The Asheville Tribune has a story about a meeting of the Asheville Area Riverfront Redevelopment Commission. Beer flowed compliments of New Belgium, and SoCon tickets were offered.
Chris Peterson came to complain about plans to condemn his property as part of the riverfront renewal project. 12 Bones is such a cool restaurant, even the king-of-cool POTUS visited it twice. The city, however, has deemed it an “uneconomic remnant.” Peterson challenged two board members, Pattiy Torno and Brownie Newman, for not recusing themselves from decisions because they are getting to keep the businesses they own in the district.
“I could have just let nature take its course, let the government cut me a check and not say a word. But I don’t need the money. I’ve got money, and I’d rather use it to pay an attorney to sue y’all than see you get away with doing something that is ultimately going to disrupt people’s lives and cost the taxpayers money.” . . .
Peterson then left the chamber, closing the door firmly behind him. His departure was followed by several seconds of absolute stillness. Finally, commission member and commercial realtor George Morosani said, “He does this sort of thing all the time. There is a process for him to register his complaint.”
