Asheville, North Carolina
Good day and welcome to DKos Asheville. This is the weekly DKos Asheville open thread for Saturday, July 18th. We try to get together every weekend to share with everyone what we're all up to in Western North Carolina and beyond. We hope this group and others serve to invigorate us locally and regionally here on Daily Kos, building on the sense of community that's grown through our online engagement. DKos Asheville and other local and state groups can give us all a better sense of connection, a better understanding of who we stand with, work with, and share with. We hope this local and wider community can help leverage our orange passion for progressive politics to move the country forward. Following is the new Daily Kos Mission Statement and we are proud to be part of this movement, on the keys and on the ground.
Daily Kos fights for a progressive America by empowering its community and allies with information and tools to directly impact the political process.
Please join us below the Great Seal of Local Power for this week's edition. Several members of DKos Asheville traveled to Winston-Salem on Monday for a powerful and inspiring voters rights rally. You can see our report on the day
here.
After writing here about the rally for weeks ahead of time, this edition turns its attention to an upcoming event that will not have 7,000 people in attendance. It won't have Rev Barber speaking to the crowd and it won't feature thousands marching in unity. But it will have many friends, a beautiful river and a fabulous free lunch! And it will be happening on August 1st, just 14 days away!
DKos Asheville Meet-up # 9
What: A meet-up for Daily Kos members with food, fun and discussion. Please bring your ideas on how we can motivate voters and do our parts to help win elections.
When: Saturday, August 1 at 1:00 pm.
Where: The Bywater in Asheville.
796 Riverside Dr, Asheville, NC.
What to bring: Pot luck style food items if you want to add to the meal. A Chipotle's buffet will be provided for our guests. Also outside appropriate clothing, smiles, stories and ideas for GOTV and Voter Registration excercises and projects. And dogs.
A taste of Chipotle
Cecil Bothwell is one of our great progressive leaders in Asheville. He was elected to City Council in 2009. Asheville has some of the most striking architecture in the world. It is also under constant assault by developers. Cecil is in Phoenix for Netroots Nation and sent this back home this morning.
Does the prospect of a high-rise office building or hotel facing the civic center piss you off? Me too. Let's stop this idea before it happens.
Basilica St. Lawrence
There are plans afoot to sell off the City-owned land across from the Civic Center and the Basilica St. Lawrence, between the Battery Park and Vanderbilt apartment buildings. You can help us change direction, but you've got to act now.
We can create a park or a community garden. It could be a performance space or a farmers/tailgate/craft market. How about a sculpture park?
This is urgent. This is an election year and so far only one candidate has spoken out in favor of preserving this parcel for a civic space. (Rich Lee)
But ALSO talk to your favorite Council candidates (16 to choose from!) and ask them where they stand. If something doesn't shift on Council in the next few months the real estate will go on the block.
Our guests from here and the wider region are in for a sweet surprise on Saturday and Sunday. Regular readers may remember me bragging about my favorite music and arts festival,
LEAF, the Lake Eden Arts Festival. This remarkable event takes place in the spring and fall at beautiful Lake Eden near Black Mountain. We have also had a big downtown Asheville festival called Bele Cher, attracting hundreds of thousands of people from all over. Last year, after a twenty plus year run, the city decided to wrap it up and try something more simple and more Ashevillian. After planning all year, it is now official, LEAF is coming to downtown Asheville on August 1st and 2nd.
I'll be performing there Saturday morning and will be returning for an evening show so if any of our guests want to continue our gathering downtown I'm sure we could all have a great time. And if you spend the night in Asheville you'll have Sunday to attend as well. Here is the two day schedule for LEAF Downtown.
And don't forget to mark your calendars!
Tickets on sale soon!