A number of people have decided to run in the Asheville City Council election primary on Oct. 10. This is a good thing. The citizens have a choice among a field of candidates concerned about the well-being of our city. I thank them all for their willingness to serve.
Many of us are seriously concerned about the rapid development presently occurring — how is it affecting our quality of life, our environment, infrastructure, economy? How can this small city incorporate the booming tourist and hospitality industries, the increasing numbers of folks who desire to move here and the interests of those who already live, work and raise families here? How do we create a resilient city that can address the challenges that climate change is bringing and will bring? What role does the city play in protecting the civil liberties and human rights of those who live here?
These questions are only a part of what a committed city councilperson has to address. Cecil Bothwell has served on Council for two terms and would like to serve one more term. He has proven himself to be a sincere, thoughtful, intelligent, visionary and articulate leader. He has tirelessly displayed the courage of his convictions advocating for affordable housing, a living wage, social and economic justice, better public transportation, more public parks and green spaces, and a commitment to consider climate change in every decision he makes personally and as a community leader. Cecil “walks his talk.”
He was the chief advocate for our Big Blue recycling bins, doubling Asheville’s recycling rate, which has resulted in reducing the city’s landfill costs and the landfill’s greenhouse gas emissions.
He thinks that local homeowners should be able to benefit from Asheville’s tourist economy if they so choose through short-term rental of accessory dwelling units in their attics and basements. After all, the desirability of Asheville as a tourist and retirement town has raised property values, thus raising property taxes, and this is one way those who live here can afford to stay here.
I have often contacted Cecil with my questions or concerns about the city, and I always received a polite and thoughtful reply. Cecil is accessible to the citizens and visible in our community, not only as a councilperson but as a volunteer. I am grateful to him that he wishes to serve another term.
Check out www.cecilbothwell.com.
— Anne Craig
Asheville
Given Bothwell’s hysteria about social justice and his outcry over Confederate monuments, one is inclined to think that such behavior conceals a subtle but gifted form of “covert racism” buried deep within the psyche of this Lincoln apologist. I think of this political figure as a character more akin to that of a country preacher who has convinced himself that he has been chosen to venture into the mountains of Western North Carolina to save the poor hillbillies from their sinful and deplorable ways. “Give me one more term,” he asks of us, “and I promise salvation from your traitorous past. I will even intercede, in prayer, to ask that you be granted full citizenship into the kingdom of the Great American Empire.” It is a common view that country preachers are a unique brand of snake-oil salesman, an American aberration not to be confused, of course, with the exceptional Billy Graham phenomenon.
You are thinking too much. It is simple pandering to his base.
Oh, is that what it is? I have been the “politically correct” do-gooder. But I’m trying to wake up from this dream in which I am a backward and holier-than-thou figure thinking he is right and anybody with even a slightly different POV couldn’t possibly be. And though I must admit that I remain a bit confused and disoriented, I do feel a slight sense of liberation. Oh, and I’m still struggling with the same demons, like those that Preston Mitchum, a reviewer of “Get Out,” identified as subconscious forces contained, as he put it, “in the nice racism of those who believe that they do good (and who make it a point to distance themselves from what is perceived as bad): white progressive and liberals.” I don’t consider myself “conservative” by any stretch, but I consciously choose not to be the Neo-Liberal. However, I recognize more and more that Americans come in many stripes and it behooves me to have a measure of respect and courtesy not found in those comments I have so carelessly made, particularly those that arise during moments when I am thinking too much.
Sure, I’m angry with Bothwell. Obviously. Mad that I cannot vote again for a politician who appears to believe himself to be above the law and with a “base” of other do-gooders who have apparently led him into believing it is alright to be nasty and offensive and disrespectful to those he mistrusts or misjudges to be at odds with his career, or disapproving of the techniques and methods he uses for getting what he wants. “Politician” is such an offensive term, nowadays. But in this case, it fits!
To his credit, Cecil Bothwell has been willing to talk a little about what happens when radicalism runs into the realities of highly-constrained local government, especially with a General Assembly that hates cities in general and Asheville in particular. Elected bodies benefit from new blood, but they also need to be honest about the limits of what is legally possible and politically possible. I don’t think anyone would have predicted eight years ago that he’d be the candidate telling his opponents that the more idealistic parts of their platforms are mostly for show, but here we are.
I recognize that Bothwell is on the right side of issues that I have cared about for decades. But the cutthroat political methods he practices along with misleading techniques he apparently considers to be acceptable for achieving self-serving aims for political advantage are dishonest in my view. The indirect manner he has used for manipulation against my own community are completely unacceptable and result in bad blood and a loss of support from those who have felt the effects of his dishonesty and vicious tricks. He is a sanctimonious character masquerading as a politician, and one who espouses radical means of achieving his righteous aim. He is unfit for government.
Is Mr. Bothwell in charge of the Haywood St Pit of Despair now? If not, who is organizing all the events and scheduling of the activities there?
Possession is 9/10ths of the law…
he’s now back to being a democrackkk again cause he says they have (suddenly) become ‘more fair’….roflmao…can he give us some
realistic examples please…he is a strange bird but I may vote for him again just for the entertainment along with Dee Wms! anyone except Rich Lee or Gwen Wisler again…and vote for Wainscott to upset the Maoyoress!
Bothwell needs to go simply on the RADTIP fiasco. He’s nothing more than a shill for the rich while proclaiming he’s a populist. Has no actually opinions of his own and only supports something if he deems it beneficial to himself. Odd how all the sudden he’s in support of the Vance removal. Yet the fake didn’t have an opinion of it 8 years ago. Bothwell’s legacy will be one of pandering to the likes of Biltmore and Riverlink while subsequently being responsible for the gentrification of the area and leaving it worse off for the general population.
Williams doesn’t stand on any single issue either. She seems to be all over the place with the objective being for voters to simply like her.