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Been blogging since 2004. Retrospective maybe in order.

[Originally uploaded by coffeehouse junkie]

Most Thursday nights a few years ago you would find me haunting the Beanstreets open mic. Then Beanstreets closed and there was an open mic vacuum.

The Dripolator used to offer an open mic event every Thursday, but that has changed to the first Thursday of the month. And it’s a different atmosphere from the Beanstreets days.

Courtyard Gallery has an open mic every Thursday. But last night it was canceled due to lack of host and attendees.

I sat on a bench beneath the Vance monument drinking coffee from a paper cup and wondered where to soak up some poetry vibes. Plenty of singer/songwriter open mics. But where’s a poet to go to squander a few verses on a polite crowd?

Holy Shoot! Is this for real? From the Asheville Citizen-Times:
Two new high-rises planned for downtown

“…plans to renovate the Haywood Park Hotel and adjacent properties between Page and Haywood avenues downtown call for adding a 25-story tower…. The new hotel… would stand alongside a more modern residential high-rise of 21 floors overlooking Haywood Avenue…. Fraga plans to add an additional 500 parking spaces underground, as well as convert the existing Haywood Park hotel space to office and retail space.”

and

Fraga unveils plans for 25-floor hotel tower

“Tony Fraga…. said…. ‘I believe that cities have to grow vertically. Instead of developing subdivisions and increasing our dependency on foreign oil, we have to go up in downtown, not up into the mountains. And in this area, we have a tower that was already planned….’”

For out-of-towners, the downtown Asheville area is so congested it is almost insane to consider high rises and the relative human element to fill those residential and commercial outlets. Asheville might as well rename the city—New York South. 

For local Ashevegas residents, might as well get ready to change your colloquial expression of “Hi, ya’ll” to “Hey, yous.”

Biltmore Village – The Bohemian Hotel: The new Bohemian Hotel creates a concrete canyon in the Biltmore Village and dwarfs almost everything around it.

Biltmore Village new construction: Chico’s and Talbot’s extends their reach into the Biltmore Village area—physically imposing their presence in this new commercial development.

Asehville’s Lexington Avenue street threads. (photo by Coffeehouse Junkie)