My Asheville Life. Hurricane Helene, and the changes in the community, prior.

Responses to posts in Friends’ page/s.

I FIRST got here in Asheville, alone, in the Fall of 1999 to "check the place out" as a quieter alternative to New York City, where I used to live. I first settled in a cabin in Weaverville. I was still flying to/from NYC (where I edited a community newspaper) until 2001 or when 9-11 happened. Then I moved. I brought with me my tiny newspaper, The Indie, as I organized public concerts and club gigs/events via the Traveling Bonfires. I met many people, of course. Locals and transplants, as well as in neighboring towns. 

       I also lived downtown and in West Asheville. As far as I can recall, I stopped publishing in 2015 and stopped producing shows around that time; in fact, I stopped going out like I did before and simply stayed home here in Candler, 7 miles to West Asheville. Why did I stop? It wasn't about a “business” that was losing because my newspaper or production outfit was not formed around profit. It was the gradual change in community vibe. The people. Things changed. 

       You see, I came from a country that is battered by hurricanes (typhoons) several times a year. So we rebuild from rubble and ruins each time, with less or no government help. But each time a disaster pummeled us, the community got stronger as a collective energy. Per Local Government Code, which I helped research and draft, business franchises have very minimal presence in communities; local products serve local people etcetera.     

       The Asheville issue to me is, in fact, a microcosm of the current national illness or cancer. The wide and widening divide per politics. My newspaper and productions were meant to gather people, unity in diversity, in fun convergences. That seems a quixotic imagining (sic) right now. The Covid paralysis only heightened the Left vs Right mess. Would Helene unite us? I hoped so. 

       But right after the devastation, the same "fights" ensued. I was told Asheville was bankrupt in the 1980s. But from there, the city got up via tactical alliances between and among locals and new residents coming from elsewhere. There was a fine mix of local businesses downtown and those that were owned by transplants in the first years of my Asheville life. I know them personally. I felt the change around the time I got back, in 2009, from a 2 year "break" in Los Angeles. Asheville felt so different. 

       I resumed my publication and shows till I stopped. I didn't want to unknowingly offer a venue for hate, the antithesis of my personal vision, coming from a country that was broken by a 20 year dictatorship and then kicked out via tactical alliances of people of diverse mindsets but against a common evil. BTW I was a radical Leftist. Repeat: Tactical alliances. Would people set aside politics and get together for common good? I hope and I pray. (Yes, I pray.) ☮️☮️☮️