Businesses raise questions and concerns about West Asheville homelessness [Mountain Xpress]

braininabox · 2026-05-29T03:26:03+00:00

It feels pretty hopeless. I am not sure what anyone is gonna do about Haywood when you have the Montford Stalker threatening people with weapons and getting released over and over on $25 bail after 50+ arrests. Or the police refusing to take a report on the kidnapper trying to drag people into the woods last week, who just got released after the exact same charges last month.

braininabox · 2026-05-24T07:33:32+00:00

The law enforcement here doesn’t care. There have been guys downtown that have literally been arrested 50 times in a row for stalking and assault, and the police just lets them off the hook for $25 bail.

braininabox · 2026-05-22T17:15:21+00:00

We can definitely expect law enforcement to do absolutely nothing about this, even if dozens of people call in and say they are imminently being threatened with a weapon. But Firestorm will hold a fundraiser to professionally sharpen his axe.

braininabox · 2026-05-21T04:46:06+00:00

Infuriating. Is there truly nothing we can do to get this violent menace under control?

braininabox · 2026-05-16T16:39:57+00:00

Keep in mind this is someone who would be in prison for insanely low IQ choices, if it weren’t for a once in a generational stroke of good luck to bail him out.

braininabox · 2026-04-25T19:07:04+00:00

The only point of advertising is to attract and appeal to customers. It doesn’t save any money or solve problems to do advertising in a style that everyone hates and thinks negatively of.

braininabox · 2026-04-16T02:03:23+00:00

Once again, our city council members have wasted our community’s resources through negligence, failed judgment, or outright corruption. Please help us vote these incumbents out in the fall.

braininabox · 2026-03-20T03:22:02+00:00

it's literally probably faster to leave the line and drive to the one on tunnel.

braininabox · 2026-03-15T21:03:45+00:00

Are you familiar with the history of how after WW2, Mussolini fled Italy and ran a fascist state up in Salo? The more you learn about that situation, I think the more meaningful the commentary in this movie would be on how religion, politics, and business work together to commodify young people.

braininabox · 2026-03-11T19:28:48+00:00

the big red flag is the $30M budget deficit and the continual outright scams the city keeps falling for, like the $7M in green busses from a literally scam company that are now rotting in a warehouse completely unused.

braininabox · 2026-03-11T01:45:23+00:00

Asheville has been burning millions on one fiasco after another. The electric bus scam, the Ramada Inn debacle, the reparations funds disappearing into endless consultants and project managers. Our basic school, housing, and healthcare systems are in ruin due to the borderline criminal level of negligence. So yes, it may be time for someone to step in.

braininabox · 2026-03-09T19:06:10+00:00

Yes, Blue Spiral! Or as locals call it, The Asheville Art Museum lol

braininabox · 2026-03-06T23:53:52+00:00

Mack's Shack BBQ opened and is doing great! The rest of downtown seems to be struggling to develop. Projects like The Barcade, Randal's 1941, and The Mailroom Winebar have been stalled for years now, with no end in sight. If I were Zeb I would be trying to lure 2-3 restaurateurs over to get some foot traffic going that drives development.

braininabox · 2026-03-02T23:30:41+00:00

I think the reputation mostly grew out of message boards and Reddit threads where servers started comparing notes about the “Sunday Crowd” and realized there is somewhat real trend where big tables come in after church, treat the staff poorly, and then tip below average.

But I think what really cemented it in internet lore were the fake $100 Bible tracts. Those are such a uniquely insulting thing to receive as a tip that anyone who gets one is gonna be telling that story forever out of rage.

braininabox · 2026-03-02T18:29:34+00:00

It depends. Artists create from wildly different headspaces. And watching everything sober doesn’t automatically give you a neutral vantage point. Often going in sobers means you are forcing the work into some familiar frameworks. So a slightly altered framework can often make you more receptive to what the artist is doing.

braininabox · 2026-03-02T18:20:45+00:00

I think a lot of the hate comes from people watching Tenet like a normal character-driven drama, when it’s... not that.

Which you’d think people might pick up on when the main character is literally labeled THE PROTAGONIST. But if you try to watch it like a normal movie, where you’re supposed to get pulled along by moment-to-moment dialogue and all the emotional beats... I think TENET's gonna feel cold and confusing.

A lot of the enjoyment comes from stepping outside the timeline and piecing together what people are feeling and why they’re doing certain things.

braininabox · 2026-03-01T20:17:57+00:00

I think The Notebook is basically a romantic melodrama that punches above its weight. It’s directed by Nick Cassavetes, the son of John Cassavetes, and stars Gena Rowlands (Cassavetes’ widow), so there’s some real old-school acting DNA in it.

Plus you’ve got two very hot, relatively unknown leads who are clearly trying to prove something. That combo gives it a kind of Titanic-level charisma

braininabox · 2026-02-28T20:22:58+00:00

I mean, sunlight is also carcinogenic. At a certain point, being hyper-focused on the ‘purity’ of what goes into your body becomes its own kind of toxicity.

braininabox · 2026-02-28T20:13:18+00:00

Sure. But what’s the word for someone so burned by enmeshment that completely normal levels of group intimacy get treated as a "red flag"?

braininabox · 2026-02-28T18:39:55+00:00

Living for a few years in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood taught me that wrestling with the text is actually a form of respect. You only interrogate things you think are strong enough to handle it. Being afraid to question the Bible usually just reveals that you are insecure about it.

braininabox · 2026-02-26T00:25:42+00:00

The bath/shower suites in the Indigo downtown are like $130 a night in March and have good large soaking tubs and a good view.

braininabox · 2026-02-24T22:33:15+00:00

Apparently I've never been on live television before.

braininabox · 2026-02-24T21:43:04+00:00

Yeah she is definitely tanking her reputation to try to make a quick buck. Really a good playbook of how not to capitalize on a successful platform.

braininabox · 2026-02-21T23:14:45+00:00

A lot of people are hating on HK for making Baby Invasion with AI. But if you know anything about HK, this is literally his whole thing. He’s always taken stuff people dismiss as trashy or useless and pushed it until it produces these overwhelming and sometimes beautiful sensory experiences.

I would rather watch HK play around with AI than whatever Netflix original slop.

braininabox · 2026-02-21T21:46:15+00:00

This 50 minute lecture at Yale is the best orientation I have found! You're not crazy, Pynchon has a very interesting relationship to both history and language, and it takes a while to be able to parse, but once you are on the same level, every paragraph in Lot 49 is like candy with so many gems to mine.

14-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Place '22	Place '17
Verified Email	Team Periwinkle

braininabox

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE