Category: Views

The choice facing Asheville is clear. In fights over NAACP reforms and the annual budget, City Hall is ground zero for the long-brewing fight between pushes for reform and the city’s historic racism, now openly backed and defended by the police chief and law enforcement…

Enough is enough. The Asheville police chief’s awful track record, deceptions and inexcusable inaction mean she must be removed from office. Our city can’t have change while allowing powerful officials to keep their positions no matter what damage they do. Above: Asheville Police Department Chief…

Video of an APD officer brutally assaulting a black man walking home from work shines a harsh light on the reality of our city. But it was enabled by a city that has repeatedly failed to take the depths of racism in its own backyard…

City manager Gary Jackson, the most powerful person in city government, is retiring. How he defined an era of Asheville’s politics — and who bore the brutal cost of his administration Above: Jackson’s name plaque, with him in the background, at the Asheville City Council…

The story behind a new Council, deep divides, a historic election and the fight over the heart of a city Above: the new Asheville City Council, shortly after its Dec. 5 swearing-in ceremony. Photo by Max Cooper. Ceremonies are revealing things. The one that took…

Power, survival, gender, politics and transitioning in a time of upheaval. The Blade‘s editor tells their story and how they got here. I don’t write much about my personal life in the Blade, but at this point multiple readers have asked me to publish this piece here.…

White supremacy, the failures of Asheville liberalism and one activist’s journey through grassroots organizing during a revealing summer in our city Above: Protesters, including the author, try to pry a plaque lauding Robert E. Lee off a monument in the middle of downtown. Photo by…

A night of close and surprising election results show a changing Asheville with harsh political divides and some stark lessons Well, that was revealing. Last Tuesday Ashevillians went to the polls to narrow a sizable and fractious field down to two mayoral and six Council…

Veneration of the Confederacy is founded on lies about a brutal regime that terrorized millions. It’s long overdue to confront that history and the ways its evil still endures in our city today Above: With drills and crow bars, activists try to dismantle the Robert…

Our city is in a time of crisis, one that our current political culture is badly unprepared to deal with. But each election is a chance for change. For Asheville’s candidates, here’s a few things you should take to heart Above: City Hall under renovation.…