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Paddy Steinschneider's avatar

Aaron, that is a beautiful piece that captures what has proven to be a difficult phenomenon to explain. With hope, Asheville will step up and fight its way back. As devastating as this is for all of the different interests that make Asheville be Asheville, it is the opportunity to build back better. LC Clemons tells a story of two neighboring towns that were hit by devastating tornados and how, in the one that had a strong community, everyone came together immediately to help each other rebuild, while in the other that was really just a sprawl zip code, the people were sitting waiting for someone to come save them. My bet is that Asheville has that community that is already overwhelming the supply train, the system, and even one another with their enthusiastic commitment to make sure that this gets done.

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Kevin's avatar

Sadly, the lessons of Katrina suggest our systems won’t let this be rebuilt incrementally. Insurance premiums will rise substantially. Mortgages will have to be refinanced. Codes will require upgrades. All that contributes to the area likely either lying totally fallow or rebuilding without the incremental nature we both adore. Sure hope I’m wrong, but right now we just aren’t wired as a society to do it in a fashion that enables creation of places like this once the formal authorities get involved.

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