Good day and welcome to DKos Asheville. This is the weekly DKos Asheville Open Thread for Saturday, October 16th, 2021.
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Among local public schools, there is widespread compliance with health officials’ advice on how to slow the spread of COVID-19 and get kids back in classrooms safely. But a number of private schools and home school cooperatives are taking approaches that diverge from those guidelines.
Xpress has identified at least seven local K-12 institutions that are not requiring all students to wear masks as recommended by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services StrongSchoolsNC toolkit and county public health leaders. Some have rejected other coronavirus control and prevention measures as well, including isolating individuals with COVID-19 and recommending vaccinations.
Among WNC public school districts, only Yancey County Schools isn’t requiring masks. Both Buncombe County Schools and Asheville City Schools say they’ve enacted the toolkit’s precautions, including masking and rapid COVID-19 tests for students who may have been exposed to the virus.
But the Appalachian Academy (*Good luck finding a link, the only Asheville Academy I found was an all -girls therapy boarding school.) is rejecting many of those measures. The academy’s enrollment documents state: “This organization will not participate in contact tracing, quarantine, injection/vaccine tracking or the promotion of masks and social distancing. Please acknowledge that you accept and agree to these terms by checking the box below.”
“I’m waiting for any long-term safety data that would prove the safety recommendations and the toolkit support the health and well-being of children and are also not detrimental to the health and well-being of the children,” says Azavari. She believes the toolkit’s guidelines have hurt academic performance and contributed to record childhood suicide rates.
Please explore the article, it is quite the eye opening experience as you read the “logic” and “our research” excuses for little to zero mitigation compliance. “God’s Plan” or something, something.
Charlotte Street’s historic buildings are about to get a contemporary neighbor after members of Asheville City Council approved a new mixed-use development for the neighborhood.
In a pair of votes on Oct. 12, Council approved conditional zoning and a land use incentive grant for the project at 130 Charlotte St, the former location of Fuddruckers restaurant. The development will include 186 residential units, along with roughly 4,500 square feet of commercial and retail space, approximately 230 parking spaces in an underground garage and six parking spaces on East Chestnut Street.
The grant, which will provide the project’s developer, Kassinger Development Group, with annual rebates of city property taxes on the value of the project for 16 years — a total estimated value of over $1.5 million — was approved unanimously. Council member Kim Roney was the sole vote against the conditional zoning, arguing that the project didn’t offer enough affordable housing.
The project will include 37 rental apartments that are deed-restricted for 30 years for families earning at or below 80% of the area median income ($60,100 for a family of four). Half of those units will also accept federal housing vouchers and rental assistance for individuals and families at or below 60% AMI.
RESISTANCE
“We’re not going to have a quaint little village anymore where businesses and families thrive, but we’re going to have gridlock,” said resident Paula Coughlin during the meeting.
“Once you change the overlay, the [Unified Development Ordinance], you give conditional zoning, when does it stop, and where does it stop?” added resident Carolyn Warner. “Why can’t the areas around Asheville that are already brownfields, grey fields — Tunnel Road, Patton Avenue, areas that have already been destroyed — be the areas to infill with affordable housing and keep the historic entrances like Charlotte Street the way it is?”
Asheville Citizen Times, Todd Runkle, 10/13/3021
Georgia native Molly Parden took a different path when she released new music last year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead of unleashing an entire full-length album, she split the songs onto two EPs. The first was released last summer and she followed it with the release of “Rosemary” in November 2020.
“I felt some growing pains in separating the songs, but decided early on that it was a necessary halving,” she said in an email interview while on the road. “Having to stay home and not tour on the record was the hardest part. It sucked to just sit at home and silently get likes on social media as people came across my posts promoting the release. So weird.”
Reggae coming to Salvage Station
The Elovaters, who will play with Surfer Girl at 7 p.m. Oct. 17 at Salvage Station, have been constant tourers since forming in 2014 and played with reggae legend Ziggy Marley.
Erick Baker brings new music to Isis
The Emmy Award-winning writer who performs at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 16 at Isis Music Hall, isn’t just a songwriter. He has released a children’s book titled “Willie The Weed.”
Members of legendary bands come to town
Former members of The Band and the Levon Helm Band have collaborated since 2013 in a group called The Weight Band and they will perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 15 at the Diana Wortham Theatre.
Asheville Citizen Times, Derek Lacey, 10/13/2021
Western North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains will still light up with their vibrant yellows, oranges and reds this year, they’re just a little behind schedule.
That's thanks to a warm start to October, which has slowed the colors down, experts say.
"The last two weeks have been quite warm," said Dr. Howard Neufeld, an Appalachian State University plant eco-physiology professor who runs the Fall Color Guy Facebook page and who has been the go-to fall color forecaster at App State since the mid-90s. "Our lows are what our highs should have been."
Neufeld said in early September that the trees are in good shape, but weather through September and early October would dictate the fall color forecast for 2021.
Given that weather, mostly the heat, peak fall colors are about a week behind, said Western Carolina University professor and fall foliage forecaster Beverly Collins.
Thanks for reading and contributing, I hope you have a safe week.