Here are my submissions to the Moutain Xpress questionnaire for the Asheville City Council primary, out in print this week.

Key endorsements: City Council members Sheneika Smith and Brian Haynes; Rev. Amy Cantrell; Chef Gene Ettison; Julio Torodya; Magaly Urdialis
Amount of money raised: $7,336
Top three donors:  Kendall Oliver, Esther Cartwright, Dr. Lisabeth Medloc

What makes Asheville home to you? The community of Asheville: my family, friends and neighbors. After 13 years here, I better understand what community means. I recently knocked on the door of the home where my great-grandmother was born in Kenilworth in 1910, and as I think about long-term accountability, I consider my now-adult students I’ve known since they were in elementary school. I’m already being held accountable, which is why I’m inviting community to join in this work to Be ‘Bout it Being Better.

Name three achievable goals you would champion in the next two years: With courageous leadership and collaboration, we are capable of moving toward a fare-free, regional transit system, which is at the intersection of equitable access, economic mobility and environmental sustainability; deeply affordable housing through creative, cooperative solutions; and a participatory democracy and budgeting process that ensures the people are heard in our budget and policy decisions.

Which recent City Council budget decision(s) do you disagree with, and what would you have done differently? I’ve attended Council meetings for five years, advocating for investment in transit, the Housing Trust Fund, increased base-rate pay for employees like our firefighters, our tree canopy and environmental sustainability. Instead, the majority have perpetuated a growing pay disparity, inflated the police budget without accountability, invested in too many outside consultants and plans that didn’t address our needs, waited too long for action on dedicated funding for transit and haven’t made a strong enough case for occupancy tax allocation.

How will you as a City Council member help Ashevilleans cope with the rising cost of living? I’ll hold a higher standard through example for city employees, advocating for a $15 base rate and paid family leave while maintaining our living wage policy. We must address equity in our schools and community so we can attract quality jobs and retain our people being gentrified out. Saying no gives value to yes, so I won’t waver on affordability requirements for new development and will join in guiding processes, policies and UDO updates to ensure alignment with community values.

How will you balance Asheville’s growth while protecting the quality of life for current residents and the city’s unique identity? We must tackle the spending of our tax dollars on tourism marketing, coordinating with the county and state to change our occupancy tax allocation and use. Our neighbors serving on the Tourism Development Authority need to join us in drastically changing, or the TDA must be abolished. We need these resources for infrastructure, deeply affordable housing, a downtown shuttle and park and ride service to get ourselves and visitors around without cars and a leap forward in accessibility and sidewalks.

What actions would you support for Asheville to fight climate change and meet its 100% renewable energy goal by the established deadline of 2030? Since climate change is our biggest public safety issue, we’ll update our Comprehensive Plan so budget, policy and planning decisions address resiliency with an equity lens and thorough public engagement. We’ll coordinate with the county on renewables and transit corridor density planning and ensure our future city bonds are leveraged to partner on neighborhood resiliency, ending food deserts and getting our entire community to 100%, which will increase quality jobs for our community in a Green New Deal for Asheville.