A look at how the Asheville Blade came to be, what we did in 2014 and a thank you to the community that’s made it possible.

Above: Fireworks outside City Hall. Photo by Bill Rhodes.

I initially hesitated about writing this post. For all that I love my profession, journalism can occasionally fall prey to trite trends, and the annual year-end round-up, unless carefully done, is often a repeat offender.

But when I recently put the word out to our readers and the public, asking for their input on what they’d like to see at year’s end, some made the point that as the Asheville Blade is a new publication and many people have just become aware of it this year, a round-up and some history might be in order. So here, readers, is how we came to be and a look at what we’ve done over the past year. As we move into the first month of 2015, you’ll see more on what’s happened to our city and what’s coming up in our future.

In March, I originally intended to use this page exactly once. At the time I was a reporter at Mountain Xpress and one of the point people for workers trying to unionize amid an exodus, problems with upper management, issues with working conditions and major ethical problems.  When the publisher killed a heavily-investigated story on dangerous housing conditions in the county because he didn’t want to run negative things about landlords and demanded, repeatedly, that the story become a puff piece on the supposed trials faced by well-meaning landlords, I refused. After the editor and publishers flatly refused to run the piece in any accurate form and warned that I might be terminated for this defiance, I felt I had no choice but to air both the piece and the story behind it. I also felt that this must be done independent of any existing local media outlet. So I created the Blade as a blog and on March 31, posted Home, bitter home.

Shortly after, I was fired. I love Asheville and I love journalism, so I wanted to find some way to continue working and informing the people of this city. I knew, blessedly, that I wasn’t alone in that.

Additionally, my experiences both at Xpress and freelancing had given me an idea of what might work and, perhaps even more valuably, a graduate course in what didn’t. I knew from talking to many people in our community that they felt there was a similar need for more aggressive media.

In journalism, the name “the Blade” has a proud history, from abolitionist and pro-labor papers in the 1860s to the first professional LGBT media about a century later. It speaks to the need to fight for justice and cut through illusions. The hope, at least, is that it reflects the fight for a better city and is the exact opposite of the “Asheville nice” attitude that impedes necessary change by pushing an acceptance of “the way things are,” of a city with no consequences for injustice or uncomfortable truths to face.

To that end, and to use our limited resources the best, we decided to focus on news — especially hard-hitting investigation and analysis — and views, with an eye to sharp perspectives not normally seen in our city’s media landscape.

Over the next few weeks after I was fired, thanks to the amazing help from a bevy of committed locals we filed our paperwork, set up a website, designed a logo and started laying the groundwork with our first columnists. Some of those great people are on our masthead, others helped with advice and resources.

As for money, we needed something different from the traditional advertising model. So the Blade has no ads. We instead chose to rely on our readers funding us directly through the Patreon service, subscribing for $3 or $10 a month. More subscribers means more coverage, so we tied that to various funding goals.

In May, the Blade ran a detailed look into questions about the conduct of District Attorney Ron Moore in a case that became a major flashpoint in the hotly contested DA’s race.

Moving into June, we followed with an opinion column on the need to stop focussing on the actions of wealthy tourists and ask what an Asheville for the rest of us looks like. As the city move towards passing its $147 million budget, we broke down exactly where all that cash was going. We also featured our first opinion column, a powerful account from Byron Ballard of her last shift as a volunteer at Asheville’s FemCare clinic, the last one offering abortion services in the city, just before it closed down. We followed with a piece from Martin Ramsey inveighing against Asheville’s ‘stay in your place’ mantra; the idea that only experts and elites can direct our city’s future.

From there we tackled benches, specifically why Asheville’s are disappearing and the complicated fights over public space going on behind the scenes. Sheneika Smith hit back at Asheville’s conception of ‘Diversity’ as the new black, asserting that the city’s de facto segregation will only end with more political and economic power in the hands of the local black community. Zed Chris, one of the organizers of Asheville’s Stonewall commemoration, wrote about how the spirit of a 45-year-old riot is needed in Asheville today. I ended the month with a column (and our first piece of artwork, from Nathanael Roney) on how, bluntly, low wages will break Asheville.

We opened July with an analysis and criticism of the city’s controversial graffiti clean-up efforts as Jen Gordon tore apart Asheville’s great graffiti scare. DA Moore finally released the long-awaited evidence room audit, and I told the story of three years spent chasing that document and fighting for public transparency. Noor Al-Sibai, who once planned to make her future here, instead wrote about why she’s leaving Asheville, in part because of a lack of opportunities.

Meanwhile, local service workers organized around a need to change low pay, a lack of benefits and other issues. Leslie Boyd talked about why she joined the Moral Monday protests. Zen Sutherland shared before and after images highlighting the plight of artists in the River Arts District. I wrote about how the rising use of credit checks in rental applications increasingly made more housing gentry only.

In a detailed investigation, we highlighted the role that racist government programs played in drawing red lines around many African-American neighborhoods, with results that haunt the city today. That story also offers some harsh lessons for how Asheville looks at government — and its consequences — today.

Thanks to our contributors, Asheville City Council coverage resumed with a fight over Pack Place and we rounded up reporting on the fight over the future of public housing.

In August, Moral Monday rolled back into town, and we analyzed the protests’ role as a rallying point for Ashevillians of many causes, and the complicated dance the movement plays with political parties and organizations. Matthew Mulder wrote about why, as a professional with a home and family who lived here for over a decade, he left Asheville, in a piece that sparked major discussions about the ability of working class people to make a living here. We delved into armored cars and grenade launchers, detailing how local police got military-grade weaponry. Jen Gordon wrote about moving forward when she (and many other artists) were kicked out of their river district studios.

The Blade delved into the writing on the wall, looking into the costs, agenda and controversies behind city government’s attempt to clean up Asheville’s graffiti. In a changing Southside, locals rallied with a new event to support youth as the school year began. Photographer Max Cooper wrote, hilariously, about the trials and tribulations of covering our local government notables, a challenge of blue lights and bureaucratic algae. I inveighed against local government and business’ censorious streak in their response to the annual topless rally, asserting that it’s time to get over it. We also went further inside the local law enforcement arsenal. Locals rallied in response to police shootings in Ferguson, asking When is enough enough? To close out the month, Council approved higher-than-average incentives for a project, despite a lack of affordable housing, in an effort at filling the triangle and encouraging development in the River District.

I started off September with a reminder that, to really deal with many of its issues with wages and working conditions, Asheville needs unions. Martin Ramsey took aim at Asheville’s need to face its illusions, including the beliefs that “small business is always good” and an overly non-confrontational attitude. As the city snagged big federal cash for its attempts to overhaul the River District, in Tiger, Tiger we looked at local government’s long struggle to grapple the infrastructure beast. During big debates over what’s actually affordable in our fine city, we asked, what is ‘affordable housing’ anyway?

As city officials considered regulating buskers, we analyzed the busk battles and how things got to this point, along with a city commission’s decision to back off new rules in the face of an organized response from local buskers. Council hit a bevy of issues in a game of regulation ricochet. Joy Chin gave a detailed analysis of fracking in WNC. We concluded the month with a frank, honest discussion of the state of our Asheville in conjunction with Mayor Esther Manheimer’s “TED talk” style presentation about our city’s fate.

October opened with Victoria Rodriguez’s column on having one’s life potentially derailed for want of a license, something many in Asheville’s immigrant community face daily. A powerful photo essay from Max Cooper marked the day when same-sex marriage finally came to North Carolina and our city. Council moved forward with drawing innovation districts. With the election looming, we conducted in-depth interviews with Democratic District Attorney candidate Todd Williams and independent candidate Ben Scales.

I wrote about the tendency of national media, wrongly, to see our city as an example while drawing all the wrong lessons, when the reality was a cracked pedestal that showed a very different truth. Newly relevant in the wake of major controversies at the Asheville Police Department, we republished our analysis of the city’s plan to overhaul the APD and police the police. Council plunged once again into the wars over who gets to name public space, resulting in a very contentious meeting. Sheneika Smith issued a passionate call to vote. Martin Ramsey asserted that the city can — and should — pass a local minimum wage.

November began with the big results of this year’s elections and we broke down what happened election night and what it meant. But the big local political news of the month came a bit later, as embattled APD Chief William Anderson announced his retirement. We analyzed what happened with Anderson’s exit and how it fit into the APD’s long and tumultuous history. As Transgender Day of Remembrance neared, Basil Soper wrote about how Asheville still has a major blind spot and remains a harsh place for anyone who isn’t white and cisgender. Photographer Ezra Campbell chronicled Asheville’s vigil for that event in a series of powerful photos.

Meanwhile, as locals try to decipher government policy, we offered a handy guide to Cityspeak, that jargon of “benchmarks” and “best practices” that planners love so very much, breaking down what it means, why they use it and the catch to this pattern of thinking. Priscilla Ndiaye asserted that despite the APD’s issues, some meaningful changes have occurred and must continue. As the month ended, hundreds gathered in downtown to assert that ‘Black lives matter‘ and protest against police violence.

December opened with city staff getting an earful from the police advisory committee, who criticized them for checking the box rather than taking public input to heart, something many committee members said needs to change. Council closed out its year with the latest chapter in its long land wars over how the city will be developed. We provided a handy list of who to call when your boss steals your pay, sadly a real problem in our low-wage economy.

Our final investigative story of the year was a look at when the city doesn’t pay a living wage. Our reporting demonstrated how, despite the city of Asheville’s claim to pay its workers a living wage, about 140 people are technically qualified as “temporary or seasonal employees” and make far less, despite some working for the city for years or even decades. Sheneika Smith provided our final opinion column of the year, a call for Ashevillians — especially white activists — to take a hard look within to dismantle the beast of racism here.

As for us, already this year our subscribers have ensured an improved website, more opinion columns, the return of Asheville government coverage and expanded news coverage. To each and every one of you, thank you.

We are also, even at our best, limited. For Asheville to have the media it deserves, we need a strong ecosystem, with multiple organizations all tackling major, long-overlooked issues. Fortunately, we’re not alone in this regard and one of the best trends I’ve witnessed this year was seeing multiple discussions about the problems facing our city springing from many quarters. As 2015 ends, there are investigative stories in Carolina Public Press, the Asheville Citizen-Times, Xpress and more that are tackling long-unaddressed issues like poverty, hunger and transparency. From Ashvegas to Asheville FM, we’re also seeing a growth of local media outlets covering almost every aspect of our city’s life.

And we’re still here, thanks to you. Despite every doubt, tight budget, and hard time we end the year stronger than ever. Whatever happens, you will never see the Blade stop. There’s a lot of fighting left until Ashevillians have the city they deserve, and we look forward to every bit of it.

Onto 2015, and no surrender.

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