Planning & Economic Development Committee

Attended the Asheville Planning and Economic Development Committee meeting at City Hall.

Gene Ellison presented his plans for Eagle/Market Street development.

Scott Shuford presented a prioritized list of annexation prospects with maps. The planning department will prepare a Resolution of Intent to Annex for the neighborhoods Biltmore Lake, Sand Hill and Biltmore Commons. Next on the list will be Reynolds and Emma.

Staff elaborated on the Board of Adjustments process for the edification of the Coalition of Asheville Neighborhood (CAN).

CAN made its own presentation on Staples and Prudential sign. Chairman Jan Davis cut their presentation short stating that review of these details was not the purpose of this meeting. CAN held an informal meeting in the hallway with council member Holly Jones.

City Council

Attended the city council meeting for April 11, 2006. This was to be the Wal-Mart meeting but Wal-Mart withdrew its application for a zoning variance at the last minute.



I spoke about this during the public comment portion of the meeting. Here is the text of my comments:

I'm sorry that Wal-Mart felt compelled to withdraw their application. I feel sorry for the under-employed poor people of Asheville who desparately need jobs. I am one of them. And I feel especially sorry for the poor trailer park residents who were offered $7,500 to defray their moving expenses. Now, when that property is sold to the next buyer, they will likely get nothing from that buyer. When the time comes for them to move, and it will, they can look back to today and remember who is responsible for their hardship: The anti-Wal-Mart activists from Asheville -- and students from Warren Wilson College. One of whom, I know, is graduating next month and is moving to San Francisco.

Boards & Commissions Committee

Attended the Boards and Commissions Committee meeting at City Hall. Council members Holly Jones, Carl Mumpower and Jan Davis were in attendance. I was the only member of the press in attendance.

The meeting was short and mostly administrative in nature; board openings and candidates were discussed. Jones proposed creating a Floodwater Task Force. This should be a joint task force with the county but the county was not moving forward. The city would still pursue cooperation.

Convention: Buncombe County Libertarian Party

Attended part two of the Buncombe County Libertarian Party Convention. We selected three delegates to the state convention.

Fred Barnes Luncheon

Crowne Plaza
Asheville, NC
Presented by the John Locke Foundation and
Sponsored by WWNC 750-AM

Conference: Christian Apologetics

Attended a two-day conference on Christian apologetics at Woodland Hills Baptist Church. The conference included lectures and breakout sessions by ID proponent William Dembski and Christian scholar Gary Habermas.

Local radio talk show host Ken Bagwell invited me to the conference and paid my way. I joined him briefly during the general presentations and we broke up to attend other sessions.

Overall, the conference was quite excellent and I had the opportunity to hear Dembski's complete presentation on the essentials of ID and pose several questions for him.

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Lecture: Christian Apologetics and ID

Attended Christian apologetics lecture at UNCA given by Mike Lacona. He gave an excellent presentation on intellegent design and its application to the resurrection.

I asked a couple of questions:

1) Is there anything in the teaching of Jesus that proscribes or discourages intellectual investigations into the scientific evidence for God? He agreed that it is not prohibited by the words of Jesus. In fact, Jesus performed miracles to make divinity evident to the senses.

2) Which is the stronger argument -- the positive argument for God and creation or the negative argument against accident and evolution? Lacona felt that intelligent design was a strong positive argument for God and creation. I disagree. I thing ID is the better argument against accident.

Consultation: Bill Porter

Joined Bill Porter, candidate for NC House of Representatives from District 116, at his home to help him work on a computer problem. Afterwards, Porter asked me why his presentation at last Monday's Citizens for Change meeting was a disaster. He had been grilled on the illegal immigration question.

I told him that it was not as bad as he thought it was. I told him that his position on illegal immigration was not a bad one but it was not presented in the way people wanted to hear it. He had explained that the issue was very complicated and he offered a nuanced response to the question. I told him that what people want to know first is that the candidate takes an uncompromising, hard line on illegal immigration and complexities can perhaps be mentioned later. Porter left the impression that he was soft on the issue.

NoWalmart Forum

Attended a public forum at the Pack Library on the West Asheville Wal-Mart proposal given by the local Wal-Mart Watch political activist group. Attendance was very poor and no compelling information was gained by attending.

After the meeting, Dale Moburg and I walked out with the group's ringleader (a scowling student from Warren Wilson) and Dale asked him, "Are you a student?" He said, "Yes, I'm a student at Warren Wilson College and I'll be graduating in a couple on months." I took that opportunity to ask him pointedly: "Where will you be going?" He said, "San Francisco." I said, "That's odd." He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "You're trying to affect development in this town but you won't be here. I will." He said, "Well, I can work against hunger in Africa but I don't have to live there." Dale thought this was a good rejoinder but I had a problem with it. I told this young, transient activist that Asheville is a community-based city and I turned and walked away. My problem is this: There is no one advocating hunger in Africa.

Meeting: Citizens for Change

Attended a meeting of Citizens for Change at Shoney's Restaurant on Smokey Park Hwy. Nathan Ramsey gave a presentation on issues impacting Buncombe County with emphasis on an imminent vote in favor of county-wide zoning.