We are loading in hotels where affordable housing could go… and more higher paying white collar, ‘green collar’, and ’no collar’ jobs to help pay for higher quality housing for each citizen. People in poverty in Asheville have emergency level needs. Increasing net worth by cutting housing costs and increasing SNAP funds while raising the Federal […]
Here’s my email on the occupancy tax and BCTDA: Subj: Buncombe tourism advertising needs to be an industry expense versus public expense, 6/28/15 Greetings to those with local fiscal and legislative control over Buncombe County’s Tourism Development Authority, Heather Rayburn is right that factors at BCTDA’s inception in 1983 no longer apply. I wish the […]
I have talked about the old A-B Vision program Citizen-Times supported around 2002-2003 with Citizen-Times managing editor Josh Awtry and how that kind of forum is needed again. This new ‘community conversation’ program should take up where GroWNC left off. I think asking what’s next after AdvantageWest closed—and I also say GroWNC should be included […]
While not a be-all and end-all solution, a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis is a classic strategy tool is often a helpful outline of status. I’ll be adding more to this post, including a preliminary Asheville SWOT analysis. Here’s a few notes about changes in June 2015 to our entrepreneurial ecosystem. I use the term innovation and […]
While there will always be another real estate development project for city council to decide, I look forward to also assisting in raising our expectations for today and tomorrow. While not my only agenda item, I feel certain a powerful anti-poverty strategy can be developed for Asheville. Next, Asheville has a range of initiatives related to […]
Asheville is experiencing the same inequality challenges as the rest of the nation is. The Ford Foundation has helped us all greatly by establishing how crucial getting America back on track id by forming sufficient local and state anti-poverty strategy supported at the Federal level. Short-term thinking in markets, e.g. the classic MBA theory of […]
It’s time for a North Carolina Clean Power Plan (NC CPP) tied to TrillionthTonne.org metrics. While policies like a national fee and dividend carbon tax will have great benefits for cities like Asheville, the 2015 encyclical of Pope Francis gives a powerful rebuke to elected officials who don’t understand sustainability. When we hear the term ‘global warming’, I want […]