Happy Independence Day, everyone! I hope your day is a blast! A safe blast, that is…

Let’s get to today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers:

Question: I’m wondering if you have any news about Asheville’s Pit of Despair. I haven’t heard anything, although I do remember reading that consultants had been hired to come up with a plan. Any feedback you could give me would be appreciated.

My answer: Look, the first 20 years of a project like this are set aside for letting the property properly marinate. Then you have to let any plans stew for five to 10 years to reach proper tenderness. Then you’re ready to add the seasoning, such as a park bench or maybe a tree. And then you realize the whole shebang just got swallowed by an Asheville sinkhole.

Real answer: You may think I’m exaggerating about the time frame, but the Pit of Despair has been inspiring hopelessness since 2003, when the city bought it for $2.4 million. Located at 68 Haywood St., the pit has remained vacant since then, although it has been home to the occasional outdoor table or temporary use.

But it’s still a pit, and a prime piece of downtown real estate. It’s right across the street from the Harrah’s Cherokee Center-Asheville, which comprises the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium and the Exploreasheville.com arena, the city’s two main performance venues.

Shortly after buying the property, the city did tear down a dilapidated parking deck and the former Flying Frog restaurant. It also installed faux stone walls to make it less of an eyesore, but alas, it remains a gravel-bottom, concrete-block-lined ode to municipal melancholy.

Back in the day, before the city took it over, a developer was going to turn it into a hotel and probably a convention center — yes, a crazy use for such a space — but that plan got mired in lawsuits. And the property lingered.

In 2020, City Council boldly decided the property should become another downtown park, in this case one with a $13 million price tag.

But here we are, five years later with the Pit of Despair still looking like the Depression of Despondency. Hey, someone’s got to try to give this place a new nickname.

But wait, action is on the horizon. Well, maybe not action, but at least some semblance thereof. Let’s call it “exploration.”

“Our Temporary Activation Program team is exploring regular programming of this site as part of the community’s overall Helene economic recovery efforts,” City of Asheville spokesperson Kim Miller said via email. “In the meantime, Harrah’s Cherokee Center-Asheville has been programming the space around larger events held at the venue.”

Back in February, this included a six-day “shakedown street” event organized around the Billy Strings concerts held at Harrah’s Cherokee Center-Asheville.

“Next month, in conjunction with the Widespread Panic concerts to be held at the HCCA, another three-day shakedown street marketing (event) will be held at the space July 24-26, opening at 1 p.m. daily,” Miller said. “Outside of these city-initiated efforts, the site is available for outdoor special event permitting following a process that’s consistent with special event permitting on other city-owned properties.”

It’s a great spot for such events, especially if you enjoy a near total lack of shade and the inimitable ambience of concrete walls that sort of look like rocks. Sorry, that was snarky, wasn’t it?

“As your reader mentions, this parcel has been a topic of consideration for a number of years,” Miller said diplomatically. “A Master Design Plan was completed in 2020, incorporating input from robust community engagement efforts. A prior community vision document prioritized temporary uses of the site, which have been implemented since 2017.”

I suspect sometime in the 2030s, we might see some actual action on the site, or at least some very strenuous planning.

Question: I would like to know how it is possible for someone to put razor wire on top of their fence in a backyard in Asheville. This can be observed on Merrimon Avenue past Beaver Lake on the right side of the road.

My answer: I bet someone with the city is thinking a few strands of razor wire along the Pit of Despair sure would jazz the place up.

Real answer: Feeling a bit stalkerish, I did stop by this house a couple of times to try to ask the homeowners why they feel the need for razor wire at the bottom of their yard. It is kind of odd, as other areas of the fence look pretty normal.

I suspect maybe they’re trying to keep bears out of the yard. At any rate, no one was home when I stopped by, and they didn’t answer a note I left behind. 

But none of this is illegal.

“Our crews looked into this in the interest of public safety,” City Spokesperson Kim Miller told me. “The location, however, is on private property, out of the public right of way which the city can maintain.”

The city ordinance code applies only along public streets and alleys.

“When a resident has a concern about code compliance or other issues of that nature, they should lodge a concern through the Asheville App,” Miller said, noting you can find more information on the Compliance Division pages of the City of Asheville website.

Question: Driving on I-26 east between Long Shoals Road and the airport, work is being done on what appears to be the old part of I-26 east. Are they building an access road of some kind there? There’s a huge pile of dirt there they keep moving around.

My answer: If this is the exact amount of dirt as it would take to fill the Pit of Despair, I might have just broken the story of the century. I can see the headline now: “City to fill Pit of Despair, let it sit for two more decades.”

Real answer: Well, this is pretty mundane.

“The contractor is depositing some leftover dirt from the Exit 35 area to here instead of an off-site location,” said Luke Middleton, resident engineer with the NCDOT’s Asheville office. “It will be shaped and then hydro-seeded later this fall.”

In other words, it’s going to become an embankment. 

Exit 35 is the new exit added to the widening of I-26 in Buncombe County. It will serve the Pratt & Whitney plant, as well as other motorists.

Asheville Watchdog welcomes thoughtful reader comments on this story, which has been republished on our Facebook page. Please submit your comments there.

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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