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The Community Agenda: Asheville City Council Voter Guide

BPR News | By Laura Hackett,
Lilly Knoepp
Published February 21, 2024 at 10:44 AM EST
BPR News

Earlier this month, BPR asked the Asheville community one question: What do you want candidates to talk about as they compete for your vote? We received more than 300 suggestions from about 150 people.

Several key themes emerged in the answers: housing, public safety and responsiveness of politicians.

BPR crafted six questions informed by the community responses:

  1. What is the biggest challenge facing Asheville in the realm of housing and what do you see as the best solution right now?
  2. What role, if any, should a city council member play in addressing the impacts of climate change? Are there specific policies related to climate change that you would support?
  3. Are there specific measures you would take in your first 100 days to make Asheville City government more efficient and responsive to the needs of the people? 
  4. The Sheriff’s Office Downtown Initiative is a recent example of increased police presence as a solution for crime downtown. Do you believe this is an effective method for curbing crime? Why or why not?
  5. Who of the 8 candidates, other than yourself, is the strongest candidate for City Council and why?
  6. Asheville City Council has worked on a number of strategies to provide shelter and services for people experiencing homelessness. What strategies would you support as a council member?

We sent the questions to each City Council candidate with a 200-word limit for each response. We also asked for an headshot image.
Below are links to the responses from the seven current candidates.

Note: Taylon Breeden, a candidate who filed, is no longer running.

Read more about BPR's Community Agenda approach to the election here.

BPR 2022 Elections Coverage
Laura Hackett
Laura Hackett joined Blue Ridge Public Radio in June 2023. Originally from Florida, she moved to Asheville more than six years ago and in that time has worked as a writer, journalist, and content creator for organizations like AVLtoday, Mountain Xpress, and the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce. She has a degree in creative writing from Florida Southern College, and in 2023, she completed the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY's Product Immersion for Small Newsrooms program. In her free time, she loves exploring the city by bike, testing out new restaurants, and hanging out with her dog Iroh at French Broad River Park.
See stories by Laura Hackett
Lilly Knoepp
Lilly Knoepp is Senior Regional Reporter for Blue Ridge Public Radio. She has served as BPR’s first fulltime reporter covering Western North Carolina since 2018. She is from Franklin, NC. She returns to WNC after serving as the assistant editor of Women@Forbes and digital producer of the Forbes podcast network. She holds a master’s degree in international journalism from the City University of New York and earned a double major from UNC-Chapel Hill in religious studies and political science.
See stories by Lilly Knoepp