Archive for Asheville City Council
Hey, Hey, Busy, Busy
Posted by: | CommentsHere’s a quick note to mention the City Council meeting in East Asheville tomorrow night and also my imminent departure for parts unknown.
Tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8/31) at 6:30pm, the Asheville City Council will convene at Groce United Methodist Church in east Asheville for a special meeting. You’re invited. I talked about taking Council “on the road” during my campaign, so I’m thrilled to have been one of the advocates for this event. Chris Pelly is an east Asheville neighborhood leader and has been instrumental in getting this meeting scheduled.
East Asheville residents are making it abundantly clear that they want more multimodal infrastructure, particularly sidewalks. A study showed that E. AVL has only 9% of the city’s sidewalks. This is due largely to post-war construction and the love affair with the automobile, but it’s time these neighborhoods got retrofitted for better and safer pedestrian mobility. We know that all of Council is very interested in seeing more sidewalks across the city, so I’m hoping east Asheville residents will show up with their ideas about how we ought to pay for them.
A comprehensive multimodal transportation system is vital to Asheville’s health and economic development. Sidewalks, bike lanes, transit, greenways, and roadways must work together to offer maximum safety, convenience, and choice.
On another note – I’m going away for a week to celebrate my 40th birthday (it’s on September 5th). I’ll be cruising out of town on Wednesday morning and returning a week later. Thank goodness for good friends willing to house-sit and look after our two big hounds while we’re away.
More upon my return. Consider this a week-long open thread for your amusement.
All Ears #27
Posted by: | CommentsIn this ongoing experiment to provide ease of access to your government, this thread can be the home to all of your questions, suggestions, requests, and dedications.
In our most recent meeting, City Council voted 4-3 (with yours truly opposed) to support Montford Commons’ request for a 5 year tax abatement and 50% reduction on fees. They’re now moving ahead to meet with County Commissioners to finish closing their funding gap.
We also voted (6-1, Jan Davis opposed) to reopen the pedestrian bridge from the Chicken Hill side of I-240 to the Hillcrest side. By clearing the underbrush, lighting the entire area including the sidewalk, posting additional police protection, and upgrading the bridge itself we will be bringing increased safety to an area that’s been too long neglected. It will also serve as a bona fide transportation route from west Asheville to downtown.
What are your thoughts, concerns, needs, desires? I’m all ears.
Asheville City Council Live Chat for 08/24/2010
Posted by: | Comments
Asheville City Council LiveChat hasn’t been working for most people, so today I’m introducing a few changes.
ACC-LiveChat is envisioned as a dynamic on-line conversation within the community about local issues important to our city. To make this happen, I used a tool called “CoverItLive.com” to create a chat-room. It was hoped this platform would enable a cross-blog, non-partisan, tool Ashevillians could use to communicate with each other and elected officials.
While at first meeting with initial success, CoverItLive.com’s moderation queue feature creates unreasonable delays for comments. This killed most conversations before they started. Despite several attempts at fixes – nothing has worked.
Therefore we are going to try a new way to make ACC-LiveChat work. Instead of a chat-room, we’re going to use a Twitter-based tool called “Twub” and this blog’s native comments feature.
Details and video web-streaming after the jump:
Pedestrian Bridge
Posted by: | CommentsGo over to Ashvegas to learn more about the pedestrian bridge issue that is on tomorrow’s agenda at City Council.
Asheville City Council Agenda 08.24.10
Posted by: | CommentsAfter the jump you’ll find the rundown for Tuesday’s Asheville City Council meeting. As usual, if you want to see the agenda with supporting documentation, then click here to go to the City website.
This meeting will likely bring a resolution to the Pedestrian Bridge issue that came to the fore two months ago after the death of Anthony Ray Gilmore. Montford Commons’ application for taxpayer aid is back for consideration. We’re looking at expanding the River District Redevelopment Committee to include Woodfin’s Mayor. The Public Art Board expands its board and broadens the definition of public art to include temporary works of art and does not exclude performing arts. Dive in, get yourself up to speed, and give me your opinion before it comes time to vote.
All Ears #26
Posted by: | CommentsIn an effort to create ease of access to government, I’m opening this thread for all of your Asheville concerns.
Thoughts about density, roundabouts, or waste reduction? Leave them here. Got a problem with your safety or your infrastructure? Tell me about it. Want to laud the incredible work of a city employee? Now’s your chance.
Asheville City Council Live Chat for 08/10/2010
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s Asheville City Council LiveChat time.
Normally, I use the first few sentences of this post to comment on various aspects of our community. But today I want to address a technical issue: The extremely long lag-time between when you post a comment, and when it shows up in the chat-box.
This is not only frustrating to you, the user, but to me as well. The lag-time discourages conversations, and encourages people to suspect comments are being censored.
I’ve been researching why this happens – and as best I can tell, it’s due to the duel authentication systems in place to discourage trolls. (EG: A Facebook login and an optional open login.)
Since I don’t know which system is causing the delay, I’m going to run an experiment for the next two sessions: This week, there will be an open login – next week will be limited to Facebook logins.
Therefore, there is no moderation this week. Yeah, you read that right. All comments go from your brain, to your fingers, to the chat. Let’s see what happens.
Council’s agenda and supporting documentation can be found here. Those of you new to ACC-LiveChat, be sure to review the guildelines and instructions.
LiveChat box and live web-streaming is available after the jump:
Asheville City Council Agenda 08.10.10
Posted by: | CommentsHappy Monday, Hooligans. I would normally post the agenda several days before a meeting, but I was having a Ferris Bueller style trip to Chicago for the better part of last week. Anyhoo – have a look after the jump to see the agenda. You can click here to see it at the CoA website with supporting documentation.
Asheville City Council Live Chat for 07/27/2010
Posted by: | CommentsJuly has been full of fun, fireworks, frolic, festivals, and festivities.
But now it’s back to business. Come join your friends and fellow local-government wonks for this evening’s LiveChat session – which is simulcast across three websites: Ahevegas, AshevilleNow, and ScrutinyHooligans.
Council’s agenda and supporting documentation can be found here. Those of you new to ACC-LiveChat, be sure to review the guildelines and instructions. (Especially if you’re wondering why comments may take a few minutes to show up.)
You can find the online video live-stream and chat-box after the jump. (Chat starts after 5pm. You won’t see a “start” button in the chat box until 5pm.)
Asheville City Council Agenda 7.27.10
Posted by: | CommentsAmong things I didn’t know about government is that things really slow down during the month of July. Now that the month is almost over, your municipal wheels of progress are turning more rapidly. After the jump you’ll find the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting. If you’d like to review the supporting documentation for each item, then click here to go to the City website’s version.
