Asheville needs true representation

Posted on by Ashton Walton

The letter in the Xpress on May 16 headed “Partisan Plot” brings up the fiasco of City Council’s drive for partisan elections—elections controlled by the two-party system, pushing their ideologies on us and cutting out any voice from others. Some current Council members simply want to get into the money and other campaign help of their party [in order to] campaign to win against contestants who are running on important issues, but who don’t have the party-organization support.

Another issue in all this is that, right now, Council’s seven members are only from downtown and near-in west and north areas of Asheville. There is no Council member from east or south Asheville. None! Even though the east and south are the primary growth areas. [This] brings up serious questions about representation. No wonder stuff objectionable to unrepresented areas moves through Council with approval. Every effort should be made in the upcoming elections to correct this by enabling and voting more nearly balanced representation.

It’s all about fair, equitable representation of the total Asheville community. It’s missing! And now Council wants to make things less representative.

So what’s needed is true representation on City Council of all the citizens of all of Asheville—otherwise known as government of the (whole) people. [What’s] not needed is domination by a party that truly has no horizon beyond its dictated view, or by a Council membership that hails only from the near-in west and north.

Raleigh and developers, many from out of town, have a lot of control over Asheville. But let’s at least have a semblance of nonaligned, party-free, citywide representation.

Council should reject partisan politics. And east and south Asheville should get good Council reps from their area to represent the interests of [those areas].

— Ashton Walton
Resident of south Asheville
Citizen of all Asheville

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One thought on “Asheville needs true representation”

  1. wjell

    Absolutely right.

    This is how the developers control Asheville – through the “Council That Represents Nobody”, except developers and downtown.

    The rest of Asheville’s neighborhoods are just the losers who get to pay the taxes to finance the Asheville City Council Casino/Feely Good Happy Show that enables developers and downtown to win the hyper-development jackpot.

    You don’t hear Council talking about making ANY changes that would make them accountable to the rest of Asheville’s neighborhoods, do you?

    Bill

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