Excerpts from Mayor Terry Bellamy's Inaugural Speech - December 6, 2005:
"Asheville is a great city. It is a city known across America and around the world for its outstanding quality of life and natural beauty. Since the railroads opened our city up to the outside world in the 1880's, we have been blessed with a dynamic mix of people - pioneers, European settlers, strong African-American settlers, wealthy newcomers drawn by our beauty. Asheville is home to scientists, inventors, writers, teachers, doctors, police officers, waitresses, childcare workers, individuals and families who are all proud to say, "This is where we live!"
[...]
"Asheville faces many pressing problems and opportunities. Our great city's land use policies must be transformed to meet the needs of our changing community; our city's infrastructure must be rebuilt; we have hundreds of children living in violent and unsafe surroundings, needing protection now. We stand at a crossroads, economically, with much to be done if we are to create high-quality jobs to attract and keep families in our community."
[...]
"Over the past four years, over one billion dollars has been added to the tax base. This is one of the main reasons that Asheville's unemployment rate is among the lowest in the state. However, this is a problem when a full-time employee working forty or more hours a week cannot afford to live in the community he or she is helping to make prosperous."
Read the whole thing here.
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