There are twenty candidates vying for just three seats in this year’s Asheville City Council race.
Fifteen of those candidates showed up at The Grey Eagle on Wednesday night to make their cases at the “Get There AVL” forum organized by Asheville on Bikes, MountainTrue and Strong Towns Asheville.
In a packed room, the candidates used their two-minute stump speeches to spin visions of a more affordable Asheville that has better housing options, safer streets and more reliable transit.
The city’s $30 million budget gap was a far less popular topic.
That came as a disappointment to Asheville resident Jen McMahon.
“I'm really excited to hear that folks want to be able to connect our city. But something that wasn't really talked about is we're facing a $30 million deficit after the hurricane,” she said. “We can say that we want affordable housing. We can say that we want to have sustainability, but what are our metrics? What are our indicators of what that success looks like?”
Another voter, Ben Spencer, remarked that it was hard to tell some of the candidates apart.
“So far, a lot of platitudes,” he told BPR. “Not a whole lot of concrete plans.”
He added that he’d like to see candidates speak more specifically about affordable rentals and protection for tenants.
David Moritz, a first-time candidate, came closest to addressing the budget elephant in the room, noting that the city has increased its annual spending by tens of millions of dollars in the last few years.
“What have we gotten from that? How many greenways could we have paid for that?” he said.
While he noted that “communication and budget” are two of the top priorities he’s heard from residents, he stopped short at suggesting where the council could make future cuts.
Keith Young, a former one-term councilman and current candidate, acknowledged that many candidates were spouting off similar goals.
“I haven't heard anything that any of the candidates have said that I can disagree with. We can all share the same concerns,” he told the crowd. “We can share that. But what we can't share are the same results. This is an election about results.”
The incumbents in this year’s race are Maggie Ullman, Antanette Mosley and Sheneika Smith. These candidates largely pledged continuity, especially on the city’s long road to hurricane recovery.
“New candidates can tell you a lot about their dreams and I think that's important. We need to keep dreaming,” Ullman said during her speech. “But we also know what it's like to lose momentum on our bikes when we're going up a hill.”
The momentum Ullman would like to continue is reform to the zoning code.
“I have fought to modernize our zoning code, so that ADUs and flag lots and cottage courts are bringing housing choices, because that matters. If we want the people to stay here, it matters,” she said.
In contrast, Mosley positioned herself as a candidate who wants to practice more caution around zoning changes that could displace residents, particularly those in legacy Black neighborhoods.
“We need to build more homes, but we also have to protect the people who already live here,” she said during the forum. “As chair of the city council's Housing and Community Development Committee, I work on this every week, supporting missing middle housing in appropriate places and investing in permanently affordable housing, so displacement does not happen for long-term residents.”
One candidate, Tiffany DeBellott, brought up an idea that no other candidate mentioned: a comprehensive strategy to uplift young people.
“We need a city-wide youth plan,” said DeBellott, who served on the Community Reparations Commission and actively works on the Government Accountability Project, along with Young and Nina Ireland, another first-time candidate. “We need something that protects our young people so that they have a piece of the pie to usher into a new future and create a new world for us.”
The candidates have a little under a month to distinguish themselves to voters. After the March 3 primary, only six will move on to the general election.
Another city council event takes place on Monday, Feb. 9 at 5 p.m. The Asheville Downtown Association will host candidates for one-minute “speed dating style” conversations with voters at Battery Park Hall in downtown Asheville.
