Asheville City Council just went into closed session to talk about some lawsuit with the State of North Carolina. Nobody wonders to what that pertains.

Anyway, a highlight for me was the public comment portion of the meeting. A group from the River Arts District, which is undergoing whatever the current name of urban renewal is, came to raise concerns. They work out of a building that houses sixty-some studios. The resident artists were first shown a plan that suggested 10 feet may be needed from their property for ROW. Now, in the latest plan, it is suggested they give up 12 feet for a greenway, 10 feet for two bikelines, and 4 more feet for a berm. That will cost them 48 parking spaces and a dog training school. Artists and their patrons, who come from all over the world, complain there is nowhere else to park.

So, either the city wants a really walkable tourist’s destination (‘cos two-way airport taxis are so much more economical than one-way autos), or maybe it is doing what government always does with urban renewal: paving over something deemed underclass riffraff.