Tag Archives: Asheville News

1100 Communities Vie For Google Fiber

Published in Asheville Live on March 29, 2010

The deadline for nominations has passed, and according to a post on the official Google Blog, over 1100 communities submitted bids and almost 200,000 individuals. The number of nominated cities almost doubled in the last few hours before the deadline. The post referenced was originally posted at 10:00 AM, and they had 600 municipalities. After the deadline, they posted this update:

Update at 5:26pm: The response deadline has now passed. We’ve received more than 1,100 community responses and more than 194,000 responses from individuals. This map displays where the responses were concentrated as of 1:30pm PT. Each small dot represents a government response, and each large dot represents locations where more than 1,000 residents submitted a nomination. We plan to share a complete list of government responses and an updated map soon.

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Volunteer For The Annual Great Asheville-Buncombe Cleanup

Published in Asheville Events on March 26, 2010

Asheville GreenWorksAsheville GreenWorks will be holding their annual Great Asheville-Buncombe Cleanup during the month of April. If you want to volunteer or need more information, contact info is included in the press release below. This is a great opportunity for each of us to help make a better, cleaner Asheville, so make some time in your schedule to join in on one of the events.

Asheville GreenWorks is seeking groups, businesses and individuals to volunteer for their big annual spring push for a more attractive community, the Great Asheville-Buncombe Cleanup.
The event consists of special clean-up programs at various locations throughout the county during the month of April. To make a difference, hundreds of volunteers are needed. Volunteers can sign up anytime as individuals or groups, although logistical details will not be available until March 2010. For more information, call 254-1776 or email volunteer@ashevillegreenworks.org.

April 3rd 10am-1pm Everything Up Litter Cleanup
Kickoff event at Pritchard Park with an Asheville GreenWorks sponsored downtown cleanup. Neighborhoods can register ahead of time to get help with recruiting volunteers and pick up supplies early, or can pick up at Pritchard Park. Cleanup supplies include gloves, vests, trash & recycling bags, and pickers for some groups. The goal is: everything up! Asheville GreenWorks also arranges for bag pickup with the City.

April 10th 10am-2pm

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Google Moment Today at 1:30pm

Published in Asheville Live on March 25, 2010
This is one of the huge welcoming signs for Go...
Image via Wikipedia

If you haven’t already nominated Asheville for the Google Fiber initiative, wait just a little bit longer. Today at 1:30 PM will officially be the “right time” to submit your nomination. Asheville City Council passed a resolution creating the “Google Moment” and is encouraging everyone to submit your applications for Asheville at the same time.

Be part of the moment! At 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 25, Asheville citizens including school children, employees, and business leaders, are encouraged to participate in a

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Controversial Housing Project Approved

Published in Asheville Live on March 24, 2010

Proposed Larchmont Apartment Complex RenderingThe Larchmont Project, a controversial low-income apartment complex, has been approved for development in North Asheville. Opponents of the project, which will include 60 units and will be located off East Larchmont Rd. near Merrimon Avenue, say that the scale of the project is too large and doesn’t fit with the surroundings. They also say that 60 units is too many and the complex will be too densely packed. From the Asheville Citizen-Times:

Opponents, including many nearby residents, said they were not opposed to affordable rentals on the site but thought the two proposed buildings

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Track Asheville's Status on Google Fiber

Published in Asheville Live on March 22, 2010
A segment of a social network
Image via Wikipedia

BlogAsheville has a terrific rundown of how you can track Asheville’s (and other cities) bid on the Google Fiber initiative. It includes lists of cities bidding, searches of various social networks, YouTube, Twitter hashes, and all sorts of ways to surf the Googleverse to find out who is bidding, what they’re doing, and what is being said about them. End result: Who’s winning? No clue, nobody knows except Google.

Check it out here: http://blogasheville.blogspot.com/2010/03/track-news-about-your-towns-google.html

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Scenes from GoogleAVL Town Hall Meeting

Published in Asheville Events on March 19, 2010
This is one of the huge welcoming signs for Go...
Image via Wikipedia

The Google Fiber Town Hall Meeting was held last night at the Asheville Civic Center Ballroom and the message was clear: Fill out your form. Each and every one of us needs to make sure we fill out a form nominating Asheville as a candidate for Google’s Fiber initiative. To do so, go to http://googleavl.com and click the button that says “Nominate Asheville”. But hurry, time’s running out.

What should you say on the form? The speakers addressed this last night.

Do say:

  • Tell Google why you believe Asheville is a good fit for their program.
  • Tell Google how you will use their Gigabit-per-second internet connection to do things you simply can’t do with a standard internet connection from AT&T or Charter.
  • Tell Google how it will let you innovate.

Don’t say:

  • Don’t tell them it’ll just let you do what you’re already doing only faster.
  • Don’t tell them it’ll let you download your porn straight into your brain at the speed of light (they didn’t cover this last night, but I thought it needed to be said).
  • Don’t tell them that it will “save” Asheville or be the root cause of a technological revolution that brings Asheville out of the dark ages. This simply isn’t true. Asheville is already in the midst of a technological revolution. Google’s Fiber will simply allow that to shift into overdrive and bring about real change to our community and the world.

Another overarching message of the night: Asheville doesn’t need to change our name to Google like some cities have done. Asheville deserves to be chosen based on our merits, on our real qualifications. What are those qualifications? The GoogleAVL site lists 18 good solid reasons.

Below: a few pics I snapped of the event.

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Fences Come Down in Pack Square Park

Published in Asheville Live on March 18, 2010

Pack Square Park Construction Nears an EndThere’s been a whole lot of construction work on display on our East View for quite a while now. Not only was it unsightly, marring the fantastic view of City-County Plaza and Pack Square, but it was a NIGHTMARE to have to drive or walk through, and it was often very, very loud. But good news is upon us! The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that work is wrapping up and the fences have come down.

The construction fence around Reuter Terrace came down Wednesday. It was the last area where major work on Pack Square Park had been under way.

The completion of some drainage work could herald the approach of the first day since September 2006 that some part of the 6.5 acres of downtown park space has not been blocked off by fences, barrels or some other barrier.

Soon, we will be able to enjoy Pack Square Park as the designers intended. Watching it all develop over the past couple of years has been pretty interesting. It’s not completely done yet, though, there’s still a bit of work to do:

Part of the park will probably be closed off again later this year while workers install a kiosk with an information desk and restrooms on part of a large grassy area in Reuter Terrace. The conservancy may eventually put a more elaborate pavilion on that spot. Work to improve drainage near the future Pack Tavern on Spruce Street was still going on Wednesday.

Contractors have some minor items to complete before the park is truly finished, said Gary Giniat, executive director of Pack Square Conservancy, the nonprofit in charge of the park project.

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