I was honored to participate in the excellent Bilingual Candidate Forum hosted by Asheville-Buncombe Food Policy Council, Asheville Buncombe Community Land Trust, Bountiful Cities, CIMA, Just Economics, Poder Emma, and the Racial Justice Coalition. These groups are leading the way in vital community-building; city government should be supporting and empowering them, and all our residents.
One wonderful way to connect with neighbors and prospective voters is at a house party (this one was thrown by my friend and neighbor Lori). This kind of informal setting allows us to have conversations and get into subjects in more depth.
This video shows a segment from my introductory remarks, where I’m talking about the essential value of a commitment to transparency and communication from those in positions of public trust.
This comment to City Council was made because Council is imposing a policy of all in-person meetings for Boards & Commissions, unless a super-majority votes to meet remotely. There is no provision for hybrid meetings at all, yet. (The irony is that I’d just come from a very successful hybrid meeting of a B&C Realignment Working Group subcommittee, supported technologically by Patrick Conant of Code for Asheville. There really is no excuse for not doing this routinely.)
In contrast, Council is now allowing itself to meet all in-person, all virtual, or a hybrid mix of the two. “Rules for thee, but not for me.”
The Future is Hybrid. Hybrid meetings are more accessible and environmentally more sustainable.
I was honored to participate in a Forum at Black Wall St. AVL, just for City Council candidates. Five of us in the City Council race were present, Councilmember Shaneika Smith did not attend.
This post includes videos of my responses to the questions posed to every candidate. You’ll notice we had some challenges with a balky microphone, so the audio less than optimal. (There was also a backlighting challenge that became more noticeable as the evening went on.)
At the beginning, each of us was asked to introduce ourselves and talk about our previous involvement in politics.
A technical snafu prevented the recording of one of my answers, the rest are available below.
The Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods (CAN) held a forum at the East Asheville Public Library, in the evening. It included candidates for Mayor, City Council, County Commission, and Sheriff, and it ran from 7pm to after 10pm.
Four of us in the City Council race were present, the two incumbents did not attend.
I’ll update this post with a link to the full video, as recorded by CAN. In the meantime, here are videos of just my responses to the questions posed to Council candidates (or at-large to all).
At the beginning, each of us was asked to introduce ourselves and explain what we understood the concept of neighborhood resilience to be.
Honestly, I don’t remember off the top of my head what the order of these topics were, so I’ll just let you browse through the remaining five segments. They have the virtue of being short!