The Asheville BID is building community by bringing diverse groups together to whine. I laughed out loud twice tonight at some of the jokes. The City of Asheville had advertised a public forum to discuss the BID. Everybody there was not impressed by the setup. Those in charge did not request input about pros and cons, they more or less asked if the people wanted the BID served up Tuesday or Wednesday. One table hosted a dotocracy asking what functions downtown ambassadors should perform. Late in the meeting, somebody added “None.” That item was the runaway winner, even though somebody attempted to divide the vote by putting three subcategories below. The three also got a lot of votes.

Over a dozen homeless people showed up with homemade sashes that looked like bandages with “Ambassador” written on them. One was barefoot, another shirtless. A very successful businessman said the whole affair was a done deal, and those who came to complain were just monkeys. A homeless preacher said he wasn’t going to provide input because it would have too many expletives. A couple anarchists daydreamed about fun ways they could have tried to turn the meeting around.