2009 Candidate Survey Responses & Voter Guide

Candidate for City Council: Esther Manheimer

1. What are your top three policy priorities for your term, if elected?

Preserving a Community for All Ages.
The quality of life we enjoy in Asheville depends on protecting and nurturing a community for all ages, a place where we can raise our children and also retire, and a place where we can take real ownership of our neighborhoods.  I will work to foster a community of genuine interaction among generations, and remove hurdles to accessibility and civic engagement.

Fighting for Appropriate and Sustainable Growth. 
Since moving to Asheville in 1988, I have watched Asheville emerge as one of our nation's most desirable places to live.   I will work to rewrite our antiquated development ordinances, repair our crumbling water system and make sure that future development is measured against fair and consistent rules that match and reinforce the goals of our neighborhoods and our businesses.
 
Ensuring Fiscal Responsibility.
As a former legislative attorney, I understand that no budget item should be taken for granted, and redundant or overlapping costs ought to be aggressively eradicated.  Regressive taxes should not be favored, rather, the City should continue to move toward a fee-based revenue structure. 
 

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?

Recently, Action for Children North Carolina published a position paper regarding child poverty in North Carolina with recommendations for child poverty reduction and eradication. While not all of the recommendations are within the purview of a North Carolina city, there are certain components of the recommendations the City of Asheville could address and that I believe would positively impact the child poverty crisis:

• Recommendation: supporting families with decent wage – The City can only directly enact this recommendation with regard to its staff and contract laborers. The City must pay its employees and contractors a living wage and pass a resolution urging private employers to do the same.

• Recommendation: affordable, high-quality housing – In addition to the current affordable housing programs, I support an overhaul of the City’s development ordinances to include stringent but clear and objective standards including requiring a percentage of affordable housing units of any development project over a certain size.
   

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?

The City recognizes our youth crime and gang-related activity as a problem. The City has taken steps to address these issues by participating in the Western Carolina Gang Task Force and the Buncombe County Gang Violence Prevention Project. In addition to these programs, I support increased efforts to prevent offending in the first place. This means supporting public places for youth to gather and recreate in a constructive manner rather than roam free after school and on weekends. Children need to be engaged in activities to distract from the temptations of participating in crime-related activities.
 

4. What is your assessment of the City’s public transportation system? Would you propose changes?

By public transportation system, I interpret this to mean all forms of transportation including vehicular, bus, bicycle, and walking.

• Biking – Our greenway system and bike lane system is lacking and sporadic. Therefore, bikers who might want to bike to work must travel segments in regular traffic lanes, which is unsafe and impractical.

• Buses – Asheville is making improvements in the busing system. Bus stops, increasingly, are sheltered and not just a worn area of grass on the side of the road. However, the buses are infrequent making their use for work transportation difficult.

• Walking – The ability to walk everywhere in Asheville is also improving but only in select areas of town. Many areas are still without sidewalks and are simply too dangerous to travel.

I will work to see the Transit Master Plan, the Greenways Master Plan, the Bicycle Master Plan and the Pedestrian Master Plan fully implemented. However, all of these plans minimally cross reference one another, which must be changed if Asheville is to comprehensively move in the direction of a true multi-modal community.
 

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 ensure that all City employees and contractors make a living wage. Being married to a public employee, my husband is a high school teacher, I understand that often public employees are underappreciated and underpaid. The City must pay its employees and contractors enough to be able to afford to live in Asheville while being employed with the City. Furthermore, the City should pass a resolution urging private employers to do the same.
 

6. What further role, if any, should council play in the I-26 Connector debate?

The City should continue to advocate for the plan that best enhances our City. I support the Asheville Design Center’s (ADC) plan for the I-26 connector. Here is the reason. Asheville has a unique “community”. We are a place where people feel connected to one another. We see each other at the park while our children play. We run into one another at the tail gate or downtown on a Friday night while walking around. This aspect of community is hard to quantify but easy to destroy. Sprawl-like growth hinders human mobility by shutting people away in remote subdivisions that are isolated and cut-off. I experienced this when I lived in the Raleigh area, working for the legislature during the first four years after law school. Because of this isolation, sprawl hinders community. The ADC’s plan fosters community by connecting disconnected areas of town with walkable, bikeable, liveable corridors that will be enhanced with bike lanes, greenways and trees. The long-term gain of such an investment greatly outweighs its short-term cost.
 

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?

In addition to the current affordable housing programs, I support an overhaul of the City’s development ordinances to include stringent but clear and objective standards including requiring a percentage of affordable housing units of any development project over a certain size.

The City has eleven public housing projects located throughout the City. I do not support the public housing project model and the City has moved away from this program as it has not built a new public housing project in quite some time. These housing projects are located in isolated areas of the City and cutoff from easily accessible public transportation, grocery stores, medical care, and other needed services. Living in one of these projects is degrading and comes with a stigma. I support placing affordable housing throughout the City, which is integrated into our existing neighborhoods. I also support the move to increased homeownership, which is also unlike the public housing project model.
 

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