After watching years of Asheville City Council meetings where the minutia of downtown Asheville gas pains (potential depth of dirt on the Civic Center roof, parking decks, solar trash cans, panhandling and public peeing) is debated ad nauseam, it has occurred to me that it is time for Asheville to grow up. Please stop trying to solve the problems of the world and the problems of downtown and start tackling the problems of the real Asheville, which includes the rest of us poor suckers who struggle to pay our taxes and live in this city. To this end, I have two recommendations:
1. No more Council-person-at-large elections. Let Council members be elected by neighborhoods. For example, each Council person should be elected by and be responsible to a specific area of the city (north, south, east, west, downtown and maybe one “at large”). Then we could have a Council that does more than agonize over fully automated public toilets, or dream of green firehouses, or gaze longingly at drum circles, and starts representing and protecting the neighborhoods of Asheville. Currently the only neighborhood that has full-time Council representation is downtown. The rest of Asheville’s neighborhoods are only revenue sources to fund the Asheville Downtown Commission’s dreams.
2. Council member and Asheville mayor positions should be full-time and professional, not filled with part-time amateur potentates. The city budget is too big, the city problems are too large and the threat of over-development is too grave to allow this current paradigm to continue with people who are unable to commit the necessary time from their real jobs to adequately deal with the issues that face this city. How many times has Council passed the buck back to city staff or continued an issue to another day because they are not prepared? These positions need to be filled with full-time people, dedicated to representing neighborhoods and compensated with salaries equivalent to those in the private sector.
Yes, it’s time to grow up, Asheville. Time to grow up and have a mayor and City Council of professionals with the skills and vision to represent neighborhoods and move our city forward to a better, more realistic place.
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.