Wanna feel empowered? How’d you like to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and sends this puppy back to the USSR? This Friday is the last day for you and your friends to comment on Asheville’s Downtown Master Plan before it goes to city council.

What could be a more obvious sign of government failure than redounding public demand for an unelected body, with an added tax, to assume the responsibility for public safety, sanitation, and public infrastructure? What’s more, this body, known as a business improvement district, will be charged with administering public benefits collected from sponsors. (In the archaic tongue, that translates to “extorting bribes from rich developers so others can work beneath their abilities and yet enjoy a subsidized middleclass condo.”) The BID will get to exercise Amendment One and speculate at taxpayer expense. The Downtown Commission, not city council and definitely not the property owner/investor, will get to be the ultimate arbiter of building façade style. Incidentally, the Downtown Commission is the body that persuaded city council to contract for the master plan in the first place. Government, however, will not go away or even offer to reduce taxes. It will still be around for regional planning, forcing people out of their cars, and partnering with the BID in such enterprises as bestowals of corporate welfare.

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