From the excellent West Asheville Watch community Facebook group, news about development along Amboy Road in West Asheville, along the river in a long-neglected floodplain. The developer invites the public to public input meetings on Wednesday (5:30 p.m.) and Friday (noon), and RiverLink is serving as the community liaison.

This is probably just the beginning as far as changes along the river corridor, now that New Belgium has made it a whole new game. Details below.

Dear Friends and Neighbors:

As most of you are by now aware, the property on the north side of Amboy, between Amboy and Joyner, has changed hands, and recently undergone the beginning of clearing and reshaping.

As promised by the developer, talks about the future of that property have been directed to River Link, and they are now acting as community liaison.

The following invitation was forwarded to me by Karen Cragnolin, Executive Director of River Link. It announces two meetings to introduce the developer and plans for the land in question. According to Karen, we can anticipate seeing drawings and having many of our questions answered at these meetings.

I expect as many of you as have an interest will attend one, so we can maximize input. Speaking strictly for myself, I believe this is the time for open communication and civil dialog. I hope that our greenest and most community conscious ideas will be heard and considered for incorporation into site plans.

Sincerely,

Sabra Hammond

PS: Please address any responses or questions to the principals of this meeting, as I am acting strictly as a conduit for communications right now — this is all the information I have.

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Please join us at RiverLink’s Warehouse Studios to learn more about this proposed new residential project planned for Amboy Road

When Wednesday June 6 at 5:30
Friday June 8th at 12 noon

WhereRiverLink’s Warehouse Studios
170 Lyman Street
Asheville, NC 28813-0488
information@riverlink.org
828-252-8474, ext 16

Come for homemade cookies, sweet tea and important information exchange -get your questions answered and your concerns addressed – thank you

FYI, a May 22 post in the West Asheville Watch Facebook group puts a much darker cast on the activities of this developer:

For being so concerned about what the community thinks, this developer ripped through the woods behind our house with chainsaws, wood chippers, and grading machines in a fury! He tore down YEARS of growth in just a few days – all the while lying about his intentions. He told all the neighbors that he was from the forestry department and was making the area safer and better looking and that he just “got carried away”. He told them all he had no intention of building houses – and now he is looking for community input? And not to mention – he had NO PERMITS to be doing any work there. This smells like slope style houses to me – and this developer was in too much of a hurry to rip through the trees and growth to not be doing anything wrong. This property is just across from the river and he is grading a road in there – we have video of him doing it! During the rains last week you could just watch the clay run down to the drain on Amboy. Not to mention all the small game and bird habitats he ripped through, this whole thing is a shame.

Read the post here.

May 23 Google Doodle: A "Mini-Goog"

Today’s Google doodle on the Google homepage is an interactive synthesizer (a “Mini-Goog”) that pays tribute to an  genius of the music world: The late Bob Moog (rhymes with vogue), an adopted Ashevillean who invented the first commercially available synthesizer–and changed music forever.

Above: Local mural created for Bob Moog’s birthday anniversary today, May 23

Today would have been Bob Moog’s 78th birthday. Honor his legacy locally–and enjoy some delicious Early Girl food–by dining out today: All day, Early Girl Eatery is donating 20 percent of all its sales to the Bob Moog Foundation.

Fun at Early Girl also includes live synth music, a raffle and Moog-inspired art. Details here.

Moog’s legacy lives on right here in Asheville, home to the musical instrument company he founded, Moog Music; the Bob Moog Foundation, the education and innovation nonprofit run by his daughter; and Moogfest, the major electronic music festival held here annuallyn where top musicians honor Moog’s memory as well as rock the house.

From the Huffington Post:

Google is celebrating May 23, which would have been Dr. Robert Moog’s 78th birthday, with an interactive homepage logo that looks and plays like a Moog synthesizer. You can use the cursor to adjust the synth’s oscillators, pound on the keys, apply filters and even record and share your own synthesizer creations. At the right-hand side of the doodle, the animated recording equipment generates a sharable link of your creation for you to copy and paste; there’s even a G+ button, for Google+ users to post their songs directly to the social network.

Read the whole HuffPo article here.

From TIME Magazine: Google’s Moog Doodle: Play a ‘Mini-Goog’, Celebrate the Life of an Electronic Music Pioneer

From Moog Music, a video on how to work the Goog controls and have fun. Moog Music’s site is hosted locally, and has received over 3 million hits today.

Official Google Blog: A tribute to Bob Moog, sonic doodler

Christian Science Monitor: Bob Moog: How he changed music forever

TechCrunch: Today’s Google Doodle Is An Awesome, Playable Moog Synthesizer

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The Mini-Goog interactive synth is live all day. Play and have fun, and think of a world-class local pioneer while you do it.

A lot of people today don’t realize what this man brought to the masses. He brought electronic music to the masses and changed the way we hear music. — Charles Carlini

I see Bob Moog as the father of Asheville’s vibrant creative community.  His influence on the world of music is impossible to overstate. The Bob Moog Foundation’s current creative influence on Asheville and our children is at the top of my list of why we are so proud to run a business and raise a family in WNC. — Julie Stehling of Early Girl Eatery

With the inaugural Asheville Beer Week kicking off on Thursday, May 24, it’s time to renew our spirit and dedication to our city’s favorite beverage, beer.

Sure, we tied with the awesome town of Grand Rapids, MI for BeerCity, USA this year. The nay-sayers of the economic boon our industry brings will say “who cares?” and the neo-prohibitionists say we’re ruining the city by forcing everyone to drink “the alcohol,” but no. We shall not stand for that. We are a hard-working, vibrant, integral cross-section of this community that knows no borders and has no limits. We are a small bunch. We are strong. We work hard for each other. We work hard for others. We are not jerks. We are trying to make a living. And we like beer. And, moreover, we like that you like beer.

Here’s a Step-by-Step way to bring it home during Asheville Beer Week. If all you can think about is beer right now, skip straight to Step One. Otherwise, humor me.

FIVE: Support Southeast Regional Breweries

We get it. Sometimes you’re tired of that regular local beer you always get with the burrito, side of sour cream. Been there. (And I hate sour cream.) Well, expand your local map area and drink something from within the region of the Southeast. There are many great beers by non-NC breweries that are often available from our greater region: Sweetwater (GA), Terrapin (GA), Atlanta Brewing/Red Brick (GA), RJ Rockers (SC), Thomas Creek (SC), Abita (LA). Surely, I am missing many. Even a brew in our general economic region is boost to the industry. And shouldn’t we let the world know we’re not a bunch of light-beer-swillin’ rednecks? It’s great to branch out, but still: the closer to home, the better.

FOUR: Support North Carolina Breweries

Zoom in, go smaller. NC is awash in breweries and start-ups. We’re not even going to pretend to know everything about each one. We don’t. We’re on a mountain and no one tells us anything. But you can go to the North Carolina Brewers Guild Guide and then ask your favorite restaurant, bar, store (or refrigerator) in Asheville to stock your favorite North Carolina beer. If you don’t see something, ASK FOR IT. (Ask a manager. Also, sorry, managers.) There is no shame in it. In fact, you get extra cool points from the beer gods for doing so. This has been proven somewhere. I read it on the internet.

THREE: Support Asheville Beer Week (May 24-June 3, 2012)

This is the biggest beer bash ever to be held in Asheville, North Carolina, a.k.a. BeerCity, USA. A small, yet mighty group of people is working overtime to put on a stellar “week” for you (Okay, it’s 12 days, or something, but no one said we could count. We can’t.) with an insane number of beer events all over town.

During Asheville Beer Week, not only are you supporting the local breweries, restaurants, bars, and retailers, you are also doing your usual gig for many, many, many good causes. During Asheville Beer Week, the beer community is helping out many groups and individuals, including the Asheville Brewers Alliance, The Family of Ben Harris (Redhook Brewery), Habitat for Humanity, Save The French Broad, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of WNC, The WNC Nature Center, and The Appalachian Trail Conservancy to name a few. There are big, fancy dinners and free, fun pint nights. Three fests ranging from free to $16/pp to $40/pp. We’ve got you covered.

You can visit the Official Asheville Beer Week site at http://ashevillebeerweek.com. We’ve also got apps in Android and iPhone markets. You can play with us on Twitter (@AVLBeerWeek), Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare, and Untappd. We even have an Untappd Badge you can earn to show you Asheville Beer Week pride! Use the official hashtags #avlbeer and #avlbeerweek to share your events and get info.

(Oh, and here’s a link for a contest for two free tickets to Beer City Fest from 104.9.)

TWO: Support Asheville Breweries

When you drink a local beer, you don’t just support the brewery. You support the employees in the office to the folks scraping the mash tun; you support their families, their kids. You support the businesses that carry their products, which means you support small businesses. You support EVERYONE. We’ve heard Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery say many times that the very first beer you enjoy every night should always be a local beer. This is not a lie.

ONE: Drink a Local Beer

You’re doing it! Congratulations. Cheers!

(Photo: MountainXPress/Anne Fitten Glenn)