I had to go out of town on short notice. I therefore missed the Asheville City Council meeting tonight. Before I left, I was riveted by the following statement about council considering what to do with the view of a cathedral downtown, which to me is a symbol of a lot of stuff the progressives detest.

Unlike previous failed schemes for the properties, however, the proposal City Council will consider at its regular meeting on Tuesday, March 8 doesn’t feature a developer, a structure or even a specific future use. Rather, Council will review a plan of action created by the Asheville Design Center (ADC) to undertake a comprehensive, community-based effort to determine the community’s vision for the property.

In the old days, we would laugh at the notion of a community vision, as if there were some uber brain floating around somewhere. Well, now we have the cloud. Is that the collective? Will it one day function like butcher paper of old, with moderators putting minority opinions in with their opposites and watering everything down to their foregone conclusions?