Riverview Arson

Several months ago, a neighbor friend and myself made yard signs and a banner protesting a steep slope development on Riverview Drive in West Asheville. The 15 house development clear cut over 3 acres on a steep hillside with approx. 40%+ slope. We talked to various neighbors about the development and asked if we could put a sign in their yard.

All the neighbors we spoke with were angered and frustrated with the development and sympathetic to our cause. Some offered to pay for the signs and some offered to help put them up. Folks driving by thanked us and gave us thumbs up. The sense of community was an incredibly rewarding experience.

As previously posted, an arsonist set fire to one of the houses last weekend. While I am not surprised by the fire and not very sympathetic to the developer, I by no means endorse the intentional destruction of private property. Arson is not a constructive means of protest and only serves to deteriorate a community and waste resources. The person responsible should be punished.

Mountain Xpress Article
The only positive I can see from this is more press and attention being paid to how we develop our land. Hills need trees.

Eco-terrorism?

A house burnt to the ground the other night across the street from my property. The house was part of an unpopular development of 15 identical homes built on steel stilts. The developer had clear cut the land, some of which is over 40% slope, which raised protest from the neighborhood in the form of yard signs and banners. Arson is a probably cause and potentially associated with "eco-terrorism".


Asheville Citizen Times Article

Don Mueck is a London-based photo-realist artist. Born in Melbourne,Australia, to parents who were toy makers, he labored on children's television shows for 15 years before working in special effects for such films as Labyrinth, a 1986 fantasy epic starring David Bowie.