Enter our "Why Parkside Stinks" contest!

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316515415349945798.post-12660877291635558782008-03-06T20:33:00.004-05:002008-03-30T23:52:21.903-04:002008-03-30T23:52:21.903-04:00Enter our "Why Parkside Stinks" contest!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_MrbZJFnZ-po/R9CcbLw9DHI/AAAAAAAAACI/lOh6dvWhbVI/s1600-h/fightcityhall.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_MrbZJFnZ-po/R9CcbLw9DHI/AAAAAAAAACI/lOh6dvWhbVI/s320/fightcityhall.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5174807962677218418" border="0" /></a> Yes, Parkside stinks. There's no doubt about it. From <a href="http://www.mountainx.com/news/2007/072507countysale">the apparent unwillingness of the county commissioners to ask what they were voting on when they sold park land</a>, to the <a href="http://www.mountainx.com/news/2007/072507countysale">mysterious reevaluation of the land in question so that the county sold it for close to half what it's worth</a>, to the <a href="http://www.scrutinyhooligans.us/?p=5144">Orwellian re-writing of history so it would look like City Council had already tacitly approved the project</a> - well, let's just say it again. Every aspect of the Parkside Condominiums project stinks. (Here are even more <a href="http://www.scrutinyhooligans.us/?p=4889">details</a>.) Even the building itself is a nightmare. It would convert a heaping slice of Asheville's most beloved public space into the private preserve of well-to-do condo residents. It would require uprooting the beautiful magnolia that provides shade for musicians during Shindig on the Green. And it would overshadow City Hall, dominating the Pack Square skyline and partially obscuring one of our most distinctive and historic landmarks. But the condos can't go up unless the project is approved by Asheville City Council. And that's where you come in. We want you to spread the word about this dirty deal to your friends and neighbors in Asheville - and get them to take action. So every Wednesday for the next several weeks, we're going to be awarding one $5 gift certificate from a local coffee shop to the person who writes the best letter to the editor about this whole fiasco - and then forwards it on to his friends and neighbors. Full contest details are below. But before you start writing, here are some points you might want to include in your self-published LTE: 1. End the Nightmare. The Asheville City Council will soon have to decide whether to approve the Parkside project, and they should reject it as currently proposed. The Parkside Condominiums violate a number of rules that buildings on Pack Square are supposed to adhere to, including limitations on height. So quite apart from the fact that developer Stewart Coleman <a href="http://www.ashevilledailyplanet.com/content/view/1568/23/">may not even legally own the property in question</a>, the City Council should reject the project on its own merits. 2. Stop the Swap. Momentum is building to <a href="http://www.mountainx.com/news/2007/free_land_for_coleman/">trade a nearby piece of valuable city-owned land for the threatened park land</a>. But the land was given to the county to be used for a park, and a group of the donor's heirs have gone to court to annul the sale. Until that lawsuit is decided, a swap will mean giving something for nothing - giving the developer an enormously valuable piece of prime real estate in exchange for land he may not even legally own. 3. Insider trading. Nobody can be sure, but evidence is mounting that Stewart Coleman may have hatched this scheme - <a href="http://www.mountainx.com/news/2007/free_land_for_coleman/">to hold park land hostage to force the city to make a swap - with a member of the staff of the City of Asheville, former Planning Director Scott Shuford</a>. (Coleman has said as much, but Shuford denies it.) However, other aspects of the sale smack of insider advantages and backroom deals. Nobody can say exactly how the assessed value of the land was <a href="http://www.mountainx.com/news/2007/072507countysale">reduced by about 50%, saving the developer thousands in real estate taxes</a>. <a href="http://www.scrutinyhooligans.us/?p=5144">Nobody understands why the transcript of a City Council meeting includes a mention of Parkside, but the video of the meeting doesn't</a>. And it certainly looks suspicious that this particular meeting happened on the same day the county sold the land to Stewart Coleman's realty company. 4. Follow the money. Stewart Coleman gave <a href="http://www.scrutinyhooligans.us/?p=4835">over $5000 in donations to three candidates in the 2005 City Council election</a>. Two of those candidates - Jan Davis (who got $250 from Coleman) and Bill Russell (who got $4000) - will be voting on Parkside. One of those candidates - Dwight Butner (who got $1000) - sits on the downtown commission, and has already voted in favor of the project. And of course various pro-development industry groups funneled more than $40,000 to candidates and to "referendum committees" that were clearly working to elect Davis, Russell, and Butner. If Parkside gets approved, it will show that these groups bought the election. If the swap goes through, it will mean pretty much the same thing, since that seems to have been Coleman's aim all along. Do we really want to sell Pack Square to the highest bidder? 5. "We screwed up." - That's what county commissioner David Gantt has said about the vote to sell park property. So you can make the case that by rejecting Coleman's project outright, the city will be helping the county clean up the mess it created. 6. Take a stand, because others can't. This deal stinks. No doubt about it. But it's a real estate deal, and a number of non-profit organizations that might be natural opponents of the Parkside project have been silent because they depend on realtors and developers for support. Only the City Council has the independence to stand up against this project and the machinations behind it. Unless of course, City Council isn't independent anymore. So - now for some contest rules and guidelines. Remember, the point is not just to get your letter to the editor published (though that'd be nice, and sending letters to the editors in question will alert them that folks are paying attention to this story). The point is to self-publish - to express your outrage in words, and then send your LTE to your friends and neighbors in Asheville along with a request that they contact the Mayor and City Council and express their outrage. So check out the links above, distill the stink of Parkside into 200 words or less, and spread the word about this project along your personal e-mail networks. If you do, we guarantee that you'll discover you're more powerful than any newspaper could ever be. So - the contest works like this: 1. Write an LTE (aim for 200 words or less) opposing the Parkside Condos project and the swap and telling the Mayor and City Council to reject the project. Then send the LTE to either the <a href="http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=999970305038">Asheville Citizen-Times</a>, the <a href="http://www.mountainx.com/opinion/information">Mountain Xpress</a>, or the <a href="http://citypaperasheville.com/index.php/2008021812/Contact-Info/Media-Kit-Contact-Info.html">Asheville City Paper</a>. Also send your entry to as many friends and fellow Asheville residents as they think would be useful. (We won't count in your 200 words any message you add to tell your friends what's going on, and that they should contact city council.) 2. Be sure to cut and paste this contact info into your e-mail: Asheville City Council: Mayor Terry Bellamy: mayorbellamy@ashevillenc.gov Vice-Mayor Jan Davis: jandavis@main.nc.us Councilmember Bill Russell: billrussell@charter.net Councilmember Carl Mumpower: drmumpower@aol.com Councilmember Brownie Newman: newmanasheville@aol.com Councilmember Robin Cape: rcape@charter.net Councilmember Holly Jones: hollyj@buncombe.main.nc.us 3. Also <a href="mailto:mail@ashevilledemocracyforamerica.org">send entries to us</a> along with your name, phone number, and mailing address. Serious entries will get posted on our <a href="http://betweenelections.blogspot.com/">blog</a> for our members to read and discuss. 4. The contest will begin on March 12 and end on April 30: each Wednesday it runs, the DFA-Asheville steering committee will select a winning entry based on the following criteria: * Economy and forcefulness of expression * Whether or not the LTE was actually submitted to a local publication * Breadth of dissemination (i.e., how many addresses we see in your To: or CC: line) * How hard you push people to take action * Enthusiasm and number of comments (so direct your friends to our blog - and tell them to post after contacting the Mayor and City Council!) 5. Each winner will receive a $5 gift certificate to a local coffee shop. Gift certificates will be sent via U.S. Mail. Start writing! And good luck!Doug Gibsonnoreply@blogger.com