Asheville

Five years ago, dismembered pieces of a human body were found floating in the French Broad River in Asheville, North Carolina. Forensics identified the victim as Kelly Lane Smith, a local prostitute, and though all evidence pointed to a local man infamous for the brutalization and rape of sex workers in the area, he was never charged, never convicted, and he left Asheville a free man.

Why couldn’t an obvious suspect be convicted? Because Kelly was a prostitute.

“From the brothels to the strip clubs, from the jack shacks to the streets, criminalizing, stigmatizing has been society’s way…there’s power in a sex workers union!”

So began the first Sex Worker Summit in the South with a rousing song composed and sung by Stella Zine (watch her performance on NCHRC’s vimeo webpage), a former strip club dancer from Georgia. The song captured the spirit and message of the summit, held December 2nd in Asheville, North Carolina, which aimed to address issues of criminalization and marginalization among sex workers and to bring interested parties together to look for common solutions. The one day summit featured a diverse array of speakers, including current and retired sex workers, advocates, religious leaders, nurses, harm reduction organizations, academics, social workers, law enforcement personnel and other service providers.

Just in via email from PARC

A New Name?

Mayor Terry Bellamy and U.S. Cellular just announced a plan to sell naming rights for the Asheville Civic Center to U.S. Cellular. The Citizen-Times published sketches of the Civic Center with its new signs and the Civic Center staff started answering the phone "U. S. Cellular Center" before the City Manager stopped them.

The plan is to rename the Civic Center the U.S. Cellular Center, for $1.3 million over 8 years. This means "U.S. Cellular" will be mentioned countless times on TV, radio, and in the newspapers every time a concert or event comes to our Civic Center.

Advertising like this is worth a lot, perhaps several million dollars. Competitive bids would tell us just how much, but there were no bids -- just the deal with U.S. Cellular.

If we do want to rename the Civic Center, shouldn't we have the discussion first and a decision later, instead of the other way around?

Maybe we don’t want to sell the naming rights. Maybe we'd like to keep the old name. Maybe we'd rather call it the Jeff Bowen Center. Nobody's asked.

And if we do sell the naming rights, shouldn't they go to the highest bidder in a transparent way?

It's one thing to be embarrassed about a Republican Tea Party affiliation, it's another thing to lie about it.

Asheville fire chief has identified one dead firefighter and another transported to burn center in Augusta, GA in a fire today at 445 Biltmore, a medical office building near Mission Hospital in Asheville.

The split between urban and rural voters is about more than population density, but don't discount its importance. In many ways, cities need highly effective government, even if they don't always get it. In cities, many different kinds of people live more closely together, so that the "other" is not some rare or alien creature. The "other" is your gay friend, your black colleague, your female boss. The city council in Asheville is an elected body that gets this. The new GOP majority in Raleigh is not.

For victims of domestic violence in Buncombe County, the process for obtaining an ex parte (temporary restraining order) is surprisingly fast, and essentially just two steps: once one fills out the necessary paperwork, a judge will review all cases twice a day. Buncombe County is blessed with judges who understand the gravity of domestic violence, something many areas still lack, and those trying to flee dangerous relationships can generally rely on the courts to grant them a temporary order until the case can later be heard in civil court.

Cal Cunningham with Roundtable Members Deborah Reed, Ron Robinson, Marion Jones, and Jeff Israel.

Since high school, I’ve been interested in economics and economic development, and I grew up camping, hiking, and traveling to Western NC with my family, so yesterday when Cal Cunningham began his roundtable on Western North Carolina economic development, I was all ears.

And it was a great discussion. With a diverse group of including the Dean and Associate Dean at the College of Business of Western Carolina University, several small business owners, and a United Steelworkers member from a local paper mill, folks touched on everyday business challenges to high finance.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.

Cross-posted at dKos

Back on Thursday, I mentioned the saga of Asheville City Councilman Cecil Bothwell. Some fundies over there want to bounce him from office because he's an atheist--and cite a provision in the state constitution that requires you to profess belief in God in order to hold office. Never mind that this provision is unenforceable due to numerous provisions of the federal Constitution (Article VI, the Supremacy Clause and the 1st and 14th Amendments). The Asheville City Council didn't back down, and Bothwell was duly sworn in.

But yesterday, the fundies vowed to press on.

One foe, H.K. Edgerton, is threatening to file a lawsuit in state court against the city to challenge Bothwell's appointment.