation was at risk. “It would be hard to conceive of a situation which would be less of an advertisement than for the word to go out that Asheville, although supplied with breezes that sometimes seem to come from Greenland’s icy mountains, is nevertheless iceless.”

In the same day’s paper, a separate article informed readers that local soda fountain keepers “stood to lose many gallons of ice cream,” on account of the situation. To make matters worse, the article reported, a spokesperson for the Asheville Ice Co. — one A.W. Faulkner — “saw no chance to meet the emergency within the next fifteen days.”

Residents, Faulkner asserted, “will have to economize as much as possible.”

In the following day’s paper, an editorial came to the company’s defense.

“There is an ice shortage throughout the country,” The Asheville Citizen reminded readers. “Natural ice was not stored away last winter in large quantities because of the mild weather did not favor the formation of ice crystals.”

An ice shortage, the article went on to suggest, was less urgent than many of the city’s more pressing needs: “Housing accommodations are distressingly inadequate; even the streets

City loses its cool over ice shortage, 1919

NO CHILL: In the summer of 1919, the city ran out of ice. Some in the community placed sole blame on the Asheville Ice Co. The company responded with a letter to the editor, explaining its role in the situation. The featured image shows the Asheville Ice Co. participating in the 1933 Rhododendron Festival. Photo by E.M. Ball; courtesy of Special Collections, D.H. Ramsey Library, UNC Asheville are crowded with traffic, vehicular and pedestrians, and no solution has been found by engineers for this problem. It is admitted that more amusement and recreation facilities are needed, and yet Asheville has discussed these improvements for years without taking action on a broad scale with a view to the growth of all kinds languished during the war, and with war past high prices and over-conservatism still handicap necessary developments.”

On Aug. 5, 1919, in a letter to the editor, several members of the Asheville Ice Co. signed their names to a response about the scarcity.

“Articles in Sunday’s paper leave upon the reader a mistaken impression that the manufacturers of ice in Asheville are indifferent to the needs and comfort of the ice-consumers,” the letter began.

“Such is so very far from being the case.”

First and foremost, the letter made clear that Asheville Ice Co. did not manufacture ice; the company “merely handles the ice.” Therefore, it continued, “when the Asheville Ice company closed their doors Saturday night, it was because they could not obtain any more ice from the factories.”

The letter went on to remind readers that the company had planned for expansion prior to the U.S. entry into The Great War. “But before these plans could be put into execution, the government called a halt on all building,” the writers declared. “And even if patriotism had not inspired us to obey we would have found it impossible to obtain machinery, materials and labor to make the additions.”

With the war now over, the letter continued, preparations were underway to enlarge the plant, “and it is hoped that without further delay the capacity will

be so increased that it will be sufficient to furnish not only Asheville but the surrounding towns all the year round, with plenty of ice.”

In the meantime, the letter implored, “we can only beg the public to bear with us as patiently as they have done with the overcrowded hotels and boarding houses.”

Lastly, the writers concluded, “We also beg the public to watch every possible source of waste, and to make every pound of ice go as far as it can for the next two or three weeks.”

Coverage of the ice shortage appears to have dried up after this point, leaving this reporter to conclude cooler heads (and drinks) prevailed as demands for ice cream cones were satiated.

Editor’s note: Peculiarities of spelling and punctuation are preserved from the original documents. X

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APRIL 20-26, 2022

19

COMMUNITY CALENDAR APRIL 20 - 28, 2022

the school’s Play It Forward capital campaign, securing their new facility in West Asheville.

FR (4/22), 5pm, $10, Citizen Vinyl, 14 O Henry Ave

For a full list of community calendar guidelines, please visit mountainx.com/calendar. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, opt. 4. For questions about paid calendar listings, please call 828-251-1333, opt. 1.

Online Events = Shaded WELLNESS Sparkle Time Holistic Senior Exercise Aerobic, strengthening, balance and flexibility. Proof of vaccine required.

WE (4/20, 27), MO (4/25), 10:30am, $5, Avery’s Creek Community Center, 899 Glen Bridge Rd Montford Tai Chi Hosted by local acupuncturist Tyler White. All ages, every Thursday.

TH (4/21, 28), 9am, Free, Montford Recreation Center, 34 Pearson Dr Introduction to Tai Chi Pre-registration required ashevillecommunityyoga.com.

TH (4/21, 28), 10:30am, Asheville Community Yoga Center, 8 Brookdale Rd

2022 Prom Dress Giveaway Eblen Charities’ annual giveaway of gently used and clean prom and formal dresses.

Open to anyone, free of charge.

SA (4/23), 10am, Eblen Charities Pop Up Shop, 52 Westgate Pkwy

Running of the Goats 5K & Nature Walk Giving area runners the chance to run wild in and around the animals.

SU (4/24), 8:30am, WNC Nature Center, 75 Gashes Creek Rd

AAPF Spring Benefit Concert Live classical and jazz.

SU (4/24), 3pm, Grace Convenant Presbyterian Church, 789 Merrimon Ave

ART Weaverville Art Safari Self-guided event that offers a unique look at artists and their work in their studio environments, April 23-24 10am-5pm.

Downtown Weaverville Carrie Mae Weems: The Usual Suspects This exhibition features recent photographic and video works questioning stereotypes that associate black bodies with criminality

by MacArthur Genius Award-winning artist. Tuesday through

GOING GREEN: Downtown Sylva will host the annual Greening Up The Mountains Festival on Saturday, April 23, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Now in its 24th year, the heritage arts festival will feature traditional and contemporary Appalachian art, music, food and beverages. Photo courtesy of Jackson County Tourism Development Authority Friday, 10am.

WCU Bardo Arts Center, 199 Centennial Dr, Cullowhee Ray Baccari: Human Excited About Being Human Described by the artist as an “empathy

machine,” this interactive, sonic installation amplifies visitor heartbeats. Tuesday through Friday, 10am.

WCU Bardo Arts Center, 199 Centennial Dr, Cullowhee

WELCOME

SPRING Festival

HAW CREEK COMMONS APRIL 30, 11AM-2PM Fam ily -friendly festival, artisan craft fair, food trucks, C hildren's book author G ina G allois and local environm ental groups.

PARKING AT HAW CREEK ELEMENTARY 315 O ld Haw C reek Rd. A sheville, NC 2880 5 Follow @ hawcreekcom m ons on Instagram to look out for your favorite local vendors!

20

APRIL 20-26, 2022

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Faces of Change Youth Artists Empowered captured images and narratives from Asheville residents and neighborhoods that are being most negatively impacted into high-traffic areas to spark meaningful conversations and increase public dialogue. In collaboration with Tepeyac Consulting and the City of Asheville. Daily except Tuesday, 10am. $15, Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square Gillian Laub's Southern Rites Gillian Laub engages her skills as a photographer, filmmaker, and visual activist to examine the realities of racism and raise questions that are essential to understanding the American consciousness. Daily except Tuesday, 10am. $15, Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square Tarah Singh & Alex Stilber: LOAM Mother and daughter explore layers of the human experience through mixed media, revealing their multi-generational connection of consciousness as they explore the feminine experience. Daily except Wednesday, 11am.

Free, Art Garden, 191 Lyman St, Ste 316

SPOKEN & WRITTEN WORD Roy Hoffman presents The Promise of the Pelican in conversation with Mallory McDuff The authors discuss Hoffman's novel. Sponsored by Malaprop's.

Registration required.

WE (4/20), 6pm, avl.mx/bgj Virtual Evening w/ Mary Laura Philpott & Kimberly Williams-Paisley The authors discuss Philpott's book. Sponsored by Malaprop's.

Ticket required.

WE (4/20), 8pm, $27, avl.mx/bgi Malaprop's Notorious HBC (History Book Club) Participants will discuss The Comanche Empire

by Pekka Hamalainen.

Registration required.

TH (4/21), 7pm, avl.mx/9s9 Malaprop's Science Fiction Book Club Participants will discuss The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson. Registration required.

MO (4/25), 7pm, avl.mx/7on Malaprop's Romance Book Club Participants will discuss Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert.

Registration required.

TU (4/26), 7pm, avl.mx/bh1 Dennis Drabelle w/ The Power of Scenery: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Origin of National Parks The author will discuss his book. Sponsored

by Malaprop's and the NC Arboretum.

Registration required.

TH (4/28), 6:30pm, avl.mx/bh8

THEATER NC Stage Presents: The Lifespan of a Fact A new comedy of conflict about the high-stakes world of publishing. Adult themes.

WE (4/20, 27), TH (4/21, 28), FR (4/22), SA (4/23), 7:30pm, SU (4/24), 2pm, $10-46, North Carolina Stage Company, 15 Stage Ln Sister Amnesia's Country Western Nunsense Jamboree Filled with one-liners and comic tunes, this musical hoedown is Nunsense fun with “Hee Haw” moments.

Book, music, and lyrics by Dan Goggins.

Directed by Victoria Lamberth. Presented in arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Tams-Witmark LLC. FR (4/22), SA (4/23), 7:30pm, SU (4/24), 3pm, $21.25-30, Hendersonville Theatre, 229 South Washington St, Hendersonville Back in the Spotlight: An all-school musical revue Featured performances include favorites from Shrek, Annie, The Lion King, and more, with a silent auction, and drinks and concessions available. Presented

by The Learning Community School.

WE (4/27), 6pm, $5-10, Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre, 92 Gay St

BENEFITS Silent Auction Fundraiser Citizen Vinyl and Asheville Music School have teamed up for a silent auction fundraiser to benefit

CLASSES, MEETINGS & EVENTS Community Garden Nights Seeking volunteers for the School Garden. Gloves and tools will be provided.

Email volunteer coordinator, Polly, at pphillips@verneremail. org for more details.

WE (4/20), Verner Center for Early Learning, 2586 Riceville Rd Weaverville Library Knitters & Stitchers A morning of crafting and conversation.

WE (4/20), 10am, Weaverville Library, 41 N Main St, Weaverville Introduction to Medicare - Understanding the Puzzle The class will explain how Medicare works, the enrollment process, how to avoid penalties, and ways to save money. To register, visit the Council on Aging of Buncombe County at coabc.org or call (828)277-8288.

WE (4/20), 2pm Men's Cancer Support Group RSVP to Will at (412)913-0272 or acwein123@gmail. com.

WE (4/20), 6pm, Woodfin YMCA, 40 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 101 All Things Recycling Information Program Casi Lohmeyer, Buncombe County’s Recycling Coordinator, presents on all things recycling and composting in Buncombe County.

Registration required.

TH (4/21), 11am, Fairview Library, 1 Taylor Rd, Fairview Usui Reiki 1 Certification Training Learn to channel Reiki energy for people, places and things for

Vote for

Vote Us for Best Local Food/ Drink Product!!

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Please vote for us for Best Restaurant in West Asheville, Best Thai & Best Takeout 747 Haywood Rd • 828-412-5905 thaipearlasheville.com

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VOTE FOR • Business With Best Customer Service • Support Organization for Entrepreneurs and New Business Bettini Financial Solutions, LLC. bettinfinancial.com • 828-549-8316 support@bettinifinancial.com

Celebrating a legacy of 14 years of “Best Of”s!

Vote for us again as best: Daycare Preschool Afterschool Day Camp

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HILLTOP ice cream shop Vote us best dessert & best ice cream

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828-470-8083 520 Old US Hwy 74, Fairview, NC MOUNTAINX.COM

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balance.

SA (4/23), 9am, Touch of Earth, 109 Reynolds School Rd

and maintain them.

SU (4/24), 2pm, Asheville ReCyclery, 90 Biltmore Ave

Community Garden Work Day Join Bountiful Cities for a conversation to collectively envision a community garden installation on how to create more food security in this space.

SA (4/23), 1pm, West Asheville Park, 11 Vermont Ave

Drink & Draw Bring your own beverages, art supplies and draw from a live nude model or free paint on canvas to music in the front gallery. Hosted and instructed by Katie Montes. 18+ SU (4/24), 6:30pm, $10, Continuum Art, 147 Ste C, 1st Ave E, Hendersonville

Walking Tour of Historic Downtown Black Mountain Museum staff will lead attendees through historic State Street, Cherry Street and Black Mountain Ave, relaying the history of several buildings and discussing topics including the building of the Swannanoa Tunnel and the disastrous downtown fire of 1812.

SA (4/23), 1pm, $10, Swannanoa Valley Museum, 223 W State St, Black Mountain Bike Clinic: Brake Overhaul In this Firefly Gathering workshop, attendees will be guided through the different kinds of brake assemblies and how to set them up

Blue Ridge Parkway Mid-Week Wildflower Hike Learn to identify both common and rare Appalachian wildflowers on the Mountainsto-Sea Trail. Led by Joe and Mary Standaert, local historians and members of the Western Carolina Botanical Club, this hike will follow the Mountainto-Sea Trail starting at Craven Gap. The hike is moderate and will be slow, looking at and identifying wildflowers along the way.

TU (4/26), 9am, $3040, Blue Ridge Parkway at Craven Gap

LOCAL MARKETS YMCA Mobile Market Bring your grocery bags and get fresh food for your family.

All are welcome, regardless of income or family size. Distributions are free and no paperwork is required.

WE (4/20), 1pm, Leicester Library, 1561 Alexander Rd, Leicester RAD Farmers Market Local goods, weekly.

WE (4/20, 27), 3pm, Pleb Urban Winery, 289 Lyman St East Asheville Tailgate Market Local goods, every Friday.

FR (4/22), 3pm, 954 Tunnel Rd North Asheville Tailgate Market The oldest Saturday morning market in WNC. Over 60 rotating vendors.

SA (4/23), 8am, 3300 University Heights Asheville City Market Over 50 vendors and local food products, including fresh produce, meat, cheese, bread, pastries, and more.

SA (4/23), 9am, 52 N Market St

Mars Hill Farmers Market Fresh local produce, herbs, cheeses, meats, eggs, baked goods, honey, soaps, tinctures and crafts.

SA (4/23), 10am, College Street, College St, Mars Hill Meadow Market A scavenger hunt on Highland’s trails curated by SAHC, guided walks with Highland’s own Woodsman Corey, live music and the first market of the summer.

SU (4/24), 12pm, Highland Brewing Company, 12 Old Charlotte Hwy Sundays on the Island Local market located on Marshall's island in the middle of the French Broad River.

SU (4/24), 12pm, Blanahasset Island, Marshall West Asheville Tailgate Market Over 40 local vendors, every Tuesday.

TU (4/26), 3:30pm, 718 Haywood Rd Weaverville Tailgate Market Local foodstuffs, alongside a small lineup of craft and artisan vendors.

WE (4/27), 3pm, 60 Lake Shore Dr Weaverville

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Greening Up The Mountains Festival Live music, local craft beer, food vendors, artisans, crafters and nonprofit organizations. Outdoors.

SA (4/23), 10am, Bridge Park, 76 Railroad Ave, Sylva

FESTIVALS & SPECIAL EVENTS Asheville Hemp Fest Second annual music and arts festival featuring local hemp vendors, live glass blowing expo, live painters and visual artists, local food and crafts, with live music.

Presented by The Mari Fairy.

WE (4/20), TH (4/21), FR (4/22), SA (4/23), Multiple locations, Asheville

Sandy Mush Spring Fling 2022 Celebrate the start of spring with a plant exchange, bake sale, local artists, cakewalks, craft-making and more.

SA (4/23), 11am, Big Sandy Mush Community Center, 19 School Rd, Leicester

Spring Festival & Growing in the Mountains Plant Sale Ramp cookoff, food trucks, local growers plant sale and bluegrass from Bald Mountain Boys, Whitewater Bluegrass and Darren Nicholson Band.

FR (4/22), SA (4/23), WNC Farmers Market, 570 Brevard Rd

Smokin' Shakedown: A Good Vibes & Aural Pleasure Fest Live music from Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band, Captain Midnight Band, Pink Beds and Joshua Kendrick, as well as a pop-up market with local vendors, beer and food trucks.

Suggested donation of $20 to go directly to benefit Bread of Life.

SA (4/23), 12pm, Oskar Blues Brewery, 342 Mountain Industrial Dr, Brevard

70th Annual Spring Plant Sale With a focus on native plants and pollinators, presented by French Broad River Garden Club. 100% proceeds supports local horticulture and concservation scholarships and projects.

SA (4/23), 9am, 100 Hendersonville Rd

Dog Day Afternoon Pet products, food trucks, onsite pet rescues, live music, and performances by high-flying rescue dog

troupe Canines in the Clouds. Presented by Mix 96.5.

SA (4/23), 12pm, Lake Julian, 406 Overlook Ext, Arden Earth Day Kids Festival Join RiverLink and a host of local environmental organizations to learn about: plants and animals, mountains and streams, composting and recycling, and more. Every participating organization will have games and activities, interactive

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SU (4/24), 12pm, Rabbit Rabbit, 75 Coxe Ave

SPIRITUALITY Online Baha'i Sunday Devotional Friends gathering virtually for readings, music, prayers, and conversation. All are welcome.

SU (4/24), 10am, avl.mx/a9

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Asheville City Council • Asheville Mayor MOUNTAINX.COM

2022 PRIMARY ELECTION VOTER GUIDE

1

2022 ELECTION VOTER GUIDE

Asheville R E T City Council VO E UID

MAGGIE ULLMAN BERTHIAUME

DOUG BROWN

Website: Maggie4AVL.com Occupation: Climate advocate Previous candidacy or offices held: N/A Key endorsements: WNC Labor Council AFL-CIO; State Sen. Julie Mayfield Amount of money raised: $18,000 Top three donors: Mack Pearsall, Nanci and Clark Mackey, Pam Evans

Website: Doug.YourTeamAsheville. com Occupation: Sales Previous candidacy or offices held: President of my college dorm Key endorsements: Did not answer Amount of money raised: $1,500 Top three donors: Did not answer

What relevant experience makes you a good candidate for City Council?

I work with nonprofits to help them row in the same direction on climate change. I will apply my professional skills to build community coalitions for what Asheville needs. I was Asheville’s first sustainability director. I saved $1 million a year in energy costs and used those savings to create a funding stream for new programs. I increased residential recycling 35%. I have the skills and proven experience to take Asheville’s ideas and put them into action.

Financial responsibility — I ran a successful sales territory that covered the Far East. Get-it-done attitude — I started a car detailing business that put me through college and a school photography business with four crews covering Jakarta to Dubai. Listening and teamwork — I started businesses in Japan and Mexico and have served as a college counselor, teen mentor, coach and Sunday school teacher. Appreciation for nature and Asheville’s beauty — I surf and was a camp host in California’s Eastern Sierras.

Name three achievable goals you would champion in the next two years.

1) The housing market is in the driver’s seat, and it is running Ashevilleans out of town. I will ensure incentives help people most in need: people earning a living wage or less. 2) Solar power is good for the environment and is a cost-effective budget strategy. I will champion installing solar on every city building. 3) I will prioritize funding core city services for a healthy, safe and livable community, including sidewalks, greenways, parks and living wages to retain top-notch staff.

1) Give Asheville residents and businesses a safe and clean city again. How? Boost Asheville Police Department morale and recruits. 2) Serve the needs of residents and workers. How? Listen, learn and respond with reasoned facts with the motive to serve the public. 3) Vagrants and panhandlers break city ordinances and must be directed to shelters and treatment where they can learn recovery, accountability and how to live a purposeful life.

Which recent City Council decision do you most disagree with, and what would you have done differently?

My values are trust, inclusivity, equity and coalition building. When Ashevilleans vote for me to serve them on City Council, I intend to work with the community and current Council to support the needs of all Ashevilleans. I don’t want to start that relationship using hindsight against our community and current leaders.

The Merrimon Avenue “road diet.” Why not first ask the police, fire and emergency medical services what they would recommend?

Do you support the city funding a low-barrier shelter for the homeless population?

Yes

No

Do you support the Asheville Police Department’s current policy for clearing homeless encampments?

Yes

Yes

Should the city promote housing development of all types to increase housing stock in pursuit of affordable housing?

Yes

Yes

Would you support raising Asheville’s property tax to expand services beyond their current level?

(Did not respond)

No

Yes

No

Would you pressure county or state officials to abolish the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority?

(Did not respond)

No

Do you agree with the city’s proposal to reduce the number of its boards and commissions?

(Did not respond)

No

Do you support Council discussing items in advance of public meetings during private “check-in” sessions?

No

(Did not respond)

Do you support a policy of allowing the public remote access to comment during live meetings?

Yes

Yes

2 22 02 2 20

G Par t 1of 3

If Xpress learned one thing from assembling this year’s Voter Guide, it’s that Asheville City Council candidates really do not like yes-or-no questions.

Only one Council hopeful, Andy Ledford, gave answers to all nine queries. Every other candidate failed to provide a clear yes or no to at least one question; incumbent Antanette Mosley and challenger Alex Cobb declined to participate entirely. “These are complex issues which require thoughtful, nuanced consideration,” Mosley wrote.

Xpress agrees. But with a primary field of 11 competing for six spots in the general election for Asheville’s governing body, we also believe that asking a broad variety of yes-or-no questions helps voters narrow down the field based on candidates’ stated values. (We plan to ask more detailed questions on specific issues in our general election coverage.)

And this year’s crop of candidates brings a range of ideological approaches. Ledford, Cobb and Doug Brown are running as a slate — together with mayoral candidate Dr. Cliff Feingold — known as “Your Team Asheville,” with a focus on public safety and business-friendly policies. Others, including Andrew Fletcher, Will Hornaday and Nina Tovish, hope to manage development for the benefit of community needs, such as affordable housing.

Former Asheville sustainability officer Maggie Ullman Berthiaume brings an emphasis on solar energy and the support of local climate philanthropist Mack Pearsall. Allison Scott, who worked to pass Asheville’s nondiscrimination ordinance, would be the first openly trans person to sit on Council. Incumbent Sheneika Smith is focusing on equity with proposals for purpose-built development and restorative justice.

And rounding out the field is Grant Millin, who is already looking beyond the Council race. His top priority upon election, as relayed to Xpress, is to start developing himself as the city’s next mayor.

— Daniel Walton X 2

THE QUESTIONS

Do you support budgeting annual allocations to the reparations fund?

2022 PRIMARY ELECTION VOTER GUIDE

MOUNTAINX.COM

2022 ELECTION VOTER GUIDE

ALEX COBB

ANDREW FLETCHER

WILL HORNADAY

Website: Alex.YourTeamAsheville. com Occupation: Real estate broker Previous candidacy or offices held: N/A Key endorsements: Endorsements by big-money donors are not my concern. I am running for the people of Asheville. An endorsement by the mom, the elderly or the people who make the community is more important.

Amount of money raised: Did not respond Top three donors: Did not respond

Website: FletcherForAsheville.com Occupation: Jazz musician, LaZoom tour guide, economics student Previous candidacy or offices held: Asheville City Council candidate 2017 Key endorsements: Sunrise Movement Asheville Amount of money raised: $3,500 Top three donors: Andrew Fedynak, Laura Conner, Elliot Eichler

Website: HonorAsheville.com Occupation: Designer Previous candidacy or offices held: Current president of Albemarle Park neighborhood; past president, Charlotte Street Business Association; vice chair, Historic Resources Commission Key endorsements: AFL-CIO WNC Central Leadership Council Amount of money raised: $2,200 Top three donors: Ted Barnhill, Erin Dickinson, Bill Murphy

Website: Andy.YourTeamAsheville. com Occupation: Engineer Previous candidacy or offices held: None Key endorsements: None Amount of money raised: $200 Top three donors: Self-funded

My degree is in criminal justice, so I have a deep respect for law enforcement, but I also understand individual rights. My management experience in the restaurant business gives me the skills to look at budgets and make adjustments. I am now a real estate broker; this has given me the experience to know the struggles of finding housing and how hard it can be. The very best quality about me is I am extremely empathetic and caring.

I currently serve as vice chair of both the city of Asheville’s Downtown Commission and Public Art and Cultural Commission. I chair the Public Space Management Committee and am the past chair of the Haywood/Page Advisory Team. I’ve been an active organizer with the Asheville Buskers Collective and I serve on the board of both the Nina Simone Project in Tryon and Asheville Music Professionals. I’m currently a senior in the economics program at UNC Asheville.

I listen and I ask lots of questions. There is invaluable expertise in our citizenry, and by volunteering my time and energy to local nonprofits, the Historic Resources Commission and neighborhood and business groups, I’ve made connections with some incredibly smart, caring people who have experiences and ideas to make our city better. Additionally, my background in graphic design gives me the skills to come up with creative, collaborative solutions to our problems and tools to implement and promote them.

I am an Asheville native, a father and a veteran. As an engineer, I have experience in fixing problems, minimizing waste and improving processes. We need to look ahead, research ideas that work and implement positive, permanent fixes that will serve us now and in the future. I want to return Asheville to being a town that takes care of our own, provides stability and meets the needs of all our citizens.

1) Homelessness: Focus on the root causes of homelessness, which are mental health and addiction. If we focus on treatment, then housing, we can achieve better results. 2) Rebuilding the Asheville Police Department: I will support the APD and look at ways to retain officers. 3) Housing: We need to make living in Asheville more affordable by reducing the costs of renting.

We must stop property tax hikes, and I would incentivize current short-term rental owners to convert to long-term rentals.

First, and most easily, would be to guarantee that public decisions regarding development and public funds are made in the full view of the public. Second, I would advocate for better wages for rank-and-file city workers so we could fully staff the departments that deliver essential city services like parks, sanitation and firefighting.

Third, I would ask for a full review and refresh of all zoning laws, also known as UDO reform.

I would like to see Asheville hire an urban forester and implement a stronger stormwater ordinance within the first year. We should also expand our composting program and be able to distribute bear-resistant trash cans to anyone who needs one. By the end of year two, I’d like to have deconstruction and adaptive reuse ordinances in the final phase of development and free shuttle bus routes to and from downtown in the design phase.

I want to bring better representation for South Asheville. The biggest issue I see, especially in the south of the city, is traffic. City Council should work with the N.C. Department of Transportation and get public input on the biggest problems around town. Another issue is public safety and services. Not enough police to enforce laws, not enough public works to keep trash picked up, potholes going unrepaired. I want to bring the city back up to full staff.

The decision to use the Ramada Inn as a lowbarrier shelter has caused many problems in East Asheville. Crime has increased dramatically, as have overdoses and deaths. Businesses are experiencing shoplifting. Tax dollars are going to this, and it is not helping the people who are in need. The city was not prepared and allowed a local nonprofit to manage the shelter that was not capable of doing so. Asheville needs to be transparent and listen to community members.

The Flatiron Hotel approval was a grave mistake.

The follow-up was worse: The new hotel development rules have led to an even faster rate of hotel construction. The entire approach to land use in Asheville has benefited out-of-town developers at the expense of our community.

We have limited land and must enact land use policies that prioritize community needs, such as affordable housing with access to healthy food, good jobs and education, rather than hotel profiteers.

I think this Council is making pro-development decisions based on promises of a handful of city-subsidized, temporary, not-so-affordable housing units that can have negative impacts on our health, safety and environment. Conditional zoning should only be awarded for exceptional projects that elevate our town. As I write this, 13 historic houses in the Chestnut Hill National Register District, which provided 35 units of truly affordable housing for diverse families and workers, are being destroyed. We deserve better.

Recently, it was the decision to not have seats on City Council assigned by district. The city changed the charter to remain at a 100% at-large election, instead of five districts and one at-large member.

This has affected where I live and work the most, as South Asheville has not had a resident serve on Council in quite a while. I would have voted to have districts like every other city our size in North Carolina.

(Did not respond)

Yes

(Did not respond)

No

(Did not respond)

No

No

Yes

(Did not respond)

(Did not respond)

Yes

Yes

(Did not respond)

(Did not respond)

Yes

No

(Did not respond)

Yes

Yes

No

(Did not respond)

Yes

No

Yes

(Did not respond)

No

No

Yes

(Did not respond)

No

No

No

(Did not respond)

Yes

Yes

Yes

MOUNTAINX.COM

ANDY LEDFORD

2022 PRIMARY ELECTION VOTER GUIDE

3

2022 ELECTION VOTER GUIDE

GRANT MILLIN

ANTANETTE MOSLEY

Website: GrantMillin.com Occupation: Strategy innovator and CEO of Management Consulting for Public Good Previous candidacy or offices held: N/A Key endorsements: N/A Amount of money raised: Did not answer Top three donors: Did not answer

Website: MosleyForAsheville.com Occupation: Attorney Previous candidacy or offices held: Appointed incumbent on Asheville City Council Key endorsements: AFL-CIO WNC Amount of money raised: Did not respond Top three donors: Did not respond

Website: Tovish4AVL.com Occupation: Writer, artist, real estate broker Previous candidacy or offices held: None Key endorsements: AFL-CIO WNC Central Leadership Council Amount of money raised: $665 Top three donors: Lynn Borton, Robert Woolley, Nina Tovish

What relevant experience makes you a good candidate for City Council?

My observing and engaging with Council and city of Asheville activities for many years — versus other candidates just showing up and registering this year because things don’t look so hot at City Hall — is a key differentiator. The list of important experiences I have accumulated will be detailed on my website and blog when I formally announce in April, including prompting the city noise ordinance dashboard and my central role in ending the political career of Charles Taylor.

I am a multigenerational Ashevillean, and my deep roots in the community inform my decisionmaking. I’m an attorney by profession, so I’m analytical in my approach. Prior to joining Council, I worked for a local affordable housing nonprofit.

I currently sit on the Housing and Community Development Committee and am the Council liaison to the Asheville Housing Authority.

I’ve been a politically engaged citizen since my youth, never as an ideologue, always as a pragmatic idealist. I pay attention to how government — national, state or local — interacts with us and whether it upholds the processes and values of democracy. In Asheville, I’ve been participating in City Council meetings for years, seeking to make our city government more responsive, inclusive, transparent and accountable. My experience in real estate helps me understand the complexities of our city’s affordable housing crisis

Name three achievable goals you would champion in the next two years.

1) Start developing the next mayor. I will request to be seated on the Public Safety Committee and selected as vice mayor, and I am prepared to be the next mayor. 2) Define the process for selecting the next city manager, including the leadership characteristics and restructuring targets for the next city manager’s strategy. 3) I have announced the COA Restructure and Center of Progress platform. Zero of the other candidates have bothered to help define what Council needs to look like as to performance.

I will champion an increase in housing stock, including equitable, affordable housing. I will also support staff with policies that build upon and improve delivery of core services. Also of great importance is the establishment of intergovernmental and public-private partnerships.

1) Improve the city residential property tax rebate piloted last year: Make it permanent and automatic using a formula including years of ownership, percentage valuation increase and actual assessment. 2) Ensure the city achieves its stated goals for reducing fossil fuel use by accelerating the deployment of solar panels and upgrading existing facilities. 3) Empower meaningful resident participation early in the formulation of city decisions through easier access to public information and processes, including Council meetings, effective boards and commissions, and community groups.

Which recent City Council decision do you most disagree with, and what would you have done differently?

I would say Debra Campbell being selected, apparently without a process similar to how the past city manager was presented alongside other candidates in a town hall forum. In no way is that the only reason I am running for City Council, and in many ways I like what Debra tries to do. Also, a recent International City/County Management Association study states municipal executives get a six-year average tenure; not 15-20 years, as has been the case locally this century.

I was the sole Council member to vote against the assignment of a real estate contract for the Ramada Inn to an out-of-state, for-profit entity without a bid process. My primary reasons for opposition related to equity and transparency concerns.

City Council’s 2019 vote to permit the transformation of the Flatiron Building from a historic downtown anchor for local small businesses into yet another hotel for tourists was atrocious. It epitomizes a decision-making process that disregards residents’ voices, fails to promote a vibrant, diversified local economy and prioritizes favorable outcomes for large developers over our urgent community needs and quality of life. This is our city; we deserve a City Council that listens to us and puts residents first.

Do you support the city funding a low-barrier shelter for the homeless population?

No

(Did not respond)

Yes

Do you support the Asheville Police Department’s current policy for clearing homeless encampments?

Yes

(Did not respond)

No

Should the city promote housing development of all types to increase housing stock in pursuit of affordable housing?

No

(Did not respond)

No

Would you support raising Asheville’s property tax to expand services beyond their current level?

No

(Did not respond)

(Did not respond)

(Did not respond)

(Did not respond)

Yes

Would you pressure county or state officials to abolish the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority?

Yes

(Did not respond)

(Did not respond)

Do you agree with the city’s proposal to reduce the number of its boards and commissions?

Yes

(Did not respond)

No

Do you support Council discussing items in advance of public meetings during private “check-in” sessions?

No

(Did not respond)

No

Do you support a policy of allowing the public remote access to comment during live meetings?

Yes

(Did not respond)

Yes

Asheville City Council Continued

THE QUESTIONS

Do you support budgeting annual allocations to the reparations fund?

4

2022 PRIMARY ELECTION VOTER GUIDE

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NINA TOVISH

2022 ELECTION VOTER GUIDE

ALLISON SCOTT

SHENEIKA SMITH

Website: AllisonForAsheville.com Occupation: Director of impact and innovation for the Campaign for Southern Equality Previous candidacy or offices held: Did not answer Key endorsements: Victory Fund Amount of money raised: Did not answer Top three donors: Anne Guse, Shelley McCormick, Amy Mandel

Website: N/A Occupation: Vice mayor, Asheville City Council Previous candidacy or offices held: Asheville City Council (2018), vice mayor (2020) Key endorsements: Asheville Fire Fighters Association Amount of money raised: $0 Top three donors: N/A

Lifetime local Allison Scott is a trans woman whose accomplishments as a community organizer and bridge builder include helping implement Asheville’s first LGBTQ nondiscrimination ordinance; serving as director of impact and innovation for CSE, overseeing over $500,000 in grant-making to LGBTQ people in need during the pandemic; serving as co-chair for the Biden for President NC LGBTQ Leadership Council; over a decade of experience as an IT manager for several large corporations; and chairing Asheville’s Citizens/Police Advisory Committee.

Elected to Asheville City Council in 2018, appointed vice mayor in 2020. Currently, chair of the Public Safety Committee and Boards and Commissions. Professional experience includes community organizing and event planning, workforce development outreach and recruitment, and behavioral/mental health work.

1) Implement “community paramedicine” units, similar to those used by Buncombe County, for drug and mental health crisis response to better support our unhoused and most vulnerable neighbors. 2) Change Council meetings to always include virtual and in-person options for the public to attend and comment, promoting government transparency and accessible civic engagement. 3) Change zoning laws to include denser development as one of many initiatives to address Asheville’s affordable housing crisis.

Visit AllisonForAsheville.com to learn more about Allison and the issues.

1) Purpose Built Development — To address intergenerational poverty, crime and substandard living conditions, upward mobility has to be created. The Purpose Built model develops new affordable, mixed-income housing options for distressed communities. 2) Restorative Justice — Asheville has been facing cycles of rising violence. Restorative justice creates new outcomes by reimagining what restitution, resolution and restoration look like and how to achieve those goals. 3) Emergency Preparedness — I want to work with intergovernmental, interagency and community players to create resilience hubs.

The Ramada Inn project should have included more planning and community input, along with robust wraparound services, before being implemented.

N/A

(Did not respond)

(Did not respond)

(Did not respond)

(Did not respond)

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

(Did not respond)

No

(Did not respond)

Yes

No

(Did not respond)

Yes

(Did not respond) MOUNTAINX.COM

2022 PRIMARY ELECTION VOTER GUIDE

5

2022 ELECTION VOTER GUIDE

Asheville Mayor Mayor Esther Manheimer has enjoyed an unusually long term without facing a challenge. After her 2017 victory, former Democratic state Sen. Terry Van Duyn — at Manheimer’s request — got the N.C. General Assembly to change Asheville’s elections to even years, giving the mayor an extra unelected year in office.

That time is now at an end, and Manheimer finds herself amid four other challengers for the mayoralty. Only one of those hopefuls, Jonathan Wainscott, has previously run for the position; he was eliminated in the 2017 mayoral primary with less than 5% of the vote.

Coming at the incumbent from the right in the nonpartisan race is Dr. Cliff Feingold, a registered Republican who seeks to bolster the Asheville Police Department and make the city more accommodating to business.

Challenging Manheimer from the left is unaffiliated City Council member Kim Roney, who has often voted against the mayor in decisions over police funding and development and has criticized the current administration’s approach to climate issues.

Also in the race is unaffiliated social justice activist Michael Hayes, executive

Spring 2022

CLIFF FEINGOLD

MICHAEL HAYES

Website: Cliff.YourTeamAsheville. com Occupation: Dentist Previous candidacy or offices held: N.C. State Board of Dental Examiners (nine years) Key endorsements: Did not respond Amount of money raised: Did not respond Top three donors: Did not respond

Website: Hayes4Mayor.com Occupation: Founder, executive director of Umoja Health, Wellness and Justice Collective Previous candidacy or offices held: N/A Key endorsements: N/A Amount of money raised:N/A Top three donors: N/A

What specific powers or responsibilities of the mayoralty make you seek this role rather than a regular Council seat?

The mayor of Asheville has been a Democrat since at least the 1980s. The present city government is totally Democratic, and I feel that a change is necessary — from the top down. I have been the president of most of the organizations to which I have belonged, and the result has always been fiscal and organizational improvements.

Attitude reflects leadership, and leadership needs to change from the very top. Along with the communities I have been part of, I understand what it’s like to experience the negative consequences of decisions made by people in power who continue to uphold the status quo. As mayor, I can set the example to listen, particularly to those that feel they have not been heard.

What is the No. 1 issue Asheville residents are facing today, and how do you specifically plan to address that issue?

Asheville has the dubious distinction of being the second-most expensive place to live in North Carolina. This is a direct result of the inefficient, spend-happy, special-interest-influenced present mayor and City Council. Fees and taxes charged to developers need serious scrutiny. Expensive and capricious city inspections during construction need revision. Since the 1800s, tourism has been our primary industry. The present city government has done nothing to bolster tourism, which negatively affects income to the city and its inhabitants.

The No. 1 issue we are facing is the lack of collective healing we need to move forward as a city. Many residents are left out of discussions regarding the future of Asheville. Healing and working through our past can start when we all get to share our authentic truth and know our leadership is hearing what we say. I will prioritize open forums and discussions for people to share their experiences and needs from our city.

What do you bring to the role that other candidates don’t?

I was raised in a business family. In 1952, my father started the Army Stores, which expanded to all Western North Carolina over the years. I ran my own dental practice for 42 years. Knowing the principles of successful business is ingrained in me. None of my opponents have this type of experience. Asheville has not been run as a business for many years, and our city has suffered because of that.

I was taught that the greatest thing we have to offer is the ability to listen. I have gone through some of the struggles that many in our community are working through, and I am in the process of overcoming them. My life experience allows me to understand things from a different perspective that is more personable and less political and to meet people where they are, regardless of circumstances. I don’t see Asheville as an us and them, only we.

Do you support the city funding a low-barrier shelter for the homeless population?

No

(Did not respond)

Do you support the Asheville Police Department’s current policy for clearing homeless encampments?

Yes

No

Should the city promote housing development of all types to increase housing stock in pursuit of affordable housing?

Yes

(Did not respond)

Would you support raising Asheville’s property tax to expand services beyond their current level?

No

(Did not respond)

(Did not respond)

Yes

Would you pressure county or state officials to abolish the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority?

No

(Did not respond)

Do you agree with the city’s proposal to reduce the number of its boards and commissions?

Yes

No

Do you support Council discussing items in advance of public meetings during private “check-in” sessions?

No

No

Do you support a policy of allowing the public remote access to comment during live meetings?

Yes

Yes

director of the nonprofit Umoja Health, Wellness and Justice Collective. As part of his campaign announcement, Hayes aligned himself with former Council member Keith Young, saying he would drop out of the race if Young decided to run.

— Daniel Walton X

THE QUESTIONS

Nonprofit issue

Do you support budgeting annual allocations to the reparations fund?

Coming May 11!

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2022 PRIMARY ELECTION VOTER GUIDE

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2022 ELECTION VOTER GUIDE

ESTHER MANHEIMER Website: VoteManheimer.com Occupation: Mayor of Asheville, attorney Previous candidacy or offices held: Mayor of Asheville, Asheville City Council Key endorsements: Sierra Club, Asheville Fire Fighters Association Amount of money raised: $4,400 Top three donors: Ken Brame, Aaron Manheimer, Bob Clifford

KIM RONEY Website: KimRoney4Asheville.com Occupation: Music educator Previous candidacy or offices held: Asheville

City Council Key endorsements: AFL-CIO WNC Central Labor Council, former Mayor Leni Sitnick Amount of money raised: $4,625 Top three donors: Eleanor Lane, James Hemphill, Dr. Donna Page

JONATHAN WAINSCOTT Website: N/A Occupation: N/A Previous candidacy or offices held: N/A Key endorsements: N/A Amount of money raised:N/A Top three donors: N/A Hayes did not provide a candidate photo.

NEXT WEEKS’ GUIDES PART 2

PUBLISHES 4/27/22

Asheville City Board of Education

An effective mayor is responsible for serving and working with our community, Council and city administration and building relationships with partners, funders, Buncombe County, other cities, the state legislature and the governor. The mayor’s role requires leadership, communication, collaboration, diplomacy, strong but respectful differences of opinion, and an ability to fight for what’s right and draw strength from those partnerships when necessary.

I’m inviting Asheville to move me from one hot seat to a hotter one, not because I can fix things by myself, but because I’m committed to a process that allows shared work and accountability around affordability, public safety and an improved public meeting process. I intend to end the Council check-in process, shift to a public premeeting process, increase accessibility of public documents, support our advisory boards instead of dissolving them and remain committed to an organizational equity audit.

Our affordable housing crisis has a widespread impact, including pushing out locals, gentrification and homelessness. Building on my advocacy and action (Affordable Housing Trust Fund, incentivizing developers to build affordable housing, rebuilding public housing, leveraging city-owned property into affordable housing, emergency rent relief, funding home repairs, creating a down payment assistance program, property tax relief for income-qualified homeowners and fighting the legislature on laws that ban cities from regulating short-term rentals), I will make partnerships with neighborhoods our priority.

Public safety. I remain committed to answering calls to invest in long-term safety strategies; diversifying our public safety response to address the opioid crisis, homelessness and mental health with partnerships, including the Buncombe Community Paramedicine pilot program; developing and acting on a plan designed to end homelessness and advance housing as a human right; working with Council on our new goal of greater neighborhood resiliency; following through with our commitment to reparations; and responding to our stated climate emergency.

Buncombe County District Attorney

I bring experience, partnerships and diplomacy.

I have served as mayor since 2013. I’ve learned something new each day and applied it to better serving our community — the internal workings of the city, walking the halls of the legislature fighting for Asheville, working with county leadership, and knowing our community’s neighborhood, nonprofit and business leadership. It takes time, an open mind, listening skills and a collaborative mindset to develop critical relationships and create more opportunities for our residents.

A fresh perspective, along with experience from my second year on Council, seven years in the chambers and time on advisory boards. I serve on the Governance, Public Safety, and Boards & Commissions Committees and am the liaison to the Neighborhood Advisory Committee, Urban Forestry Commission, Homeless Initiative Advisory Committee, Human Relations Commission, and Multimodal Transportation Commission. I’m a small-business owner with 22 years’ experience as a music educator and was station manager of 103.3 Asheville FM.

PUBLISHES 5/4/22

Yes

Yes

U.S. House District 11

Yes

No

Soon online at

Yes

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Yes

Yes

WAINSCOTT DECLINED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE XPRESS VOTER GUIDE.

Buncombe County Board of Commissioners District 1

Buncombe County Sheriff

PART 3

N.C. House District 115 N.C. Senate District 46 N.C. Senate District 49

mountainx.com

DEVELOPMENT OUT NOW!

GUIDE

Your companion to land-use planning in Buncombe County

Pick up your print copy today in Xpress boxes! mountainx.com/development-guide MOUNTAINX.COM

2022 PRIMARY ELECTION VOTER GUIDE

7

2022 ELECTION VOTER GUIDE

News in Numbers Unaffiliated voters redefine Buncombe rolls Buncombe County’s political stereotype is that of the blueberry in the tomato soup: a Democratic stronghold surrounded by otherwise Republican Western North Carolina. But while that may have been true in previous decades, voter registration numbers now tell a different culinary story, with the blueberry replaced by a gray sardine.

That’s because unaffiliated Buncombe voters now outnumber those aligned with any one political

party. As of April 9, nearly 83,000 county residents — about 40.3% of all voters — had registered as unaffiliated, compared with about 75,000 Democrats (36.5%), 46,000 Republicans (22.4%) and 1,700 Libertarians (0.8%).

The shift represents an unaffiliated increase of nearly 15 percentage points since the 2008 primaries, when Democratic enthusiasm was on the upswing due to the first campaign of former President Barack Obama.

County Democrats subsequently lost

more than 7 percentage points of overall voter registration, with Republicans losing more than 8 percentage points.

(As of early 2008, the Libertarian Party was not officially recognized by North Carolina.)

North Carolina as a whole has seen similar changes. Since early 2008, the share of unaffiliated voters across the state has grown by about 13.6 percentage points, with Democrats losing 10.4 percentage points and Republicans about 3.9. Among Buncombe’s immediate neighbors, Haywood, Henderson, Madison and Transylvania counties all have a plurality of unaffiliated voters. (Full numbers are available at avl.mx/bh3.)

What’s driving this increase? In a 2020 interview with Xpress, Western

BUNCOMBE COUNTY DEMOCRATIC

REPUBLICAN

LIBERTARIAN

UNAFFILIATED

2022

74,919

2008

70,732

2022

45,891

2008

49,190

2022

1,714

2022

82,772

2008

41,350

Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper noted the flexibility unaffiliated voters enjoy: They can choose any partisan ballot during primary elections, while voters registered with a specific party must vote in that party’s primary. Cooper also said vitriolic partisan rhetoric at the federal level might discourage some people from aligning with a party.

And the trend doesn’t appear to be slowing down. As reported by Old North State Politics, North Carolina’s youngest voters are the most likely to register as unaffiliated, with 46% of new Generation Z voters registering as unaffiliated in 2018 and 2020.

— Daniel Walton X

NORTH CAROLINA

36.49% 43.86%

22.35%

DEMOCRATIC

REPUBLICAN

30.5%

0.83%

LIBERTARIAN

40.32% 25.64%

UNAFFILIATED

2022 2,500,375

34.38%

2008 2,535,180

44.77%

2022 2,199,189

30.24%

2008 1,930,856 2022

48,993

34.1%

0.67%

2022 2,524,113 2008 1,196,083

34.71% 21.12%

CHANGING TIDES: Unaffiliated voters now outnumber those associated with any one political party in both Buncombe County and North Carolina as a whole.

Graphic by Scott Southwick

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APRIL 20-26, 2022

25

WELLNESS

After the overdose

BY JESSICA WAKEMAN

PORT and Mountain Area Health Education Center.

MAT is an evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The treatment involves taking a medication — either buprenorphine, methadone or naltrexone — along with counseling to address the addiction.

Since March 7, PORT has referred 17 people to Bridge to Care following overdoses, says PORT’s peer support specialist Justin Hall. (PORT has at least 85 people on its caseload, meaning it connects clients to support services after an overdose.)

The pilot is meant to reach people who might otherwise not have resources to access MAT. “Who is most at risk of dying [of an overdose]?” Dr. Shuchin Shukla, family physician and opioid educator at MAHEC who helped develop the MAT pilot. “Let’s go and give them the lifesaving treatment — not say ‘Here’s a pamphlet with an appoint-

jwakeman@mountainx.com Multiple times a day, the Buncombe County Emergency Services Department is dispatched to 911 calls for drug overdoses.

Nearly all of the overdoses are from opioids — heroin, fentanyl or prescription drugs like OxyContin or Percocet. An average of nine people died from a drug overdose each day in 2020 in North Carolina, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services announced in March. And BC EMS’s post-overdose response team, or PORT, has responded to 900 opioid overdoses in the county since January 2021, says lead paramedic Claire Hubbard.

As of last month, PORT has a new tool for helping an individual suffering from an opioid overdose: medication-assisted treatment, or MAT. The program is called Bridge to Care and is a collaboration between

Community paramedics introduce medicationassisted treatment for opioid abuse

NONSTOP: The Buncombe County Emergency Services Department, including lead paramedic Claire Hubbard, left, responds multiple times a day to 911 calls for drug overdoses. Peer support specialist Justin Hall, right, follows up with individuals post-overdose for support. Photos courtesy of Hubbard and Hall ment’ or ‘Here’s a phone number, call this.’”

Shukla continued, “These folks are uninsured. They don’t have phones. They’re living in tents. …

We’ve got to skip all these barriers and bring [MAT] to them.”

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PORT began in November as a pilot program with BCEMS, and it connects people to further assistance within 72 hours of an overdose. Some individuals need stable housing or a connection to mental health servers.

Others want to begin treatment for their substance use disorder.

However, an authorized health care provider is required to administer MAT, according to the N.C. Medical Board. Many people weren’t able to get a dosage immediately following an overdose, would start going through withdrawal symptoms and use again, explains Hall. And the cycle would continue.

Opioid withdrawal is “one of the worst feelings most people could feel,” says Shukla. “Runny nose, teary eyes, super-achy, and at worst, bone pain, feeling very uncomfortable — like skin crawling — can’t sleep, can’t eat and a lot of [gastrointestinal] stuff, meaning nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cramps.”

Shukla continues, “It’s pretty awful because you can’t sleep but you’re super-tired. You can’t eat, but you’re getting dehydrated because you’re vomiting and having diarrhea. … And, man, if you use an opioid, all that gets better pretty immediately.”

This is a dangerous circumstance, says Hall. People would “end up overdosing again, because they were trying to deal with the withdrawals and actually died,” he says.

Most facilities that provide MAT are open Monday through Friday during regular business hours, explains Hubbard. Someone who has an overdose during off-hours may have to wait days to begin MAT and this could derail their recovery process, Hubbard explains.

HOW IT WORKS The Food and Drug Administration has approved several different medications for opioid use disorder. BCEMS currently administers Suboxone — a combination of naloxone (the medication that reverses overdoses, also known as Narcan) and buprenorphine, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

“Buprenorphine works by stimulating the same receptors [as other opioids], but it does it in a different way than heroin, oxycodone, morphine [and] fentanyl,” Shukla says. Buprenorphine is a schedule III controlled substance regulated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; the FDA approved Suboxone in 2002.

MAT is safe for use for “months, years or even a lifetime,” according to the U.S. Department of Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“That’s the beauty of buprenorphine and Suboxone — they fix that feeling [of withdrawals] with-

out the risk of hurting the person,” says Shukla.

CONNECTION TO FURTHER TREATMENT PORT responds to all overdose 911 calls alongside the other first responders, who may be the ones who administer Narcan. First responders then leave the scene and go back into service responding to other calls.

The community paramedics stay.

While “acknowledging the fact that they were given a medication that responds to opiates and they did overdose on opiates,” Hall explains, PORT broaches various resources for both harm reduction and recovery. “If they are interested in getting onto Suboxone, we can facilitate that,” he says after assessing the individual for withdrawal symptoms.

PORT has referred 17 individuals to Bridge to Care to begin MAT “either immediately after the overdose or sometimes we wait until the next day,” explains Hall. “Basically, we’re waiting to see where their withdrawal symptoms are.” If not administered at the right state of withdrawal, MAT can potentially make someone feel “even worse,” he says — which can lead to using opioids again to feel better.

After providing a first dose of Suboxone, the community paramedics make a plan with the individual to return the following day for redosage. “Our paramedics are prepared to go out every 24 hours and dose an individual for up to five days,” Hall explains. During this time, PORT

helps schedule an appointment for the patient at MAHEC in the coming days.

In December, Dogwood Health Trust awarded MAHEC a $499,000 grant to provide buprenorphine at no cost in the Family Health Center, a primary care clinic. The grant will support up to 60 uninsured patients referred through the PORT program for up to one year, MAHEC spokesperson Jennifer Maurer says. And PORT can bring people to these appointments — a crucial component, since not having transportation can be another barrier to receiving treatment.

Two of the 17 patients who started MAT through PORT haven’t shown up for their MAHEC appointment to continue treatment. Hall says, “​​ I don’t think they were fully ready to give up their drug of choice.” But the community paramedics will still keep in touch and continue to offer MAT as a treatment option. “When they’re ready to make that reconnection to MAHEC then we can do that as well,” he says.

The long-term plan is for the 15 people in Bridge to Care to take additional steps toward recovery through wraparound services with the assistance of other organizations the county. Two individuals have entered detox, Hall says, and two have started jobs.

“We’re running the ship pretty tightly right now, where we’re making sure people don’t fall through the cracks,” adds Shukla. “These are the people who fall through the cracks the most.” X

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FIGHTING WITHDRAWALS: Medication-assisted treatment is an evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Photo by Justin Hall

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27

ARTS & CULTURE

Under review

Is Asheville truly one of the nation’s top music cities?

ROCK THE HOUSE: Packed shows at The Orange Peel have played a major role in establishing Asheville as a “Music City.” Photo by Sandlin Gaither

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com Whether complimentary, critical or somewhere in between, Asheville lands on so many lists that when the city doesn’t make the cut — particularly in regard to music — it raises a few eyebrows.

Such was the case this February when real estate data company Clever published the study, “Best Music Cities in the U.S. (2022 Data).”

Nashville took the top spot, and Raleigh and Charlotte were also among the report’s 50 metro areas, but Asheville was nowhere to be found.

The explanation is simple: The city’s population doesn’t rank in the nation’s top 50. But with Asheville seemingly a lock for any conversation involving the nation’s top music destinations, it’s nevertheless a good time to examine the local music

industry and see how its lauded reputation holds up when examined with Clever’s rubrics.

METHODS, MADNESS, ETC. Taelor Candiloro, a research analyst for Clever and the report’s author, says that she and her colleagues determined what metrics and statistics to use for the study by considering what elements of lived experience would make a city conducive to a good music scene.

“I think viability has a lot to do with both affordability and opportunity, so we tried to measure those things by choosing metrics that reflect those aspects of a city,” she says.

In addition to the widespread advantages of a diverse music scene, Candiloro noticed that the top 15 metros also ranked high in the total number of working musicians and

The

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Series

intimate concert spaces, while ranking low in concert ticket prices.

“I think these [qualities] speak to healthy music landscapes and are really helpful to note if you’re in a city that didn’t make the top 15 but absolutely has a strong music scene to build upon,” Candiloro says.

Furthermore, the report notes that researchers “analyzed publicly available data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Indie on the Move and more.” Each metric was normalized and then graded on a 100point scale. The combined weighted average of the scores determined the “Music City” score upon which the final ranking was based.

Nashville’s top spot on the report, continues Candiloro, came as no surprise. The Tennessee capital ranked No. 1 for full-time musicians per capita (127 per 100,000 residents) and intimate concert spaces per capita (6.7).

Meanwhile, its overall cumulative genre score — based on Google trends data for 20 styles of music — fell second only to Salt Lake City. The report also found that Nashville’s career musicians earned more hourly ($28.81) than 30% of the study’s cities and the average ticket price ($130) ranked better than 32% of all other featured metros.

Candiloro hopes that the opportunity for improvement across metrics is one of the main takeaways that cities within the Top 50 and beyond get from the study, which will likely be conducted again next year. Additionally, she hopes all cities, regardless of size, think critically about how to encourage healthy and sustainable music scenes.

“I think it comes down to a city investing in what it’s already got going on,” she says. “Is the city investing in the arts community? Asheville has a great foundation when it comes to creative spaces and music venues — the interest and personal investment in the local music scene is definitely there. I think the city can rally around that foundation and support it through funding events, entertainment — especially as we near the warmer months of the year — and affordable housing options. All those things not only draw creative minds to the city but help to keep them there.”

LOCAL STATS When asked to comment on the “Best Music Cities” study’s metrics

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A R TS & CU LTU R E and findings — and how Asheville stacks up to these standards — members of the local arts industry were largely optimistic.

Candiloro’s statement regarding cities investing in their current artistic strengths rings especially true for area leaders, including Katie Cornell, executive director of the Asheville Area Arts Council.

“If our city and county really want to top the charts, they have to start investing in and developing this area’s biggest cultural assets, such as the local music industry,” Cornell says.

“I also think that until the affordable housing issue is solved or at least better managed, it is going to be hard for any sector to truly thrive.”

Studies that support Asheville’s claim to “Music City” fame include one by Best Cities in 2020 that ranked Asheville the fifth-best small city in the U.S., primarily for its art and music offerings. Jessica Tomasin, co-founder of the nonprofit industry advocacy group Asheville Music Professionals, and Heidi Reiber, senior director of research for the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, also partnered with the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce in 2016 for “Asheville Music Industry: Cluster Analysis and Economic Impact.”

“We were very fortunate to have an opportunity to work with Dr. Garrett Harper, who was the vice president of research for the Nashville chamber at the time,” Reiber says. “Dr. Harper had conducted research including economic impact analysis for Nashville’s music industry, and we had an opportunity to partner on a similar study for Asheville, keeping in mind each region has its own unique attributes.”

Looking at data from labor market data company Emsi for musicians and singers, but excluding tech/support roles, Reiber estimates that new fulltime and part-time jobs were added most years from 2009-19 with a slight downturn in 2019, but experienced 41% growth overall in this 10-year snapshot — greater than that of the Nashville-Davidson Metro (26% growth). But as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, estimates suggest that 2020 employment in the musicians and singers occupation dropped to 949 in the Asheville metro, a loss of 14% compared with 2019.

“Related closures due to the pandemic played a role in contributing to these losses,” Reiber says. “However, the presence of musicians and singers in the area remains strong. In 2020, there were 69% more musicians and singers in the Asheville metro compared to the national average. This measure suggests a level of specialization and uniqueness in our metro that is not found in every region.”

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BACK TO THE FUTURE: Local pianist Andrew Fletcher says Asheville deserves its Music City status but is facing challenges that could prove daunting. Photo by Sandlin Gaither THE REAL DEAL As far as reputation goes, Cornell points to a 2019 Rolling Stone article that says, “Asheville is becoming one of the country’s most vital music hubs.” The piece highlights the city’s diverse music scene and includes native son and rock legend Warren Haynes touting his hometown.

Katie Hild, co-owner of Salvage Station, also feels that Asheville’s reputation as a “Music City” has grown in recent years, largely based on the steady uptick in major nationwide tours that choose her venue and others in the area. “And we hope to see that trend continue,” she says.

“The caliber of artists interested in performing in our city is impressive, considering the size of Asheville.”

And on the ground level, local artists such as Andrew Fletcher, a pianist and AMP board member, express similar positive takes.

“The magic of Asheville is the density of what’s going on here,” he says.

“It means that there’s lots of interactions between bands and musicians, and the pace of those interactions is definitely part of what makes the music scene. The fact that I can easily go see three shows on a Friday night on Lexington Avenue — and not walk more than a few steps between venues — is pretty awesome. It’s a huge part of why I chose to live here.”

Though he considers the Clever study to be more geared toward audience metrics than for the benefit

of musicians, Fletcher is surprised that some of the cities aren’t necessarily tourist-driven, particularly Indianapolis, which earned the No. 2 overall ranking. Driving that result is a comparably low average concert ticket price ($99); a No. 4 ranking in small concert venues per capita (5.3 per 100,000 people); full-time musicians (34 per capita) earning more hourly ($31.40) than artists in 40% of the study’s cities; and a No. 3 ranking in Google trends for country music and No. 5 for both alternative music and blues. Yet Fletcher wasn’t aware of that reputation, and he doubts many industry peers would think of the Indiana capital as a more desirable music city than Portland, Ore. (No. 3) or Austin (No. 4).

Charlotte’s inclusion (No. 12 overall) was also unexpected for Fletcher.

Though he notes the city’s “good, interesting hip-hop” scene, along with a strong number of artists from various other genres, Fletcher asserts that it’s difficult to find a bar in the Queen City without a television.

Such spaces that prioritize live music without having performers compete with screens, he continues, is one of “those little steppingstone/ building blocks of a bigger music scene.” As such, Fletcher considers the study’s metric for small venues per capita a critical measurement.

“That shows that if the low level, grassroots is thriving, that’s going to be the incubator for the bands that get bigger,” he says. “Almost all bands were local at one point, and they need a lot of stage time in a lot of different small venues to hone their craft and songs so they can get to that next level.”

Not included in the study but likewise important to Fletcher are the inputs to a music industry or scene, including open mics, busking, college programs and whether it’s a destination city for musicians. Also critical are factors that would diminish the music scene, namely affordability issues, an individual venue closing and other factors stemming from gentrification — all of which contribute to two of the most daunting components: cost of living and earnings.

“If you look at musician wages and compare them on a trend line to affordability, when those lines begin to get closer together and cross, that might be that ‘canary in a coal mine’ moment,” Fletcher says. “Cultures come and go, and they often arise from a complex mix of internal factors that are difficult to manufacture and can fade due to external threats such as gentrification. It’s something that I hope policymakers seeking to celebrate our music culture will carefully consider.” X

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ARTS & C U L T U R E

FASHION

Down the runway

Color Me Goodwill highlights upcycled fashion and homegrown talent

BY ALLI MARSHALL

Merrell and Renee Walden, who will award a $500 prize to the overall winner. The audience also gets to choose a winner at the show, and that designer will receive $200.

Meanwhile, during the voting break, showgoers can enter a raffle for an umbrella and scarf customized with photos of past Color Me Goodwill designs shot by photographer Wendy Newman.

This year’s event will also honor another local photographer, Max Ganly, who passed away in 2020.

allimarshall@bellsouth.net Did you know that although there are Goodwill retail stores throughout the U.S., each operates independently in its own area? That means of the 155 autonomous Goodwill organizations throughout the country, only Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina services the 31 counties in this corner of the state.

That’s why, when it comes to planning the annual Color Me Goodwill fashion show, “It’s very locally focused,” says Jaymie Eichorn, chief marketing officer of the regional Goodwill Industries.

From the designers and models to the emcees, hairstylists and makeup artists — all who participate are locally based.

“Given the arts culture and community of Asheville, we thought this could be a great place to do it.”

Since its launch in 2015, Color Me Goodwill has operated as an awareness campaign, Eichorn continues. “So many people know about Goodwill because of our stores and our convenient donation locations,” she says.

“Far fewer understand the true mission of Goodwill and how the donations are used and what the impact of that is.”

That mission, according to the Goodwill website, is to “create opportunities for people to enhance their lives through training, workforce development services and collaboration with other community organizations.” Household items and clothing donated to Goodwill are resold through the retail stores, which fund career and employment programs, developmental disability services, residential living programs and behavioral health services.

After postponing the show the last two years due to concerns tied to COVID-19, Color Me Goodwill returns to The Orange Peel for its sixth iteration Friday, April 29, at 7 p.m.

“We are thrilled to be able to bring Color Me Goodwill back this year,” says Eichorn. “The combination of Goodwill’s mission, sustainable fashion, amazing designers, vibrant models and Asheville’s artsy vibe creates a fun and unique event.”

RULES AND THEMES Here’s how the contest works: In September of each year, a call for 32

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GREAT LOYALTY

CODE YELLOW: Models from the 2019 Color Me Goodwill show pose in fashions

by Asheville-based designer Caleb Owolabi. The upcycled collection was created from clothing purchased at local Goodwill retail stores. Photo by Max Ganly submissions is issued. Interested designers apply, sharing links to their portfolios and explaining their interest in participating. “Components of this include sustainability, slow fashion vs. fast fashion, upcycling and recycling,” Eichorn explains. “We really want to see what their passion is around those concepts.”

As in the past, a committee — including show director Leanna Echeverri, a former Color Me Goodwill winner — pored over this year’s applications and chose seven designers to compete. The artists were then given a $200 gift card to spend on materials in Goodwill retail shops, along with a theme color for their five-outfit collections.

Previous shows have revealed that not all colors work for the contest. “It’s been an evolution,” Eichorn says. For example, “White doesn’t work on the [paper] program, and black blends in with The Orange Peel stage.”

This year’s contestants (and colors) include a combination of designer teams and individuals: Art Blue (green), The Three Graces (orange), Sugar Britches (gold), Ray Fawley (gray), Jenna Jaffe (purple), Mama Trash (blue) and Shepp McManus (red).

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ALL HANDS ON DECK Along with creating original designs, each designer chooses four of their runway models. The fifth, a “client model,” is assigned by Goodwill and is a participant in the industries’ programming. “They’re really showcased because we want people to understand their stories,” Eichorn says.

One of her favorite memories from past shows is of client model Demetrius Strickland, a participant of Goodwill’s Community Access program, which serves people with disabilities. “He just kind of stole the show,” she says. “His personality, his stage presence — he came out and he really worked the audience.”

Strickland will again walk the runway for the orange collection this year.

Meanwhile, local hair and makeup artists donate their time on the day of the show, creating dramatic catwalk looks. For 2022, participants include Jillian Brooks, Kimberly Davines, Sheri Gafney, Tia Renay Hixon-Schrock, Crain Jackson, Alejandro Jimenez, Naomi Shelby Lynn, Chelsea Mayne, Charlotte Cat Murphy, Samantha Olsen and Vanu.

This year’s judges are Danielle Chaboudy, Charles Josef, Sarah

Eichhorn says the April 29 event will be a celebration of life, talent and community. Furthermore, she hopes it will introduce attendees to the good of Goodwill beyond the company’s well-known retail stores. “If you’re donating in Northwest N.C., then that impact is coming back into Northwest N.C.,” she says.

Eichorn has noticed an uptick in donations over the past two years — and not just in the number of contributions being made but in the size. What had typically been a bag of clothing has more recently become a truckload of items.

“People were sheltering in place,” she says. “They were sitting at home thinking, ‘I never liked that room.

Let me redo it.’ Same with their wardrobes.” That, paired with the fact that retail stores were closed early in the pandemic, led to an increase in inventory.

Store sales have been strong, too, Eichorn reports. Part of that trend is due to the influx of inventory at this time. “We just have a lot of support from the community in terms of donations and shoppers. We’ve got a lot of great loyalty.” X

WHAT Color Me Goodwill, avl.mx/bgz WHERE The Orange Peel, 101 Biltmore Ave., avl.mx/bh0 WHEN Friday, April 29, 7 p.m. $20 advance/$25 doors

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A R TS & CU LTU R E

LITERATURE

‘It was love’

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Celebrating Poetry Month with Mildred Barya A former human resources adviser with a master’s degree in organizational psychology, Mildred Barya has lived many lives before shifting her focus and dedication to writing. Today, the Uganda native and award-winning poet serves as assistant professor of English at UNC Asheville.

In 2016, when she arrived in Western North Carolina, Barya says she was shocked by the landscape’s uncanny resemblance to her hometown. “There I was thinking I’d managed to get away, only to realize the failure of my mission,” the poet says.

“Now, I can confidently say I never left home, or rather, home found me.”

In honor of Poetry Month, Barya has shared with Xpress one of her latest and previously unpublished poems, “Falling in Love.” Readers will also find a Q&A with the poet, where Barya discusses the inspiration behind her new work, Uganda’s influence on her writing and some of her favorite local poets.

Q&A WITH MILDRED BARYA Xpress: In addition to being a poet, you also write fiction and nonfiction.

As a writer, what’s your process in selecting the form? How, for example, did “Falling In Love” take the shape of a poem instead of say an essay?

Barya: Most times I don’t think about form during the writing process.

I just write, trusting that the “right” form will emerge later, and it often does. I’ve had pieces written in verse that I originally thought were poems.

Upon revision, they transformed into essays. However, for “Falling In Love,” the shape came first — from a combination of images and ideas. The moment I saw the turkeys, the word procession was born. They walked in pairs, and that made me think of couplets. Then I counted them, so the first draft had 11 couplets. Afterward, I turned the poem into prose — a technique I learned from one of my teachers who is a master of the prose poem. Then I read

Falling in Love

by Mildred Barya A procession of wild turkeys delights me.

I watch them pause by my red automobile and take turns at the reflectors.

They’ve discovered their own beauty,

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a fascinating thing to behold. I’m shameless to say I look forward to seeing them daily. I’ve rearranged my tasks and routines to be home early when eleven turkeys emerge from the woods. They remind me of my youth growing up in a home without mirrors. Once in a while, I’d go with my sisters to the bathroom of a guest house and do our make-up in front of its large mirror. When we became adults, we bought pocket-size mirrors that fit in our purses.

I’ve never bothered to ask why we never had any in the house.

Maybe there were more important things on our parents’ minds than looking at one’s reflection. When I bought the vehicle, it was love— visualizing myself transported to places of wonder. I had not imagined that the wild turkeys too would be charmed to see themselves in the mirrors of my car and fall in love.

IN THE BEGINNING: “Poetry is the language of the soul,” says local poet Mildred Barya. “Before I knew what life was, before I knew what writing was, there was poetry.” Photo by Todd Crawford it out loud. My ears told me to delete some lines, put the poem back into verse, in the form you have now.

Form fascinates me and provides endless opportunities for innovation and experimentation, which perhaps is the reason I’m attracted to jazz.

Time and reflection (both physical and mental) are at the heart of this poem. As a reader, the work caused me to consider the connections we make over time and the associations that bring these past connections into the present. Were these themes you wanted to explore as you began the poem, or did they evolve over time?

Since your question and observations are profound, I’ll say, yes! That was precisely my intention. Ha! But the truth is, it didn’t occur to me and it hadn’t occurred to me that the themes you’ve highlighted were resonant or in my conscious mind at the time of writing.

Your insight is brilliant, so I’ll roll with it. And therein lies the beauty of art and making meaning. Great readers like you do not just read actively. You also rewrite the work. I appreciate that.

Ha, well, I’m glad to partake in the rewrite! You grew up on a farm in Kabale, a town in the western region of Uganda. How has your youth influenced your works and how do you see it specifically influencing this poem?

The past, present and future merge easily when I start to write. Sometimes I’ll be focused on the present moment, only to have the next thought on the wings of the past. That’s how a medi-

tation on wild turkeys brought images of my youth, and the rural setting of my childhood farm wrote itself into this new geography that is also a poem. As rational beings, we try to organize our thoughts into coherent, linear structures, but our lived experiences and memories demonstrate that they have more in common with dreams, because they do not conform to linearity. Our senses especially work with our emotions to make sure that we don’t fall for easy categorizations or compartmentalization. Passing by a bakery or pond can transport one back to the smells of their grandparents’ home. All things being relative, I take comfort in knowing that we are not as fragmented or separate from previous experiences as we may sometimes think or feel. Any singular moment also contains a multitude.

Is that what attracts you to poetry?

That is embraces the nonlinear? Or is there something else about the form that you find more powerful and enticing?

Poetry is the language of the soul.

Before I knew what life was, before I knew what writing was, there was poetry. I like to think that in the beginning of the universe, the world was formless — nothing was — until a poem walked out of Spirit, spoke words into the void and sound was born. The sound that then made everything possible. If any reader allows their soul to speak, the words or sounds that emerge are poems.

Everyone who’s in love or ever has been knows this. What puzzles me is how quickly we forget or deny it all.

Poetry makes expressions in other forms possible. Without it, it’s likely there would be nothing. Have I convinced you to open a poetry bookstore?

Business isn’t my forte. But we’re in good hands with Malaprop’s!

Speaking of books and bookstores, is there a new collection of poems written by a local poet that you’re particularly fond of? If so, what makes the collection stick out to you?

You know, this is the hardest question to answer because there are many. I’ll just say anything and everything that Michael Hettich, Luke Hankins, Jessica Jacobs, Nickole Brown, Sebastian Matthews and Kevin Evans have produced. These poets ingest fire and spit it back like rainwater in varying degrees.

— Thomas Calder X

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STUDENT-LED ACTIVISM

A deliberate approach to sustainability When she was growing up, Elizabeth Nesbitt’s parents would cut up old T-shirts into rags, reuse food containers to store leftovers, unplug electronics and take other actions motivated more by economics than environmentalism.

“I think that these simple actions represent how earlier generations were accidentally eco-friendly, as those efforts helped save money but also minimized waste and electricity usage,” says Nesbitt, a junior at Western Carolina University and president of the school’s Student Environmental Health Association.

In contrast, she says, members of Generation Z tend to take a more deliberate approach to sustainability by using metal straws, reusable totes and other products designed to make ELIZABETH NESBITT a positive impact toward combating climate change.

Below, Xpress speaks with Nesbitt about reducing waste, encouraging others to take concrete actions to help the environment and setting personal priorities.

The interview has been condensed and lightly edited.

What environmental or sustainability efforts on your campus are you most proud of?

Dining services on campus have become much more focused on reducing their environmental impact. If you wanted to get food to go from the dining halls a couple of years ago, students had to use disposable containers and utensils. Now, there are reusable takeout containers. Also, discounts are offered to students who use their own reusable mugs at the coffee shops.

How do you keep yourself motivated in light of the lack of meaningful efforts to combat climate change?

By focusing on the changes I can make and by inspiring others to make similar changes. I pay attention to what I end up throwing out or recycling and try to see if I can find a reusable or sustainable alternative. One change I made is switching from buying shampoo that comes in bulky plastic bottles to using locally made solid shampoo bars. When I make a successful change, I encourage my friends and family to do the same. Being more aware of how the choices you make impact the environment and inspiring others to make more environmentally friendly choices are important steps in combating climate change.

What’s one thing you would like to see Xpress readers do to promote sustainability in WNC? Everyone knows about the three R’s — reduce, reuse, recycle — but many don’t know that they are ordered in terms of priority. You should focus on reducing your consumption the most, then think of how you can reuse what you already have and finally recycle what you cannot reuse. I think many people use recycling as a crutch to feel they are living sustainably, but the unfortunate reality is most items you put in your recycling bin don’t actually end up being recycled. I would encourage readers to be more cognizant of what they choose to purchase and how they use those items before they toss them.

— Justin McGuire X

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ARTS & C U L T U R E

BEER

Responsible growth

Sierra Nevada and Hi-Wire explore different sides of sustainability Over the past 40 years, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. has been one of the driving forces of the U.S. craft beer industry. During this period, it has also established itself as a leader in environmental sustainability. That commitment to conservation was evident in 2014 when the Chico, Calif.based brewery opened its East Coast production facility and taproom in Mills River, outfitting it with permeable pavers in the parking lots, a 600-kilowatt solar system and carbon dioxide recovery measures.

These plans set up the brewery for silver certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

But amid construction, ownership decided to expand its application to include brewing process equipment in its energy calculations. In turn, Sierra Nevada became the first production brewery in the U.S. to earn platinum certification.

“We have a pretty strong culture of continuous improvement,” says Ashlee Mooneyhan, communications manager for the Mills River brewery. “We’re always trying to find ways that we can be better and improve processes.”

From this mindset came the Western North Carolina Brewery Recycling Cooperative in 2021.

Developed in partnership with American Recycling of Western North Carolina, the program sought to build out infrastructure for recycling common industry waste — including shrink wrap, plastic malt bags and polyester strapping. The initiative has attracted such like-minded local breweries as Bhramari Brewing Co., Buchi, Burial Beer Co., Hi-Wire Brewing, Wicked Weed Brewing and Zillicoah Beer Co. to provide financial support to kick start the project.

“It’s been really successful,” says Leah Cooper, Sierra Nevada’s sustainability program manager in Mills River. “We opened up the [drop-off] dock in January of this year, so we did have some delays with the construction due to COVID. But we’ve been operating this entire year and have had 11 businesses participate in dropping off materials.”

Not all of those collaborators are breweries, and Cooper says efforts are underway to encourage more participation outside the brewing industry. Furthermore, in an extension of that boundary-crossing approach,

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.’s 600 kW solar system provides roughly 6% of the electricity required to run its Mills River brewery.

Photo courtesy of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Sierra Nevada is also partnering with the Pisgah Area Southern Off-Road Bike Association to help finance some of the nonprofit’s repair efforts of area trails. The line of credit from the brewery has proved especially helpful for the group’s continued work when some of its usual funding streams were delayed.

“Trail maintenance is important for the health of the watershed, and a lot of the work that Pisgah Area SORBA does really supports that, whether it’s rerouting trails or maintaining them,” Cooper says.

“Working with them makes sense for us as a business because we use a lot of water for our product, and biking is a really big part of our culture as a company. A lot of our employees and consumers mountain bike.”

October 2021, the company has announced plans for additional locations in Charlotte, Cincinnati and Birmingham, Ala., with March’s news of a Nashville taproom bringing the total to 11. But while Hi-Wire’s growth is rapid, it’s enacted with tremendous calculation and consideration behind the scenes to prevent overextending operations at its Big Top production brewery in Biltmore Village.

“Every market we’ve gone into for a new taproom outside of Asheville, we have already sold beer there,” says co-owner Chris Frosaker. “Step one so far has been, ‘How are we

ONE BY ONE Despite certain satirical reports featured in Xpress’ 2022 Humor Issue, Hi-Wire Brewing isn’t building on the moon just yet. But the Asheville-based brewery is adding new taprooms so consistently that an extraterrestrial location doesn’t seem that far out of reach.

The past 16 months have seen the opening of taprooms in Wilmington, N.C. (December 2020), Louisville, Ky. (August 2021) and a third Asheville location — the RAD Beer Garden (November 2021). And since

SLUGGIN’: Hi-Wire Brewing’s Louisville taproom opened in summer 2021. Photo courtesy of HiWire Brewing

doing, and do we see the potential for our brand to grow there?’

And to be blunt, that’s not the case everywhere.”

If more fully joining a market makes good business sense, and if Frosaker and his colleagues find the city appealing, Hi-Wire begins looking for the right buildings for its taprooms. Among the key factors considered are a neighborhood’s population density and whether it’s growing; public transportation options; and the developer’s vision for that particular part of town and the building itself, including what kind of tenants they’ll have as neighbors. Following those guiding principles, notes Frosaker, has made the difference between success and failure and has encouraged the brewery’s prodigious growth.

“We like to be in more up-and-coming areas. There seems to be more opportunity for us there,” Frosaker says. “And we really like being first movers when we can in a neighborhood. Then you get to see it build up around us.”

With each new opening, Frosaker continues, the company sees an immediate 20%-80% growth in the area’s distribution — a fact Frosaker attributes to becoming part of the community. All of this is done, he adds, without overextending Hi-Wire’s capabilities in Asheville.

“Anytime we expand into a new market or add a taproom, the first conversation is, ‘Can the production brewery handle it?’ We evaluate that each year. And this year we actually just spent over $1 million upgrading our production brewery here,” Frosaker says. “You’ve definitely got to make sure the home base is secure before you go out and do something new and fun.”

The increased brewing capacity, enhanced automation on the canning line and grain-out system, and a new pilot brewhouse have helped meet Hi-Wire’s growing demand, though Frosaker notes that with the addition of new tanks, the Big Top production facility is running out of room. Rather than build a new brewery, which would be an expensive endeavor, the Hi-Wire team is seeking to maximize operations within its current footprint.

“We’re actually actively working with some consultants right now who are going to come in this summer and do a third-party audit,” Frosaker says. “‘Where can we be more efficient? If we buy X new piece of machinery, does that increase our output by Y percent?’ We’re trying to get some experts to come in and look at what we’re doing and try to fine-tune to see if we can continue to squeak out more volume.”

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— Edwin Arnaudin X APRIL 20-26, 2022

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ARTS & C U L T U R E

FOOD ROUNDUP

What’s new in food

Zella’s Deli brings NY-style sandwiches to WNC On its first day of business, April 6, Zella’s Deli ran out of meatballs.

“We had lines out the door,” says John Tressler, co-owner with Ivey Lamos and Mike Reppert.

“Everybody wanted a meatball sub.”

Or, as titled on the menu, Mikey’s Meatball Sub. Tressler’s claim to sandwich fame is Johnny’s Italian, a sub he feels particularly strong about. “I am really picky,” he says. “I get very upset when places put mayo on them.”

No risk of that at Zella’s. Its sub rolls — shipped in from New York — are layered with pepperoni, salami, provolone, capicola ham, lettuce and tomato, sprinkled with olive oil and vinegar (as well as hot pepper relish by request).

For years, Tressler says, he and Reppert (who also co-own Blackbird restaurant), have mulled over the concept for Zella’s. In October 2021, the pair purchased El Gallo on

College Street, ultimately closing it in February. Within two months, they flipped the former Mexican restaurant into the retro subway tile look that deli-hungry diners see today.

“Mike grew up in New York, and I grew up outside of Pittsburgh,” says Tressler. “We missed those ethnic neighborhood delis. The place where you can get a great sandwich at an affordable price. Both our backgrounds are Italian, but we want the Jewish deli basics, too.”

So, in addition to meatballs subs and chicken cutlet sandwiches, deli aficionados will find bagels (made in-house) and lox, whitefish salad, pastrami on rye and corned beef, with matzoh ball soup offered once a week. Sides include potato salad, coleslaw, pickled eggs and whole sour pickles. House-made desserts are baklava and cheesecake.

Zella’s, a name derived from Reppert’s mother, Andreanna Maruzella-Reppert, is also proud to bring a family tradition to its downtown business. Sunday suppers will be served 5-8:30 p.m., with spaghetti, meatballs and garlic bread, as well as cheese lasagna.

“Family-style, no options. Just like home,” Tressler says with a laugh.

Zella’s Deli, 48 College St., is open 7 days a week. Hours vary. For more information, visit avl.mx/bge.

Upstairs, downstairs Six hours before Katie Button and Felix Meana opened the second floor of La Bodega by Cúrate for a trial run of operations, Meana was helping unload the 80 chairs and barstools

MANGIA! Zella’s Deli co-owners Ivey Lamos and Mike Reppert, fourth and fifth from left, and staff celebrate opening day. Photo by co-owner John Tressler from the transport truck that had just pulled in from Texas.

“It’s the story of the world we’re living in now and the way it’s been since COVID,” he says, referring to ongoing supply and shipping issues and the two-year scramble to repeatedly pivot in response to changing health and safety guidelines.

To date, these pivots have included permanently closing Button & Co. Bagels and turning its South Lexington Avenue storefront into a bodega, with the second level then operating as a commissary kitchen.

Amid the pandemic, the husbandand-wife team also launched Cúrate at Home and Cúrate Spanish Wine Club retail marketplaces — all while gradually reopening Cúrate on Biltmore Avenue in stages.

On April 9, two days after the trial run, La Bodega by Cúrate emerged as the fully realized vision of an allday café, bakery, market and wine

Green thumbs & aspiring gardeners alike!

Spring is here, and Xpress has launched a monthly gardening feature based on reader questions.

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store on the first floor and the warm and stylish wine and pintxo bar on the second floor. Key to the new restaurant are chef de cuisine Matt Brown, who traveled to Spain with Meana shortly before opening to immerse himself in the culture and cuisine before finishing the menu, and Jessica Salyer, Cúrate’s wine program manager.

The first-floor café features an allday menu of Spanish baked goods, sandwiches and salads to takeaway or enjoy at an outdoor window counter. The long-and-narrow, high-ceilinged second floor is full service at tables or the zinc bar, offering a variety of items: conservas (tinned fish); Spanish hams and cheeses; pinxtos (finger foods); small plates like steak tartare and pork belly; daily large plates; and desserts. Spanish wines are available by draft, glass or bottle, as well as cocktails, vermouth and beer.

Both floors operate WednesdaySunday. The upstairs pintxo and wine war will serve brunch from 11 a.m.-3 p.m., then reset to open for dinner at 4:30-10 p.m. The first-floor café is open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. La Bodega will not take reservations.

La Bodega by Cúrate is at 32 S. Lexington Ave. avl.mx/8zh.

Gospel truth After 13 years living and teaching Pilates in Brooklyn, Rotem “Disco” Bar felt a call to be closer to nature and the urge to return to his true calling. “Food has been the core of my professional world since I worked for one of Tel Aviv’s leading Italian restaurants,” says the Israeli native.

“I’ve always been intrigued by it.”

After years of experimenting with an at-home ice cream maker in New York, the passion project became the catalyst for his newborn Gospel Ice Cream in Asheville. “I would bring my ice cream to friends’ parties, and it was very well received,” says Bar. “I sat with the idea of starting an ice cream business for a couple of years, but I didn’t have a background in the product business.”

Bar introduced Gospel — described as small-batch, made-from-scratch, adult flavors — on Instagram on Jan. 29. Earlier this month, he celebrated its debut at the River Arts District Farmers Market with pints of Panna Cotta and Tahini Date.

“I was blown away by orders as soon as I went live,” Bar says. “I’m looking forward to bringing global flavors to ice cream.”

Two new flavors will be announced every other week via a Sunday night email. Those interested can order online the next morning and pick up at the RAD market, 289 Lyman St., Wednesdays, 3-5:30 p.m. Pickups are also available at Waynesville’s Wild Flour Blue Bakery, 113 N. Main St., Wednesdays, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.

Sign up for Gospel updates at avl.mx/bgg.

Ice ice baby Caitlin Olson’s career trajectory from nuclear weapons officer in the U.S. Air Force to finance manager for BMW Asheville to franchise owner of Asheville’s first Jeremiah’s Italian Ice seems puzzling. But it makes sense to Olson.

“Growing up in Orlando, Jeremiah’s was the destination for our family to get a treat or celebrate something,” she says. “We loved it so much that my mother even called about opening a franchise.”

Though Jeremiah’s was not franchising then, the company kept the Olsons’ contact information. By the time Jeremiah’s reached out, Caitlin’s parents, Diane and Rusty Olson, had retired to Maggie Valley, and Caitlin had relocated to Asheville.

“I was ready for a career change, and Asheville seemed like the perfect place for a Jeremiah’s.”

The family-owned franchise found its sweet spot on Merrimon Avenue at the former Tacos and Taps location — already built out with a drive-thru kiosk and a small building with two walk-up windows and patio.

The April 7 opening day was rainy, Caitlin reports, but busy. “The most popular flavors were cotton candy and mango, but we offer free sample tastes all day every day, so people tried a lot of flavors.”

With nearly 25 flavors daily, that’s a lot of potential for brain freeze.

Gelati — Italian ice layered with soft-serve ice cream — is a signature item. “Jeremiah’s was a special place for our family, and we’re excited to bring that feeling to Asheville.”

Jeremiah’s Italian Ice, 705 Merrimon Ave., is open seven days a week, noon-10 p.m. with extended hours on Friday and Saturday. For more information, visit avl.mx/bgd.

Eat, give, live Mark your calendar for Thursday, April 28, when Western North Carolina AIDS Project invites people to Dine Out for Life and raise funds to support HIV prevention, care and harm reduction services. In collaboration with Asheville Independent Restaurant Association, nearly 50 restaurants have signed up and will provide customers with portals to donate to WNCAP via a QR code or online.

For more information and a list of participating restaurants, visit avl.mx/bgh.

Mother’s day Mother Earth Foods celebrates a decade of connecting local farmers and makers to the community via online ordering and home delivery with a party on Friday, April 22, 5-9 p.m., at Smoky Park Supper Club, 350 Riverside Drive. The Earth Day event will feature food trucks, live music, lawn games, a cash bar and meet-and-greets with farmers.

The event is free to attend, but registration is required. For more information, visit avl.mx/bgk.

— Kay West X MOUNTAINX.COM

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ARTS & C U L T U R E

ROUNDUP

Around Town

Oak Street Gallery exhibit highlights a year of powerful images For a year, Asheville artist Carol Duin cut pictures that inspired her out of local and national newspapers.

Now those pictures, more than 1,500 in all, cover the walls of First Congregational United Church of Christ’s Oak Street Gallery in a series of small collages.

“I find the images to be powerful in their sheer numbers and how we see a whole year in pictures and are overwhelmed by all that goes on both in our community and in the broader world,” says Kathleen Stigmon, administrative coordinator for the church.

The collages are on display as part of a series of monthly artist exhibits at Oak Street Gallery and can be seen through Friday, April 29.

Duin, who is also a painter, is a longtime church member who has had other works displayed in the gallery.

In choosing which pictures to highlight, she was often inspired by her many years of working as an advocate for refugees from conflicts in Vietnam, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

“I hope that people will be moved by the images to see themselves as a

MOVIE REVIEWS Local reviewers’ critiques of new films include: FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE: The visual wonder of J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world remains intact, but due to clunky storytelling, the magic is considerably less potent in this third Harry Potter prequel.

Grade: B-minus — Edwin Arnaudin AMBULANCE: Easily director Michael Bay’s worst nonTransformers movie, this bloated, noisy tale of a foiled bank heist that gives way to an extended car chase is a frustrating waste of time. Grade: D-plus — Edwin Arnaudin

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part of the larger world around us,” Stigmon says. “Taking that a step further, maybe an image or multiple images can inspire us to get involved in outreach and acts of benevolence.”

First Congregational UCC’s Oak Street Gallery is at 20 Oak St. The church is open Mondays-Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Ring the doorbell and someone will let you in.

For more information, go to avl.mx/9ay.

Acts of courage During the darkest days of a World War II, a nonviolent resistance group in Germany conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign calling for active opposition to Adolpf Hitler and the Nazi regime. The heroic story of the group, known as the White Rose, is little known to Americans today — something Waynesville author Burton Flanagan wants to remedy.

“Commitment and courage should always be remembered, especially when exercised in defense of freedom,” says Flanagan, a retired attorney. “I wanted to bring them to the attention of the American public so that their memory could be honored.”

Burton’s book about the group, The White Rose, recently was published by RoseDog Books.

Flanagan, who grew up in Alabama in the 1960s, was struck by the fact the group was organized and led by young people, including five students from the University of Munich. Three of the student leaders were executed by guillotine after being arrested.

“The White Rose willingly gave their lives, most of them, in defense of that freedom,” Flanagan says. “Their efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, but they made the commitment and honored it with their lives. That deserves to be remembered.”

For more information about the book, visit avl.mx/bgv.

Enough The Black Mountain Center for the Arts will participate in a nationwide staged reading of plays written by high school students as a response to gun violence on Wednesday, April 20, 7 p.m.

The event, #Enough: Plays to End Gun Violence, will feature eight short plays that will be read on the arts center’s stage by local volunteer

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NEWS OF THE WORLD: Artist Carol Duin’s collages of newspaper photos will be on display at the Oak Street Gallery through the end of the month. Photo courtesy of First Congregational UCC actors. Actress, director and activist Tamara Rothman is leading the volunteer readers. #Enough was created by Manuel Oliver, activist and father of Joaquin Oliver, one of 17 students and staff shot to death at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School by a fellow student in 2018.

In the fall of 2021, Oliver issued a call for teen writers to submit 10-minute plays confronting the issue of gun violence.

Oliver, working with professional playwrights, selected the plays to be performed together in simultaneously staged readings across the country.

April 20 is the 23-year remembrance of the Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colo.

Proceeds from the admission donations gathered at the door of #Enough will benefit the Riley Howell Foundation Fund, which supports organizations that benefit victims of gun violence.

Howell, a Waynesville native, made national headlines in April 2019 when he was shot and killed while tackling a gunman to save the lives of fellow students at UNC Charlotte.

The Black Mountain Center for the Arts is at 225 W. State St. For more information or to buy tickets, go to avl.mx/bgu.

Sound investment Citizen Vinyl and Asheville Music School will hold a silent auction to benefit the school’s Play It Forward capital campaign on Friday, April 22, 5-8 p.m.

Up for bid will be vacation getaways, wine tasting events, paintings, pottery, jewelry, restaurant and wellness gift certificates, concert tickets and more.

Music will be provided by AMS teaching artists, with a student performance also scheduled.

The capital campaign will raise money for AMS’ new facility in West Asheville.

“In addition to necessary upfits to our new space, we will be developing a music production studio in which students will learn to use modern music technology, equipment and techniques,” Executive Director Ryan Reardon says in a press release. The studio will allow Asheville Music

School to offer group lessons, add programming with neighboring schools and serve as a rehearsal room with professional sound.

Asheville Music School is a nonprofit educational institute that serves more than 300 students annually.

Citizen Vinyl is at 14 O.Henry Ave. For more information or to purchase a $10 ticket, visit avl.mx/bgq.

This district goes to 11 Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, will present NC 11: Partisanship, Polarization, and Politics in a Mountain District via Zoom on Thursday, April 21, 6 p.m. The event is part of the Western North Carolina Historical Association’s History Hour lecture series.

In his talk, Cooper will discuss how North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District has shifted from a Democratic stronghold to a swing district to its current status as the home of far-right U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn. He also will explore how the district reflects national political trends related to redistricting, polarization and partisan change.

Tickets are $5 for WNCHA members and $10 for the general public. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to avl.mx/bgw.

Pop-up art show Hood Huggers International will present a pop-up art show, Rebuilding Affrilachia World Tour, at 8 River Arts Place on Sunday, April 24, noon. The event is part of the two-day Spring Liberation Celebration Weekend presented by Hood Huggers and Peace Gardens.

The art show will feature works made from salvaged and repurposed wood and metal by DeWayne Barton, founder and CEO of Hood Huggers.

For more information, visit avl.mx/bgx.

— Justin McGuire X

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CLUBLAND RENDEZVOUS Gin Mill Pickers, 6pm

k

The featured icon indicates which venues or artists require proof of vaccination for upcoming shows. Due to the evolving nature of the matter, the list may not be comprehensive.

Before heading out, please check with all venues for complete information on any vaccine or negative COVID-19 requirements.

ROOM IX College Night Dance Party, 10pm RYE KNOT KITCHEN BREWERY DISTILLERY John O'Connor (Americana, singer-songwriter), 6pm

For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, opt. 4.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20 185 KING STREET Trivia and Karaoke , 7pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Hissy Fit Comedy Takeover: Atlanta Comedy Showcase, • AQUANET Goth Party w/Ash Black, 9pm ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Christine Havrilla & Mama's Black Sheep (neofunkadelic, folk, pop) k 7:30pm ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Disclaimer Stand-Up Lounge Comedy Open Mic, 8pm CATAWBA BREWING SOUTH SLOPE Trivia Night, 7pm DSSOLVR Red Eyes and High Fives w/DJ EK Balam, 5pm FLEETWOOD'S Terraoke! Karaoke w/KJ Terra Ware, 6pm HI-WIRE BREWING RAD BEER GARDEN Game Night, 6pm ICONIC KITCHEN & DRINKS Marc Keller (acoustic), 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 The Rachel Brooke Band (country/alt-country), 7:30pm LAZY HIKER BREWING SYLVA Trivia Night, 6:30pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Free Anesthesia (psychedelic power trio), 10pm ONE WORLD BREWING Pingo Wednesdays, 7pm

SALVAGE STATION Caamp w/Jade Bird (rock), 7pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Latin Night Wednesdays w/DJ Mtn Vibez, 7pm

SILVERADOS The Steel Woods (country, Southern rock), 7pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR • Rum Punchlines Comedy Open Mic, 6pm • Karaoke w/Karaoke Jackazz, 8pm

REVERIE EVENTS ASHEVILLE Pipe Dream Comedy, 7:30pm RIVERSIDE RHAPSODY BEER CO. Wednesday Acoustic Jam, 5pm

THE GREY EAGLE • Jane Kramer w/Matt Smith (singer-songwriter), 5pm • The Pack A.D. w/Fantømex (heavy psychopop/ garage rock), 8pm

SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia, 6:30pm THE BARRELHOUSE Open Mic Hosted by Kid Billy, 8pm

THE ODDITORIUM Dakota Moss, TDG Demon, Leo Era & Yung Scoob (hip hop), 7pm

THE GREY EAGLE • Paul Edelman (folk), 5pm • Cody Canada & The Departed w/Them Dirty Roses (American rock, alt/ country), 8pm

THE ORANGE PEEL Todrick Hall (R&B, pop) k 8pm TWIN LEAF BREWERY Craft Karaoke , 8pm

THE ODDITORIUM Desolation w/DJ Exo (industrial, EBM, darkwave), 9pm

WHITE HORSE, BLACK MOUNTAIN Anne Coombs & Siyana (pop/jazz), 7:30pm

TWIN LEAF BREWERY Open Mic, 6pm

THURSDAY, APRIL 21 131 MAIN Aaron LaFalce (soul, rock, pop), 6pm 185 KING STREET Electric Blue Yonder (folk), 7pm

FRIDAY, APRIL 22

LET IT ROLL, BABY, ROLL: Asheville’s Jimmy Lang’s Almost Doors (aka JLAD) will play Doors covers and more downtown at Jack of the Wood on Saturday, April 23, at 8 p.m. Photo by Elliot Schwartz

305 LOUNGE & EATERY Bob Sherill (singer-songwriter), 1pm

ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR MGB at the AGB (covers, singer-songwriter)k 7:30pm

ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Open Mic & Pop Up Art Show, 8pm

ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Jonathan Scales Fourchestra (steel pan jazz fusion), 9pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Kiki Thursdays Drag and Dancing, 9pm

CREEKSIDE TAPHOUSE Thursday Night Trivia w/ Kelsey, 6:30pm

CROW & QUILL Black Sea Beat Society (Baltic, Klezmer, Turkish) k 8pm DOUBLE CROWN Rock & Roll w/DJ Fast Eddy (punk, soul, garage), 10pm DOWN DOG Singo (musical bingo), 7pm

FRENCH BROAD RIVER BREWERY Jerry's Dead (Grateful Dead & JGB Tribute), 6pm HIGHLAND BREWING DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Up Jumped Three (jazz), 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 • Jesse Terry & Bruce Sudano (Americana, folk, indie, storyteller)k 7pm • Asheville Sessions ft.

Jesse Barry & The Jam Dance Party (funk, soul, pop/rock), 8:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Bluegrass Jam w/Drew Matulich & Friends, 7pm MAD CO. BREW HOUSE Franklin's Kite (jam, rock), 6pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Billy Litz (roots, blues, ragtime), 7pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Gunslinging Parrots (Phish tribute), 9pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Lemon City Trio (soul, NOLA funk), 8pm

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185 KING STREET The Harrows (teacher appreciation concert), 8pm AMERICAN VINYL CO. Pink Beds w/Jive Talk (indie rock, synth pop, disco), 7pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Venus (dark house dance party), 10pm ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Mr Jimmy's Big City Chicago Bluesk 7:30pm BIG PILLOW BREWING The Coveralls (Americana), 5:30pm BLOOM WNC FLOWER FARM Jim Avett (singer, storyteller), 6pm BREWSKIES Karaoke, 10pm BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Sandy Herrault (violin), 3pm CORK & KEG The Old Chevrolette Set (old-school country), 8pm CROW & QUILL Sweet Megg (NYC hot jazz)k 8:30pm DRY FALLS BREWING CO. Sinder Ella (rock), 7pm FLEETWOOD'S Goldpark, Thompson Springs, Shutterings & Tombstone Poetry (mathrock, shoegaze), 8pm

GINGER'S REVENGE CRAFT BREWERY & TASTING ROOM Eliza Thorn (Americana, blues, soul), 7pm GUIDON BREWING Paul Edelman (acoustic), 7pm HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY The Early Worm (funk, rock, nostalgia), 6:30pm HIGHLAND BREWING DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Drag Music Bingo w/ Divine the Bearded Lady, 7pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 • Sparrow and her Wingmen (vintage jazz, swing), 7pm • Lord Nelson (rock, 8:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Big Dawg Slingshots (jazz, ragtime, country blues), 8pm MAD CO. BREW HOUSE Kevin Dolan w/Paul Koptak (singer-songwriter), 6pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Roots and Dore (roots), 8pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL • GE Early Free Dead Friday (jam band, rock), 6:30pm • Free Dead Friday w/Gus & Friends (Grateful Dead tribute), 9pm ONE WORLD BREWING 5j Barrow (folk rock), 8pm ROOM IX Ladies Night Dance Party w/DJ Moto, 10pm SILVERADOS Blackhawk (country), 7pm THE DUGOUT Pleasantly Wild (alt rock), 8pm THE GREY EAGLE • Alex Krug Combo (folk), 6pm • Asheville Vaudeville (variety), 9pm

ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR The Tall Boys (rock)k 7:30pm BATTERY PARK BOOK EXCHANGE Dinah's Daydream (gypsy jazz), 5:30pm BIG PILLOW BREWING Pixiebilly (Americana), 5pm BREWSKIES Pool Tournament Saturdays, 7pm BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS CHIMNEY ROCK Roots and Dore (roots), 2pm CITIZEN VINYL Saturday Spins (local DJs), 1pm CORK & KEG Uptown Hillbillies (honk ‘n’ tonk), 8 pm CROW & QUILL Momma Molasses (honky tonk, blues)k 8:30pm DRY FALLS BREWING CO. Mojomatic (blues, rock), 7pm FLEETWOOD'S Bonny Dagger, The Deathbots & Sonic Forza (punk), 8pm GUIDON BREWING Wood-N-Nickle (acoustic duo), 7pm HIGHLAND BREWING DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Falcon 3 (improvisational), 7pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB JLAD (Doors tribute), 8pm MILLS RIVER BREWING • Mr Jimmy Trio (blues), 2pm • Pleasantly Wild (alt rock), 7pm RIVERSIDE RHAPSODY BEER CO. Chris Jamison Band (contemporary folk), 6pm ROOM IX Asheville's Biggest Dance Party, 10pm SILVERADOS Demun Jones (country rap), 6pm

THE ODDITORIUM Tied & Tasseled Fetish Cabaret: Cowboys & Aliens (drag hootenanny), 9pm

SMOKY MOUNTAIN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Cory Asbury (contemporary Christian), 7:30pm

WHITE HORSE, BLACK MOUNTAIN Aaron Woody Wood (soul, Americana), 8pm

THE DUGOUT Ricky Gunter (country), 8pm

SATURDAY, APRIL 23 185 KING STREET Hearts Gone South (country, honky tonk), 8pm 305 LOUNGE & EATERY Old Men of the Woods (folk, pop), 1pm AMERICAN VINYL CO. Eliza Frances (jazz, folk, pop), 7pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Beauty Parlor Comedy w/ Paul Hooper, 7pm ASHEVILLE CLUB Mr Jimmy (blues), 8pm

THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR SLASHER (hard dance party), 10pm THE GREY EAGLE • The Feels (roots, soul, R&B), 5pm • An Evening with Stick Men (prog rock), 8pm THE GROCERY Gin Mill Pickers, 6:30pm URBAN ORCHARD CIDER CO. SOUTH SLOPE DJ Coustin TL (throwback hip hop), 7pm WHITE HORSE, BLACK MOUNTAIN Asheville Jazz Orchestra, 8pm

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SUNDAY, APRIL 24 185 KING STREET Open Electric Jam w/the King Street House Band ft.

Howie Johnson, 5pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Jazz Brunch w/Nick Garrison Trio, 12pm • SOL Dance Party w/Zati (soul house), 9pm BIG PILLOW BREWING Paul Edelman (Americana), 4pm BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Roots and Dore (roots), 2pm BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS CHIMNEY ROCK The JackTown Ramblers (bluegrass, swing, jazz), 2pm CROW & QUILL The Roaring Lions (parlour jazz)k 7pm FLEETWOOD'S The Pentagram String Band, Skunk Rukus & Motel Pearl (folk), 8pm HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY Soul Jazz Sundays w/ Taylor Pierson Trio, 3pm

HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Mr Jimmy Duo Blues & Brews w/Jeffrey Lewis, 1pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 Russ Wilson: Just the 3 of us (jazz, blues, R&B, soul), 7:30pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. High Sierra (rock), 3pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Shakedown Sundays (rock, jam band), 8pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Sunday Jazz Jam w/The Fully Vaccinated Jazz Trio, 1pm PARKER-BINNS VINEYARD Bill and Tad's Excellent Duo (acoustic), 3pm SALVAGE STATION The String Cheese Incident (progressive bluegrass, jam), 6pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Bike Night w/Ashley & Big Matty, 2pm THE GREY EAGLE • Music of Grateful Dead for Kids, 12pm • Samara Jade (modern folk), 5pm • Karla Bonoff (folk), 8pm

THE ODDITORIUM Panties in a Brunch Drag Brunch, 2pm THE ORANGE PEEL Janeane Garofalo (comedy)k 8pm WHITE HORSE, BLACK MOUNTAIN Joel Harrison Trio (melodic jazz), 7:30pm

MONDAY, APRIL 25 5 WALNUT WINE BAR Freshen Up Comedy Showcase, 7pm BREWSKIES Open Jam w/Tall Paul, 7:30pm DOUBLE CROWN Country Karaoke, 10pm HAYWOOD COUNTRY CLUB Open Mic w/Taylor Martin & Special Guest, 7:15pm JACK OF THE WOOD Pub Quizzo! Pub Trivia w/Jason Mencer, 7:30pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Trivia by the River w/ James Harrod, 8pm, THE JOINT NEXT DOOR Mr Jimmy (blues), 7pm

TUESDAY, APRIL 26 185 KING STREET Tuesday Casual Collaborations Ft. The Travis Book Garage Band w/Jeff Sipe, Mike Ashworth, & Tommy Maher, 6pm 305 LOUNGE & EATERY Bob Sherill (singer-songwriter), 1pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Downtown Karaoke w/ Ganymede, 9pm DOWN DOG Trivia Tuesdays, 7pm FRENCH BROAD RIVER BREWERY Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm GINGER'S REVENGE Modelface Comedy presents Teresa Lee, 7pm MAD CO. BREW HOUSE Team Trivia Night, 6pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Team Trivia, 7pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Grateful Family Band Tuesdays (Dead tribute, jam, rock), 6pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING All Arts Open Mike w/ Mike Waters, 6pm

THE GREY EAGLE Good Morning (alt pop), 8pm THE ORANGE PEEL ALT ASO (Asheville Symphony Orchestra) k 7pm THE SOCIAL Open Mic w/Riyen Roots, 7pm TWIN LEAF BREWERY Eister's Twin Leaf Trivia, 7pm

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27 185 KING STREET Trivia and Karaoke , 7pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Beauty Parlor Comedy: Will Abeles, 7pm • AQUANET Goth Party w/Ash Black, 9pm ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Disclaimer Stand-Up Lounge Comedy Open Mic, 8pm CATAWBA BREWING SOUTH SLOPE Trivia Night, 7pm FLEETWOOD'S Terraoke! Karaoke w/KJ Terra Ware, 6pm HI-WIRE BREWING RAD BEER GARDEN Game Night, 6pm ICONIC KITCHEN & DRINKS Marc Keller (acoustic), 6pm LAZY HIKER BREWING SYLVA Trivia Night, 6:30pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Free Anesthesia (psychedelic power trio), 10pm ONE WORLD BREWING Pingo Wednesdays, 7pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Latin Night Wednesdays w/DJ Mtn Vibez, 7pm RIVERSIDE RHAPSODY BEER CO. Wednesday Acoustic Jam, 5pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia, 6:30pm THE BARRELHOUSE Open Mic Hosted by Kid Billy, 8pm THE GREY EAGLE • Jordan Tice (singer/ songwriter), 5pm • We Banjo 3 (Americana, bluegrass, Celtic), 8pm THE ORANGE PEEL Mat Kearney (soft rock, folk)k 8pm TWIN LEAF BREWERY Open Mic, 6pm

THURSDAY, APRIL 28 ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Open Mic & Pop Up Art Show, 8pm AMERICAN VINYL CO. Walk Home w/Gummy (rock 'n' roll)k 7pm

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APRIL 20-26, 2022

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ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Kiki Thursdays Drag and Dancing, 8pm ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR KB and the LMD (jazz standards, classic pop)k 7:30pm ASHEVILLE PIZZA & BREWING CO. Slice of Life Comedy Open Mic & Feature Comedy, 7:30pm BLUE RIDGE HEMP CO. Comedy Night w/Daniel Van Kirk and Andrew Youngblood, 8pm CREEKSIDE TAPHOUSE Thursday Night Trivia w/ Kelsey, 6:30pm DOUBLE CROWN Rock & Roll w/DJ Fast Eddy (punk, soul, garage), 10pm DOWN DOG Music Bingo, 7pm FLEETWOOD'S Razor Braids, Smoky MTN Sirens & Florecita (punk), 8pm FRENCH BROAD RIVER BREWERY Jerry's Dead (Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia Band tribute), 6-8pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 • Asheville Sessions ft Aaron price (jazz, blues, rock), 7pm • Flock of Dimes w/Karima Walker (sub pop, indie rock, alternative), 8:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Bluegrass Jam w/Drew Matulich & Friends, 7pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Chuck Melchin (singer-songwriter), 7pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Gunslinging Parrots (Phish tribute), 9pm ROOM IX College Night Dance Party, 10pm RYE KNOT KITCHEN BREWERY DISTILLERY John O'Connor (Americana, singer-songwriter), 6pm SILVERADOS Nu Breed, Jesse Howard and The Outlaw Nation Band (Southern rock, country), 7pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR • Rum Punchlines Comedy Open Mic, 6pm • Karaoke w/Karaoke Jackazz, 8pm THE GREY EAGLE Too Many Zooz w/Karina Rykman (brasshouse), 9pm THE ORANGE PEEL Kurt Vile and the Violators (indie rock)k 9pm TWIN LEAF BREWERY Craft Karaoke, 9pm

MOUNTAINX.COM

APRIL 20-26, 2022

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FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries author Marge Piercy writes, “I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart, who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience, who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward, who do what has to be done, again and again.”

According to my analysis of the astrological factors, you’ll be wise to be like a person Piercy describes.

You’re entering a phase of your cycle when diligent work and impeccable self-discipline are most necessary and most likely to yield stellar rewards.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In 1879, Taurusborn Williamina Fleming was working as a maid for astronomer Edward Charles Pickering, director of the Harvard Observatory. Impressed with her intelligence, Pickering hired Fleming to do scientific work. By 1893, she had become a prominent, award-winning astronomer. Ultimately, she discovered the Horsehead Nebula, helped develop a system for identifying stars and cataloged thousands of astronomical phenomena. I propose that we make her your role model for the duration of 2022. If there has ever been a year when you might achieve progress like Fleming’s, it’s this one.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): For 2,500 years, Egypt was a conquered territory ruled by non-Egyptians. Persians took control in 525 BCE. Greeks replaced them. In succeeding centuries, Egypt had to submit to the authority of the Roman Empire, the Persians again, the Byzantine Empire, the Arab Islamic Caliphate, the Mamluk Sultanate, the Ottomans and the British. When British troops withdrew from their occupation in 1956, Egypt was finally an independent nation self-ruled by Egyptians. If there are any elements of your own life story that even partially resemble Egypt’s history, I have good news: 2022 is the year you can achieve a more complete version of sovereignty than you have ever enjoyed. And the next phase of your freedom work begins now.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): During the next four weeks, some of the best lessons you can study and learn will come to you while you’re socializing and communicating. Even more than is usually the case, your friends and allies will offer you crucial information that has the power to catalyze dynamic decisions. Lucky encounters with Very Interesting People may open up possibilities worth investigating. And here’s a fun X-factor: The sometimes surprising words that fly out of your mouth during lively conversations will provide clues about what your deep self has been half-consciously dreaming of.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “Hold on tight, I would tell myself, but there was nothing for me to hold on to.” A character in one of Haruki Murakami’s novels says that. In contrast to that poor soul, Leo, I’m happy to tell you that there will indeed be a reliable and sturdy source for you to hold onto in the coming weeks — maybe more than one. I’m glad! In my astrological opinion, now is a time when you’ll be smart to get thoroughly anchored. It’s not that I think you will be in jeopardy. Rather, you’re in a phase when it’s more important than usual to identify what makes you feel stable and secure. It’s time to bolster your foundations and strengthen your roots.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In the latter half of the 19th century, the U.S. government collaborated with professional hunters to kill millions of bison living in America’s Great Plains.

Why? It was an effort to subjugate the indigenous people who lived there by eliminating the animals that were their source of food, clothing, shelter, bedding, ropes, shields and ornaments. The beloved and useful creatures might have gone extinct altogether if it had not been for the intervention of a Virgo rancher named Mary Ann “Molly” Goodnight. She single-handedly rebuilt the bison herds from a few remaining survivors. I propose that we make Goodnight your inspirational role model for the rest of 2022. What dwindling resources or at-risk assets could you restore to health?

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APRIL 20-26, 2022

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): British Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758–1805) was born under the sign of Libra. He was a brilliant and unconventional strategist whose leadership brought many naval victories for his country. Yet he was blind in one eye, was missing most of his right arm from a battle wound and was in constant discomfort from chronic seasickness. I propose we make him one of your patron saints for the coming weeks. May he inspire you to do your best and surpass your previous accomplishments even if you’re not feeling perfect. (But also keep in mind: The problems you have to deal with will be far milder than Nelson’s.)

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Anti-apartheid activist Bantu Stephen Biko (1946–1977) was profoundly committed to authenticity. The repressive South African government hated that about him. Biko said, “I’m going to be me as I am, and you can beat me or jail me or even kill me, but I’m not going to be what you want me to be.” Fortunately for you, Scorpio, you’re in far less danger as you become more and more of your genuine self. That’s not to say the task of learning how to be true to your deep soul is entirely risk-free. There are people out there, even allies, who may be afraid of or resistant to your efforts. Don’t let their pressure influence you to dilute your holy quest.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul,” said Sagittarian painter Wassily Kandinsky.

Inspired by his observation, I’m telling you, “The practical dreamer should train not only her reasoning abilities but also her primal intuition, creative imagination, non-rational perceptivity, animal instincts and rowdy wisdom.” I especially urge you to embody my advice in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. Now is a favorable time to make abundant use of the other modes of intelligence that help you understand life as it really is — and not merely as the logical, analytical mind conceives it to be.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The language spoken by the indigenous Cherokee people is at least 3,000 years old. But it never had a written component until the 1820s. Then a Cherokee polymath named Sequoyah formulated a syllabary, making it possible for the first time to read and write the language. It was a herculean accomplishment with few precedents in history.

I propose we name him your inspirational role model for the rest of 2022. In my astrological understanding, you are poised to make dramatic breakthroughs in self-expression and communication that will serve you and others for a long time.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A study by psychologists concludes there is a good way to enhance your willpower: For a given time, say one week, use your non-dominant hand to brush your teeth, wield your computer mouse, open your front door with your key or perform other habitual activities. Doing so boosts your ability to overcome regular patterns that tend to keep you mired in inertia. You’re more likely to summon the resolution and drive necessary to initiate new approaches in all areas of your life — and stick with them. The coming weeks will be an especially favorable time to try this experiment. (For more info, read this: tinyurl.com/BoostWillpower) PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” According to my reading of the astrological omens, you will be justified to say something like that in the near future. Now is a favorable time to honestly acknowledge differences between you and others — and accept those differences just as they are. The important point is to do what you need to do without decreeing that other people are wrong or misguided.

MOUNTAINX.COM

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BY ROB BREZSNY

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To apply, email your resume to tiffany@jcc-asheville.org.

NOW HIRING: LEAD & ASSISTANT TEACHER The Christine Avery Learning Center is hiring for a Lead Teacher and Teacher Assistant for our Early Learning Program. The position is full time and the pay rate is $15-$20/hr. walearningcenter.com

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SALON/ SPA RU SOCIAL? NOW HIRING SOCIAL SPA RECEPTIONIST FOR NEW DOWNTOWN SPA RU ready for a job you love?

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Expand your horizons with us

edited by Will Shortz | No. 0316

ACROSS 1 Duck

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15 Swing ___ (1933-47) 16 Tablecloths and napkins 17 Duck 19 It could be a problem 20 Strategically evasive 21 Handout for a walking tour 23 Cosy “spot” 24 Mike of “Shrek” 25 ___ Duck

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27 Total disarray 30 Heavenly: Prefix 32 Attachment for a bit 33 Big snarl

67 “Duck, duck …” follower

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37 Print “oopses”

1 High-rise units: Abbr.

40 Examine

2 ___ parmigiana

41 Be in a mood and brood 42 Wet wood woe 43 Largest lake in Ethiopia 44 Average mark

3 Like many a barrel-aged wine 4 “Rocks” in a tumbler 5 Molds, e.g.

6 “Henceforth I ___ will be Romeo”

26 Perpetual 27 Street ___ (rep) 28 What to call a man in Mannheim

34 List ender: Abbr.

54 Sanctified

35 Transmit 36 Opening on Christmas Eve? 38 In direct confrontation

51 Cotton gin inventor Whitney

8 No ___, no foul

45 Coatroom fixture

55 Raphael’s weapon in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” 58 “The Duck Variations” playwright 60 Duck 62 Mexican pal 63 Conger, for one 64 Swiss author of “Elements of Algebra” 65 Duck 66 Pigpen

11 Pic-sharing app, informally 12 The second “R” in J. R. R. Tolkien 13 Prepare to proof, in baking 18 It’s mined, all mined!

22 “It’s ___!” (“We’re on!”)

24 Butterfly also called a common tiger or wanderer

50 Scene of pandemonium 53 Editor’s “Forget I wrote that”

7 Keep close to one’s heart

10 What a flat “b” palm facing a nearby fellow stands for, in A.S.L.

49 Sís and das

31 Tampa Bay pro

50 Lightning strike

9 Laceless shoes

47 Mission to remember in San Antonio 48 Skittish

29 Like cheese puffs and rice cakes

39 Used as a dining surface

52 A chance of a lifetime, say

23 Sardis Rd, Asheville, NC 28806 (828) 670-9191 precisionInternational.com

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We’re Hiring Call us today!

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55 Musician’s chance to shine, perhaps 56 Flabbergasts or gobsmacks 57 Memo subject header 59 Something a duck lays 61 Bugs and Daffy in “The Iceman Ducketh,” e.g.

46 “Fine, stay angry then!”

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APRIL 20-26, 2022

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