ASHEVILLE – In their last debate before the Nov. 3 election, the six City Council candidates talked about a “transformative” period facing Asheville including how a new interstate route will permanently alter the city.
The candidates spoke to 85 attendees at an Asheville Leadership Forum Critical Issues Luncheon at the Asheville Country Club. It was their last time together before the Nov. 3 election in which voters will pick three to sit on the seven-member council. Early voting is happening now and runs until Oct. 31. In addition to the six primary winners, the Rev. Spencer Hardaway is mounting a write-in campaign. Hardaway was not at the forum.
In one of their final chances to shape voters’ opinions, candidates gave personal statements and answered questions on parking decks, the priority of a new downtown park, how to make Asheville more affordable and whether they supported a newly proposed interstate route. Excerpts are below:
Keith Young: “I am the kid who walked into my guidance counselor’s office in high school and asked about college,” said Young, one of two Asheville natives and the only African-American candidate. “I was kind of shot down. I was told I was not college material.” Young said he went on to college and graduated in three-and-a-half years with honors. He opened two small businesses in Asheville, was in marketing and advertising, worked as a teacher and is now a deputy clerk of Buncombe County Superior Court. “I’ve had many different jobs and experiences throughout my short life that will translate very well into public service,” he said. Young said residents of all backgrounds and races deserve a “good quality of life” and that it is important to have diversity among council members “who see life through a different lens.” The work of the council should be to prepare Asheville for the next 20 to 30 years and focus less on tourism and more on current residents, he said.
Lindsey Simerly: “I live in Haw Creek in East Asheville with my fiance Melissa. We have a 2-year-old daughter, Peyton, a dog, cat and a couple of chickens,” said Simerly, the only openly gay candidate, who said she hoped to add more children to their family soon. Simerly works for the Campaign for Southern Equality, a local nonprofit that does LGBT advocacy work across the South. “We helped sue North Carolina a little over a year ago,” she said. “Because of the victory in that case, we’ve had marriage equality in this state for a little over a year.” Simerly has been chairwoman of the city’s Affordable Housing Advisory Committee since 2011, “where we put forward concrete policy solutions to help address the issue of affordability that we all know and understand that we have,” she said. Simerly said she was honored to have endorsements from a wide variety of people including former Mayor Terry Belamy, Sheriff Van Duncan and lieutenant governor candidate Holly Jones.
Brian Haynes: “My wife Susan and I raised our kids here. Our first grandchild will be born here in February,” said Haynes, another Asheville native and the brother of well-known local musician Warren Haynes. He now works as a Habitat for Humanity assistant manager. “Susan and I in the early 1990s, we opened a music store in downtown Asheville called Almost Blue. We were in the building that is currently The Thirsty Monk. We were there for about 12 years and saw the rebirth of downtown Asheville.” Boarded up storefronts turned into a destination downtown, he said. “I am not a politician, never run for office in my life. I did not decide to do this until just about two weeks before the filing date. So, I’ve been on a massive learning mission since I got in the race,” he said. Haynes said he was motivated to run because he thought the council should always have at least one native and that development and hotel construction was running at an “unsustainable pace”
Rich Lee: “I’ve lived in Western North Carolina for most of the last 18 years. I was an adult high school teacher with Job Corps. After college, my wife and I served a term in the Peace Corps in the Kingdom of Jordan,” said Lee who now lives in West Asheville. He said as a financial adviser he works with about 250 local families and small businesses. “So, I see a big part of the spectrum of Asheville’s finances, everything from young working families who are just trying to save their first dollars for their kids’ college education up to people who are already looking at retirement, who are fortunate in some cases, unfortunate in others.” Lee said he was running because the “next few years is going to be a crucial test of Asheville’s strength and ingenuity as a city. We have a good, well-intentioned government that has fallen behind on the planning and fallen behind on the growth that we are experiencing here.” Along with “long-range financial planning” experience, Lee pointed to his service on the city’s Greenway Committee and a neighborhood advisory committee dealing with interstate expansion issues headed by fellow candidate Julie Mayfield.
Julie Mayfield: The West Asheville resident said she moved here seven years ago with her husband, Jim Grode, who is also an environmental attorney, to become executive director at a regional environmental advocacy group, now called MountainTrue. Mayfield has been on the city’s Transit Committee for six years and been chairwoman for three years. She is also on Asheville’s Multi-Model Transportation Commission. “I am running because in the time that we’ve lived here, I really have fallen in love with this city in a way that I could not have imagined. … The passion for the success of the city has grown in the time that we’ve been here, and I want to help us through what is really shaping up to be a very transformative time,” she said. “One of the things that I bring to this race is 25 years as a public interest attorney and advocate working primarily outside but also inside government on the issues that are challenges for us today: environment, land use and transportation.” Mayfield said she stressed fairness and justice in decision-making and understood what it was like trying to influence policy from outside government.
Marc Hunt: “I look back at my entire life and I find that I increasingly have been drawn to community service and now public service,” said the vice mayor and only incumbent in the race. Hunt said he founded and helped lead a whitewater rafting business and then helped direct another rafting business. “Twenty years ago, my wife and I moved to Asheville so our kids could be around culture and great education, and we could as well,” he said. Hunt worked 10 years with Self-Help Credit Union in community development lending, then seven years in land conservation finance with the nonprofit Open Space Institute, from which he retired. Hunt said he now focuses on his work as a council member. “I work really hard. And I try to work ahead of the curve to provide leadership because I think the best opportunity to get things right is to see challenges and opportunities coming. My focuses are well known: Environment, strong neighborhoods, managing growth in a sensible way, modernizing our multi-model transportation system, being diligent financially.”
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Questions were collected from the audience. Questions weren’t directed at specific candidates, and some didn’t weigh in.
Do you favor more public-private public partnerships such as the city deal to put public parking under the Aloft Hotel?
Hunt: There was some controversy, but it is a great site for a garage. The city should look to add parking, possibly by asking to use hotel room tax money.
Mayfield: The city should try to partner with businesses that are already building parking decks and should try to replace surface parking lots which are a poor use of valuable land.
Lee: He agreed that the Aloft deal was a good one and that he has seen data showing every city parking deck is full at least once a day with the biggest pressure on northern decks.
Young: He said as a downtown employee, he pays $1,200 a year for parking. He agreed public-private partnerships should be pursued.
Simerly: Didn’t weigh in. In the past, she has suggested charging more for parking, allowing the city to have more revenue for affordable housing.
Haynes: Didn’t weigh in. He has criticized the Aloft deal as a special taxpayer deal for a hotel.
Which planned city greenspace would you put off to make room for a new park across from the U.S. Cellular Center?
Haynes: The issue is divisive but not what really separates the candidates. He supports a greenspace there like many who signed a petition. He said he is running to give a voice to residents who have less of a voice than developers.
Simerly: Doesn’t support putting off other priorities, such as fixing the Walton Street Pool. She said she didn’t favor a hotel or parking deck but thought the city-owned land could be mixed-use with a public space and building that honors the nearby Basilica of St. Lawrence. She pointed to a city estimate of $4 million to construct park, including the $2.6 million value of the land.
Young: Another greenspace doesn’t have to be put off. The city can continue to own the land while it works on what to do with it. If the city sells it to a developer, residents won’t have a say in what goes there.
Hunt: Said the cost would be $4 million to $6 million. The city has to balance such costs against other spending needs such as fire trucks and sidewalks, he said. A building with a public plaza would be best.
Mayfield: She argued the city can legally sell the land to a developer and also put restrictions on it, so it has certain elements, such as a public space.
Lee: First, streets must be realigned before the space can be used for anything. The land can be added to the city’s greenspace priority list and go through the regular process without displacing another project.
How would you make the city more affordable for residents?
Simerly: Concentrate on affordable housing. Increase the density of apartments along major transportation corridors, have the city loan more money to developers building workforce housing and require all developers to include a percentage of lower-cost apartments.
Haynes: Support small, independently owned businesses. That will increase local wealth and bring up wages. Do not encourage multinational hotel chains to locate here.
Lee: The city’s best efforts to boost affordable housing still can’t meet expected need, so Asheville must work on increasing wages. Give more small incentive deals to local businesses.
Mayfield: She said the city currently doesn’t give incentives to hotels. The city should boost public transit and support the effort with the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce to create 3,000 new jobs that will be for the current population.
What do you think of the latest state plans for I-240 that includes expanding the roadway to eight lanes through West Asheville?
Lee: Pressure from local residents and leaders have helped reduce the number of businesses and homes that would be taken by the new route. The project will probably move forward, but it still needs to happen in a way that is the least destructive to the community with a mind toward any unbalanced impact on minority neighborhoods.
Mayfield: She has headed a group that looks at impacts to the city and its neighborhoods with which Lee has been involved. The current plan doesn’t match the scale of the city. But the project looks like it will move forward, so it is critical it is done well.
Hunt: There have been concessions by the state, but the proposal is still too wide through West Asheville and its crossing of the French Broad River could be improved. One problem is that the state is best at road designs in rural and suburban areas, not urban areas.
Young: The biggest problem that should be examined is how many families are forced out of homes because of the route. The city should get the best deal it can, then the project should advance.
Simerly: The project is too big as it is and residents should work together to change it. Locals should look to help from community volunteers, such as the Asheville Design Center for alternatives.
Haynes: He agreed with other points that the project is too big and should be opposed as it is.
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