City Council candidates forum, Oct. 15 (a Twitter-feed report)

Posted on by Jeff Fobes

This Twitter-feed report of this evening’s City Council candidates’ forum at West Asheville Business Association appears below. It’s predominantly from Xpress staff reporter Brian Postelle, although some tweets are from the Asheville Chamber’s twitter account; each tweet is attributed after the text message.

• The candidate twitters continue. Heading to the West Asheville Business Association forum @ W. Avl. Library.   bpostelle 6:40 pm
• At west avl biz assoc candidates forum, candidates starting to arrive   fobes quoting: AVLChamber 7:58 pm
• For another perspective on the WABA forum tweets, check @AVLChamber. They’re here too.   bpostelle 7:03 pm
• Just had a long chat about the role of government with ryan croft. he sees his role as an obstructionist to gov creep   fobes quoting: AVLChamber 7:58 pm
• Candidates making opening statements. All 7 here: Jackson, Mumpower, Manheimer, Smith, Bothwell, Croft and write-in candidate Cape.   bpostelle 7:06 pm
• All candidates sharing their west avl ties and general background at waba candidate forum   fobes quoting: AVLChamber 7:58 pm
• Cape: I did not sign up for Council reelection because I lost my father and my marriage. People as community asked her to reconsider.   bpostelle 7:08 pm
• Mumpower: I’m a watchdog. I do not support special deals.   bpostelle 7:12 pm
• Carl Mumpower says he likes that everyone hates him, says it is his job to protect everyone not to friend them   fobes quoting: AVLChamber 7:58 pm
• Bothwell: Most of my career has been in building. Built passive solar houses in the ‘70’s. I’m a hands-on person.   bpostelle 7:18 pm
• Manheimer: Role is to “blend the concerns of businesses and the concerns of individual citizens.”   bpostelle 7:23 pm
• Jackson on recent water line work in city: the people doing it aren’t efficient. We’ve got to look at responsibility.   bpostelle 7:29 pm
• Jackson say infrastructure improvements need to be done more efficiently   fobes quoting: AVLChamber 7:59 pm
• Mumpower: state legislators stole Avl. control of water system.   bpostelle 7:31 pm
• Manheimer: wants to continue both pedestrian and greenway master plan.   bpostelle 7:32 pm
• Smith: $$ spent on water lines good investment and Civic Center needs attention. But biggest need is alt. transportation corridors.   bpostelle 7:35 pm
• Bothwell: Avl. needs revenue from room tax. Tourists won’t stop coming here just B/C hotel rates go up slightly.   bpostelle 7:36 pm
• Cecil bothwell wants the city to connect local businesses so they can purchase from each other and grow together   fobes quoting: AVLChamber 7:59 pm
• Croft: Oversight biggest problem in local infrastructure.   bpostelle 7:37 pm
• I didn’t know that Ryan croft has art hanging in the us congress and served in the airforce during desert storm.   fobes quoting: AVLChamber 7:59 pm
• Ryan Croft wants oversight for infrastructure improvements, save money by getting better longer lasting projects   fobes quoting: AVLChamber 7:59 pm
• Mumpower on govt. role in stimulating business: make cities safe, keep taxes low, get out of the way.   bpostelle 7:40 pm
• Infrastructure is a high priority for mumpower streets specifically   fobes quoting: AVLChamber 7:59 pm
• Smith: need to revisit sign ordinace b/c it’s very easy to violate unless you are a big business with a very big sign.   bpostelle 7:41 pm
• Gordon smith wants to raise hotel tax to fund civic center and other infrastructure   fobes quoting: AVLChamber 7:59 pm
• Bothwell: local govt. should be able to spend more under state and fed. Law to keep contractors local.   bpostelle 7:43 pm
• Jackson: permitting process for business needs to be clear and consistant year to year.   bpostelle 7:45 pm
• Mumpwer on crime: Not addressing crime in housing projects and neighborhoods is institutionalized child abuse.   bpostelle 7:47 pm
• Smith on crime: Weed and Seed program is succeeding. School facilities can be used after school to cut youth crime.   bpostelle 7:49 pm
• Bothwell: Biggest cause of crime is the war on drugs. Give people living in projects a way to buy in to community.   bpostelle 7:51 pm
• Question: support a development plan for W. Avl. like dwntwn master plan? Manheimer: idea supported by urban corridor system.   bpostelle 7:56 pm
• Jackson: W. Avl. success built on business owners and residents taking risks by themselves without govt. interference.   bpostelle 8:01 pm
• Smith on I26: sepearate hwy and local traffic, don’t split neighborhoods.   bpostelle 8:05 pm
• Croft: on I26, someone’s going to lose, someone’s going to win no matter what. Focus on making the road correctly.   bpostelle 8:08 pm
• Cape: DOT is moving along at own pace and saying Avl. is slowing process. Changes plan as data comes in. We can add to that data.   bpostelle 8:11 pm
• Manheimer: I26 should encourage connectivity between parts of Avl. Says Haywood Rd should be improved where it crosses I240.   bpostelle 8:13 pm
• Jackson: Skeptical of public/private parterships.   bpostelle 8:14 pm
• Bothwell: Ask business what they are buying from other places and see if we can make it here.   bpostelle 8:17 pm
• Smith: a good example of public/private partership is Mountain Housing Opportunities.   bpostelle 8:18 pm
• Croft: We’re a region of middlemen. There’s no real industry here. That’s where the real jobs are.   bpostelle 8:21 pm
• Cape: US has turned its back on self reliance for past 50 years. But it’s coming back on local level with ideas like HUB.   bpostelle 8:24 pm
• Smith on self reliance: buy local, get local food in schools, mass transit so when next gas crisis hits, we can still get around.   bpostelle 8:28 pm
• W. Avl. forum wrapping up with closing statements.   bpostelle 8:32 pm

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About Jeff Fobes
As a long-time proponent of media for social change, my early activities included coordinating the creation of a small community FM radio station to serve a poor section of St. Louis, Mo. In the 1980s I served as the editor of the "futurist" newsletter of the U.S. Association for the Club of Rome, a professional/academic group with a global focus and a mandate to act locally. During that time, I was impressed by a journalism experiment in Mississippi, in which a newspaper reporter spent a year in a small town covering how global activities impacted local events (e.g., literacy programs in Asia drove up the price of pulpwood; soybean demand in China impacted local soybean prices). Taking a cue from the Mississippi journalism experiment, I offered to help the local Green Party in western North Carolina start its own newspaper, which published under the name Green Line. Eventually the local party turned Green Line over to me, giving Asheville-area readers an independent, locally focused news source that was driven by global concerns. Over the years the monthly grew, until it morphed into the weekly Mountain Xpress in 1994. I've been its publisher since the beginning. Mountain Xpress' mission is to promote grassroots democracy (of any political persuasion) by serving the area's most active, thoughtful readers. Consider Xpress as an experiment to see if such a media operation can promote a healthy, democratic and wise community. In addition to print, today's rapidly evolving Web technosphere offers a grand opportunity to see how an interactive global information network impacts a local community when the network includes a locally focused media outlet whose aim is promote thoughtful citizen activism. Follow me @fobes
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