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Blue Ridge Naturalists gain deeper love of place – Asheville Citizen

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BENT CREEK – The more you know about your place on earth, the more likely you are to preserve and cherish it.

Call it eco-literacy, but it came to Jeanie Martin as just common sense when rapid changes and development are threatening biodiversity.

Martin launched the Blue Ridge Naturalist program at the Reuters Center at UNC Asheville in 2005, backed by a $7,000 grant from the WNC Community Foundation. The program shifted to The North Carolina Arboretum four years ago.

The mountains are more than just scenic postcards. “People have an appreciation of beauty like a red maple in the fall, but then you start asking where does the red maple grow, what kind of plants and mushrooms grow underneath it. That kind of understanding has to be cultivated.”

Before her environmental epiphany, Martin worked in health care, helping Henderson County immigrants who supply labor for much of the area’s agriculture. She treated workers with tobacco rashes and broken bones from falling from ladders in apple orchards. She saw how mothers left babies in boxes at the end of a row while they picked crops.

“I began to get the bigger picture. We’re never going to have healthier people without a healthier planet because we are not separate,” Martin said.

She quit her job and steeped herself in eco-literacy, studying the works of Kentucky writer Wendell Berry as well as the naturalist theologian Thomas Berry. She became a certified interpretive guide through the National Association of Interpretation.

Back in Asheville, she founded the Blue Ridge Naturalist program and served as the coordinator. She remains involved as an instructor.

The bioregion of the Southern Appalachians is unique with some of the world’s oldest mountains and rivers, with more tree species than in all of Europe. Here is home to the largest population of legless salamanders, the only place on the planet where you find the spruce fir moss spider, Martin said.

For Ken Czarnomski, learning more about the natural world gave him a new path in life after a career focused on engineering and architecture as an instructor at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.

After he retired, he wanted to round out his science background with courses on biology. He was soon hooked on the Blue Ridge Naturalist certificate program.

Now he wants to inspire others to get outdoors. For his community project for his certificate, he created a trail map for the Purchase Knob area of the Great Smokies. Last year, working with the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority, he created a map of the Sam’s Knob loop trail off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Next year, he hopes to create another trail map for a section of the Plott Balsams, working with the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.

Czarnomski’s projects aren’t unusual for the program. The certificate entails 236 hours of classes capped by a community project of 30-50 hours.

“One of the requirements is that the project has to be off the Arboretum property and applied to the community. So we have projects that are benefiting churches or retirement communities, or providing signage and trail information for the public,” said Beth Johnson, adult education coordinator for the Arboretum.

The Arboretum offers up to 70 different classes each season, including core classes in plant identification, geology, zoology and Appalachian culture and folklore. “We have people teaching who are retired college professors and experts. Their expertise just blows my mind,” Johnson said.

So many newly certified naturalists loved their time together, learning about the woods and environment, that the graduates formed an independent Blue Ridge Naturalist Network. They meet regularly to share their knowledge and love of place and to learn more. The network has about 50 paying members and another 400 or so followers at its Facebook page.

At a potluck Tuesday at The Arboretum, the Naturalist Network honored Martin’s role in planting those first seeds for the program. “Jeanie and the Blue Ridge Naturalist program have been really influential for me,” Czarnowski said.

For information, click on www.ncarboretum.org/education/blue-ridge-naturalist-certificate-program/ or contact Beth Johnson at ejohnson@ncarboretum.org or 828-665-2492, ext. 222.

For information on the Network, click on www.facebook.com/groups/BRNNmembers/

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Dispute simmers over merits of Austin Convention Center expansion

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A proposed expansion plan for the Austin Convention Center has rekindled a long-running, nationwide debate between an academic and a consultant, raising questions about the benefits a larger facility would deliver.

In one corner, there’s Charlie Johnson, head of Johnson Consulting and one of the country’s leading consultants on the economic impact of convention centers. His projections say more space would draw significantly more visitors and generate more hotel taxes for city coffers.

+Dispute simmers over merits of Austin Convention Center expansion photo

Deborah Cannon

The Austin Convention Center on Friday, November 13, 2015. 


Deborah Cannon

In the other corner, there’s Heywood Sanders, a public policy professor at the University of Texas-San Antonio and a regular critic of public spending on convention facilities. He suggests the forecasts are overblown and that city leaders should weigh expansion plans against other possible uses of prime downtown real estate.

Their dispute has boiled up in a few cities across the country, including Charlotte, N.C., and Des Moines, Iowa.

And now it has arrived in Austin, where a master plan for the convention center proposes several expansion options — including a preferred proposal that would add a hotel and roughly double the facility’s exhibition and meeting space. That preferred expansion would cover a three-block area immediately west of the current convention center and cost an estimated $405.3 million to build.

+Dispute simmers over merits of Austin Convention Center expansion photo

Ricardo B. Brazziell

A packed house at the Austin Convention Center looks on as Edward Snowden speaks at SXSW, calls for public oversight of … read more


Ricardo B. Brazziell

However, the Austin City Council on Thursday night declined to approve the master plan, opting instead to explore it further and sending it back to the Economic Opportunity Committee. A motion from Mayor Steve Adler directed city staff to gather more information on more than a dozen factors, including traffic impacts, possible community uses of the facility and how the project’s cost might affect tax money that could go to other venues and events.

The motion absorbed questions raised by several council members, Adler said, and it reflected most of the concerns brought by residents who addressed the council Thursday.

“We really ask you to consider that this is the largest civic project that you have before you, and probably will be before you in the next five to 10 years,” downtown resident Lynn Meredith said. “You have total control over this project. … This is your land, so we ask you to take great consideration and take your time when thinking about this project.”

+Dispute simmers over merits of Austin Convention Center expansion photo

Ricardo B. Brazziell

SXSW goers make their way into the Austin Convention Center on Mondayy, March 10, 2014. 


Ricardo B. Brazziell

One of the council’s top research directives — which sought more information on future convention industry and market trends — went directly to the core dispute between Johnson and Sanders. As in other cities, their beef in Austin has coalesced around Johnson’s projections of the additional visitors, hotel stays and hotel taxes such a large expansion would generate.

About the only thing that’s clear in their debate, though, is the lack of solid and consistent data. One number suggests failure; another suggests success; and still another suggests both at the same time, depending on whom you ask.

For his part, Sanders takes aim at the projections Johnson Consulting compiled for the various expansion options, starting with growth estimates for annual room nights – the number of nights people spend in area hotels due to convention center activity. Johnson’s analysis suggests the preferred plan would boost convention-related room nights from 185,850 in fiscal 2013 to about 311,270 eight years after construction is completed.

Sanders, however, points to estimates Johnson compiled for Austin officials back in 1997, when the city hired him to analyze the convention center expansion it would eventually complete in 2002. Back then, Johnson estimated the project would boost convention-related room nights from 150,500 to 332,600.

If Austin only reached 185,850 room nights in fiscal 2013, as noted in the current report, Sanders argues, it fell far short of Johnson’s predictions.

Attendance figures suggest a similar shortfall. The 1997 report predicted that convention and trade show attendance would rise from 150,000 to 329,000 in 2005. By fiscal 2013, the center’s attendance for conventions and trade shows was 186,675, according to the current analysis.

“Johnson’s forecasts have a way of not happening, simply put,” Sanders said. “That is not uncommon for cities. The norm when it comes to convention center performance (is that) you don’t get what those consultants say.”

But Johnson and convention center officials counter that Sanders’ comparisons between 1997 and 2015 are misleading, especially when it comes to room nights.

In the late 1990s, most such event-related hotel bookings would go through the official blocks reserved for the events, and thus be captured as event-related room nights. Now, with the advent of online hotel and short-term rental bookings, more people book outside those blocks and aren’t captured in the official numbers, they say.

Events at convention centers generate anywhere from 20 percent to 45 percent more room nights than the official data show, Johnson says. A separate study released earlier this year by the company Tourism Economics found that a third of attendees at 115 events booked their rooms outside the official block.

Johnson said his analysis includes estimates of those stays as well.

“That’s a much higher number, often times,” he said, “especially when an event repeats in the city.”

With that figure added in, room nights related to all types of events at the facility were closer to 242,000 in fiscal 2013, said Mark Tester, director of the city’s Austin Convention Center Department. That increased to almost 301,000 in the most recent fiscal year, according to city documents.

In addition, Tester said, those figures don’t reflect the impact of days the convention center purposefully goes dark in deference to other large events that need hotel space – for example, the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix.

“We often make decisions that negatively affect our numbers, knowing it’s better for the city and hotels, so we get more money” in hotel taxes, he said.

He and Johnson suggest tax dollars as a better gauge for the convention center’s impact. Johnson’s 1997 report projected the Convention Center Tax Fund – a 4.5 percent portion of hotel occupancy taxes – to hit $8.7 million in fiscal 2005. According to the city, actual revenue for that fund was $15 million that year.

But the tax data note only the total revenue generated through that tax fund, not the portion generated solely through convention center-related activity. So how much of those gains stemmed from the convention center’s expansion and how much from the rise in Austin’s popularity as a tourist and event destination?

“There’s no way to put a true number on how much is attributable to us,” Tester said.

For Sanders and other critics, that makes tax projections an imprecise measure of the impact an expansion might provide.

No one disputes that Austin’s hotel demand has grown in recent years, but that growth stems from myriad factors, many unrelated to the convention center. And to the extent the data do tell a story, Sanders says, the projections fail to account for troubling trends across the convention industry. According to his research, convention center space nationwide rose 37 percent from 2000 to 2014. But over the same period, convention attendance increased just 4 percent.

Too often, he said, cities pump hundreds of millions of dollars into a resource in which supply already outpaces demand. And in Austin, he says, that level of spending doesn’t match the convention center’s impact on hotel occupancy.

Based on the city’s data, Sanders figures that convention center events contributed about 10 percent of all the room nights in downtown Austin hotels during fiscal 2013. If you expand that to consider all the hotels in the area, people going to convention center events accounted for slightly more than 2 percent of the room nights that year.

“You have to ask the question: What’s the likelihood of moving the needle on that number?” Sanders said.

He suggests Austin’s city leaders consider the master plan in context with other possible uses for those valuable downtown lots.

“The smorgasbord has one dish on it,” Sanders said. “It’s offered to the council as convention center expansion or nothing.”

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Waynesville beckons with barn quilts and cool brews

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Approach the Nutty Brunette with care. You’ll lose your head, happily, after a pint or two.

It’s a delicious, deep amber beer with a light and toasty, malt-and-toffee flavor – a favorite at Frog Level Brewing on the low-lying, bohemian side of town.

A few blocks uphill on Waynesville’s well-tended Main Street, you’ll find handsome rows of galleries and craft shops, the welcoming City Bakery, a good local newspaper and, with creaky floors and elite outdoor gear, a branch of the venerable Mast General Store chain.

Waynesville, the state’s biggest town on the other side of Asheville, came to life after the railroad arrived in the 1880s. Since then the town has served as a jumping-off point for visitors to the unique wonders of North Carolina’s western mountains.

Just to the west are the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Qualla Boundary, historic home of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Curving around town to the east, south and west is the last 50-mile section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Cold Mountain – the inspiration for fiction, film and opera – is here for anybody with sturdy boots and a day to spend climbing the rugged trail to its 6,030-foot summit.

Waynesville and nearby towns in Haywood County keep Appalachian culture alive with celebrations through the spring and summer.

Foodies and politicians from as far east as Raleigh come here to prove their mettle by chomping a stinky wild onion honored at the annual Ramp Festival.

North Carolina’s state dog, the Carolina Plott Hound, was bred in Waynesville to hunt bears. The big dog is paid homage in the name of a porter served at the Tipping Point Tavern on Main Street, and at Plottfest in nearby Maggie Valley.

And for the past 32 years, Waynesville has injected world culture into the western mountains with Folkmoot USA, a two-week festival of international folk dance. This year, the streets and stages were filled with troupes whose homes included Bangladesh, Chile, the Philippines and Quebec.

Our series appears online and in print each Monday through Labor Day.

Morning

Joey’s Pancake House, Maggie Valley

Regular visitors to Haywood County will be up early to wait in line for the best breakfast around, at Joey’s Pancake House. The blueberry pancakes are light and delicious. The country ham is the real thing. Don’t mistake Joey’s for one of those breakfast-anytime joints: It closes at noon and all day Thursday. 4309 Soco Road, Maggie Valley. 828-926-0212. www.joeyspancake.com.

Corneille Bryan Native Garden, Lake Junaluska

Now you’re ready to admire the gorgeous Lake Junaluska, home of a big conference and retreat center operated by the United Methodist Church. On the far side of the lake is a lush sanctuary called the Corneille Bryan Native Garden. Its 1.5 acres hold 500 species of plants native to these mountains. A precious Carolina Hemlock receives the only pesticide used here, carefully injected into its trunk, to ward off the devastating woolly adelgid. Even rarer are the Christmas-tree pretty Torreyas, said to be North America’s most endangered conifers, absent from these hills since the last Ice Age scraped them away. In the spring you can admire bell-shaped blooms on the scarce Oconee Bell, saucer blossoms on the Big-Leaf Magnolia and giant spikes of white flowers that draw delirious bees to a colony of Devil’s Walking Sticks. 800-222-4930. lakejunaluska.com.

Midday

Haywood County Quilt Trails

Barn quilts are decorative quilt squares painted – not sewn – and mounted on barns and other buildings. This old folk tradition has spawned a new civic and tourism trend in Western North Carolina: Drive around, admire quilts. At haywoodquilttrails.com or the local Visitor Center (44 N. Main St., Waynesville, 800-334-9036), you can get a Pinterest-linked map of 50 quilt squares erected in the towns and hills. There are some commercially calculated disappointments – an art gallery’s timid colors, coordinated with the store facade, and the Mast Store’s crude flag motif. The best examples evoke the rich heritage of American quilting: See “Moon Over Cold Mountain” in Cruso or “Five Spot” in Canton.

Haywood Smokehouse, Waynesville

A good stop for lunch is the Haywood Smokehouse in an old Waynesville house. The barbecue is Texas-style, the firewood is hickory. Add your choice of regional flavoring from the variety of sauces – sweet to pepper-hot, Eastern North Carolina to Georgia to Texas – lined up on the fireplace mantel. The iced tea is not the sweetest, and that’s a good thing. My sandwich was a sloppy joe with pulled rib meat, smothered in a smoky sauce and stacked very high on a big bun, with sides of cheesy grits and coarse-cut slaw. 79 Elysinia Ave. 828-456-7275. haywoodsmokehouse.com.

Afternoon

Blue Ridge Parkway: Waterrock Knob

If you’re familiar with the rolling meadows that grace the Blue Ridge Parkway farther north around Linville and Blowing Rock, you will notice a more rugged terrain where the scenic road winds south and west from Asheville to its terminus at Cherokee. The mountains are taller. On a clear day – an important qualifier in fog country – the parkway’s highest spot here in Haywood County puts you eyeball-even with yon summit of Cold Mountain. For your own mountaintop view of four states, park at the Waterrock Knob Visitor Center (Milepost 451) and climb the steep, partly paved half mile to the top of the knob. Blue Ridge Parkway. 828-298-0398. www.nps.gov/blri/.

Graveyard Fields

Farther north on the Blue Ridge Parkway, past Balsam Gap and Devil’s Courthouse, you’ll want to spend time at a high valley called Graveyard Fields (Milepost 418). The parking lot was expanded from 17 to 40 spaces when toilets were added this year, but you might still find the lot filled. Families in swimsuits walk down a short, paved trail through rhododendron tunnels to pick blueberries and splash in a few waterfalls on a tumbling stream called Yellowstone Prong. Other trails lead to nearby camping areas – sometimes popular with hungry black bears – in the Shining Rock Wilderness Area.

Evening

Clyde’s Restaurant, Waynesville

The Sweet Onion gets glowing reviews for memorable desserts and a deep wine list. Our chewy ribeye came heaped with an unpretty pile of mashed potatoes and deep-fried broccoli. 39 Miller St., Waynesville. 828-456-5559. sweetonionrestaurant.com. We were happier with the fare at Clyde’s Restaurant, a bustling comfort-food diner. Pretty good fried chicken, mac and cheese, and a generous salad. 2107 S. Main St., Waynesville. 828-456-9135.

Frog Level Brewing, Waynesville

Now on the National Register of Historic Places, Waynesville’s industrial neighborhood grew up in a swampy zone, between the train tracks and Richland Creek. Whenever the creek rose, so did the frog level. “It was the last street in Waynesville that was paved,” says Clark Williams, proprietor of Frog Level Brewing, who retired to his native Waynesville after 25 years in the Marines. It’s the most popular of four brew-pubs, and rightly. The cool, cavernous brewery and Panacea, a neighboring coffeehouse, share a porch and back yard shaded with sycamore and locust trees. Alongside his stalwart Nutty Brunette and Tadpole Porter, Williams offers brilliant experiments such as the Alohabanero – blending local hot peppers with notes of mango and pineapple. 55 Commerce St. 828-454-5664. froglevelbrewing.com

Coming next Monday:

Hendersonville

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Farmer and Chef Asheville cookbook reprinted, on sale

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Reprint Demand For Farmer and Chef Asheville

Independently produced and published cookbook sells close to 3000 books in less than a year; announces “Black Friday-Cyber Monday Promotion”

Farmer and Chef South (Farmer and Chef, LLC) announce a reprint on their independently produced, locally focused cookbook, Farmer and Chef Asheville. The book is an ode to the farmers, chefs and food producers of the Asheville and Western NC area filled with over 200 recipes, stories, essays and photography of the region.

“It was an immediate bestseller for us and continues to be one our bestsellers of the entire year,” says General Manager and Senior Buyer, Linda Marie Barrett of the nationally renowned independent bookstore, Malaprops Bookstore and Cafe located in downtown Asheville. “It filled a niche in cookbooks for a beautiful, locally focused and produced gift book. Customers and booksellers love it.”

With the second printing delivered and ready, the co-authors announce a Black Friday through Cyber Monday promotion, where consumers can purchase two books, U.S. shipping included for $45 via their website, www.farmerandchefsouth.com.

Selling close to 3000 books in less than a year was a passion project for authors Debby Maugans and Christine Sykes Lowe. “We have called ourselves at times “the little cookbook that could,” says Maugans. “We chose to independently publish to retain the creative look and feel of the book. It was a learning experience, yet this past year proved that it was the right decision.” Adds Lowe, “It would not have been possible without the overwhelming support of our contributors and partners. This was intended to be a love letter to Asheville, we only hope we accomplished that in the eyes of those that gave their time and amazing contributions. It goes to show what can happen when a community pulls together to tell a story.”

The Farmer And Chef Asheville Black Friday- Cyber Monday promotion is available only via famerandchefsouth.com. The book is also available for sale at regular retail cost through many area and regional retailers (link on site) as well as Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com. A holiday book signing is scheduled to celebrate the reprint December 12, 2015 from 12pm- 4pm at Williams-Sonoma, Biltmore Village.

ABOUT FARMER AND CHEF SOUTH:
Farmer and Chef South’s mission is to focus on dynamic food cultures across the South, linking chefs, farmers, producers and purveyors through online and print publications and media events. The organization is collaboration between Debby Maugans and Christine Sykes Lowe. Maugans is a nationally published cookbook author and former “Tables for Two” food columnist for Birmingham News and Food Editor of Creative Ideas for Living, a sister publication to Southern Living. She makes her home in Asheville. Lowe, also from Asheville, is the owner of T3 Creative Group, a marketing and PR collective with a special focus on culinary and tourism promotions with work ranging from national brands to independent restaurants and chefs. Farmer and Chef Asheville is the organization’s first cookbook project.
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LendingTree Announces Top Ten Customer-Rated Lenders for Q3 2015

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    LendingTree Logo.









CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ —LendingTree (NASDAQ: TREE), a leading online loan marketplace, today announced the top ten customer-rated lenders on its network based on actual customer reviews for the third quarter of 2015. The ‘Top Ten’ list is based on a weighted average of review rating and volume of customer reviews. Lenders were rated on mortgage rates, fees and closing costs, responsiveness, customer service and overall experience.

Top Ten LendingTree Network Lenders Q3 2015
(Based on LendingTree Lender Ratings and Reviews 7/1/2015 9/30/2015)

  1. HomePlus Mortgage
  2. Pulaski Bank Home Lending
  3. Triumph Lending
  4. Americash
  5. Ditech Financial, LLC
  6. Silver Fin Capital Group
  7. National Bank Of Kansas City
  8. Commonwealth Mortgage, LLC
  9. Insight Loans
  10. Reliant Bank Mortgage Services

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CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ —LendingTree (NASDAQ: TREE), a leading online loan marketplace, today announced the top ten customer-rated lenders on its network based on actual customer reviews for the third quarter of 2015. The ‘Top Ten’ list is based on a weighted average of review rating and volume of customer reviews. Lenders were rated on mortgage rates, fees and closing costs, responsiveness, customer service and overall experience.

Top Ten LendingTree Network Lenders Q3 2015
(Based on LendingTree Lender Ratings and Reviews 7/1/2015 9/30/2015)

  1. HomePlus Mortgage
  2. Pulaski Bank Home Lending
  3. Triumph Lending
  4. Americash
  5. Ditech Financial, LLC
  6. Silver Fin Capital Group
  7. National Bank Of Kansas City
  8. Commonwealth Mortgage, LLC
  9. Insight Loans
  10. Reliant Bank Mortgage Services

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CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — LendingTree® (NASDAQ: TREE), a leading online loan marketplace, today announced the top ten customer-rated lenders on its network based on actual customer reviews for the third quarter of 2015. The ‘Top Ten’ list is based on a weighted average of review rating and volume of customer reviews. Lenders were rated on mortgage rates, fees and closing costs, responsiveness, customer service and overall experience.

Top Ten LendingTree Network Lenders – Q3 2015
(Based on LendingTree Lender Ratings and Reviews 7/1/2015 – 9/30/2015)

  1. HomePlus Mortgage
  2. Pulaski Bank Home Lending
  3. Triumph Lending
  4. Americash
  5. Ditech Financial, LLC
  6. Silver Fin Capital Group
  7. National Bank Of Kansas City
  8. Commonwealth Mortgage, LLC
  9. Insight Loans
  10. Reliant Bank Mortgage Services

Phillip Pizzino, founder and CEO of HomePlus Mortgage. “We’ve had the privilege to work with thousands of satisfied clients on LendingTree and contribute our success to our commitment to exceptional personalized service.”

–>Phillip Pizzino, founder and CEO of HomePlus Mortgage. “We’ve had the privilege to work with thousands of satisfied clients on LendingTree and contribute our success to our commitment to exceptional personalized service.”

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“We are honored to be consecutively ranked as LendingTree’s top customer-rated lender, and thank our clients for entrusting us with their real estate financing needs,” said Phillip Pizzino, founder and CEO of HomePlus Mortgage. “We’ve had the privilege to work with thousands of satisfied clients on LendingTree and contribute our success to our commitment to exceptional personalized service.”

www.lendingtree.com/mortgage-lenders. For information about joining the LendingTree network of lenders, please visit https://www.lendingtree.com/about/partner-with-us.

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www.lendingtree.com/mortgage-lenders. For information about joining the LendingTree network of lenders, please visit https://www.lendingtree.com/about/partner-with-us.

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LendingTree provides more than 350 lenders from across the country a source of interested borrowers looking for home loans such as new purchase mortgage, refinance and home equity, as well as personal and auto loans. To learn more about our lenders, visit www.lendingtree.com/mortgage-lenders. For information about joining the LendingTree network of lenders, please visit https://www.lendingtree.com/about/partner-with-us.

About LendingTree
LendingTree (NASDAQ: TREE) is a leading online loan marketplace, empowering consumers as they comparison-shop across a full suite of loan and credit-based offerings. LendingTree provides an online marketplace which connects consumers with multiple lenders that compete for their business, as well as an array of online tools and information to help consumers find the best loan. Since inception, LendingTree has facilitated more than 55 million loan requests. LendingTree provides access to lenders offering home loans, personal loans, student loans, business loans, home equity loans/lines of credit, auto loans and more. LendingTree, LLC is a subsidiary of LendingTree, Inc.For more information go towww.lendingtree.com, dial 800-555-TREE, join ourFacebook pageand/or follow us on Twitter@LendingTree.

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About LendingTree
LendingTree (NASDAQ: TREE) is a leading online loan marketplace, empowering consumers as they comparison-shop across a full suite of loan and credit-based offerings. LendingTree provides an online marketplace which connects consumers with multiple lenders that compete for their business, as well as an array of online tools and information to help consumers find the best loan. Since inception, LendingTree has facilitated more than 55 million loan requests. LendingTree provides access to lenders offering home loans, personal loans, student loans, business loans, home equity loans/lines of credit, auto loans and more. LendingTree, LLC is a subsidiary of LendingTree, Inc.For more information go towww.lendingtree.com, dial 800-555-TREE, join ourFacebook pageand/or follow us on Twitter@LendingTree.

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About LendingTree
LendingTree (NASDAQ: TREE) is a leading online loan marketplace, empowering consumers as they comparison-shop across a full suite of loan and credit-based offerings. LendingTree provides an online marketplace which connects consumers with multiple lenders that compete for their business, as well as an array of online tools and information to help consumers find the best loan. Since inception, LendingTree has facilitated more than 55 million loan requests. LendingTree provides access to lenders offering home loans, personal loans, student loans, business loans, home equity loans/lines of credit, auto loans and more. LendingTree, LLC is a subsidiary of LendingTree, Inc. For more information go to www.lendingtree.com, dial 800-555-TREE, join our Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter @LendingTree.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Megan Greuling
(704) 943-8208
Megan.Greuling@tree.com

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MEDIA CONTACT:
Megan Greuling
(704) 943-8208
Megan.Greuling@tree.com

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MEDIA CONTACT:
Megan Greuling              
(704) 943-8208
Megan.Greuling@tree.com

http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110518/MM04455LOGO

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http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110518/MM04455LOGO

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Logo – http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110518/MM04455LOGO

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lendingtree-announces-top-ten-customer-rated-lenders-for-q3-2015-300177864.html

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http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lendingtree-announces-top-ten-customer-rated-lenders-for-q3-2015-300177864.html

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SOURCE LendingTree

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Battle’s Plais Dow emerging as Spartans’ best defensive weapon

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Whenever Alexander Schiffer posts new content, you’ll get an email delivered to your inbox with a link.

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Live polling: Audience chimes in during CT forum – Asheville Citizen

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On Nov. 10, The Citizen-Times hosted “Growing Asheville For All,” a civic forum to discuss issues of affordability and economy in Asheville. More than 300 audience members gathered at the Diana Wortham Theatre for the event, while more than 100 participated via an online live stream.

Panelists were chosen to represent six different facets of economy and life in Asheville: Mai Thi Nguyen, an associate professor at UNC Chapel Hill’s department of regional and city planning; former Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy, now an outreach coordinator for the Asheville Housing Authority; Jack Cecil, a commercial and residential developer and CEO of Biltmore Farms; Jeremy Littlejohn, CEO of RISC Networks, a tech startup headquartered in Asheville; John McKibbon, developer and CEO of the McKibbon Hotel Group; and Pastor Micheal Woods, executive director of WNC Rescue Ministries shelter downtown.

The event used live polling of audience members and viewers watching live at home via questions pushed to their smartphones. Moderators Casey Blake and Josh Awtry used the audience’s input to steer the panel’s conversation to more directly answer community questions.

Below is a sampling of some of the audience questions captured live:

The audience had high expectations for the evening’s panel discussion.

Some of the on-screen responses from the crowd before the panel discussion on what they hoped to learn:

Is Asheville in a growth crisis? Not everybody agrees.

While the biggest block of respondents said that Asheville is experiencing a crisis around growth, those who are unsure or agree that it’s simply in the middle of an economic boom made up significant parts of the audience.

No surprise: hotels are a divisive issue.

The poll bars grew at even pacing as the audience chimed in. As the voting slowed, it was clear that there was no consensus in the audience on hotels in Asheville’s economy. By a slight majority, residents thought that hotels made for a better economy, but those who disagree or are unsure make up a slim combined majority.

Asheville wants high-tech jobs, but not employment sectors that harm the environment.

Asheville’s love of nature was apparent as a hunger for green jobs was quickly voted to the top of the list. While those advocating for technology-oriented jobs made up the largest piece of the pie, the single-most voted on category was related to a green economy. When asked if manufacturing could ever return, the on-stage panelists agreed that manufacturing never left — it switched from large textile companies to smaller brewers, but when combined, those breweries contribute to the manufacturing economy.

To help struggling Asheville residents break the cycle of poverty, most said education was the key.

Other popular answers included stopping racism and building financial literacy.

The audience largely wanted the hotel tax to be brought under local control.

One of the more polarizing topics at the forum revolved around the recently passed hotel tax, which increased lodging tax by 2 percent with funds to be used for tourism-related marketing and infrastructure. With a net score of 23, several audience members wanted this question addressed; about 1/3 as many wanted to move past it. The audience applauded when moderators asked the panel to respond to the issue.

The audience strongly supports denser neighborhoods.

Panelists Cecil and McKibbon both agreed that they hear this sentiment echoed frequently, but whenever a new apartment or high-density housing unit is proposed, nearby neighbors unify in protest.

Respondents want to see developers be more accountable for creating affordable units.

 

Crowd responses were varied on how to solve the housing shortage. Most want to make developers include more affordable units, but they also think that regulations should be relaxed to make it easier to build more dense development.

The audience had strong takeaways from the panel discussion.

Some of the responses on the screen included:

And, of course, our favorite:

For more on issues around growth and sustainability, visit our growth page. 

The Nov. 10 forum was provided free of charge to the community through a sponsorship by PNC Bank.

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Think You Don’t Need to Move Out for Renovation? Think Again

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By
Kristine Hansen

7:19 pm ET
November 12, 2015November 12, 2015

renovation-exhaustion

Tempura/iStock

Should I stay or should I go? That’s the dilemma for many folks renovating their homes, but if you’re one of them, the question you should probably be asking yourself is: Where should I go?