Throw the rascals out
Editors, Asheville Global Report,
If the developers get their way, Pack Square will get
a new building soon, as tall as the Jackson Building.
Usually if a company wants to construct a building, it just finds a
lot for sale, gets the permits, and goes at it. If the company is Sammons
Enterprises, though, a vacant lot just isn’t good enough. They
want to be at the city’s premier address: Pack Square.
There is no open space at Pack Square except parkland and city streets.
But, hey, no problem. Our city council was elected with money from the
developers, so they see no reason to reject a building just because
there is no lot to put it on.
Asheville, this might be our chance to make it into News of the Weird!
How many city councils would even consider a sweetheart deal like this?
Let’s be clear who is building this monstrously big building: it’s
not the Grove Park Inn. Calling it the Grove Park Inn Building is just
a publicity stunt cooked up by Sammons and bought into by the local
press. Sammons Enterprises owns a lot more than the Grove Park Inn.
Their own web site says: “Headquartered in Dallas with more than
3,000 employees nationwide and assets in excess of $15 billion, Sammons
ranks among the largest privately owned companies in the United States.”
They are too modest. Sammons has interests all over the world. It just
plays better in Texas to say you’re a US company.
And they own lots of hotels too. We could as well call the new building
the “Texas Travelodge,” or the “Big Buck Texas Condo
Building.” Maybe the most honest name is the Sammons Building.
The Council says that we have known about this plan for years and just
now are getting around to noticing it. This is a complete fabrication.
In fact the Sammons Building does not appear on publicly released drawings
for the new Pack Square, and if this had not been a stealth campaign,
the Mayor would have held a press conference and put it on the front
page. When this Council was elected, the business PAC, Citizens for
New Leadership promoted five candidates: Charles Worley; Joe Dunn; Carl
Mumpower; Terry Bellamy; and Jim Ellis. Those council members have voted
for the developers right down the line.
When their constituents tried to stop the construction of a super Wal
Mart on the polluted Sayles Bleachery site, the PAC council members
voted for the development. When the developers wanted a clearly unconstitutional
“panhandling” ordinance to push the poor out of downtown,
all the PAC sponsored council members voted for it. And now, again,
all the usual suspects voted for the Sammons Building.
An informal group of three or four people collected signatures of registered
voters opposed to selling off the streets and parks to rich Texans.
In just a few days they collected over 1500 signatures. Almost everybody
who was approached signed. This building has almost no public support.
If the public distaste for this backdoor deal translates into a voter
backlash, the two PAC council members up for re-election, Jim Ellis
and Terry Bellamy, might have a hard time at the polls. I understand
how insulting it is to point out that our City Council members took
money from the business PAC and then voted their way. So I want to publicly
apologize for pointing it out and they should publicly apologize for
doing it.
Charlie Thomas
Asheville, North Carolina
