Think we have a do-nothing City Council in Asheville? Council member Robin Cape sees it differently. In her e-newsletter, she lists the 2007 city initiatives that she had a hand in moving forward.
The list, culled from Council’s action agendas over the last year, is sorted into environmental, economic and social categories, as well as highlighting the Civic Center and the Unified Development Ordinance.
Check out Cape’s report here.
— staff writer Brian Postelle
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The bottom line though is that council failed to build affordable housing, or allow it to be built, fast enough to keep up with the market. Thus housing costs went up on Cape’s watch. This is the fundamental of a council that did not do enough.
Alan, do you think it is the responsibility of a city council to build housing in the community? I think it is quite shortsighted to state that the high housing costs in the Asheville area are due to not enough affordable housing being built. How would you propose that a private citizen be forced to build housing on his property for a specific income group and are you willing to subsidize this out of YOUR pocket? Perhaps the causes for high housing costs are much more complex than your solution proposes.
Good points Travelah. The reason housing costs have risen here is because Asheville has become a magnet for baby boomer retirees. Retirees with big bank accounts, thanks to selling their home state house at the peak of the housing boom. They will pay higher amounts for houses without batting an eye because in comparison housing is cheaper here than in New Jersey, New York, or Boston.
Then we have the government part of the equation. And this is where your ire should be aimed, Alan. The Buncombe County and Asheville City employees have allowed “variances” to their own building and zones rules to allow a lot of high end building to proceed in Asheville and vacinity. Why? They want the tax money to feather their own nests, I would say. And give Robin Cape a fund to build more parks in a town that is surrounded by a wonderful natural environment. Just goes to show that NE transplants are slow to realize Asheville is completely different from where they have come from. Parks are an issue in the over-developed NE. NOT HERE!
The good news? The housing boom has peaked and is on the way down…big time. People in Joisey and New Yoik will no longer be able to sell their houses, not only at exorbitant rates, but at all. So they will not be coming here. Only the wealthy will come in the future. Hopefully that will be a small amount.
I want Asheville to remain close to it’s roots and not become a new “Manhattan”. God help us if it does. It is the wealthy Northeastern and Floridian transplants who are running up housing costs here Alan. So if you want to make a difference, get the Chamber of Commerce to stop aggressively promoting Asheville in the richman’s magazines.
“Roots?”
I mean, no offense, but a culture that has been here for, perhaps two hundred years may not exactly count as being ‘rooted.’ I love Southern Appalachia as much as the other guy on my front porch, and I dont want to see Asheville turn into Manhattan either but the folks you rail against are the wealthy, not just the ‘yankee outsiders’ and the like.
The difference in our culture down here, is we have experienced years of economic poverty, which has brought us a stronger community. And as long as we, as a community, embrace the income being brought in with ‘outsiders’, then we are to blame as much as they for the loss of our ‘original,’ ‘rooted’ community (previous indigenous/natives living here for hundreds if not thousands of years notwithstanding).
Sammule, I don’t see where there is an offense here. I would say you and I are pretty much in agreement on this issue. I do disagree about the rooted point though. My ancestors have been here since the 1750s. I would say that is rooted. I am not against measured development and change. I just would hate to see this area radically changed.
Ms. Cape,
I would like for you to take the top five or six issues and or projects that you feel could be expanded in Buncombe County if elected.
Let’s now look at the your record in voting for spending, what are the top five projects that you supported & and spent taxpayers money that got the best “bang for the buck”.
Thanks
R. Bernier