I’ll start by thanking Asheville and Buncombe voters who have supported me in as many as seven elections since 2008. You have given me the opportunity to work with a great team, sometimes a team of rivals, that has done a lot of good for this city. I also thank Xpress readers for tapping me as Best Local Pol for seven of the past eight years (and congrats to Mayor Esther Manheimer, who bumped me to No. 2 in 2017).
I did my best to live up to expectations and am pleased with the team’s successes: single-stream recycling, cutting city carbon emissions by more than 30 percent, LEED building standards, reforms at the Asheville Police Department, more miles of greenway, expanded transit, experiments with new zoning rules and a AAA bond rating that will make infrastructure improvements more affordable for many years to come. (Just to name a few.)
Projects I’m leaving on the table include greater protection for Asheville’s tree canopy, rationalization of short-term-rental regulation and, dearest to my heart, a decadelong effort to create a park opposite the civic center (favored by a majority of our citizens). Primary voters opted for new leadership, and so be it.
If you want to continue the progress this city has made in recent years, to strive to make this a better place for the people who live and work here, to preserve the great things we’ve inherited and navigate the challenges ahead, I hope you’ll join me in voting for Sheneika Smith on Nov. 7. I’ve had an opportunity to get to know Sheneika during this year’s campaign, and she is the real deal.
— Cecil Bothwell
Asheville City Council
I think the number one issue for voters is affordable housing for middle and low income people and for me personally, housing homeless Veterans. Although you did list some housing related issues I believe you did not see the need to push for housing long ago and even you don’t say you did.
LOL with high taxation comes higher rents. No rental owner is in the business of losing money. Nor can any government crony offer a solution to high home prices when they approve hotels left and right. Those same hotels that pay nothing.
If by progress you mean 25 million cost overruns to have a ready built area for the rich to play in, you have to be an “intellectual”.
Well, would you look at that, an endorsement from Cecil Bothwell that devotes three paragraphs to praising himself, and one sentence of incoherent praise (the “real deal”?) to the candidate.
I’m sure Sheneika is grateful for your effusive self-adulation and detailed explanation of what she brings to the table as a candidate.
Yup. Classic Cecil:
“A toast to me… because it’s all about me. Yeah, there’s you, but this is really mostly about me. I know it’s about me, because I’m the one talking. And when I talk, I always listen, because I’m the most interesting person I’ve ever met.”
Cecil Bothwell has done a lot of good for Asheville Area’s regular folks. He deserves much praise for his dedication and hard work as an Asheville City Council member. Cecil was never afraid to promote issues he believed in, whether they were popular or not. It’s easy to criticize when you’re not in the game, and Cecil Bothwell — love his stances or hate them — was always in the game. Even though he lost in the primary, I’m glad he endorsed Sheneika Smith in the local election so local folks who care about the future of the city know who they can count on since Cecil won’t be in office to protect their interests. I propose that when the Downtown Asheville city park on Haywood is built someday, it should be named Cecil’s Park, because he was the strongest and, at times, the lone voice on City Council to passionately and accurately advocate the park.