Four years ago today, Asheville police arrested fellow Blade journalist Veronica Coit and me for doing our job covering the eviction of a homeless encampment in a city park. While our legal suit plays out, the Blade’s work as a co-op goes on. We’re raising money to survive in 2026. Support us here

Hey y'all, if you'd like to support trans journalism this year, here's two ways to do it. Back @transnews.network transnewsnetwork.networkforgood.com Support @avlblade.bsky.social www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-a... Every dollar goes to support worker-run trans news orgs.

The APD's had its on the ground repressive powers falter as cops leave (due to public outrage and defiance). So city hall's poured cash into surveillance. After Helene they inflicted a tax hike to ramp it up even more, with the support of every single city council member. #avlnews #avlgov

Please, please keep sharing, and if you haven’t already and you can, please donate. We’ve received some donations in the last week that we are really grateful for, but we’re still lagging a bit behind where we want to be to keep leftist journalism alive in Asheville, NC. Please support our co-op.

Like many in our city, the Blade has struggled in Helene's ongoing aftermath. We're a local journalism co-op of working class trans people. It has not been an easy year. Amid exhaustion, illness, poverty and trauma we've still done important work. Please help us keep doing it.

Closing in on a quarter of our goal aint bad, but we still need a lot more support. We’re tired, too, but we aren’t done ensuring the Blade’s survival in 2026. Our quality reporting doesn’t happen automatically. So please consider the role of local leftist journalism in this time, & donate or share.

Our fundraiser to ensure our local journalism co-op's survival in the long aftermath of Helene is at 900/3500. Some good progress (thank y'all so much!) but still a ways to go. Every dollar goes to supporting independent reporting from working class trans folks: www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-a...

Hey it seems like ten million years since Hurricane Helene devastated western North Carolina but unsurprisingly, folks there are still struggling. That especially includes marginalized southerners like the ones here, so lend a hand if you can.

We cover a lot of ground in these short essays, but among other things I think they're a particularly honest look at our city post-Helene. With a lot of determination from folks otg, alongside immense grief...all while facing elites more openly greedy and exploitative than ever.

Hey y'all, our A Word About Our City radio essays — a collaboration with Asheville Community News on @ashevillefm.bsky.social — are now in one collection. #avlnews If you want a radical, honest look at what's going on in our city, have a listen: www.patreon.com/collection/1...

Hey y'all, making some solid progress on this but still a good ways to go to make sure our local journalism co-op can survive in 2026. Please share and support as you can.

Hey y'all, our A Word About Our City radio essays — a collaboration with Asheville Community News on @ashevillefm.bsky.social — are now in one collection. #avlnews If you want a radical, honest look at what's going on in our city, have a listen: www.patreon.com/collection/1...

Asheville city hall directing to $7 million in federal relief dollars to renovating the golf course, and county gov funding sidewalks for tourists in storm-devastated Swannanoa show how the post-Helene "recovery" is only for the rich. Our latest A Word About Our City segment #avlnews #avlgov

Hey y'all, making some solid progress on this but still a good ways to go to make sure our local journalism co-op can survive in 2026. Please share and support as you can.

Asheville city hall directing to $7 million in federal relief dollars to renovating the golf course, and county gov funding sidewalks for tourists in storm-devastated Swannanoa show how the post-Helene "recovery" is only for the rich. Our latest A Word About Our City segment #avlnews #avlgov

Support our leftist local journalism co-op made up entirely of working class trans people. It’s not an easy time to be a trans person. It’s not an easy time to be a journalist either, and yet we’re going to keep bringing you the news. Help us do it for yet another year.

The Blade's faced an extraordinarily difficult year. Our local journalism co-op's still done incredible work. We'd like your help to keep doing it. Here's how: ashevilleblade.com?p=5360 Our city needs independent journalism — not yet more tourism industry marketing — more than ever. #avlnews

Hey y'all, please share or support this if you can. Our trans local journalism co-op's facing a lot right now. This city is still a disaster zone in many ways and, well, it ain't exactly easy to be trans. Any help is appreciated.

Donations support local journalism doing what local journalism does best. And that’s speaking back at power, yall 🏴

Howdy yall! The co-op that I am part of needs support with funding another year of hard hitting local journalism. If you can, please send us a few dollars, and if you can’t, even shares alone are much appreciated 💖 Thanks yall

We're a co-op of working class trans reporters in a city that remains, despite the marketing, still a disaster zone in so many ways. Independent, hard-hitting local journalism is more important than ever. Please share and support this so we can keep doing it.

Like many in our city, the Blade has struggled in Helene's ongoing aftermath. We're a local journalism co-op of working class trans people. It has not been an easy year. Amid exhaustion, illness, poverty and trauma we've still done important work. Please help us keep doing it.

Thanks for tuning in to tonight's @avlblade.bsky.social coverage of the #avlgov city council meeting. This will be our last council coverage of the year. Look for more ways to support our local leftist media co-op soon as we look to fund another year of sharp coverage. Subscribe below or...

Short meeting, thanks for checking in. Gentry interests take many forms in Asheville, & that includes groups of people yelling at neighborhoods to just accept unaffordable developments that make existing issues much worse. And it's not like #avlgov is unfriendly to developers! Just a wild situation

Like they all decided, after Helene, to ignore the communities demanding serious rental aid and eviction moratoriums. Everyone on that dais voted for a crippling tax hike on locals this year to bankroll more cops and appease wealthy investors. City hall and the gentry are the housing crisis

Watching Asheville city council — and Roney's no exception — bemoan high cost of housing is like a giant version of that "we're all trying to find the guy who did this" meme. They made the crisis. Roney voted in favor of letting airbnb landlords rewrite the rules. Hundreds lost their housing #avlgov

Coleman's speaking on behalf of alliance of historically Black neighborhood groups, formed after city hall repeatedly ignored those communities' concern. Emphasized new housing must be "not just for the wealthy" or further displace Black locals. #avlgov

The demographics here are also telling. Tenant, labor and working class community groups want a very different set of things to deal with housing crisis. The loudest YIMBYs are often realtors, architects, tech bros, developers.

Indeed Asheville over past two decades is a sterling example that governments headed by NIMBY and YIMBY gentry reach very similar dystopian results, just with slightly different factions of the elite reaping a bit more benefit. Because gentry control over housing is the problem. #avlgov

This is important. Over the past decade Asheville city hall has let for-profit developers rewrite their affordable housing incentives, basically rubber-stamped everything they sought and has signed off on pretty much every development the YIMBY groups wanted. Yet the crisis just got worse #avlgov

Other recent housing battles centered around other issues such as market rate developments going up around roads already dangerous to pedestrians. Developers are trying to grab everything they can, communities are finding their voices, & these folks are telling #avlgov to give into developers more

Grassroots local groups such as the Asheville Tenants Union and Swannanoa Communities Together have demanded deeply affordable, eviction moratoriums, & rental aid, not this "build market rate housing, too" garbage. What's wild is that #avlgov has routinely given these people exactly what they want.

These "Asheville for All" people last meeting were demanding that #avlgov approve a connector bridge for a property that would have made the Haw Creek neighborhood more prone to flooding. These folks are just passionately wrong.

Next commenter is another YIMBY. "People living in Asheville love Asheville." - not if they're getting evicted because the landlord is turning the home into an airbnb or is selling to someone claiming a third home. These build all housing, even unaffordable housing (!) people deny reality #avlgov

Thanks @davidforbes.bsky.social Current commenter is talking about medicaid cuts pushing group home residents recovering from addiction out on the street. Pleads for #avlgov action.

Of the many things needed to counter current landed gentry, somehow I don't think "deregulation in the interest of for-profit developers" will exactly solve the problem. #avlgov

And here's the kicker, next YIMBY wants developers deregulated. Don't worry y'all, we can't stand NIMBYs either. This is thoroughly a gentry fight: bsky.app/profile/davi...

Parks claims he was "displaced" but he quickly found more housing and eventually bought a home. This is because he has money, which many folks needing housing here don't. Not shocking the YIMBY gentry here don't think airbnb bans or affordability requirements matter. #avlgov

Andrew Parks, Asheville All YIMBY group, wants more attention to "missing middle" housing, which when backed by YIMBYs generally means redirecting more funds and efforts away from poor and struggling working class to middle and upper-middle class #avlgov

Of course, the main obstacle here is that city hall, local gentry and the cops generally harass harm reduction efforts or try to outright crush them, so the "warm handoff" he's asking for is unlikely given that hostility #avlgov

Open public comment. First speaker making presentation on harm reduction, saying it saved his life. Wants better connection between harm reduction workers, rehab and emergency workers. #avlgov

Arbor Day proclamation passes without incident. So does the consent agenda. On to replacing the vacant seat on the planning commission. They appoint former city planner Jonathan Anzollitto. On to open public comment. #avlgov

Worth noting that the very rule Manheimer just read doesn't contain her oft-invoked clapping ban, just noting clapping as one possible act that can be barred if it shuts down the meeting. But she routinely makes up rules or makes exceptions when she likes #avlgov bsky.app/profile/davi...

Meeting's started. Mayor Esther Manheimer: just came back from mayors' conference and big topic of conversation was "civility," so reading council's decorum rules. People are getting kidnapped by ICE or are still homeless from Helene and her big concern's that no one contradict her #avlgov

Asheville city council meeting at 5 p.m. Light agenda for their last meeting of the year, with only main item considering a new member for the planning commission to replace the ousted Jared Wheatley. @matildabliss.bsky.social and @davidforbes.bsky.social will cover live #avlnews #avlgov

The latest batch of federal Helene relief funds are on the way. The largest single portion, $7.7 million, is going to Asheville city hall to... Renovate the golf course. Yes, you read that right. Not housing or rental aid. Their priority is the golf course. This is Asheville. #avlnews #avlgov

Asheville city hall's priorities post-Helene, y'all #avlnews #avlgov

When the contract for Wesley goes public we'll know more about her level of compensation, but given city hall's general practices expect it to be — like Debra Campbell's before — quite high. #avlgov

Wesley's experience in Helene, where she headed up emergency response from the county, was cited by council in hiring her. However, as locals can attest, that response had a multitude of issues (only water reserves in a very storm-vulnerable area, abandonment of public housing) #avlgov

Asheville city council unanimously appoints Assistant Buncombe County manager Dakisha "DK" Wesley as the next Asheville city manager, starting Jan. 12. In the meantime Assistant city manager Ben Woody will fill the city manager role. #avlgov