The Block and East End / Valley Street neighborhoods get some recognition--and power

On Tuesday, March 24th, the Asheville City Council voted for a two-year land hold to explore a downtown performing arts center in the heart of Asheville’s historic Black business district and oldest Black neighborhood.

Community leaders asked to have a "seat at the table" as this process moved forward, and they got that included in the resolution. You can read all about it at GAPavl.org.

Key Findings from the March 11th Community Meeting we co-hosted with JD Ellison and Co and the YMI Cultural Center

• The city has a deep trust deficit that must be addressed before meaningful engagement is possible. Until that trust is rebuilt, community members cannot dream alongside decision-makers — because they don't believe the invitation is real.

• Virtually no one outside of those financially or programmatically tied to the project expressed genuine excitement. In a room of 51 people, enthusiasm for the proposal was absent everywhere except among those who already had a stake in it moving forward.

• More information and more conversation did not increase support — it decreased it. The public case for this project is not landing. The benefits are not clearly identifiable, and the information currently available is not building confidence.

• Recommendation: Before this project can move forward, the city must do the hard work of rebuilding community trust through visible and structural changes to how development decisions are made and who gets to shape them. That starts with treating The Block and East End / Valley Street as living cultural districts deserving protection and expansion, not as development opportunities to be activated. The City must ensure that any project claiming to celebrate this community leaves that community present, visible, and economically viable when it's done. Most urgently, we recommend that the land hold vote not move forward unless it is accompanied by a formal, binding commitment to bringing The Block and East End community to the table.

We co-hosted an important Community Meeting about the future of The Block

City Council will vote on March 24th whether to continue holding 2.4 acres of City-owned land downtown for a possible 2,500-seat performing arts center. The site is on Eagle Street (within The Block, Asheville’s historic Black business district), and therefore adjacent to neighborhoods and institutions that were deeply harmed by urban renewal. The City is working with a company called ATG Entertainment on a public/private partnership to develop the site.

We discuss this proposed development, shared updates on the plans, and heard community perspectives on whether this project is the right step for our City.

A full report is coming soon.

Check out the videos of the town halls below, and also our City Council Scorecard

We were proud to co-host The Black Asheville Town Hall Series alongside Jefferson Ellison and Libby Kyles. The Black Town Halls was a three-night public forum created to foster direct, accountable dialogue between candidates for elected office and the communities they seek to represent. Hosted at the historic YMI Cultural Center, the series centered Black voters while welcoming the broader Asheville and Buncombe County community.

This moderated town hall gave voters the opportunity to hear directly from candidates on issues impacting everyday life in Asheville, including housing, public safety, economic mobility, education, health, and community investment.