Good morning!
This is the weekly DKos Asheville open thread where we try to get together every Saturday morning around eleven, and then drift in and out throughout the day. We hope this group serves to reinvigorate us locally and regionally here on Daily Kos, building on the sense of community that's grown through our online engagement. DKos Asheville can give us all a better sense of connection, a better understanding of who these people are that we stand with, work with, and share with in the political process. We hope, through this community, that we can do a better job of leveraging our orange passion for progressive politics to help elect more and better Democrats.
If you would like to host a weekly open thread, please let us know.
One of the most controversial local issues for Asheville residents is back in the news. Mountain Xpress has a couple stories this week about the I-26 connector, which appears to be moving forward once again as various parties appear to have agreed on a route. The county commissioners have already approved the plan, and the city council will be voting this Tuesday. The connector will replace the current situation where I-26 and Patton Avenue join together to cross the French Broad River. It looks like the route will take I-26 to the west side of Earthfare with a new bridge crossing the river a bit further north of the Patton Avenue bridge. Stories here and here.
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This week LC (LamontCranston) went by Katuah Market, the new local grocery in Biltmore Village. The marketing director who apparently schedules outdoor vendors was not there, but he got contact information and hopes to hear back from them soon. The outdoor eating area there is pretty nice and may make for a good place for our voter registration table. The foot traffic there isn't nearly what it is at Earthfare, but if we can get on the schedule there it would be a start. So we're hoping we'll have more news next week.
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Our fifth quarterly DKos Asheville Meetup is scheduled for Saturday, May 3rd, at 1:00. We'll once again be back at the Bywater on the French Broad River in Asheville. If you plan to attend, or if you're thinking about it, send a kosmail to Randy, randallt, and he'll put you on the list in the Connect*Unite*Act community diaries. We currently have ten folks signed up plus two maybe's.
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And as a reminder, we now have a google group for DKos Asheville, setup for the purpose of making it easier for us to send messages to group members. We'll use it to send reminders of the Saturday open threads, meetups, voter registration events, etc. If you would like to be added to the google group, kosmail me an email address and I will send you an invite. Note, this is a private group and your email address will not be public. Remember to check your email for the google invite.
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Enjoy your day!
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