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Elect Elaine
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21 Comments
October 11th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Since it may come down to a Freeborn vs Lite race, does this mean you are supporting Lite over Freeborn?
Are you concerned that the progressive vote could be fractured and perhaps the third slot could go to Russell? As an aside, i’ve had some very progressives folks tell me that Russell is a moderate good guy and they would vote for him as their third over Davis and Lite.
I know it sounds a bit crazy, but there is an undercurrent of concern about Lite even in the Progressive community. You’ve heard it a million times by now, but some people say (h/t to Katie Couric and Fox News) that she is a one issue candidate and will be completely inflexible on council.
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October 11th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Asheman,
Russell has some code phrases on his site that I’ll mention here to explain why he’s the wrong man for Asheville:
“Balanced Growth” – This is code for deregulation and more leeway to Big Development
“Strong Economic & Business Climate” – This is code for deregulation and more leeway to Big Business
“Balanced growth will lead to improvements in affordable housing & responsible development in our river district. Having a strong business climate will in turn help us in recruiting new business to the area and add higher paying jobs. This will help our tax base and improve basic city services.” – This is trickle down economics 2.0
“annexation to the table which I don’t support.” – Giving away our city resources?
“lower taxes for everyone” = fewer services for everyone.
Bill Russell a moderate? Hardly. He’s the most right wing candidate on the ballot.
Now to your concern about the vote splitting between Lite and Freeborn and accidentally putting in a Russell or a Butner. This is how Mumpower got his seat, yes? It’s a legitimate concern, and it may boil down to folks choosing only two candidates instead of three.
Elaine Lite ran her primary campaign on issues of growth and development (looks a lot like all the candidates, really), but I expect you’ll see more coverage of her diverse views on poverty, gang violence, and ailing infrastructure. As to “inflexibility”… Huh? You don’t organize grassroots movements with anything but a flexible, consensus driven, cooperative attitude. This idea flies in the face of the facts regarding Elaine’s experience with Mountain Voices Alliance, PARC, and Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods.
When you’ve got a Jan Davis who’s quick to cross over into Mumpowerland and you’re thinking of adding someone further to Davis’ right in Bill Russell, I think you’re talking about moving the whole Council rightward away from sane development and growth.
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October 11th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
I think it says a lot that not even Cape would support Lite. If the progressives what to keep a majority on council they should dump Lite and play it safe this year. Getting to greedy is what got us a re-election for Mumpower. I would also say it is what lead to the partisan election debacle.
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October 11th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Gordon, thanks for the response. Seriously, it was OTHER progressives saying this, not me…it wasn’t one of these “hey doc, my friend has this rash…” sort of things.
I didn’t vote for Davis or Russell. In fact, I’d be happy to see Davis go, not because he’s “moderate”, but because he seems clueless (though again I’ll add that he seems like a nice and honest man).
Cutting taxes for the rich is trickle down economics. A community working to foster a thriving business climate consistent with its values (clean and green for example) is NOT trickle down 2.0. Such jobs may not provide an immediate solution for everyone in poverty, but NOT doing so will just contribute to a downward spiral in living standards, our tax base, and exasperate our social ills.
We’re right on the edge of becoming an Aspen. A retirement community for the rich and a downtown frozen as a quaint muesem piece as a result of reactionary NIMBY attitudes. To my ears, the ideas Lite espouses will make affordable housing MORE scarce and contibute to MORE sprawl and environmental destruction outside our fair city.
I’m trying to keep an open mind about Lite, but as of today, she doesn’t have my vote. I may end up only voting for Brownie and Bryan.
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October 11th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
“Balanced Growth” = giveaways to Big Development = more minimum wage jobs, more very wealthy people who are served by the local underclass. This isn’t the town I want to live in.
Your Aspen analogy would be scary if it seemed at all true. I see it more as a move towards a Portland, OR scenario.
Can you be more specific about which Lite proposals you’re thinking will lead down a path of less affordable housing? more sprawl?
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October 11th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
I’m confused. Do you think moving towards a Portland, OR scenario is a good thing or a bad thing? To me that sounds like a good thing.
Basically, I think she has a lot of well intentioned ideas on development and the economy that will have unintended and negative consequences. I’m all for smart and planned growth, but city council can’t repeal private property rights. The city can set standards, it can guide and channel growth, but I don’t think it can or should micromanage it. Are her ideas new or can you show me other cities where this has been done successfully?
If you oppose tall buildings, gated communities, ugly buildings, demand an air tax for balconies, oppose steep slope development, demand expensive green building codes, oppose mixed use developments, development in our forests, and just about every other new development, then there is a real supply and demand problem and prices will go higher.
I agree workforce housing is a problem that needs to be addressed and I’m not claiming to have the answers.
The living wage proposal could also backfire. Minimum wage needs to be adjusted at the state and federal levels, or else the playing field is not level and a lot of downtown businesses would go bust or move somewhere else.
To be fair, I like the rest of her platform.
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October 11th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Asheman,
Can you explain how regulation is a repeal of private property rights? There is such a concept as the commons, those things that all of society benefits from. In this town, to my mind, part of the commons is the atmosphere to attracts our tourists, as, for better or worse, a large chunk of our economy is based in tourism. Regulating these things will help maintain the atmosphere that people come here for, thus retaining an important part of the commons. The same goes for opposing steep slope, protecting the National Forests and National Parks, and insisting that housing address the needs of all individuals, not just the few with the money to afford whatever they want. These things are part of the common wealth and thus need to be protected.
As to your complaint against the living wage issue, could you please direct me to any statistical evidence that a raise in wages is bad for the economy? In the case of Asheville, I doubt seriously that this will be the case, as downtown is what attracts people and there is nowhere for the business to go. Thank God waiting tables can’t yet be outsourced.
Perhaps someone else can address this issue, but my understanding of the living wage proposal was that it would affect (effect, I never can keep them straight) only business that do business with the City. Perhaps this is wrong, but I am pretty sure that is all they can do, as they do not have the authority to changes wages for everyone.
There is much that I can say about Elaine’s ideas and the benefits that I see they will bring to the City. I grew up in a place where the developers were allowed to do anything they wanted, and they still are. In the process our beautiful beaches were destroyed, plant and animal populations have been pushed to a breaking point, and the working class is confined to small ghettos of “affordable” housing, all in the name of “economic development” and “property rights.” I have seen it with my own eyes, and it is not a pretty sight.
CM
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October 12th, 2007 at 12:40 am
John, I can certainly see what you’re saying when you suggest it would be “greedy” to want to expand the progressive majority on council. The problem is, though, that nobody knows what’s going to happen in the voting booth.
For example, we could be looking at a scenario in which the backlash against Newman is so great that Lite will need to place third just to hold the line.
Moreover, there’s a chance that at least one member of council will run for county commission next year. If they win, the person who comes in fourth this year will be a strong contender for the vacant seat. Better Lite than Butner or Russell, I should think.
Heck, Mumpower could win the nomination and having Clinton at the top of the ticket could sink Shuler. If that happens, adding another progressive to council might be a nice consolation prize.
Basically, what I’m saying is, use three votes. You never know when you’re going to need the spare.
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October 12th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Just to be picky, what is with the trend of calling affordable housing ‘workforce housing’?
As a poor person, is my main identity a worker? Do I exist to be part of the workforce that serves people who can afford ‘non-workforce housing’? Are you implying that rich people don’t work?
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October 12th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Laura,
Yeah, it’s an interesting euphemism. I’m thinking it’s demographically accurate, in that service industry and low-skilled blue collar workers have a hard time finding affordable housing in the city. It certainly does carry a wide range of implications though. I’m sticking with affordable housing because affordable is for everyone.
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October 12th, 2007 at 11:56 am
cm1165, thanks for your comments. I agree that there is a commons and in this case it needs to be protected. So let’s set good standards in the UDO and enforce them evenly and fairly. Let’s have good planning. I’m all for it. I just believe there is a point where it become micromanaging and counter-productive. There’s a ying and yang to all things.
I should clarify that I strongly support steep slope ordinances and I want to protect our open lands and forests (and our farms). I’m also for LEED standards in buildings and everything any anthing green. I just think we need to recognize that this may not be compatible with affordable housing. Less housing, higher contruction costs = higher prices.
As to “workforce” housing, I think its been a useful term to support affordable housing. I helps people more clearly see the dependency that our local tourist/downtown enconomy has on local workers. It probably “sells” better to a wider audience too. IMHO.
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October 12th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Asheman,
One of the problems currently is that the UDO isn’t uniformly enforced, and this is one of the things Elaine Lite is calling for. She’s also calling for a master plan for downtown, so developers can know what’s expected and so Council can dispense with the tedious case-by-case basis they’re working under now.
About LEED and affordable housing – that’s exactly what we’ve got in our two newest affordable housing communities on Grove St. and Smoky Park Hgwy – LEED certified affordable housing built by Weaver-Cooke construction. Either we set the standards for our community or BIg Development sets those standards. It seems a simple litmus test.
Further, Butner, Russell, and Davis are all supported by the NC Realtors PAC as well as by prominent Republicans in town. Davis’ biggest contributor is Jerry Sternberg, and Carl Mumpower is supporting Davis as well.
A vote for Russell, Davis, and Butner is a vote for the NC Realtors PAC and the Republican Party.
The vote will be split between Freeborn and Lite only if progressives vote against progressive values by supporting Jan Davis.
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October 12th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Did you hear that Elaine wants Affordable Housing to stay affordable? This is code for she does not think poor and middle class should have the opportunity to build equity. I have heard her say this several times. This is another example of how she does not think through her proposals.
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October 12th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
I think the flip side of what you’re saying (guessing here at exactly what you mean) is that Lite wants to prevent developers from snatching up affordable housing and reselling it at unaffordable prices.
I think I understand your concern, but do you see this flip side as a reasonable concern given the current state of the market?
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October 12th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
It’s a good point you make about the realities of the workforce needing the workforce housing. I merely worry that calling it workforce housing increases the separation between the wealthy and the poor, and makes it sound like if the wealthy provide ‘workforce housing’ for the workers, they can control the type of housing available to the workers as opposed to paying them enough to choose and buy their own housing. Can we talk about personal freedom? I just can’t get the image of the servant’s quarters (worker housing) behind the plantation house (Ellington) out of my head.
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October 12th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
At last night’s community meeting on gangs (yes, another one), one person stood up and asked where were the 6 people running for council. (To be fair, Jan was at the first meeting last week.)
If any of these candidates want to show that they care about more than one issue, and that they are concerned about the violence that is literally a daily occurence in our poorest, minority-populated neighborhoods, then damn it, I want to see it, I want to hear it, I want to believe it.
Get out and talk to these people and tell them what your plan is to help combat the ills of drugs, gangs and violence right here in beautiful Asheville.
I have yet to meet anybody in Pisgah View who truly cares about steep slopes, PACS and LEED certification — unless you can somehow show how these things can keep somebody from kicking in their door in search of money for a crack binge. (And that’s not to imply that I don’t care about those things or that they aren’t important, but for real…)
Public housing IS THE LARGEST SOURCE OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN ASHEVILLE. What’s the plan for saving it, folks? I’m not the only one who’s desperate to hear it.
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October 12th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Newman was at the partisan election forum and Freeborn was at a function for the Greenways. I imagine both of them had these events on their calender for a while. Remember that people work and have families. We expect council members to every where all of the time. By the way… where any of the candidates or council invited or told about the forums?
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October 12th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
I’d like to see our Council go pro. Then we could expect them to be everywhere all the time. They’re currently paid like quarter time employees. We could cut city staff if Council members were paid to do research, create policy, and attend community meetings.
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October 13th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
John, it’s been in the newspaper, in Mtn Xpress and on TV.
Yes, they have busy lives, but if you’re telling me that they just don’t know what’s going on after a 14-year-old is arrested for shooting a 12-year-old in the head at a birthday party that neither one should have been at, then the political situation here is even more depressing than I thought.
And this was the 3rd meeting on the topic of dealing with gangs in our lower-income minority communities. There’s another one Wednesday at 8:30 am at the Reid Center and another Thursday night at Tried Stone Baptist Church.
We’re all busy, but we make time for the things we care about, don’t we?
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October 14th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Melissa, I am not making excuses for anyone. I agree that people make time for the things we care about. I also think that we hold elected officials to some crazy standard. I do not know why folks that are trying to unseat the incumbents would not be there. Great opportunity to grab some votes away from Newman and Freeborn. I read the Asheville Criminal Times and I have not seen anything about the forums until after the fact. I may have missed something. I have a friend on the community relations council with Freeborn that has said Freeborn is talking with folks about the issue. She told me that her experience is that Freeborn has learned it is better to work behind the scenes to actually get stuff done.
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November 1st, 2007 at 7:21 pm
I agree with Gordon that the council positions should be salaried. It’s a serious job. Lots of people could be excellent in the job, yet they are deterred from running because it’s just a part time job (and a person with young children, hobbies, etc. might do excellent work on council, but most people of this sort won’t even run for council because it’s a part-time job which people work alongside their full-time jobs, and most of us find there aren’t enough hours in the day already).
The state legislature has a similar problem. The legislature seats only people who can afford to leave their jobs to meet in Raleigh for irregular spells.
Our (part-time) government positions do attract some good people. On the other hand, lots of talented and decent people won’t even consider running.
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