April 2016 Monthly Update

Dear Community Partners and Key Stakeholders,

Here are April's key take-aways for Partnership Support, Staying Informed, Getting Involved and Resources You Can Use!

Partnership Support

The Beaucatcher Greenway project is a very important for our community and recent misinformation has been spread that may lead to possible termination or delays of the project. This project is part of the River-to-Ridge Connector, which would link the French Broad River and River Arts District to downtown Asheville and Beaucatcher Mountain via a continuous multi-access corridor that sits very near to Mission Hospital and adjacent to the most disadvantaged census track in the City of Asheville. This would pass near or through urban neighborhoods, several apartment complexes, connecting to 30 acres of urban forest overlooking the city above McCormick Field.  This is one part of the Greenways Master Plan which has been passed by City Council, and has been under development for 20 years.  The Beaucatcher greenway was approved by the city in 2010 and design began in 2013.  This would be a 1.25-mile greenway when completed.

From a public health standpoint, as providers and advocates, please inform yourself on the project and consider giving it your support.

A public comment period on the Beaucatcher Greenway will take place before the Asheville City Council meeting on April 12^th.  To provide comment, you will need to sign-in. Comments are limited to 3 minutes unless you are commenting on behalf of others present, in which you be will allowed 10 minutes.

Click here for key talking points in a downloadable handout!

Additional links:

• For and overview of the Beaucatcher Greenway project  http://www.ashevillegreenways.com/beaucatcher#beaucatcher-main
• For information on the Asheville Greenways Master plan:  http://www.ashevillenc.gov/Departments/Transportation/Greenways.aspx
• To comment on the greenway visit Open City Hall,  a new tool to provide input for the City of Asheville https://www.peakdemocracy.com/portals/239/Forum_687/Issue_3532?cookies=detect
• To express your support you may sign Buncombe County Parks and Greenways Foundation’s Petition (note, there is also a petition circulating in the community in opposition to Beaucatcher):  http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/support-beaucatcher-greenway?mailing_id=33574&source=s.icn.em.cr&r_by=15438387

Get Involved

Spread the word or participate in one of our Talk to Action meetings this spring.  Details are found on the Talk to Action - Spring2016 blog page.  We also provide an update of the March 23rd Talk to Action on Food Security & Safe and Accessible Transportation and Recreation. 

Stay Informed

There is ample evidence that greenways can increase physical activity and have a positive impact on obesity, chronic disease and mental health. However, when you google greenways and health benefits you mostly end up with links to information on any number of City and County greenway systems with a few bullets on the health benefits or dense academic articles.  Trust for Public Lands has created a comprehensive but very readable report on the health benefits of parks and greenways. 

https://www.tpl.org/sites/default/files/cloud.tpl.org/pubs/benefits_HealthBenefitsReport.pdf

Resources You Can Use

The 2015 Community Health Assessment is now available on Buncombe County' s webpage.  

This is a tremendous resource and we encourage you to spend a few minutes reviewing the contents so you can quickly refer to it for data needs in the future.  We also want to share a link to the press release on the CHA release as well as the coverage of the CHA and CHIP in the Mountain Xpress.