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2009 Candidate Survey Responses & Voter Guide Candidate for City Council: Cecil Bothwell 1. What are your top three policy priorities for your term, if elected? 1) Campaign finance reform, to get the big
money special interests out of city politics, modeled on the Chapel Hill
plan being used for the first time this fall. 2. An estimated 16-20% of Buncombe County’s children and youth live in poverty; a number expected to rise during this recession. What role, if any, does council play in addressing the impact of child poverty (e.g. hunger, health, nutrition, education) in the region? The City has an indirect role in addressing
child poverty. We can press the schools to serve fresh, local food, and help
fund supplemental education programs. We can provide a full range of
activities at the city recreation centers. And we can help low income
families most directly by provision of a fast, safe transit system. I tutor
at the Reid Center and will use my Council seat as a bully pulpit to
challenge other Council members, city employees and then all citizens to
step up as volunteers in a city-wide effort to help the children and
families who need a hand up and to reduce our drop-out rate. 3. How effective has the City been in addressing youth crime, including gang-related activity? Are there other intervention and prevention strategies the City should invest in? I have been told by Gene Bell and Cedric Nash
(formerly with Randolph Learning Center, now Vice Principal at Asheville
High) that the the youth gang story is over-hyped, that the gang style is
considered “cool” but that actual gang activity among young people is more
apparent than real. The City recreation programs help give our youth
alternatives, but the biggest help would be good jobs for teens and
Council’s ability to create jobs is pretty limited. [The core crime problem
among adults and youth is that the War on Drugs has made drug dealing so
profitable that there is a huge incentive to participate.] 4. What is your assessment of the City’s public transportation system? Would you propose changes? Asheville Transit is the biggest way that
City government can affect and improve the lives of our citizens. The
proposed Transit Master Plan (parts of which are being tested now) addresses
some of the current failings in terms of frequency and ease of use. We need
to find a way to provide 15-minute service during commute times and see if
we can get major employers to spread out their start times by a half hour to
facilitate express service (to Memorial Mission, for example.) We are
passing the peak of world oil production and last summer’s high prices are a
harbinger of the coming decade. Personal transportation choices are about to
go through a wringer and the City needs to be ready to step up. Sidewalks,
particularly from apartment blocs to Transit stops, and bike lanes and
lockers, are essential pieces of tomorrow’s transportation needs. (See more
under Affordable Housing below.) 5. The Asheville-Buncombe Living Wage Campaign calculates that a single person needs to earn $11.35/hr to have economic self-sufficiency in Asheville. Should the City ensure that all City employees and contractors make a living wage? Why or why not? Yes, the City should pay a living wage and
require payment of living wages as a condition of all contracts. It does
none of us any lasting good to use our tax money to bid down the price of
labor in the city. 6. What further role, if any, should council play in the I-26 Connector debate? Council should do everything possible to
block the NCDOT from imposing a 20th century plan on our 21st century city.
The plans being advanced by DOT have only changed cosmetically since they
were first framed in the early 1990s. I recall being told in 1993 that we
faced certain gridlock if we didn’t have 8-lanes through the city by 2002.
In 2002 they told us the same fate awaited us if we didn’t have their plan
installed by 2010. Now they want to build essentially the same highway and
start in 2013. Yet the USDOT says that auto use has been falling for the
past year and a half. And if we are serious about addressing climate change,
we’ll need to move more freight by rail and less by truck. Our
transportation picture is changing rapidly and yet NCDOT has told me they
aren’t even permitted to consider the decline of oil or possible changes in
shipping. The Feds mandate that the state listen to local citizens. We can
make them change their plans. 7. Describe your vision for increasing affordable housing options in Asheville. How do the existing locations of the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville fit your vision? Most of the talk by politicians about
providing affordable housing is completely empty and panders to those who
wish the world were different. Historically, downtown living was expensive
up until the end of World War II when industry shifted from war materiel to
building autos which facilitated white flight to the suburbs. Suddenly
downtown living was undesirable and cheap. Now that trend has reversed and
the price of downtown property is being bid up, so lower income people are
moving further out. The best thing the City can do is to provide low-cost,
efficient, reliable and safe transportation. Pre-WWII many people depended
on the Asheville trolley system. That day is coming around again as oil
supplies dwindle and prices rise, and downtown living becomes the
prerogative of the rich. That said, the Housing Authority is doing well with
the resources provided, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund has helped a
relatively small number of people do more with less. We should treat federal
plans for a new era of urban renewal with a healthy measure of scepticism. |