How the city backed away from defending renters, the housing crisis fueled segregation, a climate of fear faces tenants and much, much more on a key Asheville issue. An interview with Robin Merrell, Parker Smith and Ben Many of Pisgah Legal Services. Above: Graffiti criticizing…

Our city’s government is incredibly important, but it can be hard to understand or to know the most effective ways to become involved. So the Blade is providing public presentations to answer all those questions. Local government is incredibly important, shaping everything from housing to…

Major racial disparities in traffic stops and questions about police reporting, building for months, finally take center stage as Council dubs the situation an ’emergency’ Above: A chart from Open Data Policing‘s analysis of the Asheville Police Department, showing that black drivers are far more…

The controversial proposal to expand policing downtown has been marked by confusing claims, a lack of transparency, a broken process and inaccurate numbers. The public deserves better. Above: Numbers for a range of crimes in the South Slope neighborhood, where APD Chief Tammy Hooper claims crime…

May Day calls on us, as people and a city, to consider the reality of the world we face and how we can start to change it. Here are three important changes Asheville could do right now Above: City Hall under renovation. Photo by Bill…

Tensions mount over a controversial push to expand policing, some shady numbers and paltry levels of funding for local social services as Council hashes out a budget Above: Asheville Police Department Chief Tammy Hooper. File photo by Max Cooper. For months tensions built. Normally sleepy committee…

With major decisions at stake from policing to energy to housing, Asheville’s elected officials, bureaucrats and locals are off to an early start fighting over the shape of the coming budget Above: CFO Barbara Whitehorn, who heads up the city’s budget efforts. File photo by…

Another year, another legislator trying to force a change in city elections. A primer on the latest plan, the local reaction and what it might mean Above: Proposed Asheville City Council districts under last year’s failed state Senate bill. A state legislator is now reviving…

Despite a year of criticism and controversy involving senior city staff, at the recent Council retreat it was all back-patting and consolidating power for the city’s top officials Above: One of the discussion boards at Council retreat, sketching out a delegation of authority that could potentially…

New restrictions on hotels and development in the heart of Asheville mark the quiet end of an era of consensus among city bureaucrats, downtown gentry and elected officials. Above: City Hall by night, photo by Max Cooper. While it didn’t exactly rattle the windows or…