A new approach to smart growth

“What we’re trying to do here is reduce the impact of development. That’s really what conservation is, the wise use of resources.”

— Blair Bishop, Haywood Community College


How come this isn’t done all the time?

Protecting the best of mountain culture

“The highest form of morality is not to feel at home in one’s own home.”

“What has become alien to men is the human component of culture — which upholds them against the world.”

— Theodor Adorno, social critic and philosopher

High time for a new morning ritual

I don’t wear a watch. Why should I? Everywhere I look, I see the time of day. In fact, no matter where I go or how hard I try, I can’t seem to escape the passage of time. It’s on my cell phone. It’s on the oven AND the microwave in our kitchen. It’s on my computer screen, lurking down in the right hand corner.

Upper Chattooga River will suffer from boating

By James Costa • Guest Columnist

There has been much discussion in recent weeks regarding the notion of opening the upper Chattooga River to boating. As a biologist and as a longtime resident of the Southern Appalachian region, I have studied the issue for the past several months in order to take an informed position on the potential impact that boating might have on the river and surrounding national forest.

Easley’s budget goes wrong way on lottery

Gov. Mike Easley’s proposed budget would decrease the portion of lottery proceeds going to education — before legislators have a chance to fix an already unfair funding formula that shorts the western part of the state — a gamble that citizens throughout the state just shouldn’t support.

The day Uncle Curtis’ rabbits did the town

By Carl Iobst

Well if this don’t beat all. Over in eastern Germany where lederhosen, apple strudel, and skinheads are tourist attractions, Karl Szmolinsky is fixin’ to feed the world’s hungry. Maybe not the whole world, but you’ve got to start somewhere. And what better place than North Korea, where thousands are starving to death every day!

Moratorium will preserve building industry, not destroy it

The Jackson County commissioners should move forward with their temporary subdivision moratorium, notwithstanding all the concerns that have been raised about this proposal.

Now what will the wagging tongues talk about?

Jack Cox and Kayden Zollinger (soon to be Cox, pending paperwork) are proud — and relieved — to announce the marriage of their parents, Chris Cox and Tammy Jo Schroth. The two were married without apparent warning in an impossibly small, curiously intimate, and strangely romantic setting — the magistrate’s office in the Haywood County Detention Center, adjacent to the lesser of our three Ingles — on Jan. 26 at approximately 4:38 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Tribe, unlike Google and others, isn’t asking for a handout

By David Redman • Guest Columnist

There is absolutely no doubt about the economic impact the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and its Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Hotel operation have in Western North Carolina.Over the past 10 years the facility has furnished our previously economically depressed area with not just hundreds, but thousands of quality jobs. And guess what? All without incentives from the State of North Carolina.

Common goal is the same – a thriving downtown

Downtown Sylva is a special place. The events of the last couple of months only reinforce that fact, and so the momentum to create a better, closer and more unified business community should continue.

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