Mountain Xpress 06.10.20

OUR 26TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 26 NO. 46 JUNE 10-16, 2020

MOUNTAINX.COM

JUNE 10-16, 2020

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JUNE 10-16, 2020

FEATURE

NEWS

FEATURES 10 DRIPPING AWAY Asheville water fees hit legal challenges

14 COVID CONVERSATIONS Local voices J Hackett, Aisha Adams and Horus Runako

PAGE 24 STOREFRONT SOLIDARITY Downtown business owners took precautions last week to board up their windows after many were shattered following June 1 protests.

Almost immediately, local artists saw possibilities — resulting in more than 20 memorial murals and messages of solidarity.

COVER PHOTO Virginia Daffron

GREEN

WELLNESS

COVER DESIGN Scott Southwick 18 DREAMING BIG St. Gerard House seeks to expand local autism services

3 LETTERS 3 CARTOON: MOLTON 5 CARTOON: BRENT BROWN 8 NEWS

20 HONEY, I’M HOME Local beekeepers encounter their biggest hive yet

12 BUNCOMBE BEAT 14 COVID CONVERSATIONS 16 ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES 17 COMMUNITY CALENDAR 18 WELLNESS

FOOD

All Souls Counseling Center, Inc Asheville Holistic Realty Asheville Raven & Crone Asheville School of Film Asheville Staffing Resources Bottle Riot / formerly District Wine Bar Flying Squirrel Cleaning Company Franny’s Farm Gotta Have It Antiques and Vendor’s Market Habitat for Humanity Restore Highland Brewing Co. Ingles Markets Inc. Isis Restaurant and Music Hall Kilwin’s Asheville Mellow Mushroom Mostly Automotive Inc. Mountain Area Pregnancy Services (MAPS) Musician’s Workshop Nature’s Vitamins and Herbs Pack’s Tavern Pisgah Brewing Co Smoky Park Supper Club Southern Atlantic Hemp Co, Inc. - SAHAE Sovereign Kava Strada Italiano Sweeten Creek Antiques The Blackbird Restaurant The Matt and Molly Team (Keller Williams) The Regeneration Station Town and Mountain Realty Tunnel Vision White Labs Kitchen & Tap Wicked Weed Brewing

C O NT E NT S

22 LIGHTS, CAMERA, COOK! Asheville chefs turn their home kitchens into virtual cooking classes

20 GREEN SCENE 22 FOOD 24 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 28 MOVIES 29 COVIDTOWN CRIER

A&E

A special thank you to all our advertisers, who make Xpress possible.

26 THE REMIX Asheville music businesses respond to pandemic challenges

30 FREEWILL ASTROLOGY 30 CLASSIFIEDS 31 NY TIMES CROSSWORD

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STAFF PUBLISHER: Jeff Fobes ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER: Susan Hutchinson MANAGING EDITOR: Virginia Daffron OPINION EDITOR: Tracy Rose GREEN SCENE EDITOR: Daniel Walton STAFF REPORTERS: Able Allen, Edwin Arnaudin, Thomas Calder, Laura Hackett, Molly Horak, Daniel Walton COMMUNITY CALENDAR & CLUBLAND: Lauren Andrews, Madeline Forwerck, Laura Hackett, Susan Hutchinson MOVIE SECTION HOSTS: Edwin Arnaudin, Bruce Steele CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Peter Gregutt, Rob Mikulak REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Mark Barrett, Leslie Boyd, Bill Kopp, Cindy Kunst, Alli Marshall, Gina Smith, Luke Van Hine, Kay West ADVERTISING, ART & DESIGN MANAGER: Susan Hutchinson LEAD DESIGNER: Scott Southwick MEMBERSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR: Laura Hackett MARKETING ASSOCIATES: Sara Brecht, David Furr, Brian Palmieri, Tiffany Wagner OPERATIONS MANAGER: Able Allen INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES & WEB: Bowman Kelley BOOKKEEPER: Amie Fowler-Tanner ADMINISTRATION, BILLING, HR: Able Allen, Lauren Andrews DISTRIBUTION: Susan Hutchinson, Cindy Kunst DISTRIBUTION DRIVERS: Gary Alston, Russell Badger, Clyde Hipps, Joan Jordan, Angelo Sant Maria, Desiree Davis, Charlotte Rosen, Carl & Debbie Schweiger, David Weiss

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BY MOUNTAIN XPRESS ADVERTISING COPYRIGHT 2020 BY MOUNTAIN XPRESS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

OPINION

Send your letters to the editor to letters@mountainx.com.

CARTO ON BY R A ND Y MOL T O N

Asheville Police Department must do better June 2 marked the beginning of an 8 p.m. curfew. I did not go out to protest.

But I wish I had.

On the night of June 2, at a … medical station at One World Brewing, [medics] were targeted by the Asheville Police Department immediately at 8 p.m. Officers physically assaulted medical personnel.

Officers intentionally slashed water bottles, milk jugs and damaged all of the medical equipment. Everyone should watch the video posted on the Asheville Politics Facebook page. Everyone should watch the small creek of wasted water and milk that flows down the street after officers in riot gear stomp on these potentially lifesaving resources.

On the morning of June 3, I woke up. Checked the news. Scrolled through Facebook. I was safe and warm in bed.

Because of this and so many other reasons, I am privileged. Because of this privilege, I can and must speak out against injustice.

Less than a week ago, the Asheville chief of police wrote the following in an opinion article for the Citizen Times: “To our community, and especially our black, brown, and minority communities, I vow to work tirelessly to regain your trust and to fulfill the pledge to serve and protect.”

But where is this respect now?

I am devastated by the acts of violence and racism happening in my community.

We have to do better. To the Asheville Police Department, I am begging you to do better.

To everyone else, especially white people like myself, I am begging you to speak out.

We need to engage in discourse, to examine biases and prejudices within our communities. We need to demand that APD’s budget of $2.5 million be cut.

We need to challenge the systems that disproportionately oppress black and brown bodies.

— Annie Livingston Woodfin

Local leaders’ prompt action protected public health Respectfully, I beg to differ with Lex Burkett’s letter criticizing our elected officials for promptly imposing more stringent measures to control the spread of coronavirus infection than neighboring states [“We Deserve Better Political Leadership,” May 27, Xpress].

Our local leaders took action on March 15, two days before Gov. Cooper pulled the plug at 5 p.m. on St. Patrick’s Day, averting superspreader events in crowded bars.

In public health, we have a word for these kinds of decisions: conservative.

A classic nightmare in public health, made famous by Ibsen’s play “An Enemy of the People,” is elected officials balking at control of microbial hazards out of fear of upsetting the local tourism industry.

Total case counts heard on the news allow the health care system to plan to not get overwhelmed. But rates in the population and in space provide more insight into disease transmission, I believe. Using data from the websites of state health departments on May 2, I compared incidence rates for Buncombe with two counties in adjacent states whose residents frequently travel to Asheville. To tease out social distancing from the built environment, which

can’t be readily altered, I normalized the rates to each county’s population density.

Buncombe’s rate was just four cases per 100,000 population per 100 square miles.

In Washington County, Tenn., (Johnson City) it was 13, and in Greenville County, S.C., it was 17. This struck me as early evidence that our more stringent local and state measures were working.

As of May 29, however, my calculations show Buncombe’s rate now matches that of Washington County, Tenn. (18 per 100,000 people per 100 square miles), while Greenville’s is 33. Johnson City’s larger student population leaving town, some to be diagnosed at home, and Buncombe’s outbreaks in long-term care facilities have probably skewed these numbers to Buncombe’s detriment. Either way, a logical inference is that things would have been a lot worse, sooner without the prompt action taken by our local leaders.

I miss the convivial atmosphere of my favorite places downtown, too. I look forward to seeing all my buddies, vertical and not under a mountain of medical debt.

Perhaps we’ll raise a glass to the decision-makers who had the brains and guts to protect public health, along with our long-range economic future.

Tip big, folks.

— Ken Silver Asheville Editor’s note: Silver reports that he is an associate professor of environmental health at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City.

enjoy the sports, music, theater and dance that give us hope and lift our spirits. Hugs and handshakes are a thing of the past only if we choose to live in fear. Those who are elderly or with compromised immune systems should certainly take precautions.

But for people to live in fear, isolation and under lockdown because the “experts” order us to is no way to live in the land of the free.

— Gardner Hathaway Asheville

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No way to live in land of the free As we move through the weeks and months ahead, we will never know how many lives were saved or not by the lockdown. What will become much clearer as time passes, however, is how many people in Western North Carolina and across the country have lost their employment, their businesses and their housing due to decisions made by government and unelected health officials. This lockdown has put more people in physical, mental, emotional and economic jeopardy than the virus ever could have.

What will also become clearer with each passing day is how our civil liberties and freedoms we once enjoyed and took for granted have been restricted and curtailed right before our eyes.

All to keep us safe. We are still being told we cannot gather together for church, school, sports and other social occasions, despite the computer projections being wrong over and over again and the virus’s peak having passed. (But what about the second wave?!!) Stay safe, stay home.

We need to open up our society again and get back to work and play. We need to gather with our loved ones again and

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OPI N I ON

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Tillis has abysmal record on health care

Police should have shown more restraint during protests

In response to Sen. Tillis’ recent message on the [Xpress online] Community Bulletin [“Senator Thom Tillis Shares Tips for Coping With COVID-19,” May 8]: While Sen. Tillis is correct that caring for our mental health is more important than ever amid this health crisis, I must say that I am unimpressed by the senator’s letter. It is one thing for the senator to share resources and tips — it is another entirely to look at his abysmal record of stripping away our health care, including mental health care.

Sen. Tillis has voted repeatedly against the Affordable Care Act and, while he was North Carolina Speaker of the House, he [helped to prevent] North Carolina from expanding Medicaid. By not expanding Medicaid, he has prevented over 600,000 of North Carolinians from getting health care coverage. In 2014, he said repealing the Affordable Care Act was one of his top priorities in the Senate. He [voted to gut] protections for people with preexisting conditions and increase prescription drug costs.

North Carolinians are currently dying from a lack of health care access — and they were before the pandemic — but the senator’s only solution for us seems to be trying new recipes and calling our friends.

The senator’s actions speak louder than his words. His votes against health care are also votes against mental health.

With November rapidly approaching, I’m sure Tillis is starting to feel the mounting pressure of a competitive election — and he should. As an organizer with NextGen North Carolina, I know that young people aren’t falling for his charades. People ages 18-25 experience the highest rates of mental illness, yet receive the least care. We’re planning to register over 30,000 young North Carolinians before November, and we are going to hold Sen. Tillis accountable for his role in this health crisis. Fluff talking points aren’t going to change that.

— Nicole Skinner Asheville

I am writing to express my dismay over the actions of the Asheville police on recent nights in downtown Asheville. It seems that the police destroying the first aid and water supplies was an unnecessary act of provocation. I read Police Chief David Zack’s statement, and I understand what a difficult situation this is, and I am certainly not in favor of police getting injured, but I think more restraint should have been shown on their part and with their continued use of tear gas and rubber bullets on subsequent nights.

The perception of police overreaction is as important as what the actual actions were and why these actions were taken.

Further, as these actions by police could only have been carried out with approval from the highest levels of command, I urge our city and county leadership to reconsider how we want our law enforcement agencies to be perceived in these particularly turbulent times.

I attended the rally in Pack Square with my teenage children in the late afternoon of June 2, 3:30-5:30 p.m. We heard first aid team members discussing plans for how aid and supplies would be distributed and were impressed at their insistence on nonviolent responses on the part of people participating in the public protests.

I will tell you I was appalled by the graffiti I saw on the Asheville Art Museum and other buildings surrounding Pack Square, and I certainly do not support that sort of destructive behavior on the part of the protesters who engaged in those actions. For my part, I was impressed by the level of calm and respectful behavior shown by those who were present at the protest during the period of time I was in attendance with my children.

As a 17-year resident of Buncombe County, I am dismayed that we are not sending a progressive message to our citizens and those who visit our diverse community.

— Alan Lipsky Arden

Learning how to talk about mental health [Regarding “Let’s Talk About and Support Mental Health,” May 20, Xpress]: Yes, it is true, we are told to say there is a stigma to mental health issues. And yes, we comply.

We have yet to learn not to. That will occur one day.

— Harold A. Maio

Fort Myers, Fla. 4

JUNE 10-16, 2020

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Put a stop to tear gas injustice It is disheartening to see the citizens of Asheville and Buncombe County subjected to daily doses of tear gas by the Asheville Police Department under the direction of new Police Chief David Zack. Totally unnecessary and very harmful to our citizens.

There are enough officers in riot gear and now National Guard troops to handle the few demonstrators who vio-

C AR T O O N B Y B R E N T B R O W N late the law without the use of tear gas during an epidemic that very adversely affects the respiratory system. Why doesn’t the mayor step in and put a stop to Tear Gas Zack’s shameful injustice to the citizens of the great city of Asheville?

— James Shaughnessy Weaverville

Protesting is worth the risk I let my daughter go into Asheville [June 4] to join the protests. My husband did not want her to go because of the coronavirus. The system, he said, is broken. The risk was not worth it because nothing is going to change.

He may be right. The system certainly seems to be broken, and we have been through this before — many times.

I spent a few days in Alabama earlier this year retracing the path to civil rights forged and fought for during the 1960s. I walked the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and toured the lynching museum in Montgomery. It was heartbreaking to see the still obvious effects of racism and hate in these cities, but I also saw light. Alabama is still today visibly mired in its past — both economically and physically.

Shuttered and abandoned houses are everywhere. The depression that is a function of the deep-seated institu-

tionalized racism is very real. But, in acknowledging the past, it seems that these places could possibly, at some point, move forward.

Elsewhere in America, we pretend that we are beyond this, but it is this denial that allows the hate to persist.

Ahmaud Arbery is pursued and killed for jogging in a predominantly white neighborhood in Georgia. George Floyd is murdered in cold blood on film in Minneapolis by a man sworn to protect and serve. A white woman calls the cops on a black bird-watcher in New York City’s Central Park — knowing that she had the power to do so. Here in Asheville, the police destroyed a medic station set up to support protesters under the pretense of eliminating potential weapons (water bottles). This is not a world of love and compassion. It is a broken system fueled by fear and divisiveness.

This is why my daughter wanted to go downtown. She is 18. She believes that her world can be better and that she can make a difference. She wore her mask because that, too, is a sign of caring about others, and she stood at the base of the Vance Monument (a monument to a Confederate governor, itself a symbol of racism). She stood with other protesters and held a sign that read, “The brutality is not new, but the cameras are.” Pictures are proof. They are the shuttered houses

in Alabama that cannot be ignored.

They are power, but only if we have the conviction to demand answers and accountability from those who would alter the narrative.

That is why I let my daughter go to Asheville knowing the risk from the coronavirus. Because it is worth it. My family may worry about our safety for a few weeks, but others in this country worry every single day — pandemic or not.

— Erin Ingle Long Marshall

Water-gate weakens bond between police and community I stood at my Patton Avenue window on Tuesday night, June 2, and watched a team of police officers in riot gear attack hundreds of plastic water bottles with knives and boots.

Slashed and smashed bottles filled the sidewalk outside an aid station — a “medic area” designed as a safe space for injured protesters — in the alley between Farm Burger and Salsa’s.

A filament of water ran down Patton toward Lexington.

I had the experience then — an experience I imagine all of us have had when faced with behavior that seems

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OPINION

Send your letters to the editor to letters@mountainx.com.

to make no sense — of doubting what I was seeing. Surely, I thought, I’m missing something. Surely, there’s an explanation.

The explanations came next day from the Asheville police chief. First, protesters had been weaponizing water bottles, throwing them at officers. Second, officers were concerned about the risk of hidden “explosives.”

I know that bottles were flying on Monday night. One of those bottles slammed against my second-floor window.

Plastic water bottles may be, as weapons go, puny. But they can hurt. Nobody in a peaceful demonstration should be throwing anything at anyone.

As for the chief’s second concern, I’m troubled by the suggestion that the medical and health volunteers who staffed the aid station might have considered packing explosives among the parcels of bandages and water and antiseptics.

But water bottles and explosives weren’t the only things targeted by police in their Tuesday night attack on the aid station. It’s hard to imagine how bandages and saline solution could be weaponized, but they, too,

were destroyed. Or how the health and medical volunteers distributing supplies and offering aid — workers who were, according to one volunteer, “hit with shields” and “thrown to the ground” — could become threats.

In my nine years as a downtown resident, I’ve come to admire the Asheville police. I’ve seen their humane response to tragedy, their measured reply to misbehavior, their readiness — as Chief Zack demonstrated so well this week — to apologize when things go badly. But Tuesday night’s callous and brutish treatment of volunteers and their healing tools damages this history and weakens a bond that may be slow to mend. Asheville citizens — protester or not — want, I think, the same things our police officers want: to be free to help those who need our care, to be treated with respect, to not be seen as the enemy.

— Dan Foltz-Gray Asheville

A more diverse workforce would help In reference to statements luxury hotel owner Mr. John McKibbon is

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making about property damage downtown during recent police brutality protests: The damage to his hotel was really minor compared to many other places in the country [see Hotelier Says Officials Didn’t Stop “Vandals” in the June 4 Citizen Times].

I say this to McKibbon: I would like to see a list of everything you have done for the community in Asheville, especially the poor and African American ones. How many nonwhites work for you, especially in visible areas other than janitorial and room-cleaner jobs?

I have repeatedly said that many of those who make big bucks in downtown Asheville discriminate in hiring at hotels, bars and restaurants.

I believe that if you saw more nonwhites working in the high-end tourist business, especially downtown and in West Asheville, this would not have happened.

Please read the letters I have had published in Mountain Xpress about inequality in hiring in Asheville, and you will see I have been talking about this for many years and never saw much change from when I grew up in West Asheville.

— John Penley

Las Vegas Editor’s note: Penley’s March letter on the topic, “Shame on Asheville for Its Systemic Racism” can be found on the Xpress website at avl.mx/79r and his 2017 letter “Asheville Has Long History of Institutional Racism” can be found at avl.mx/79s.

We can afford Forever Free movement We folks who consider ourselves white or white-skinned need to donate a generation of support for all American people of color in the country. For all the generations of disentitlement from our public stores, so to speak, not to mention the centuries of cruelty, people of color, the poor and the marginalized remain outside the benefits of natural inheritance.

But now, there could be a reckoning of this debt, a powerful way to come to terms with some of the injuries that are still in need of healing. Maybe not your injury or my debt personally (or maybe yes), but whichever — gratefully giving in appreciation for all we have enjoyed and been allowed to own.

Free college. Free child care. Free health insurance. Forever Free could be the name of the movement. Locally, lowest interest rates, no fees on many ordinary things, no property tax and a free electric truck for each household.

If we can afford it, why wouldn’t we do it? Let’s start in Asheville and the surrounding area.

Sounds like the subject of a good debate. Anyone want to take it on?

And here’s an amazing quote from Wendell Berry in Adam Brock’s necessary book, Change Here Now: Permaculture Solutions for Personal and Community Transformation: “A crowd whose discontent has risen no higher than the level of slogans is only a crowd. But a crowd that understands the reasons for its discontent and knows the remedies is a vital community, and it will have to be reckoned with.”

Onward to remedies!

— Arjuna da Silva

Black Mountain

How riots help In bigger cities, destructive protests have materially helped the poor by distracting the cops while they looted from the rich, often without violence; but in Asheville, without much looting, I’m less clear on the material purpose of riots.

Targets of looting also have complications; for example, I heard a while back that, at the time, the average small business owner was richer than the average stockholder. Is this true now? It also takes quite an optimistic looter to attempt to take shop windows intact, though taking unburnt loot is more common, often leaving behind unburnt shelves.

So transfer Asheville Police Department funds to housing!

— Alan Ditmore Leicester

Save the Postal Service In my ignorance back in the mid’90s, I wrote Republican Sen. Lauch Faircloth to complain about our U.S. Postal Service and suggested it be privatized. How wrong I was, as I learned from the very courteous and thorough letter I received from Sen. Faircloth!

He explained that mail service was established by the Founding Fathers (Ben Franklin was the first postmaster) to facilitate communication among the citizenry and how essential this is to the functioning of democracy.

Privatization of the postal service would create separation from the citizenry it serves, undermine communication so essential to democracy and facilitate the movement to an authoritarian regime. Is this what we want? I fervently hope not.

A few years ago, I mailed a letter one morning at the Black Mountain

post office to an addressee in Black Mountain. It was delivered that afternoon! Now, a letter mailed in Asheville to a local addressee will typically be delivered two days later. Yes, the first example was unusual, but the second is the result of the Postal Service’s effort to streamline operations by routing Asheville mail to Greenville, S.C., for distribution. Thus, the fiscal constraints imposed by Congress on the Postal Service have necessitated worse service, for which consumer complaints should be directed to Congress, rather than the Postal Service.

— Bob Gunn Asheville

A saintly act of charity Grocery stores in Asheville and Hendersonville supply funding to schools for the purchasing of updated school technology. I wish grocery stores in Asheville and Hendersonville likewise would supply funding to the main homeless shelters in Asheville and Hendersonville to help these standalones remain in business and to continue to serve Asheville and Hendersonville’s poor!

Were Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity to open homeless shelters in Asheville and Brevard, grocery stores would make charitable donations to these Missionaries of Charity homeless shelters, both because it would be great PR for grocery stores, as well as to help these Missionaries of Charity homeless shelters stay in business and be able to continue to serve the poorest of the poor.

The main homeless shelters in Asheville and Hendersonville may not have a fancy name like Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity does, but they are the equivalent of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity because they likewise serve the poorest of the poor!

So I’m hoping that grocery stores in Asheville and Hendersonville will support them like they’d support a Mother Teresa Missionaries of Charity homeless mission were ones to open in Asheville and Hendersonville!

What could be a more saintly act of charity than helping a homeless shelter feed, clothe and shelter the poorest of the poor?

— Richard D. Pope Hendersonville

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NEWS

UNABLE TO PAY

Tenants worried as temporary evictions stay nears end

BY MOLLY HORAK mhorak@mountainx.com Stevie Littrell’s place is in boxes.

It’s hard to find anything in her three-bedroom apartment these days, she explains as she rummages through the containers, but she’s prepared. She’s packed away most of her essentials and valuables in case she needs to leave her home at Canterbury Heights Apartments with little notice.

Littrell has received three eviction notices in the past year. Because of a severe blood disease, she is unable to work; her husband, Darrell, lost his job as a car detailer when COVID-19 hit, forcing him to pick up as many hours working at Ingles Markets as he could. So far, they’ve scraped together the money to pay their $900 rent, but debt from Littrell’s medical bills hangs over their heads. If their case is brought to court and a judge forces them out of their home, Littrell says, she doesn’t know where they will go.

Over 9,000 eviction cases are pending in North Carolina courts. In March, responding to the economic impact of COVID-19, Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order prohibiting landlords from taking further action in the eviction of residential or commercial tenants for nonpayment. The order was set to expire on June 1; just two days before courts prepared to resume hearing eviction cases, N.C. Chief Justice Cheri Beasley issued a new order to stay all pending evictions until Sunday, June 21.

The last-minute decision grants a momentary reprieve for renters unsure where their next paycheck will come from. But fear and frustration cloud Littrell’s every step.

“The landlords don’t care,” Littrell says. “You’re finding out from everyone that’s calling about being evicted from their properties that the landlords are ignoring these moratoriums that have been put down statewide and nationally. It doesn’t matter to them. They just want their money. They don’t care if you have a roof over your head — if you don’t have the money for rent, then get out.”

8

JUNE 10-16, 2020

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READY TO GO: Stevie Littrell, who currently lives in a three-bedroom apartment at Canterbury Heights in West Asheville, has received three eviction notices in the past year. She’s not sure what will happen when the state’s moratorium on eviction proceedings is lifted. Photo by Molly Horak

TIED HANDS

The pandemic further upends an already unstable housing market for area renters. According to a regional housing needs assessment commissioned for the city of Asheville

by Bowen National Research, more than 17,000 renter households in Buncombe County — 46% of all county renters — are cost burdened, meaning they pay over 30% of their income toward housing costs. The report was revised on March 10, just days before the city and county declared coronavirus-related states of emergency.

In Buncombe County, 13,059 residents filed unemployment claims in April after losing a job to COVID-19, down slightly from 13,255 claims filed in March. But roughly a third of those who have filed for unemployment since the start of the pandemic

still haven’t received benefits, says Robin Merrell, a managing attorney at Pisgah Legal Services who oversees housing cases.

The Pisgah Legal team has been inundated with calls for assistance with housing, including tenants who aren’t sure what their rights are under new executive orders or whose landlords are threatening eviction measures outside of the court process. The nonprofit is only able to take 40% of cases during normal times, Merrell says, and right now, resources are stretched even thinner.

“What we’re seeing right now are people without the ability to pay, not sure what they’re going to do and not sure when things are going to change,” Merrell says. “The whole process, I think, has been just sort of fraught with anxiety and a lot of uncertainties.”

COME SEE US TODAY!

Pisgah Legal was expecting an onslaught of cases on June 1, when the first emergency order was set to expire. The new directives kick the ball just three weeks down the road, Merrell notes, but with some additional protections for tenants.

The latest order from Chief Justice Beasley directs state courts to create a new affidavit, which must be filed with any new eviction order, to certify the property is not subject to a federally subsidized lease. If the property is under a federal mortgage, it’s subject to a separate federal moratorium on evictions that lasts through Friday, July 24. The state is also working to develop a mediation program to resolve eviction orders.

But when eviction cases ultimately do make their way to the courtroom, the court “really has its hands tied,” Merrell says. “They can either say you owe nothing or you owe X amount and it’s all due right now.

It’s really negotiation between the parties that results in payment plans.

“I anticipate that without some change, many individuals are likely to become homeless,” Merrell continues. “I think that the ones who can will double up with family members, which is probably going to make tight living quarters tighter.

Without summer camp and school and people able to go into work, everyone’s going to be together all the time.”

‘WE’LL WORK WITH YOU’

Some landlords, including Tom Leslie of Leslie and Associates, recognize the enormous financial burdens facing renters. As soon as he realized the impacts of COVID-19 would be long-lasting, his company decided not to issue any evictions or late penalties for any of its 1,200 estimated rental units and defer rent as needed.

“Our biggest effort with all tenants who have been displaced jobwise has been to provide a list of all relief funds that would be available to them,” Leslie says. “And then their part is to work diligently to try and secure relief, one of the biggest ones being unemployment benefits, if eligible. We will support them and be patient with them, and they know they have a safe, secure place to live without being concerned about eviction.”

Bly Connor-Lloyd, owner and broker-in-charge at Property Management of Asheville, has also not filed any evictions during the pandemic. The majority of her ten-

ants have paid monthly rent on time, and her team is working closely with renters who don’t have the funds to pay right now. Some property owners have forgiven rent for a month or two, she explains, while others have knocked a few hundred dollars off the usual monthly rate.

Several of Connor-Lloyd’s tenants sought assistance from the One Buncombe Fund, a Buncombe County-initiated assistance program for individuals and businesses suffering from pandemic-related income loss. To date, the fund’s individual assistance program has approved $423,660.08 for 982 individuals, according to data updated daily by the county’s Department of Health and Human Services. More than $288,000 of this funding, or 68%, has gone to cover rent payments for Buncombe residents.

The decision to defer or forgive rent is partly strategic, Merrill says.

It’s a difficult time to try to re-rent a property, she explains, and it’s in the landlord’s best interests to work out a payment plan to get what money they can. Leslie agrees.

“We want our tenants back in their units when this contagion passes and they are able to get their jobs back or get new jobs. We couldn’t have had better tenants prior to the pandemic, and we want them when we come out of it on the other end,” Leslie says. “So from a human point of view, it’s been, obviously, a good policy, but from a business point of view, it’s also a very good policy.”

Property group, which she claims goes out of its way to limit transparency. She’s fought back over hidden fees, changes in billing and mistaken late payments.

Xpress reached out to ML Property via multiple phone calls and emailed requests for comment on Littrell’s claims but received no response.

Since the start of the pandemic, Littrell continues, she says she’s watched several families leave Canterbury Heights because of eviction notices, a lack of understanding of tenant rights and an unwillingness to put up with tactics she believes are meant to intimidate renters. She doesn’t know what’s going to happen if her own case is finally heard in court or when that might be.

“You keep seeing splashed all over the media, ‘We’re in this together,’” Littrell sighs. “Are we really? That’s my question: Are we really in this together? Or is it just a few of us standing up for a whole lot of us, who are willing to step out and say this is wrong, in the face of whatever may happen to us? If we’re really in this together, then it’s time for us to join hands and really be in it together.” X

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LIVING IN UNCERTAINTY

In her 20 years working as an attorney, Merrell has seen more proactive help for renters in the last few months than she has during any other time over her career. Yet she acknowledges the decisions facing renters remain staggering.

Her advice to clients is to access as many resources as possible. If they now qualify for food stamps and can use those to pay for groceries, thus saving grocery money for rent, Merrill suggests they do so. She tells them to be in constant conversations with landlords, stay informed about new assistance programs or moratorium extensions and check social media for additional resources.

But Littrell — who says she has been staying up to date on all things eviction-related and is working with Pisgah Legal for professional assistance — is tired. She’s watched as her apartment complex has changed ownership to Georgia-based ML MOUNTAINX.COM

JUNE 10-16, 2020

9

N EWS

by Daniel Walton

dwalton@mountainx.com

Dripping away As two states of emergency — the first to deal with COVID-19, the second with protests over police brutality — have disrupted business as usual in Asheville government, one part of the city’s business has remained relatively unaffected by the historic events. The city’s Water Resources Department continues to see consistent demand for its services, and because the department is funded by user fees instead of sales or property taxes, it won’t see much revenue loss from the ongoing economic recession.

What a viral pandemic and sustained civil unrest couldn’t touch, however, the lawyers have.

Two lawsuits filed in 2018, both of which were scheduled to reach final settlements on June 8, challenged some of the fees Asheville has used to raise money for repairs and updates to the water system. Together, the settlements could have the city pay nearly $2 million to dismiss claims that those fees were charged illegally.

But that immediate expense is just the start of the lawsuits’ fiscal implications. As part of the settlements, Asheville has agreed not to charge water users a monthly capital fee for up to five years starting in fiscal year 2020-21. That fee is projected to raise over $7.4 million in the current fiscal year; assuming similar revenues would have been collected through 2025, the total loss to the city could be as much as $37 million.

Despite this revenue reduction, Asheville officials have said that spending on the water system will continue as previously planned. The money will have to be raised another way, likely by increases on water consumption charges — and it’s unclear if residents will end up footing more of a bill that had been largely supported by commercial water users.

MAKING WAVES

Both lawsuits stem from a 2016 case decided by the N.C. Supreme Court, Quality Built Homes Inc. v.

SERIES OF TUBES: Repairs to Asheville’s water system, such as this project on Bee Tree Creek, have been funded largely through a monthly capital fee that the city now will not be permitted to charge. Photo courtesy of the city of Asheville Town of Carthage. As outlined by Kara Millonzi, a professor with the UNC School of Government, the court ruled that municipalities did not have the power to charge “impact fees” for water and sewer systems.

Such fees are designed to recoup the cost of infrastructure investments from the users that most directly benefit from those public projects.

Subsequent to that ruling, Raleigh-based law firm Whitfield Bryson LLP began a campaign of class-action lawsuits across North Carolina seeking judgements against cities and towns that had charged impact fees. According to reporting by Wilmington’s Port City Daily, Whitfield Bryson filed at least 10 such suits, including the two in Asheville.

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Asheville water fees hit legal challenges

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Whitfield Bryson lawyer Hunter Bryson says his firm had employees working remotely in Asheville at the time of the lawsuits and actively attracted plaintiffs through “ethically approved solicitation letters.”

The firm’s final attorneys’ fees had not been determined as of press time, but the North Carolina Home Builders Association estimates that fees in similar cases account for around 25% of total settlements, or roughly $500,000 between the two Asheville cases.

Asheville resident Gwen Alexander, named as the plaintiff in the lawsuit over the monthly capital fee, confirms that Whitefield Bryson initiated contact with her regarding legal action against the city. While she notes that her part in the proceedings is over, she’s pleased with the outcome of the suit: “If they were getting money they weren’t supposed to be getting, and they’re going to stop that, then that makes me happy,” she says.

Ed Holland, owner of Ed Holland Builders in Fletcher, is a named plaintiff in Whitfield Bryson’s other

Asheville lawsuit, which concerns the fees assessed for connecting a new development to the water system. He says those fees drove up his home construction costs, which in turn raised the price he had to charge buyers.

“Anything that increases the construction cost makes the home less affordable,” Holland says. “If it’s a $1,000 fee, it adds $1,000 to the cost of the house: It’s just pure and simple mathematics.”

Bryson says that Holland and Greg Phillips, who owns Asheville-based Mayfair Partners, could receive yetto-be determined service awards for agreeing to be named in the case, as well as 58% of the development fees they paid on homes constructed between October 2015 and June 2018.

Nearly 1,000 other class members could file for compensation out of a $1.85 million fund through October, Bryson continues, but only 60 have so far.

Alexander may also receive a service award for being named in the capital fee case. Other members of that suit’s class, Bryson says, “will

benefit from the settlement by ceasing to pay capital fees on their water bills if approved.”

STRATEGIC RETREAT

Even while agreeing to the settlements, the city has insisted that its fees were in compliance with the law. Brad Branham, Asheville’s city attorney, says that all water fees were reviewed immediately after the 2016 Carthage ruling and found to be “justifiable and legally supported, a position that the city continues to maintain.” (Branham, who has represented Asheville since April 2019, was not present during those initial discussions.)

When the lawsuits came in 2018, Branham continues, Asheville defended its position. The city entered mediation with the plaintiffs in November 2019; when those efforts proved unsuccessful, he says, negotiations continued to reach a settlement instead of going to trial.

“The city felt confident that its fees were legally valid; however there is always a risk that a court could find otherwise. The two cases referenced here could have carried liability for the city in excess of $30 million,” Branham explains. “This would be in addition to the ongoing costs to continue litigation. In consideration of all these factors, it was the determination of the City Council that these settlements were in the best interests of the city’s budget and taxpayer funds.”

The settlements do protect the city against any further claims regarding its capital and development fees.

Branham notes that the development fee is additionally protected by a state law, passed in 2018, that explicitly grants municipalities the power to collect a “system development fee.”

However, the General Assembly has not yet passed legislation to specifically allow the capital fee. The settlement states that Asheville can begin collecting the fee again immediately if the state does pass such a law. Otherwise, the fee can resume in fiscal year 2025-26.

MAINTAINING THE FLOW

In the immediate future, Asheville plans to pay for the settlements and replace the lost capital fee revenue from its Water Capital Fund reserves. In the budget proposed by City Manager Debra Campbell for fiscal year 2020-21, the city would tap that fund balance by nearly $9.36

million; publicly available city financial documents do not indicate how much is available in that fund, and city Chief Financial Officer Barbara Whitehorn had not provided the current total by press time.

David Melton, the city’s water resources director, says that no capital projects planned for the next fiscal year will be delayed due to the settlements. Nearly $13.62 million in spending is budgeted, including close to $4.96 million for replacing small water lines, $4 million for projects tied to the N.C. Department of Transportation and $2.1 million for projects at the city’s water treatment plants.

Moving forward, however, Asheville will need to replace the lost revenue in a more sustainable way.

Melton says that the city has paid $30,000 to Charlotte-based Raftelis Financial Consultants for a study of water consumption charges but that “it is too early in the process for any results.”

Unless managed carefully, these changes could place more of the burden of maintaining the system on average citizens. The canceled capital fees were much larger for commercial users than for single-family residences: last year, a user with a 10-inch meter paid $1,741.59 per month toward system upkeep, while a resident with a standard ⅝ -inch meter paid just $4.26 monthly. Asheville spokesperson Polly McDaniel said city staff could not determine what percentages of overall fee revenue came from charges on different meter sizes.

In contrast, commercial users currently receive a discount on their consumption charges for using more water. Residents pay a flat charge of $4.21 per hundred cubic feet; commercial users are charged $2.21-$3.56 per CCF, while manufacturers pay as little as $2.02 per CCF. These challenges come after a difficult year for the water system’s infrastructure. Thousands of customers were left without water or under boil water advisories due to line breaks in April 2019, while in March of this year, the city budgeted $473,000 for emergency repairs to the North Fork Water Treatment Plant.

But Holland, the plaintiff in the development fee lawsuit, isn’t concerned about the city’s ability to meet the need. “They will maintain the water system, with the fee or without it,” he says. “If they have to raise the rates, I guess they can do it, but they have to do it in a legal manner.” X

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SLICING THE PIE: Education represents the single biggest expense in Buncombe County’s proposed fiscal year 2020-21 budget, at a cost of more than $91.68 million. Graphic courtesy of Buncombe County Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder garnered high praise from county commissioners as she presented her fiscal year 2020-21 budget proposal. “To keep the [property tax rate] flat at 52.9 [cents per $100 of valuation], with municipalities struggling to do that — I think the word my grandson would use is ‘awesome,’” said Commissioner Joe Belcher, during a June 2 meeting of the board.

But that success comes at a price, both in terms of delayed opportunities to invest in Buncombe’s services and in substantial spending from the county’s fiscal reserves.

The proposed general fund budget of nearly $335.65 million marks a 1.1% decrease from the current fiscal year’s $339.46 million total. To support those expenditures, the county would use more than $11.33 million of its fund balance, down roughly 23% from the $14.79 million in reserves spent this year.

Pinder explained that her approach to the budget was driven primarily by the coronavirus pandemic and its uncertain economic effects. She noted that the proposed budget had been reduced by more than $25 million, or 7%, from the initial staff request of $360.88 million.

“We were eagerly anticipating a budget process where we could focus on addressing much-needed

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infrastructure and staffing,” Pinder said of her goals at the start of the year. “However, with the descent of COVID-19 in our country and our community, coupled with the realization that this crisis would be long term with significant impacts on our economy and our revenues, we revisited our budget planning.”

Omitted from the proposed budget were 23 new county staff positions that had been recommended in the first pass, including 11 library workers, six paramedics, an internal auditor, a technical specialist for Election Services and an evidence and property technician for the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office. Pinder suggested that some of these positions could be filled if next year’s revenues came in higher than projected.

The county would still add 11 new staffers supported by the general fund: six paramedics, three 911 telecommunicators, a public health nurse and a part-time EMS medical director. Justice Services would add a grant-funded position, while Solid Waste would add five new employees supported by revenues from the county landfill and transfer station.

Also cut from the budget were numerous “pay-as-you-go” capital projects, such as design services for the Woodfin Greenway and Blueway and HVAC automation for the Buncombe County Detention Center.

The county would forgo a $400,000 comprehensive plan and would not commit any money toward rooftop solar power, for which it issued a joint request for proposals with Asheville city government and local schools in April.

Buncombe’s fund balance spending is projected to leave the county with over $55.86 million in reserves, or 16.6% of the general fund total.

County policy is to maintain a fund balance of at least 15%, a target meant to protect core services against unanticipated emergencies or revenue declines.

“A lot of counties in the state would love to be where we are now,” said Commissioner Al Whitesides about the budget proposal. “Sure, we can’t satisfy everybody — it’s unfortunate. But we’ve done a good job.”

Members of the public can offer comment on the budget (no more than 350 words) through 5 p.m.

Monday, June 15, via email at comment@BuncombeCounty.org or by phone at 828-250-6500. The board is also planning an opportunity for in-person comment, in compliance with COVID-19 social distancing guidelines, at its 5 p.m. meeting on Tuesday, June 16. The full budget may be accessed at avl.mx/78o.

— Daniel Walton X

Religious leaders, officials stand together

COME TOGETHER: On June 4, several local religious leaders and city officials came together on Church Street for Prayer in Action: A Gathering of Solidarity for Peace and Justice. Photo by Thomas Calder With the chiming of church bells behind him, the Rev. John H. Grant, pastor of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, offered opening remarks at the Prayer in Action: A Gathering of Solidarity for Peace and Justice on Church Street June 4.

“We stand in prayer and solidarity against all forms of lawlessness and violence, whether it’s the lawlessness and violence of rioters and looters or the police officers who engage in police brutality such as that recently committed against a black man named George Floyd in Minneapolis,” Grant told the crowd of roughly 250 people.

“We stand in prayer and solidarity in [our] disappointment toward those who are outraged at those who riot and loot but remain silent toward the rioting, looting and public lynching of a black man by police officers in broad daylight,” Grant continued. “It was a public lynching. A lynching is a lynching whether it’s a noose or a knee, as it prevents another human being from breathing.”

Several other local religious leaders and public officials spoke at the event, including the Rev. L.C. Ray, pastor of the WNC Baptist Fellowship Church, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, Buncombe County Commissioner Al Whitesides, Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller and Bishop José McLoughlin of the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina.

“When an officer acts in a way that clearly violates the law, as with the death of Mr. George Floyd, they must be held accountable,” Miller told the

audience. “I ask today, please hold us accountable. I ask today, please help us in fixing what’s wrong.”

To accomplish this, the sheriff continued, “we must have people at the table at the beginning, not at the end. … You need to be a part of the solution and the resolution of this.”

Miller concluded his address by reminding the audience that many law enforcement officers were also hurting due to recent events. “Don’t think that all of us are the same, and don’t think that all of us look at [the death of George Floyd] and don’t see the problem with it,” he said. “Don’t think that they don’t have their own personal feelings about what happened.

Some of this is us having to be a part of a system, but that’s what has to be addressed: the system. And you have to help us address the system.”

Whitesides echoed Miller’s words about holding officials accountable.

“You’ve got to come to us and tell us what’s needed if we’re not doing our job,” he said. “And also, you’ve got to show up at the polls. If we don’t do our job, kick us out and bring new people in.”

The event concluded with a march on Pack Square Park, where the Rev. Robbie J. Williams, assistant pastor of WNC Baptist Fellowship Church, led the crowd in the singing of “He’s an On Time God, Yes He Is.” That same evening, local religious leaders stood again in solidarity in front

of the Asheville Police Department on Pack Square.

— Thomas Calder X

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COVID CONVERSATIONS

FEA T U RE S

In this week’s COVID Conversations, Xpress spoke with two members of the local African American community about how the confluence of the coronavirus pandemic and anger over the killing of George Floyd by police is affecting them and their communities.

And we talked with local actor and server Horus Runako about how the reopening transition is going at Wicked Weed, where he’s worked for nearly two years. X

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Local Matters

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JUNE 10-16, 2020

‘Why is being black such a bad thing?’

J Hackett on wounds old and new J Hackett, the former executive director of the nonprofit Green Opportunities and now the pastor of New Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church, has confronted the legacy and ongoing reality of systemic racism in Asheville for over 20 years.

He sits on the community engagement committee of Buncombe County’s Safety and Justice Challenge, an initiative to reduce the county’s jail population. The two-year, $1.75 million effort is funded by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Hackett spoke with Xpress on June 2 about his experiences as a black community leader during the coronavirus pandemic and, now, the protests and grief experienced locally in response to George Floyd’s death on May 25 at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis. His remarks below have been edited for length and clarity.

COVID-19 has shaken our entire world, but in the black and brown communities, we feel the presence of this pandemic in a disproportionate way. The science already says that people are disproportionately affected. The reality on the streets is that people are having to address fears all over again.

In one conversation, we found that residents in housing authority [neighborhoods] were going outside and congregating. It was not within the protocols that were set.

And one community member said, “We finally have the chance to be at home. We live so close together, we’re like family.

We’re not mixing with strangers, we’re mixing with what we consider our nuclear family.”

In black and brown communities, we find solidarity in celebrations, in congregating with each other and in playing together — no different than any other family.

And now, George Floyd.

After we figured out how to support each other, how to bridge gaps in resources, how to take care of each other and observe physical distancing, then this thing happens.

This white cop murders a black man, and it hits home so much because — and I can only speak for me and my experience — in our communities, we know that the majority of our black men are court-involved.

On boards like the Buncombe County Safety and Justice Challenge, we’re working on systems-level change. We’re applying for national grants and are part of national movements, but while we’re doing this, something else comes. It’s like we’re

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IS ANYBODY LISTENING? When J Hackett learned of George Floyd’s agonizing death at the hands of fired Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, he wondered whether all the time he’s spent in meetings pushing for reform has really made a difference. Photo courtesy of Hackett trying to seal one crack, and another crack opens up.

When does it end? Why is being black such a bad thing? We understand that we’re in a broken system. Asheville is a beautiful place; we have all the pieces, and we’re trying to connect the dots. And while we’re connecting the dots and this happened, it just exposes a cancer in our society. And it’s sad and it’s scary and we cry about it and we fuss about it and we talk about it and we march about it.

George Floyd, it pulls out years of trying — and it’s not working. And for those of us that are on the front line, we are wondering: When we go to these meetings, are people even listening? When we set up these programs, are they even working?

I’m part of a group of black male leaders that are trying to create economic reform for our young people. But as we’re doing that and we’re preparing people to study, be yourself, be professional, look right, sound right, dress right, talk right, etc., we have to wonder: Those are things that we can control, but what about the stuff we cannot control?

George Floyd, he was compliant. He was doing what he was asked to do. And that still wasn’t enough?

I was raised by a single mom, and part of my upbringing was about how the society sees you as a black man. We have a whole different set of rules on how we’re supposed to interact. How to, when to, why to express our blackness — and when we’re supposed to conceal it.

I’m a parent to a black son, and I have to talk to him about how he’s perceived. That doesn’t feel good, to have to just tell him: This is how the world is.

I was reminded on Sunday of Emmett Till. Maybe the brutality was not exactly the same, but for years and years and years, black people have been being killed at the hands of white people, and we say it’s illegal, but so often the officers don’t even get charged. We have, even in our community, Johnnie Rush, who was beaten. Thank God he wasn’t killed. But who’s to say it couldn’t happen in Asheville?

These things create tension. On one side of that tension is solidarity. Black and brown people, our communities, our allies, are coming together to support each other.

On the other side, there is the very real fear.

We appreciate the white allies that come and walk with us and use their privilege to say, “Do not do this to our neighbors.”

That feels good. And we know that, if the community is going to change, it requires everybody.

But we need that to translate into a system change: What is Buncombe County going to do in response? What are our significant senior leaders going to do in response? What’s going to happen in response to this?

Do not just let us march and nothing happens. What are you willing to do? What resources are going to be reallocated?

Policing is how our black people enter into the system. We would like for police to look at us differently. With the Safety and Justice Challenge Grant, we have been challenging some of the reasons that people are getting citations and tickets.

We do have the right pieces, but we have to translate it. And there are a few power brokers in the city and county that are just holding the keys and keeping the door closed. It’s only a few, and we’re advocating for that to change.

It’s a vicious cycle. Sadly, we’ve lived it all of our lives. And then this George Floyd thing happens, and it’s like it throws us back in time.

It’s trauma, and not just for people of color. It’s also the trauma that’s experienced by white people. As they experience their privilege and they see people that they care about, they realize: I don’t live that same life, but I care. There’s a way to address it together.

— Interview by Virginia Daffron X

Beyond protest

Restaurant rush

Aisha Adams on doing the work during a pandemic

Servers adjust to new protocols as restaurants reopen to customers

Entrepreneur Aisha Adams has kept a lot of plates spinning during the coronavirus pandemic — which isn’t unusual for the business coach, blogger, media personality, educator, parent and speaker. And until a few days ago, when she recorded a new episode of her online talk show The Asheville View for the first time in several months, Adams had been doing it all without leaving her South Asheville home except to go to the grocery store.

But Adams’ husband, Rafrica Adams, works at local television station WLOS News 13 and has been leaving home throughout the pandemic. When one of his co-workers got sick, Rafrica and Aisha decided to socially distance from their 18-yearold son, Dorian, who has Type 1 diabetes. That meant not using the kitchen at the same time and making sure Dorian’s dog stayed with him in his room rather than having the run of the house. After four days, the co-worker’s COVID-19 test result came back negative, and family life resumed a more normal rhythm.

One of Adams’ key roles is connecting people in the black and brown communities to business resources. As local initiatives such as the Buncombe County Tourism Jobs Recovery Fund (fueled by revenue from the lodging occupancy tax) and the One Buncombe Fund (underwritten by local governments and donations) took shape, she was dismayed to see that the programs’ criteria didn’t fit many business owners of color.

“If you notice, black people will partner, but most of the time, each one of them is a separate business,” she says, pointing out that 95% of African American-owned companies have only one employee. “That’s just how we roll. That’s our culture.”

But to qualify for grants or funding under the rules of the local programs, Adams continues, businesses must have a certain number of full-time employees. Adapting those criteria with an eye to equity, she says, would mean recognizing that, “People in black and brown communities, we have a different culture.

POINT OF VIEW: Among Aisha Adams’ initiatives is the Equity Over Everything social enterprise, whose mission is to “advance equity by closing the gaps in social equity, entrepreneurship and homeownership within low-resource communities across the South.” Photo courtesy of Adams We don’t even think, ‘Oh, let me get an employee.’”

As community members of all backgrounds protest George Floyd’s killing at the hand of police, she says, “I just want people to remember Black Lives Matter is not just about the dead, but it’s also about the living.

“I didn’t see people up in arms that the tourism fund didn’t include people of color.”

— Virginia Daffron X

There was trepidation and adjustment among the staff at Wicked Weed Brewing as the brewery’s flagship brewpub reopened to dine-in customers on May 23. But the overwhelming feeling was one of unity and community, explains Horus Runako, a server and bartender who is nearing two years working at Wicked Weed’s Biltmore Avenue location.

His job didn’t stop in quarantine.

When Gov. Roy Cooper ordered restaurants to cease all in-person dining in mid-March, Runako began assisting with Wicked Weed’s to-go food and beer delivery. The distraction was nice — there wasn’t much going on at home, he says, and the opportunity to earn some extra money sweetened the deal.

When he’s not working as a server, Runako is an actor. He’s landed roles on the Oprah TV show Greenleaf, the TV show Manhunt, and he recently did a commercial for Champion Credit Union. Because of the pandemic, most productions are on hold, making auditions hard to come by.

The first night the brewpub reopened was intense, he recalls. In an effort to mitigate as much direct contact as possible, Wicked Weed is now using an online menu that customers can access by scanning a QR code on their phones.

When it’s time to pay the bill, customers scan a different QR code that directs them to a digital payment screen.

“As a busy server, I’m constantly running around in a scramble trying to keep everything organized. Sometimes, you just forget to pick up a check,” Runako says. “It’s strange, in this attempt to make things safer, they’re doing all of these things to increase efficiency and take steps to help service run smoother.”

Now, more than two weeks after the initial rush to get back to a restaurant, Runako sees customers searching for a return to normalcy, one beer at a time.

COMMUNITY UNITY: In the two weeks since Wicked Weed reopened for in-person dining, server Horus Runako has watched customers enjoy a slow return to normalcy. New safety measures have been an adjustment to staff but will ultimately help the brewpub run more efficiently. Photo courtesy of Horus Runako “There’s this general air of timid optimism that I’m seeing, including among co-workers,” he explains. “It’s the beginning of summer and people just seem happy to be out of their house. Being stuck in quarantine really took a toll on everyone, and there’s this sense of people coming together after a time of trauma. People are willing to wait an hour because they really want to drink a beer and have a conversation and be social.”

— Molly Horak X

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JUNE 10-16, 2020

15

F E AT UR E S

ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES

by Thomas Calder | tcalder@mountainx.com

‘Tower of strength’ The Asheville Orthopedic Home takes charge during the 1948 polio outbreak

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ONGOING LEGACY: Since its launch in 1939, the Asheville Orthopedic Home has changed names several times and expanded its mission over the decades. In 1996, it relaunched as CarePartners. The site’s original building — the former Clyde Reed mansion — remains in use today as the organization’s administration building. Photo courtesy of CarePartners

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In the summer of 1948, as the number of polio cases continued to climb in the area, infected children throughout the region were sent to the Asheville Orthopedic Home on Sweeten Creek Road (today’s CarePartners). During the early stages of the health crisis, reporter Clarence R. Sumner played a crucial role in promulgating the center’s efforts and needs.

On July 11, his article in the Sunday edition of the Asheville Citizen Times examined the emerging financial strains placed upon the hospital as it hired additional doctors and staff to combat the outbreak. In the piece, Sumner speaks with Frank Barber, chair of the organization’s finance committee, who declared: “If the people of Western North Carolina could walk with me through the Orthopedic home and see those brave, smiling little faces, I know we would have funds aplenty. Courage like that cannot be ignored because it has something of the splendor of eagles.”

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SEE WEBSITE FOR CURRENT HOURS & UPDATES 743 HAYWOOD RD | 828-575-2737 16

JUNE 10-16, 2020

Taking Barber’s suggestion to heart, Sumner brought readers along

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for a tour of the facility in the following day’s paper. “There is an air of quiet efficiency,” he writes. “No frenzied excitement or dashing about is in evidence, but there is plenty of hard determination.”

Along with its two wards, which could house 55 patients, Sumner reported that 15 new beds had been added to the site’s regular clinic room, in addition to 30 more beds in a temporary hospital tent.

Later in the article, Sumner describes donning a sterile white gown before entering one of the area’s isolation wards. Inside, he describes young patients receiving plasma transfusions and oxygen. At the time there was no known cure for polio.

However, Sumner points out, “The people of Western North Carolina can rest assured that the treatment technique at the home is modern, rigid and in about 85 per cent of the cases completely effective.”

Praise for the institution continued in a July 13 editorial, wherein The Asheville Citizen describes the center as “a tower of strength” and “the best home for the afflicted patients.”

By July 14, 1948, community members and organizations were sending in checks to show their support. The local police union offered the first donation of $100 (roughly $1,070 in today’s dollars). But it was a smaller, anonymous $6 contribution — signed “A Mother” — that made the biggest impression on Barber, who told the paper: “That gift represents the spirit that has motivated those who have been striving to build the home’s facilities and staff to where it would be strong enough to meet the impact of this emergency situation. They have given unstintingly of their time and efforts and the fact that the home now stands as a refuge for all stricken children in this mountain area is in itself a monument to their efforts.”

Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series exploring the 1948 polio outbreak. Previous articles can be found at avl.mx/760 and avl.mx/77k.

Punctuation and spelling are preserved from the original documents. X

COMMUNITY CALENDAR JUNE 10 - 18, 2020

CALENDAR GUIDELINES For a full list of community calendar guidelines, please visit mountainx.com/calendar. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, ext.

137. For questions about paid calendar listings, please call 828-251-1333, ext. 320.

MUSIC A CAPELLA SINGING (PD.) WANNA SING? ashevillebarbershop. com WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 • Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: Bardic Alchemy (progressive Celtic fusion). 7pm, avl.mx/77f • Singer/Songwriter Night at The Grey Eagle: Livestream.

7pm, avl.mx/78e THURSDAY, JUNE 11 • Grass at the Funk: The Saylor Brothers (bluegrass). 2pm, The Funkatorium • Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs (folk, rock, Americana).

7pm, Oklawaha Brewing Co., 147 1st Ave. E, Hendersonville • Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: Pleasure Chest (rock, blues). 7pm, avl.mx/77f • Natural Born Leaders at The Grey Eagle (rock, jazz, hip-hop): Livestream.

7pm, avl.mx/78f • Posey Piano Hour: Livestream. 7pm, avl.mx/79l • Come Together Asheville Benefit Concert: Livestream.

7:30pm, avl.mx/774 FRIDAY, JUNE 12 • Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: Anthony Wayne Vibe.

7pm, avl.mx/77f • Bad Molly at The Grey Eagle (psychedelic, country): Livestream. 7pm, avl.mx/78g • Jackson Grimm Band (bluegrass).

8pm, 185 King Street, Brevard • DJ Kilby Spinning Vinyl. 10pm, Ben’s Tune Up SATURDAY, JUNE 13 • AstroSauce (progressive, classic rock). 6pm, The Funkatorium

• Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: Hustle Souls (rock, soul). 7pm, avl.mx/77f • White Horse Livestream: The Riccardis (comedy cabaret).

8pm, avl.mx/77z • The Singing OUT Tour Livestream: Heather Mae & Crys Matthews. 8:30pm, avl.mx/792 • ODDBangers Ball Livestream, Episode 2: Red Dwarf (metal).

9pm, avl.mx/78h SUNDAY, JUNE 14 • Grant Peeples does Bob Dylan: Livestream. 7pm, avl.mx/77x MONDAY, JUNE 15 • Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: Marcel Anton (jazzfunk fusion). 7pm, avl.mx/77y TUESDAY, JUNE 16 • Michael Flynn at The Grey Eagle (folk): Livestream. 7pm, avl.mx/78i • Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: Sister Ivy (R&B, soul).

7pm, avl.mx/77y WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 • Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: Asheville Circus (electronic, Americana).

7pm, avl.mx/77y • Lucky James (soul, Americana). 8pm, The Root Bar, 1410 Tunnel Rd. • Double Crown Western Weds Livestream: Hearts Gone South (country). 9pm, avl.mx/794 THURSDAY, JUNE 18 • Grass at the Funk: The Saylor Brothers (bluegrass). 2pm, The Funkatorium • Quarantine Concert Series Livestream: Andrew Thelston Band (rock). 7pm, avl.mx/77y • Dennis Carbone (folk, acoustic). 8pm, The Root Bar, 1410 Tunnel Rd.

FRIDAY, JUNE 19 • DJ Kilby Spinning Vinyl. 10pm, Ben’s Tune Up

ART WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 • Fringe Digital Summer Vol. 1: Online arts festival. 7:30pm, Free, avl.mx/78z FRIDAY, JUNE 12 • Slow Art Friday: Depression-Era Prints from the collection.

Docent-led virtual conversation on artworks at Asheville Art Museum. 12pm, Free, avl.mx/776 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 • A Conversation w/ author Marilyn Chase on artist Ruth Asawa.

12pm, Free, Online, avl.mx/76d FRIDAY, JUNE 19 • Slow Art Friday: Self-Taught Artists.

Docent-led virtual conversation on artworks at Asheville Art Museum. 12pm, Free, avl.mx/791

ART/CRAFT STROLLS & FAIRS SATURDAY, JUNE 13 • River Arts District Second Saturday: Gallery walks and open studios. 11am, Free, Depot St. • Odyssey Second Saturday Celebrations: Food, music and artist demonstrations. 11am, Free, Odyssey Cooperative Art Gallery, 238 Clingman Ave.

SPOKEN & WRITTEN WORD WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 • Authors in Conversation: Jewell Parker Rhoades & Kelly McWilliams.

3pm, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/781 • Sovereign Kava presents Poetry Open Mic. 8:30pm, Free, Online, avl.mx/76w THURSDAY, JUNE 11 • Author T.J. Klune presents The Extraordinaries. 4pm, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/782

• True Home Open Mic Night: For singers, speakers and readers. 6pm, Free, Flood Gallery Fine Art Center, 850 Blue Ridge Rd., Black Mountain MONDAY, JUNE 15 • Author Howard Blum presents Night of the Assassins.

6pm, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/783 TUESDAY, JUNE 16 • Author Frances Mayes presents Always Italy w/ Ondine Cohane. 3pm, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/784

THEATER & FILM WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 • Fine Arts Theatre presents Chasing the Present: Live Virtual Screening & PostFilm Conversation.

7pm, Registration required, $10, avl.mx/79m FRIDAY, JUNE 12 • Cider Cinema Screening: The Little Rascals. 8:30pm, Bold Rock Hard Cider, 72 School House Rd., Mills River WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 • X Minus One: The Hostess. Performance of the classic sci-fi radio drama. 8pm, The Paper Mill Lounge, 553 W Main St., Sylva

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 • Financial Planning 101: College Planning Essentials webinar w/ Bray Creech. 7:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/79t

a Resource or a Liability in the Crisis?

4pm, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/79q WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 • Financial Planning 101: Retirement Planning webinar w/ Bray Creech. 7:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/79t

CLASSES, MEETINGS & EVENTS Empyrean Arts Online Live Classes (PD.) The physical studio is closed for now but we are offering some of our regular class offerings online - Go to our website at EMPYREANARTS. ORG, create a new student account, then purchase and sign up for classes.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 • MountainTrue presents Building Our City: Urban Design Webinar w/ Richard Jackson. 4pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/79n • Blue Ridge Public Radio Presents NPR’s David Greene in Conversation. 7pm, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/xmasjaz SATURDAY, JUNE 13 • Solidarity Peace Walk. 12pm, 76 Railroad Ave., Sylva

ECO THURSDAY, JUNE 11 • Asheville GreenWorks presents The Story of Plastic: Q&A Panel Discussion.

Experts discuss moving away from single-use plastics.

6pm, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/78u THURSDAY, JUNE 18 • Land Innovation: Modeling Conservation & Climate Action for a Changing World. Webinar on regenerative agriculture by Dave Ellum.

2:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/779

FARM & GARDEN SATURDAY, JUNE 13 • Pollination Celebration Workshop: Certify your Pollinator Garden w/ Ruth Gonzalez.

10am, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/77a WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 • Polk County Friends of Agriculture Breakfast. 7am, Green Creek Community Center, 25 Shields Rd., Columbus

FOOD & BEER ONGOING • ASAP Farmers Market at A-B Tech.

Saturdays, 9am, 340 Victoria Rd. THURSDAY, JUNE 11 • Fairview Welcome Table Community Lunch. 2nd Thursdays, 11:30am, Admission by donation, 596 Old US Hwy 74, Fairview • The Black Jar International Honey Tasting Contest: Cocktail event with live music, honey tastings and a

silent auction. 6pm, Asheville Renaissance Hotel TUESDAY, JUNE 16 • MANNA FoodBank Distribution. 2:30pm, Leicester Community Center WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 • Leicester Welcome Table Community Meal. 11:30am, Leicester Community Center

FESTIVALS FRIDAY, JUNE 12 • SeekHealing presents We Are The Medicine: Online festival. 4pm, Free, SeekHealing.org FRIDAY, JUNE 19 • Downtown After 5 Livestream featuring Asheville-area bands.

5pm, avl.mx/790

KIDS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 • Miss Malaprop’s Storytime Livestream.

10am, avl.mx/73b SATURDAY, JUNE 13 • St. George’s Community Chalk Day: Ultimate hopscotch and long-jump competition. 9am, 1 School Rd.

OUTDOORS ONGOING • Madison County BioBlitz: Citizen science project cataloguing the region’s biodiversity. Online, avl.mx/767 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10 • Annual Animal Birthday Party: Day

of events honoring the animals of the area. 11am, Grandfather Mountain, 2050 Blowing Rock Hwy, Linville SATURDAY, JUNE 13 • Virtual Forest Bathing & Nature Therapy. 9am, GoFINDOutdoors.org TUESDAY, JUNE 16 • MountainTrue Forest Plan Panel Discussion: Outdoor recreation. 5:30pm, Online, avl.mx/79f

SPIRITUALITY Astro-Counseling (PD.) Licensed counselor and accredited professional astrologer uses your chart when counseling for additional insight into yourself, your relationships and life directions. Stellar Counseling Services.

Christy Gunther, MA, LPC. (828) 258-3229.

ONGOING • Weekly Online Stream: Jewish Power Hour w/ Rabbi Susskind. Thursdays, 6pm, chabadasheville.org

VOLUNTEERING Free Books through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library!

(PD.) All children under the age of five are eligible to receive a brand-new, age-appropriate book each month mailed directly to their home. Enroll online/more info at www.litcouncil.com or imaginationlibrary. com. Free.

THURSDAY, JUNE 11 • AIGA Asheville presents Business as UNusual: Marketing during COVID-19.

11:45am, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/79p TUESDAY, JUNE 16 • SCORE: Choice of Business Entity Seminar w/ Don Nalley.

11:30am, Registration required, Free, Online, avl.mx/785 • AIGA Asheville presents Designer’s Paradox: Are you

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JUNE 10-16, 2020

17

WELLNESS

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St. Gerard House seeks to expand local autism services

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JUNE 10-16, 2020

BY LESLIE BOYD leslie.boyd@gmail.com For the nearly 500 families served

by St. Gerard House, more space would be welcome. And, if it wouldn’t be too much to ask, a more compact campus would make life easier.

This is the beginning of a wish list that’s just being assembled by the staff and board of the Hendersonvillebased facility, which offers intensive education and therapy to help children on the autism spectrum realize their potential.

“We’re just at the very, very baby stage of this,” says Julia Buchanan, the organization’s development director.

This first stage, funded by a $45,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Henderson County, will fund a feasibility study, says Maurean Adams, chair of the strategic planning committee. “We’re following in the footsteps of other groups who have done this already,” she notes. “ABC of NC built an $8 million campus two years ago in Winston-Salem.”

Adams doesn’t know yet how much St. Gerard House will need to raise, or even what a new campus would look like; at this point the focus is on identifying funders and figuring out exactly how the organization will look once the campaign is finished.

“We’re looking at several years to do this,” she explains.

The center now operates out of four buildings on the campus of Immaculata Catholic School, plus two more buildings off campus; Executive Director Caroline Long and other staffers hope a capital campaign will help them consolidate and expand. Currently, 34 children come to St. Gerard each day instead of attending public school, but at any given time, there are more than 100 families on the waiting list, and most wait more than a year to obtain services. The situation is pretty much the same at similar facilities in the area, says Long.

St. Gerard House serves eight counties in Western North Carolina, and some parents travel more than an hour each way every day to bring their children to the center, notes Long. “We serve anybody who wants

MOUNTAINX.COM

MEETING THE NEED: St. Gerard House provides therapy services to almost 500 families affected by autism. If a new fundraising campaign succeeds, that number could grow even larger. Photo courtesy of St. Gerard House to drive here. We have people from Rutherfordton and Forest City.”

STARTING EARLY

Today, roughly one in 54 children is on the spectrum, according to Autism Speaks, a New York City-based nonprofit. They display a wide range of symptoms and abilities, characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication.

In the early 2000s, Long’s two children, Liam and Bridget, were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Now 19 and 18, respectively, they received applied behavior analysis, a kind of intensive therapy, early on that helped them learn the skills that have enabled them to become more independent. Long started St. Gerard House in 2010, in two small donated rooms, to give other families access to the services that hers had found so valuable.

Applied behavior analysis is now considered the standard therapy for helping children with autism spectrum disorder reach their full potential. According to the Association

for Science in Autism Treatment, numerous studies over the last 30 years have shown ABA to be effective in increasing positive behavior, reducing negative behaviors and teaching new skills.

In many cases, children need more than 20 hours a week of one-on-one therapy, beginning before they’re 4 years old. But it’s effective, which is why parents are so eager to enroll their children.

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

When children stop receiving treatment, however, they can lose some of their hard-earned gains.

So when COVID-19 hit in March, the entire ABA team at St. Gerard became certified for telehealth services and then made sure that each family had the technology to support virtual sessions.

“You can’t really prepare for something like COVID-19,” notes Long.

“You just do the best you can when it hits.”

Until about three years ago, ABA wasn’t being consistently covered by insurance in North Carolina, she

“We’re just at the very, very baby stage of this.”

— development director Julia Buchanan says, and it must still be approved by a physician. Since then, the demand has grown even stronger.

With early and intensive ABA therapy, Long says, research has shown that 47% of children are able to integrate with their peers, and the lifetime cost of care is reduced by two-thirds.

Of course, not all children with autism need such early, intensive therapy, and St. Gerard offers services for them as well.

“A lot of children coast through up until about second grade, when social skills become more complicated,” Long explains. “That’s when they start to have problems, because they don’t have those skills.” The one-on-one therapy enables children to practice these skills with a therapist.

it’s been even more successful than we anticipated,” she says.

The center also offers family groups, which went from monthly to weekly meetings when COVID-19 hit, using Zoom. “We had more than 100 people on the call last week,” says Long. “People really need the support right now.” In compliance with North Carolina’s phase two reopening, some one-on-one services resumed June 1.

Still, no one knows how long St. Gerard’s proposed expansion may take, because the organization hasn’t attempted anything on this scale before, she adds.

Nonetheless, both Long and Adams are dreaming big.

“I do know one thing,” says Adams.

“When we’re done, it will be a sea change for families that aren’t getting the services they need.” X

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A SEA CHANGE

St. Gerard also offers services for high school students and young adults. “There’s very little help for people once they leave school-based services,” says Long.

Equipped with an industrial kitchen, St. Gerard’s Feed the Need program offers prevocational training in both culinary skills and gardening, plus job coaching for those no longer in high school. “We’ve moved the culinary classes online for now, and

FINDING HELP St. Gerard House (620 Oakland St. in Hendersonville) offers a range of services for children and young adults with autism spectrum disorder and their families. To learn more, visit www. stgerardhouse.org or call 828-693-4223. X

EARLY INTERVENTION: With early and intensive applied behavior analysis therapy, research has shown that 47% of children are able to integrate with their peers, and the lifetime cost of care is reduced by two-thirds, says Caroline Long, executive director of St. Gerard House. Photo courtesy of St. Gerard House MOUNTAINX.COM

JUNE 10-16, 2020

19

GREEN SCENE

HONEY, I’M HOME

Local beekeepers encounter their biggest hive yet If bees move into a house, the Delcambres recover the hives and take them to their own property, where they have several established hives.

Typically, says Brandon, the hives they remove are small; at the larger end of the usual scale, they can reach 5 feet tall.

“It was the biggest hive I’ve ever seen,” says Brandon about what he uncovered in West Asheville. “I’m about 6 foot 1 [inch tall], and I was standing next to it — it had to be at least 7 feet tall. It’s been there for at least 10 years.”

Once the hive was exposed, the Delcambres went to work using a specially designed bee vacuum. Brandon explains that the suction can be adjusted to avoid harming the bees, and the vaccum’s interior contains ramps and floors for the captives to explore.

“I cut parts of the comb and remove the bees from it. My wife then determines which parts of the comb house babies versus which ones are holding honey,” Brandon says about the process. “She will then cut the comb to size and fit it into frames that will go into hives we have back at the house. That way, we can rebuild the colony with its original babies and its original food.”

BY CAMERON DUKE cameronbduke@gmail.com This spring, Kate Prince became curious about the bees that frequented the backyard of her West Asheville home. For years, she says, “dense, football-shaped swarms” had gathered on a hawthorn across the street before making welcome visits to her flower gardens and trees.

One day, Prince decided to follow the swarm as it flew to a house with white, wooden siding. The bees quickly disappeared underneath the eaves, vanishing into a small crack in the woodwork.

After contacting the house’s owner, who currently lives in Chicago, she found out two things: The house had been vacant for a number of years; and its owner vaguely recalled seeing a few bees occasionally crawl beneath the eaves when he lived there full time.

This wasn’t a few bees.

For assistance and advice, Prince contacted the Buncombe County Beekeepers Club. The beekeeper who responded estimated that each of the roiling hordes he removed over multiple visits contained as many as 20,000 bees.

After repeatedly dealing with swarms of this size, the beekeeper suggested trying to find and relocate the hive.

That task was easier said than done, but local beekeepers Brandon and Kimberly Delcambre were up to the challenge. Together, the two operate Couple of Bees, a hive relocation and management service.

The house’s owner mailed Prince a key, and the Delcambres were soon donning beekeeping suits as they prepared to enter the house. Not to be left out, Prince, who owns Kate Prince Photography, fetched her camera and followed them in.

DIGGING FOR GOLD

“The air inside was musty,” Prince recalls, “but I got a strange feeling that the walls were alive.” It was clear from an ever-present buzzing that the vacant house was, in fact, occupied.

Brandon scanned the walls with a thermal camera, revealing a heat signature behind the bathroom wall that told him where the nest was. He began to cut the drywall by hand, eschewing power tools to avoid making aggressive vibrations that would agitate the hive. The Delcambres also used smoke to keep the bees calm.

20

WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD

JUNE 10-16, 2020

JACKPOT: Couple of Bees co-owner Brandon Delcambre poses with the 7-foot hive he uncovered in West Asheville. Photo by Kate Prince As the wall opened, it became clear that this hive was something special.

“The room was stale, but as he cut, it filled with the most fragrant smell of honey,” says Prince.

Behind the wall were layers upon layers of glowing honeycomb. Rounded, amber-hued stalactites crawled with nearly 5 million bees. “It was humbling,” Prince says.

MOUNTAINX.COM

HIVE MIND

The Delcambres relocate beehives about once every other week during spring and summer. Hives often appear when small groups of bees splinter from existing nests. In these cases, the groups will raise their own queens and move away to relieve the negative effects of high population density.

Why do honeybees colonize houses?

Like all bees, the honeybee is part of the order Hymenoptera, which also includes wasps and ants. Most of these species build nests on the ground, but the honeybee is craftier: it’s evolved to nest in hollow, protective spaces.

“A house is basically a dead tree,” says Robert Zinna, an entomologist at Mars Hill University. “For bees adapted to live in cavities, interstitial spaces in houses almost perfectly mimic their natural habitat.”

For bees, a house often provides a haven that may be even better than a tree. The spaces between walls can be safer and more protected from the elements. And the European honeybees most commonly seen in Western North Carolina descend from domesticated bees released by immigrants to North America in the 1600s, notes Zinna, meaning they don’t show much of a fear response to humans.

But while honeybees generally aren’t dangerous outside of allergic reactions or children kicking a nest, wax and honey will cause structural damage to a house over time if allowed to persist.

“We typically find hives either inside the walls between the studs or between sto-

SUCK IT UP: Kimberly Delcambre with Couple of Bees uses a special vacuum to remove honeybees from their hive for relocation. Photo by Kate Prince ries, tucked in between floor joists. All they need is a three-eighths-inch gap, and they can use that for an entrance and exit,” Brandon Delcambre says.

“Within a month, you could have a 3-foot hive.”

BUZZING ALONG

After the removal, the Delcambres relocated the West Asheville bees to their own property. The addition brings them to a grand total of 15 hives, up substantially from the five-10 hives they usually house at any given time.

Brandon says the bees are healthy and have adjusted well to their new home.

Bee populations are in decline nationwide for many reasons, including widespread pesticide use and the parasitic varroa mite. The good news, Brandon says, is that awareness of this plight is making hive relocation a more com-

mon method of handling bee infestations. “Most of our business comes from referrals from pest control companies,” he explains.

Preservation of bee species is crucial to human survival given their role as pollinators, making the Delcambres’ job even more important. According to the nonprofit Pollinator Partnership, which promotes National Pollinator Week June 22-28, a third of all food and beverages rely on pollinators, an estimated $20 billion worth of products in the U.S. alone.

Brandon knows this and treats the bees with respect, no matter how much work it takes to maintain the health of his hives — or even how much they may sting. “I’ve come to feel really calm around them,” he says. “If they sting me, it’s usually only about 10 stings in total [at a time]. It doesn’t bother me much anymore.” X

YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND: A drone bee from the West Asheville hive rests on the hand of photographer Kate Prince’s friend Calle Mracna. Photo by Kate Prince

35 Arlington Street, Asheville, NC 28801

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BEST OF WNC MOVING DAY: Once removed from the walls, the West Asheville hive was loaded into frames for easy transportation to the Delcambres’ home beekeeping setup.

Photo by Kate Prince

Results coming later this summer!

MOUNTAINX.COM

JUNE 10-16, 2020

21

FOOD

LIGHTS, CAMERA, COOK!

Asheville chefs turn their home kitchens into virtual cooking classes

BY KAY WEST

account. Chai Time Quickies run on Wednesdays and are short how-tos of Indian food foundations like ginger-garlic paste and tandoori marinade. “It keeps me from getting bogged down in the Chai Time segments and getting too professorial. I could do 15 minutes on salt. My daughter calls it ‘dad-splaining.’”

kwest@mountainx.com In February BC19, chef J. Chong gave her then-boss Katie Button, owner of Cúrate, a two-month notice on her intent to venture out on her own. “A brick-andmortar wasn’t on my radar,” she says. “I was thinking of setting up a dumpling cart at markets and breweries, doing more pop-up dinners at local restaurants and teaching cooking classes.”

Well before her notice expired, the restaurant industry in America shut down, and Chong was forced to reevaluate how to carry on professionally. It didn’t take long for her to move to Plan B. “I get bored very easily and needed to find something to do,” she says with a laugh. “My wife, Danielle [Wheeler], and I were brainstorming, and she said, ‘How about a virtual cooking class? Put yourself out there and stay connected with the community?’”

Faster than producer/director/camera person Wheeler could bark, “Action!” jchong_eats debuted on IGTV on Instagram. Filmed live from their home kitchen, the energetic, fast-paced segments open with a musical bed and pan across the recipe’s mise en place on the kitchen counter before Chong dances onto the set and segues into instruction.

All of the classes on her personal channel — which air every other week — have focused on Cantonese cuisine, including veggie lo mein, hot-and-sour soup, egg drop soup, fried tofu with scallions, garlic and ginger sauce, and dumplings.

“Teaching Cantonese food is so important to me, ” says the first-generation Chinese Canadian. “I want people to understand that it’s simple, clean and delicious.”

Chong also contributes cooking segments to LGBTQ nonprofit Campaign for Southern Equality’s Front Porch virtual gatherings via Zoom, the first of which was famously interrupted by Zoom bombers hurling racist and homophobic slurs at her. “I was making spinach pesto, and suddenly this started, and it took a couple of seconds before we realized what

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JUNE 10-16, 2020

MEAL KITS WITH KATIE & FELIX

CAMERA READY: Chef J. Chong on-location in her home kitchen, the set for her IGTV cooking tutorials jchong-eats. Photo by Danielle Wheeler was happening and the communications people could shut it down to get them off,” she recalls. “It was shocking, but it’s important to talk about.”

CHAI TIME The only thing bombing chef Meherwan Irani’s Chai Time cooking tutorials are the family golden doodle, Rosie. “She has become a bit of a celebrity on her own,” says the owner of Chai Pani restaurants in Asheville and Atlanta. “She has found her way into every segment but one, and then people asked where she was.”

Irani started the video cooking classes a couple of weeks after closing his restaurants. “What do you do after you’ve been hit by a freight train? I just needed to cook

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and have a distraction, for myself and for anyone watching.”

Like Chong, he relies on his wife, Molly — aka @ChaiPaniMom — to be the one-woman production crew, shooting in front of a bank of windows in their home kitchen. “When we bought this house a year ago, we bought it for the kitchen. The first thing guests would say when they saw it was, ‘This is the perfect setting for an at-home cooking show.’ Well, what do you know?”

Irani naturally focuses on Indian cuisine, specifically on Chai Pani classics like buttered chicken, sag paneer and vindaloo, and tries to make recipes accessible and relatable to amateur home cooks.

“The ingredients aren’t things you have to run to the Asian market on the other side of town to get,” he says. “I suggest substitutes for items people might not have, but everybody has vegetables on their last, shriveled legs, so let’s turn that into pakora. I think after all this time, people are maybe bored with 87 things to do with pasta and are open to trying something more exotic.”

New Chai Time segments, which run about 30 minutes, debut Saturdays at 4:30 p.m. on the @spicewalla Instagram

Button’s video classes, Meal Kits with Katie & Felix, are shot with an iPhone on a stand in her home kitchen and are also a family affair, with wine pairings and commentary from husband and partner Felix Meana, spontaneous set-crashes from their toddler son and off-screen commentary from their daughter. The meal kits are among the items available through La Bodega by Cúrate, a concept launched the first week of May that offers semiprepared Cúrate favorites, pantry goods, charcuterie, Spanish wine, beer and Cúrate’s new Spanish-style cider collaboration with Botanist & Barrel.

The meal kits are prepared from scratch in the Cúrate kitchen, ordered online and picked up at the Bodega, which operates out of Button & Co. Bagels on South Lexington Avenue. They offer two kits per week, and Button demos one on her @ChefKatieButton Instagram.

“I like it better as a representation of our food because I’ve always been disappointed in the way our food travels for takeout,” she explains. “The meal kits let people cook it at home. The videos are meant to show people how easy they are.

We don’t think them out; it’s just us and very natural and personal. They are not intended to go deep and teach people how to cook. It’s just fun and gives people a little insight into our everyday life. Every mom has cooked with a kid on her hip!”

Chong’s videos have helped her kickstart Plan C: selling her dumplings.

“We’re at the [River Arts District] Tailgate Market every Wednesday with two kinds of frozen dumplings and sauces,” she says. “It was so great to be out there again, just thrilling to be in that environment with other locals showing their passion for food.”

Irani has also found a positive in the pandemic. “Cooking at home, not just for the classes, but all the time, I have rediscovered the sheer joy of cooking. Not as the business that consumes us, but the real pleasure of it.” X

Recipes for relief

Open for dine-in and carryout Visit stradaasheville.com for reservations

Asheville Strong collects local recipes to support Restaurant Workers Relief Fund 12 BONES

Damn Good Corn Pudding Immune Boost Pasta with Fresh, house-made Turmeric Ginger Fettuccine

Exec. Chef, Anthony Cerrato

HOME COOKING: Asheville Strong’s new digital cookbook spills the beans on favorite local dishes while raising funds to support restaurant workers. Design by Amp’d Designs “Independent, local restaurants are such a huge part of Asheville’s identity,” says Brandon Amico, manager of Asheville Strong. “They are places that welcome us in and bring us together, diners and employees. We know people are really missing that feeling and those places.”

In response, Asheville Strong has published Asheville at Home, a digital cookbook intended to serve two purposes: raise money for the N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association’s Restaurant Workers Relief Fund and keep people connected to their favorite restaurants through recipes that allow them to re-create menu items in their home kitchens.

“Stephanie Romine came to [Asheville Strong founder] Catherine Campbell with the idea for a cookbook of iconic Asheville dishes,” explains Amico. “From the beginning, it was always intended to be a fundraising tool for hospitality workers laid off during this crisis.”

Amico, Campbell and Romine reached out to local restaurants, asking for recipes for some of their most popular dishes and the stories behind

them. “Asheville restaurants represent such diversity, and we wanted to reflect that and have a broad range of cuisines, locations and price points. We got a great response, and it came together pretty fast,” says Amico.

With Asheville at Home, you can sharpen your knives, rev up your oven and put your Top Chef aspirations in gear to tackle a multicourse meal with Posana’s kale salad, 12 Bones’ corn pudding, Luella’s Bar-B-Que calico baked beans, Buxton Hall Barbecue’s fried chicken sandwich and hazelnut cream pie from Baked Pie Co. The collection of 36 recipes costs $19.95, with net proceeds — about 90% of the price — going to the relief fund.

Preorders began May 1 for the June 3 publication date, and by the end of the month, almost 500 copies had been sold with $8,000 directed to the fund.

“Until we can sit down again in our favorite restaurants, we can support them through this cookbook,” Amico says, “and bring a taste of Asheville to our tables.”

To order a copy of Asheville at Home, visit avl.mx/77l.

• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour • 1 ¼ cups sugar • 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon baking powder • 2 teaspoons kosher salt • ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes • 1 teaspoon ground cumin • 1 teaspoon ground coriander • 6 large eggs • 1 stick butter, melted • 2 cups heavy cream • 1 (14-ounce) can creamed corn • 2 fresh poblano peppers, seeded and diced • 1 ½ cups fresh or frozen corn kernels

Consistently Voted One of WNC’s Best Chefs

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1. Preheat the oven to 300 F. 2. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.

3. Pour the eggs, butter, cream and creamed corn into a large mixing bowl, and beat with an electric mixer or stir until thoroughly combined.

Add the poblanos and corn. Slowly add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. The mixture should resemble cake batter.

4. Grease a large 11-by-15-inch rimmed baking dish. Pour the pudding mixture into the pan and place it in the oven. Lightly tent the pan with foil.

5. Bake for 1 hour with the foil on, then remove the foil and bake for an additional 30 minutes, or until the center is just set.

— Kay West X MOUNTAINX.COM

JUNE 10-16, 2020

23

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

STOREFRONT SOLIDARITY

Local artists paint downtown businesses to show support for protests

NEVER FORGET: A mural on Lexington Avenue honors the late Mike Brown and other black victims of police bruatlity. Photo

by Gus Cutty

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com The sounds of electric saws and drills filled the air in downtown Asheville on June 2. The night before, peaceful protests in response to the death of George Floyd had turned destructive, with shattered glass storefronts, graffiti and other damage — in addition to numerous arrests and other human trauma — left in their wake. With demonstrations expected to resume around nightfall, business owners were taking precautions to secure their property.

As the protective coverings went up, local visual artists Gus Cutty and Kathryn Crawford worked the phones recruiting colleagues to spray-paint the wood panels with memorial murals and messages of solidarity. Within an hour, Cutty got “a bunch of answers” from interested parties, as well as additional leadership from Ian Wilkinson and Dustin Spagnola, who utilized their own extensive networks to connect business owners with the growing team of artists. The following morning, they got to work.

“I know a lot of business owners down here, and so do the other three of us. As soon as we did one or two [storefronts], people started hitting us up,” Cutty says.

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JUNE 10-16, 2020

The initiative, he stresses, isn’t about making a personal statement. “We’re not signing anything. It’s not about us. We’re not trying to promote our names. We’re just trying to show support for the protests and hopefully amplify some black voices and messages of black organizations we support.”

In addition to keeping their names off the paintings, the artists are volunteering their time and providing the paint themselves. While the group has received many offers of financial aid, its members are encouraging people to donate to a local bail fund for protesters or “trusted black-run organizations supporting the cause.”

As of press time, Cutty estimates that the group has painted 20 storefronts and acknowledges that many independent artists have worked on additional businesses. His group’s paintings have emphasized a handful of core messages being promoted by what he calls “the larger Black Lives Matter organizations,” using “Defund Police” and “Defend Black Lives” on multiple storefronts. “Those are two we’ve been really focusing on, and then just really trying to shine a light on whether it be putting a tribute to someone’s name or someone’s portrait — just letting people know that they won’t be forgotten and that we support the protest,” he says.

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BIG AND LOUD

Cutty, who grew up writing graffiti, notes that he especially likes “the big, loud” pieces in that style, especially since opportunities “to do that legally downtown” are rare. As such, the experience

Photo by Gus Cutty

of crafting the large “Defend Black Lives” work on the French Broad Food Co-Op has lingered with him.

“We did that as a single piece with four different people participating. We had one person sketching it and we were going up behind them doing it. We really worked as a unit. I like the way it turned out,” Cutty says. “I like all of them, though. I’m really happy with it. There’s some that people have spent more time on. I’m kind of just trying to get as many up, as loud as possible right now.”

Among the imagery that stands out to Crawford is Spagnola’s mural of Floyd on the Lexington Avenue entrance of Rosetta’s Kitchen. The restaurant’s owner, Rosetta Star Buan, says that the concept was entirely Spagnola’s idea and that it was “a wonder” to watch him paint with his phone in one hand to look at Floyd’s portrait and can of spray paint in the other, all on a “glaring hot day.”

“Love is a verb, and we at Rosetta’s work to do everything in our power to create the world we want to be living in,” Buan says. “Since we can’t nourish with our food right now, we’re using whatever tools we have, and we suddenly found ourselves with a lot of blank wall. Dustin and his crew get the gold stars and all the credit for the beautiful artwork, putting our hearts and thoughts up on our wall for us.”

ART AS PROTEST

A few blocks up Lexington, Asheville Hemp Farms features a painting of the now-iconic image lensed by Asheville Citizen Times photographer Angela Wilhelm on June 2 of an officer destroying a package of water bottles at a medical

Photo by Gus Cutty station. The artwork’s accompanying text reads, “Asheville’s finest: not your finest moment.” Store manager Jane Allred says using the image was Cutty’s idea, and after seeing another shop display the slogan “Defund the Police” the morning of June 3, she requested it be added to a different panel.

“I really like that statement because it seems like a — not a neutral stance, but a little bit more of a stance that, as a business, we can stand behind that isn’t too offensive to everybody,” Allred says.

“When the protests first started, my boyfriend and I were both looking at them and we both kind of agree the APD — we’ve had encounters with them — they’re big teddy bears,” continues Allred, who is white. “Nothing’s going to happen.

And then when we started seeing the footage of the medical supplies and water being destroyed, we were really shocked.

I’ve lived here 22 entire years and I’ve never seen that come out of APD, nor did I expect it from them.”

Despite the provocative messages, Cutty says that he and his artists have thus far been able to work without interference from law enforcement — with the exception of the group’s one black artist (who, like the rest of the project’s participants, wishes to remain anonymous).

“We’ve actually been working in teams because I know there have been a lot of outside forces coming in, so I want to make sure that everyone has somebody

Photo by Gus Cutty to watch their back in case some weirdo comes up,” Cutty says. “His partner left for a moment, and he was immediately approached by a police officer and questioned about the building and whether he was allowed to paint on it.”

Cutty said on June 4 that the artist would be back out painting the next day.

“He doesn’t scare easily,” he says. “I don’t think it’s the first time he’s been harassed by police.”

SENDING A MESSAGE

At Asheville Hemp Farms, though plenty of recent visitors have praised the paintings, a few folks — mainly tourists — have asked whether the graphic images were the result of unauthorized vandalism. Both the supportive reactions and the less informed comments have strengthened Allred’s support for the protests, she says. In her view, businesses in the cannabis industry in particular have an obligation to take a stand against racial injustice, considering the number of minorities who are in jail for charges such as simple possession of marijuana. In similar circumstances, she says, white people often walk away “with just a ticket.”

She also wants to clarify the thinking behind the temporary barriers. “We are boarding up windows, which can send the wrong message that we’re afraid of the protesters — and we’re not. It’s a

precaution for ourselves,” Allred says. “A lot of us on this street that work are either immunocompromised or elderly and can’t go and protest, so this is the next best thing for us to make our voices heard and show that we’re standing with everyone.”

That sentiment echoes the artists’ stated intent of letting protesters know that they’re not alone — messages that Cutty, who doesn’t “see an end to the protests anytime soon,” thinks will be seen for the foreseeable future. He also thinks the painting effort “may just be an ongoing project, as long as businesses are interested.”

Once the storefronts are no longer boarded up, Cutty and his collaborators plan to auction the artwork — or possibly reproductions, since many of the originals are large, unwieldy works — and donate the proceeds to worthy groups.

Allred supports this plan and has also been contacted by representatives from the Western North Carolina Historical Association who want to save some of the pieces for a future exhibit.

“With so many issues like this, after five years or so, people are mostly going to forget that it ever happened,” Allred says.

“That’s kind of how our society works, so I think when we start to forget about it, we should take it all back out again and say, ‘Don’t ever forget that this happened. It’s so extremely important.’” X

Photo by Gus Cutty

MOUNTAINX.COM

JUNE 10-16, 2020

25

F OOD

by Bill Kopp

bill@musoscribe.com

The remix

Asheville music businesses respond to pandemic challenges Any musician in Asheville can tell you the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected his or her livelihood. To varying extents, the same is true for local businesses that serve the music community. Many have made changes to adapt to the current set of circumstances, as well as plans for the future. And while staying clear-eyed and realistic, management at three of those local businesses express a positive outlook for music in a post-pandemic world.

ANALOG SWEETENING Echo Mountain Recording got out ahead of the coronavirus crisis, canceling sessions even before local business shutdowns became widespread. “We finished up a couple of audiobook [sessions],” says studio manager Jessica Tomasin.

“Because those were really easy to do and control the environment, cleaning before and after.”

The studio temporarily closed at the end of March, but Tomasin continued to get requests for booking. “And I totally get it,” she says. “People are at home, writing a bunch of music, and they want to come in and record it.” So as the studio made plans for a careful reopening in late May, it also made some changes to accommodate the new reality.

“Just like everybody, you’ve got to pivot and get creative,” Tomasin says. One solution is Echo Mountain’s installment payment plan, an option that the business has always offered but never made a point of promoting. Now, tough economic times for musicians make that kind of flexibility more important.

Tomasin notes that many self-quarantined musicians have been writing and recording on home equipment, prompting the studio to offer discounted rates through Aug. 1 “to let people run their mixes through our console, to sweeten the sound a little bit with some vintage analog gear.”

Businesswise, 2019 was the best year yet for Echo Mountain. Most of the studio’s new business comes via word-ofmouth, but Tomasin says that the slowdown and nearly two-month closure provided an opportunity to take a more proactive approach. “We’re focusing more on marketing,” she says.

Conducted by Tomasin and Echo Mountain’s engineers, a new series of interviews will explore topics of interest.

“They’ll talk about some of the records 26

JUNE 10-16, 2020

MASK TRACKS: Echo Mountain Recording engineers Kenny Harrington, left, and Dowell Gandy adapt to the studio’s new COVID-19 safety policies. Photo courtesy of Echo Mountain Recording that they’ve done,” she says. “What’s their favorite signal chain for vocals? What’s their favorite piece of gear at the studio?”

She adds that beyond its use as a marketing tool, the interview series is a way for Echo Mountain to “highlight these great producers and engineers who have come through the studio.”

SYNTHESIZERS AND FACE SHIELDS Moog Music has reacted to new challenges in both expected and novel ways.

While a number of the electronic music instrument manufacturer’s 100 employee-owners are working from home, those at the Broadway facility have long since made adjustments. “We introduced social distancing measures, [personal protective equipment], temperature checks and other measures before they were suggested,” says chief marketing officer Joe Richardson. “One of our core values is to love and respect all humans — we couldn’t live up to that standard if we failed to protect our employees from this crisis.”

In mid-May, Moog unveiled its newest synthesizer, the Subharmonicon.

But the announcement had originally been scheduled for much earlier. North Carolina’s stay-at-home mandate resulted in reduced production, and the company faced delays in materials from suppliers as well. “This disruption also substantially reduced the volume of global supply available at launch,” Richardson says.

MOUNTAINX.COM

But while supply is a considerable challenge, Richardson says demand remains strong for Moog products. “We are finding new artists and creators interested in spending their time at home with music as a means of exploration and creative expression,” he says. Richardson does note a recent shift of consumer interest toward the company’s lower-priced instruments and away from products like the Moog One, which retails for around $6,000.

Recent expansion of the company’s facility makes social distancing more practical. It has also allowed Moog to temporarily shift some production from synthesizers to critical PPE. To date, the company — partnering with local cycling apparel company Kitsbow — has produced more than 12,000 face shields.

Richardson remains optimistic about Moog’s post-pandemic future. “Bob Moog believed that, ‘To be human, to be fully human, is to need music and derive nourishment from the music you hear,’” he says. “And that belief forms the basis of our positive outlook for the future.”

THE FUTURE OF SOUND With its headquarters for the Americas in South Asheville, d&b audiotechnik makes loudspeakers and amplifiers for live music and other applications.

Manufacturing is done at the parent company’s factory outside Stuttgart, Germany, and the Asheville office — which opened

in 1998 — employs 23 people. The company’s audio systems are used worldwide in venues including London’s Royal Albert Hall and the Sydney Opera House, and locally at The Orange Peel, Biltmore Church and other venues.

CEO Larry Italia classifies d&b’s markets into two parts: mobile and installations. “Our touring, production sound business has been severely impacted,” he says. “Because all the shows and sporting events are canceled, and we’re in the mass gathering business.”

Fortunately, d&b equipment is also used in permanent, nonmobile applications like concert halls, churches and large arenas. Italia says that, so far, COVID-19 has had little to no impact on the installation side of the company’s business, but challenges remain. “There’s no federal leadership on this,” he says. “Every state, county and even city does its own implementations of stay-at-home orders and reopening phases.”

Italia says that the pandemic hasn’t affected the company’s long-term plans, but he believes that large-scale live music events aren’t coming back soon. “Returning to it as it was before — which means 50,000 people sitting in the Hollywood Bowl without masks and protective gear — that will be 2021 at the earliest,” he says.

Even against that backdrop, Italia expresses guarded optimism. He says that the consensus among major players in the industry is that “when [live music] comes back, it’s going to come back bigger than ever before.” The pent-up demand of concertgoers, coupled with the motivation of artists to get back on the road, makes it possible that small and medium-sized venues could see a resurgence of business. And because health and safety protocols are easier to implement for outdoor events, festivals may come back soon as well.

For its part, d&b began implementing safety measures as early as Feb. 7, says Jackie DeLaCruz, the company’s human resources manager. By mid-March, the company instituted a voluntary workfrom-home policy.

When the pandemic’s danger eventually subsides, DeLaCruz says that d&b is “planning to bring people back in [to the office] gradually. We’re not in a rush — we want to make sure everyone is safe.”

While making it clear that her primary concern is the well-being of d&b employees, DeLaCruz is optimistic about the company’s business, too. She vividly recalls something Italia told the company’s assembled workforce in the early days of the crisis. “‘The music never dies,’ he said. ’This is temporary. You can’t stop music. And we’re going to bounce back.’” X

by Edwin Arnaudin

earnaudin@mountainx.com

Rock of ages

Band of the Sky podcast series explores Asheville’s music history All Richie Tipton needed was a nudge.

The Asheville native’s daughter and nephew had been suggesting he do a podcast for a while and synthesize his background in radio and investigative journalism. But if he was going to embark on such a project, he needed the right topic to explore — and the right reason to delve into it.

“At the time, I was still living in West Virginia and thinking a lot about my Asheville musical past — who [and] what inspired me, gave me confidence [and] supported me,” says Tipton, who played in the local rock bands Rattlesnakes, Praying for Rain and N.C. Rail in the 1980s and ’90s. “I remembered how Asheville itself was an artist — an artist’s tool. I could feel her magic jumping from the sidewalks.

I could taste that ‘something in the water’ people talked about.”

As Tipton sat with his thoughts, vivid scenes from the first Christmas Jams at 45 Cherry and Be Here Now came to mind, along with “a young Warren Haynes at The Brass Tap before David Allan Coe came to snatch him” and “the muscular, world-shredding playing of Mike Barnes.” Likewise stirring powerful emotions was the annual Freakers Ball each Halloween at the old Asheville Music Hall, Praying for Rain packing Gatsby’s on consecutive nights and Eagles producer Bill Szymczyk working with Southern rock band Dixie DeLuxe on its album Rubberized.

“I looked at Asheville as a forest, and the characters — the world-class musicians, songwriters, venues — as trees,” Tipton says. “I personally know some of the trees of this forest and thought it’d be cool to remind some and introduce others to what I consider the golden age of homegrown self-rising jam.”

Thus was born Band of The Sky, which explores Asheville’s music history from the 1960s-’90s. The podcast series launches Monday, June 15, with the three 25-minute episodes Tipton recorded with longtime friend and musical colleague Rocky Lindsley. In Lindsley, Tipton found an ideal collaborator for the project, and the pair quickly fell into a productive rhythm.

“We really had no idea how we were going to proceed. I had research and Rocky was the insider, but we didn’t set any hard format. I’d usually pose a question such as ‘Does it matter, does anybody care if an unknown musician leaves behind a recorded work [or] leg-

MOUNTAIN JAM: The Band of the Sky podcast series discusses numerous Asheville bands from the 1960s-’90s. Clockwise from top left are Crimes of Fashion; series co-creator Rocky Lindsley and Warren Haynes; and Praying for Rain. Crimes of Fashion photo courtesy of the band; all others courtesy of Richie Tipton acy after they pass?’ Rocky was always ready to talk, so I’d just let him roll,” Tipton says.

“My goal was to interview musicians and find music from this area and era, and here was my co-host, one of the movers and shakers — a partner — sitting across from me telling me about his career, the Christmas Jams, his road work with country stars Lorrie Morgan and Rhett Akins.”

With momentum building, the COVID-19 pandemic put Band of the Sky on pause in mid-March, and mere

weeks later, Lindsley’s sudden death nearly derailed the project entirely. For weeks, a grief-stricken Tipton couldn’t bring himself to work on the podcast’s “Rich and Rock” sister website, which will host a wealth of music and photos.

In time, he regrouped enough to proceed and recruited his former Praying for Rain bandmate Jeff Anders to be his new co-host. Anders introduced Tipton to Lindsley in 1992 and was Tipton’s original first choice to help him with the podcast, but he had too many commitments at the time to take

part. Anders’ son Satchel has inherited Lindsley’s role as series engineer.

Jeff Anders’ numerous industry connections have resulted in phone interviews with such musicians as Johnny House (NightCrawlers; The Dirte Four; Centurions) Jack Mascari (Stripp Band; Dixie DeLuxe) and Karen Connors (Crimes of Fashion).

Tipton, who currently lives on a farm in Polk County, envisions the series will run 12-18 episodes and wants to loop in Haynes or Bruce McTaggart, who told Lindsley in January that he’d partake. Tipton and Anders plan to delve into the historical significance of McTaggart’s music venue, The McTap, and The Brass Tap that preceded it at the same 633 Merrimon Ave. space, as well as the role of the City Auditorium and Asheville Civic Center, plus other key topics.

“We’ve discussed the effects Asheville schools’ integration had on the local music scene. A lot of people [and] musicians at Asheville High School were exposed to a different culture [and] different music. Rocky and Jeff, who both attended Asheville High, said integration was a major part of their music education,” Tipton says.

“I also may expand to other towns — maybe Weaverville. I remember great players coming from the northern end of Buncombe County.”

As episodes of Band of the Sky are released, Tipton hopes that “those who were a part of that scene and those who weren’t” are reminded “how special Asheville’s music community was during this period” — or learn about it for the first time. And though there’s no way of knowing, he believes that Lindsley would support his commitment to their creation.

“I think he would want me to keep going,” Tipton says. “I ask myself how he would feel — would he keep doing it if I were gone? I believe he would. The spirit of the project is bigger than the parts.” richandrock.com X

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27

MOVIE REVIEWS THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS

Hosted by the Asheville Movie Guys EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com HHHHH

BRUCE STEELE bcsteele@gmail.com Josh McCormack

= MAX RATING

The Vast of Night HHHHS

DIRECTOR: Andrew Patterson PLAYERS: Sierra McCormick, Jake Horowitz, Gail Cronauer SCI-FI/MYSTERY RATED PG-13

The King of Staten Island HHHHS DIRECTOR: Judd Apatow PLAYERS: Pete Davidson, Bel Powley, Marisa Tomei, Bill Burr, Steve Buscemi COMEDY RATED R Judd Apatow may have shepherded Steve Carell, Seth Rogen and Amy Schumer to big-screen commercial success over the past 15 years, but with each narrative feature since The 40-Year-Old Virgin, his creative prowess has steadily diminished.

Enter “SNL” bad boy Pete Davidson, whose life story and magnetic personality form the basis of The King of Staten Island, a magnificent comedy that builds on the star’s leading-man potential from this year’s similarly raucous Big Time Adolescence, and grants the filmmaker a return to form that’s easily his best comedy since Knocked Up (2007).

A terrific escape from the world and a happy reminder of the good that remains in it, the film stars Davidson as Scott (the name of the actor’s firefighter father, who died in the line of duty on 9/11), a directionless 20something who lives in the titular borough with his single mom Margie (a slightly miscast Marisa Tomei).

Reminiscent of Apatow’s best work, Scott quickly establishes himself as a comedic force via his jokey rapport with fellow drug-using, burnout friends Oscar (Ricky Velez, Netflix’s “Master of None”), Igor (Moises Arias, The Kings of Summer) and Richie (Lou Wilson, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot) and his ability to toss off a witty one-liner in practically any situation.

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Throw in signs of vulnerability regarding the lingering impact of his father’s death and his desire to be in a relationship with childhood friend Kelsey (Bel Powley, The Diary of a Teenage Girl), despite self-deprecating comments meant to protect both of them from potential heartache, and the stage is set for his personal growth.

The catalyst soon arrives in the form of firefighter Ray (Bill Burr, Daddy’s Home), whose interest in Margie brings out the problematic sides of Scott that need adjusting and, after plentiful denial, lands him in the obvious but necessary place to exorcise his demons — the local firehouse.

This new setting teams Scott with a healthier — but still plenty juvenile — male peer group led by Steve Buscemi’s lovingly salty Papa, and provides him with a fresh set of circumstances for his comedic gifts to shine, including a gut-busting singalong to The Wallflowers’ “One Headlight.”

But while Davidson inspires a welcome rebound for the filmmaker, Apatow still can’t help himself from indulging in nepotism — his daughter Maude is distractingly bad as Scott’s little sister Claire — and an overdose of final-act sincerity. Channeled through the gratuitously tattooed Davidson and Burr in an Uncle Pennybags mustache, however, the saccharine material works wonders.

Available to rent starting June 12 through Amazon Video, iTunes, and other VOD platforms REVIEWED BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN EARNAUDIN@MOUNTAINX.COM

MOUNTAINX.COM

First-contact movies are usually distilled into two categories: profound beauty or utter terror. What makes The Vast of Night — the debut feature from writer/ director Andrew Patterson — so distinct is how it manages to simultaneously tap into both feelings of wonder and fear over the course of less than 90 minutes and with a budget of under $1 million.

The film takes place in 1950s New Mexico and focuses on a teenage switchboard operator named Fay (Asheville native Sierra McCormick) and her friend Everett (Jake Horowitz), a disc jockey for the small town’s radio station. On one fateful night, they both discover a strange radio frequency that may be of extraterrestrial origin.

It’s a testament to Patterson’s script that this familiar story is able to avoid so many genre clichés. Rather than showing us any sci-fi tech, the majority of the movie is focused on our two human protagonists (wonderfully portrayed by the young actors), and it’s their dynamic that carries the movie along right from the start. Their dialogue is snappy and genuine — and, thanks to their rapport, I knew I was going to be a fan of this film after the first few minutes.

Patterson’s filmmaking is nothing to scoff at, either. With few locations and minimal use of special effects, The Vast of Night is refreshingly economical in a time where visual excess seems to be the norm for genre movies. However, the filmmaker is still able to provide some directorial flourishes that are all the more impressive knowing how little he had to work with.

There are gorgeous tracking shots early on, very strong Spielberg-esque lighting and an uncut, 10-minute dialogue sequence focusing solely on McCormick’s face that’s understated but makes the scene incredibly engaging. Patterson also makes the choice to frame the story as if it’s an episode of some sort of “Twilight Zone” rip-off, complete with faux Rod Serling narration. It’s a visually interesting gimmick that’s used sparingly, so I never got sick of it.

Patterson has crafted a very talky science fiction movie that somehow manag-

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es to be just as awe-inspiring and frightening — if not more so — than any big-budget alien invasion flick. It’s a nostalgic love letter to an iconic time in American culture, yet it never gets bogged down in sentimentality or romanticizing its past.

This slow-burn sci-fi story is an incredible directorial debut and features committed performances, wonderful dialogue and a great score — and it’s my favorite film of 2020 thus far.

Available to stream via Amazon Prime Video REVIEWED BY JOSH MCCORMACK JMCCORMA@UNCA.EDU

“Why are they publishing this Crier rubbish?” you may be asking. We certainly are. The rest of this edition of Mountain Xpress can’t help but show the tough times WNC is facing. Here’s one little spot in the paper where we offer a bit of levity, to possibly brighten someone’s day, poking a bit of fun at the outrageousness of it all.

In the past week and a half, Asheville has been under at least two states of emergencey (that we know of).

Things are crazy and our readers want real answers. The Crier’s award-winning team of journalists have sought out the real movers and shakers behind the scenes and gone one, sometimes two, steps farther to bring you the truth from sources that other publications won’t go near!

YOU’RE GROUNDED

In response to “unrest and destruction of property” May 31-June 1 in downtown Asheville, Mayor Esther Manheimer declared a citywide state of emergency on June 2 and issued a curfew beginning that same night, running 8 p.m.-6 a.m. nightly “until [she] declare[s] it no longer necessary.” While the decision immediately resulted in more peaceful demonstrations, sources close to Manheimer reveal that, when faced with time-sensitive rules, the politician has a surprisingly spotty record.

“Of all the people to be telling folks when to be home...” says Manheimer’s father, Dr. Ron Manheimer. “We thought we were being lenient with an 11 p.m. curfew — a good hour later than most of her friends had — and still she would barge through the front door at 1, sometimes 2 a.m. Her mom and I would be up all night, worried sick.” Dr. Manheimer declined to comment on whether teargas was deployed on such evenings.

Asked about her youthful transgressions, the mayor replied.

“I faced the consequences for my actions: I haven’t had dessert since, and I got grounded so hard my children don’t get to play Atari.”

THE TIMES THEY AREN’T A-CHANGIN’

“You know who could get us out of this mess?” rhetorically inquires Burt Cecilwell, one of Asheville’s many resident aging, white, male ex-hippies. “Bernard Q. Sanders, that’s who.”

The longtime Vermont congressman marched with civil rights demonstrators in the 1960s and was even arrested for it, explains Cecilwell, so he understands the plight of the black man in America better than anyone. “And as for protesting, back in Chicago in ‘68, we really showed those pigs what determined people can do,” he recalls. “I got my head cracked by Chief Conlisk himself. That’s why the political situation has really improved since then.”

Cecilwell encourages protesters to keep clashing with police, but also to put their voting weight behind people with experience who have already been through everything that is frustrating people now. He says he’s heard reports that most black voters prefer Biden and are happy with the presumptive nominee, but he continues to advocate for a Sanders write-in campaign.

“They haven’t done enough research to understand their own self-interests,” Cecilwell says about people of color. “I mean, yeah, black lives matter, far out, but ‘Feel the Bern’ if you want to actually get stuff done.”

“I would twit that at some cool cats, but I can’t find my phone,” he adds. “I think it’s in the fridge again — hashtag FreezerBern!”

LEGISLATIVE PERSPECTIVE “Now is a time for listening to constituencies and understanding feelings of pain or trauma that cripple our society’s ability to move together towards a shared ideal of justice,” remarked state Sen. Chuck E. Cheezeburger, upon hearing about police conflict with protesters in Asheville over the course of last week.

“Lulz! JK, JK, the media sucks, amirite?” he continued.

“How dare these baby, naive, ‘professional’ journalists take pictures and write descriptions that represent our attack dogs — I mean, duly appointed officers — as anything less than saints walking among us?” said Cheezeburger. “These Mondaymorning quarterbacks — what hypocrites! I pledge here and now to never have gluten-free buns in my restaurants, because the best way to tell the content of a person’s character is their dietary sensitivities.”

VIEW FROM THE TOP Ethelred J. Cuthbert III, spokeslord for the Asheville Landed Gentry Association of Elites (A.L.G.A.E), has a bird’s-eye view of protests and police countermeasures from his office on the sixth floor of the Jackson Building. “I don’t know what all the fuss is about,” he says. “As a shareholder of Nestlé — maker of Arrowhead, Poland Spring, San Pellegrino, Perrier and more — I say, ‘Make it rain, 5-0!’”

Cuthbert III noted he was also a stockholder of Facebook and International Paper — whose stock was already soaring after pandemic-induced toilet paper shortages. “Keep those clever protest signs coming! Hashtag winning!” he concluded conivingly, “Hahaha!”

LIES ARE NOT ENOUGH Silent partner at Skyline News, Schmupert Schmerdok, is looking to replace editor and reporter Chad Nesbitt after a week of what he says were “pulled punches” reporting about Asheville’s protests. “I respect Nesbitt’s attempts to mislead readers about protester action and police motives,” says the CEO of various social media “news” outfits around the globe [including COVIDtown Crier]. “But I am not seeing the results in division and the necessary questioning of factual statements to subvert activists.”

Schmerdok says he finds Nesbitt’s constant use of anonymous law enforcement “sources” to be on the right track. But he says the reporter’s attempts to back his reporting up with “facts” take too much time.

“I wish he would just cut the crap and do more to keep the poors at each other’s throats,” Schmerdok said. “Let’s get to the Truth about the socialist-communist-anarchist-collectivist-liberal conspiracy that threatens our American way of profit!” he says.

For his part, Nesbitt says he hopes to keep the job he created for himself. “I’m doing my best to ruin things for the lamestream media, cloaking verified information in a fog of half-truths and rumor,” he explains.

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JUNE 10-16, 2020

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FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): During her 90 years on the planet, actor and singer Marlene Dietrich reinvented herself numerous times. She had superb insight into the nature of shifting rhythms and a knack for gauging the right moment to adapt and transform. Good timing, she said, came naturally to people like her, as well as for “aerialists, jugglers, diplomats, publicists, generals, prize-fighters, revolutionists, financiers and lovers.” I would add one further category to her list: the Aries tribe. Make maximum use of your talent in the coming weeks.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Author and theologian Frederick Buechner writes, “There is treasure buried in the field of every one of our days, even the bleakest or dullest, and it is our business to keep our eyes peeled for it.” In alignment with current astrological potentials, Taurus, I’ll name that as your key theme. More than usual, breakthroughs and revelations and catalysts are likely to be available to you in the midst of the daily slog — even when you’re feeling bored. Make it your business to be on high alert for them.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): According to novelist Octavia E. Butler, “Positive obsession is about not being able to stop just because you’re afraid and full of doubts.” That’s what I wish for you in the coming weeks, Gemini: positive obsession. It’s also what I expect! My analysis of the astrological omens suggests that you will have the pluck and craftiness necessary to veer away from murky, disturbing versions of obsession. Instead, you’ll embrace the exhilarating kind of obsession that buoys your spirit in moments of uncertainty. I foresee you making progress on your most important labor of love.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): William Thomson, also known as Lord Kelvin (1824–1907), was a Cancerian physicist and mathematician who contributed to the understanding of thermodynamics and other areas of scientific and engineering knowledge.

Despite his considerable intelligence, however, he was myopic about the possibility that humans might one day fly through the air while seated inside of machines. In a 1902 interview — a year before the Wright Brothers’ breakthrough experiment — he declared, “No aeroplane will ever be successful.” I suspect you could be on the verge of passing through a Lord Kelvin phase, Cancerian. You may at times be highly insightful and at other times curiously mistaken. So I urge you to be humbly confident and confidently humble!

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Author Marianne Williamson tells us, “Spiritual growth involves giving up the stories of your past so the universe can write a new one.” And what exactly does it mean to “give up the stories of your past”? Here’s what I think: 1.

Don’t assume that experiences you’ve had before will be repeated in the future. 2. Don’t assume that your ideas about the nature of your destiny will always be true. 3. Even good things that have happened before may be small and limited compared to the good things that could happen for you in the years to come. 4. Fully embrace the truth that the inherent nature of existence is endless transformation — which is why it’s right and natural for you to ceaselessly outgrow the old plot lines of your life story and embrace new ones.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Philosopher and astrologer Marsilio Ficino wrote, “Mortals ask God for good things every day, but they never pray that they may make good use of them.” I hope that in the coming weeks, you Virgos will disprove that cynical view of human beings. As I see it, you will be more likely than usual to actually receive the blessings you ask for. And I hope — in fact, I predict — that when you receive the blessings, you will then aggressively seek the help of God or Life or your deepest wisdom to make good use of them.

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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I was hiking under a blue sky in a favorite natural location: the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, just north of San Francisco, where sublime vistas provide views of ocean and mountain. Although I was in a good mood, at one point I spied empty Budweiser cans amidst the wild jewelflowers. “What kind of nature-hater was so careless as to despoil this wonderland”? I fumed.

For a few moments I was consumed with rage and forgot where I was. By the time I recovered my bearings, the bobcat and red-tailed hawk I’d previously been observing had disappeared. That made me sad. My anger was justified but wasteful, irrelevant and distracting. It caused me to lose touch with some glorious beauty. Don’t be like me in the coming days, Libra. Keep your eyes on the prize.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “I have more memories than if I were a thousand years old,” wrote poet Charles Baudelaire. Was he bragging or complaining?

Did the weight of his past feel like a burden or did it exhilarate him and dynamize his creative powers? I’m hoping that in the coming weeks your explorations of your past will feel far more like the latter — a gift and blessing that helps you understand aspects of your history that have always been mysterious or murky.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you’re primed to navigate your way through a sweetly gritty, tenderly transformative, epically meaningful turning point in the history of your relationship with your favorite collaborator or collaborators. If that sounds too intense, you could at least accomplish an interesting, stimulating, educational shift in the way you fit together with your best ally or allies. It’s up to you, Sagittarius. How much love and intimacy and synergy can you handle? I won’t judge you harshly if you’d prefer to seek the milder version of deepening right now. Besides, you’ll probably get a chance to go further later this year.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Actor Emma Thompson tells us, “I wish I wouldn’t have to say this, but I really like human beings who have suffered.

They’re kinder.” Adding to what she observes, I’ll say that for many people, their suffering has also made them smarter and more soulful and more compassionate. Not always, but often, it’s the pain they’ve suffered that has helped turn them into thoughtful companions who know how to nourish others. I urge you to make a special point to converse with people like this in the near future. In my estimation, you will benefit from intense doses of empathetic nurturing.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Lake Elsinore is a city in southwestern California. Last spring, torrential rains there caused a “superbloom” of poppies.

Millions of the golden-orange wildflowers covered many acres of Walker Canyon. They attracted another outbreak of beauty: thousands of painted lady butterflies, which came to visit. The magnificent explosion was so vast, it was visible from a satellite high above the earth. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re experiencing a metaphorical superbloom of your own right now, Aquarius. I hope you will find constructive ways to channel that gorgeous fertility.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Lucumi is an Afro-American religion with Yoruban roots. Its practitioners worship their ancestors and seek regular contact and communion with them. According to Lucumi priestess Luisah Teish, “Sometimes the ancestors deem certain information so important that they send it to the subconscious mind without being consciously asked.” It’s my belief that all of us, whether or not we’re members of the Lucumi religion, can be in touch with the spirits of our ancestors if we would like to be — and receive useful guidance and insight from them. The coming weeks will be a time when you Pisceans are especially likely to enjoy this breakthrough. It’s more likely to happen if you have an intention to instigate it, but it may come to pass even if you don’t seek it.

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19 Robert who was the subject of the 15 16 2003 true crime book “A Deadly Secret” 19 20 Moves stealthily 21 22 21 75% of 1,000?

23 Sheltered, at sea 24 24 Dove shelters 28 29 30 31 25 Person who makes do?

33 34 28 Singer Del Rey 36 37 29 Places surfers frequent, for short?

40 32 Creme-filled 43 cookies 33 So-called “ship of 46 the desert” 34 Prefix with physics 49 50 35 “And another thing 52 53 54 55 …”

36 Practical, stubborn, 57 58 ambitious sort, so it’s said 60 61 37 Be on the mend 38 Rigid 10 Actress Chlumsky 16 Light element?

39 Evert of tennis of “Veep” 40 Intrinsically 14 Be bested 17 Cookout option 41 Org. whose for someone 15 Title heroine of a workers look into 2016 Disney film avoiding red meat cases 5

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ACROSS 1 “Chop-chop!”

5 Barrel : cooper :: ___ : fletcher LEGAL NOTICES BOY SCOUT COMPENSATION FUND Anyone that was inappropriately touched by a Scout leader deserves justice and financial compensation! Victims may be eligible for a significant cash settlement. Time to file is limited. Call Now! 844-8968216 (AAN CAN)

MIND, BODY, SPIRIT BODYWORK TRANSFORMATIONAL MASSAGE THERAPY Frank Solomon Connelly [FaceBook] So: with all this craziness [by the way, the opposite of fear is Faith/ Hope] going on; I wanted

edited by Will Shortz

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to remind everyone that I do House-Calls. I come to your nice Clean space, with my very Power-Filled, Mother Nature based Immunity System [and I will never violate anyone! If God/Goddess tells me I am infected; I will Quarantine {but not until then}!] to help you connect to that same God/Goddess filled connection to help you overcome fear/tension and return to KNOWING God/ Goddess's Got This! And! I only charge $60 for a 1.5 to 2 hour, deeply transforming, massage :) Give me a call at (828) 707-2983, and I will do what I can to Help You feel more at Peace. :) Thank You! (828) 707-2983 Creator_of_Joy@Hotmail. com, FB: shorturl.at/qxT07

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HEALTH & FITNESS ONE-STOP-SHOP FOR ALL YOUR CATHETER NEEDS We Accept Medicaid, Medicare, & Insurance. Try Before You Buy. Quick and Easy. Give Us A Call 866282-2506 (AAN CAN)

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No. 0506 42 Detest 43 Like some ropes and nerves 44 Relating to bears 46 Buffoon 47 Max who lent his name to a constant in physics 49 Fighter’s embrace 51 VW or BMW 52 Words on a mall map … or a punny hint for eight squares in this puzzle 56 Legendary ruler of Egypt, informally 57 Go round and round 58 Capital of France 59 Sound made by a noisy noodle eater 60 ___ manual 61 Iambs and trochees

DOWN 1 PC key 2 Mixed drink with lemon or lime juice 3 Questions

puzzle by Ali Gascoigne 4 Game played with the fingers 5 Person going for a stroll 6 Mickey of “The Wrestler” 7 Poverty, metaphorically 8 Phone button that lacks letters 9 Places on travel advisory lists 10 Wrestling Hall-of-Famer ___ the Giant 11 Mental operation?

12 Part of a Groucho Marx disguise 13 Workers in formicaries 18 Wassailing times 22 List ender 24 Author of “L’Étranger” 25 Brag 26 French city whose last two letters are silent 27 Wolfgang Puck, e.g.

28 Actress Metcalf of “Lady Bird”

30 Rental agreement

46 Debussy’s “___ de Lune”

31 Like shoes

47 Campaign support grps.

33 ___ blanche 36 “Much obliged”

48 Quiet period

37 Director of many courses

49 343, to 7

39 Very smart 40 Accident-___

53 Some conjunctions

43 Toys (with)

54 Fish eggs

45 Prying sort

55 Is from France?

50 Part of un jour

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS NY TIMES PUZZLE

H O B O

E W A N

L I N E

L E G W A A D E X B A L I C H I N G I R S T E E S S W E A S I N G A R I A D E N S

S T O O M I E C N S A L B O U P T I T C H

W O R D S G O O F T I R E

E L L D O I U T V S E H B A L L L O O F T G O T F J F R A A D N G E E E D A R

A C C T R R A A P S P T I U N N C A Y C L E

M A R A C A

P L A T E N

S L Y E S T

O O H A R A K E T A H O Y

G O N E

O P E D

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JUNE 10-16, 2020

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JUNE 10-16, 2020

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