Common taters responding to an article in the Mountain Xpress about a park proposed for the land across the street from the Basilica St. Lawrence are engaging in discussion I wish I could hear from the dais at Asheville City Council meetings. Like me, some wonder how on earth the notion of creating a green, public park on a particular spot of land could become such an important election issue. I think it has something to do with the Asheville Vortex and “energy” New Age types and pseudo New Age types feel and pretend to feel in the area. Many taters repeated arguments distinguishing the park a few blocks to the south, which is a drug den with a park warden, from the pristine, pastel watercolor field rendered on campaign yard signs, showing no traffic and no riff-raff.

One common tater, CWar, explained the local hysteria in terms of the fantasy rendering, anti-development anxieties, imaginary economic benefits, a deeply-flawed push-poll, and demonization of anybody questioning the proposal. (Most of those phrases belong in quotes that were omitted for readability.) CWar concluded, “The overly idealized depictions of what could actually be created there, what it would look like, its minimized costs and exaggerated purported benefits, all have contributed to a considerable amount of divisiveness and an unfortunate dumbing down of the political discourse over this issue.”

Jaded Local next asked why the community is not so up-in-arms over a real issue, like affordable housing. He/She/It asks why there were no yard sign campaigns, no 14,000 letters to the editor, and “no cynical false choice that the only option to affordable housing is another hotel.” Then, using hyperbole which is sure to backfire in a community that takes cynicism literally to dismiss opposition, Jaded Local wrote, “Rome burns and yet we demand a place of lollipop gardens, gumdrop trees, and free range unicorns.”

Other writers hinted the city is not so well off financially, as evidenced by its prowling for partners. Others called for a real economic analysis, as if such a thing exists.