POSITIVE
Treatment Court grant could expand recovery and help ensure everyone gets a fair chance
Buncombe County Commissioners will consider accepting a $1 million federal grant to strengthen the County’s three treatment courts, expanding treatment, transitional housing, transportation, and other supports while improving data collection and evaluation. We support the grant. However, because national treatment court research has found racial disparities in who gets referred, admitted, and successfully completes these programs, we also encourage the County to use its expanded evaluation capacity to examine and publicly report whether those disparities exist here.
REPORT BACKS
Asheville City Council Strategic Retreat (10/29/26): Asheville begins defining what its next strategic plan should accomplish
At its October 29 retreat, City Council began developing a new strategic plan intended to clarify the City’s priorities and connect them to budgets, departmental work, and measurable results. No decisions were made. Staff and Council surveys identified recurring themes including affordability, reliable public services and infrastructure, public safety, environmental resilience, fiscal responsibility, public trust, and transparent government. Importantly, the process is supposed to include a performance-management system so the eventual goals can be measured rather than simply adopted and forgotten.
Several parts of the discussion are particularly relevant to issues we have been following. Affordability emerged as a central vision for Asheville, including the idea that people who work here should be able to live here. Council also explicitly wrestled with potential conflicts among housing affordability, neighborhood character, and environmental protection, with members asking for a way to make priorities clear when those goals pull in different directions.
Most notable for our work, one proposed core City value was “respect, dignity and belonging,” which was defined as “protecting against displacement and creating opportunity for all.” Other proposed values emphasized transparency, accountability, equitable and compassionate government, and turning community priorities into actual results. That language is encouraging, but none of it is adopted policy yet. The important question will be whether anti-displacement and other important ideas move from aspirational values into specific goals, decision-making practices, budget priorities, and measurable outcomes.
The process will continue for much of the coming year. Staff will synthesize the retreat work into draft vision, mission, and values statements; Council expects to begin identifying focus areas and goals in January, followed by broader community engagement and eventual development of objectives, implementation plans, and performance measures through the spring and summer. We’ll be watching especially for whether affordability and anti-displacement remain explicit priorities, how conflicts among competing goals are resolved, whether community engagement reaches people most affected by City decisions, and whether the final plan creates measurable accountability for results.
Weighing housing and flood safety on London Road
City Council voted 4–3 to approve the expansion of the London Road apartment project from 208 to 252 units, with Mayor Esther Manheimer, Vice Mayor Antanette Mosley and Council Members Bo Hess and Sheneika Smith voting yes and Council Members Kim Roney, Sage Turner and Maggie Ullman voting no. Much of the debate focused on flood safety. Although the apartments themselves would be elevated well above Helene’s floodwaters, the developer acknowledged that a similar flood could inundate portions of the parking area and lobby. Council members questioned whether such flooding could force residents to leave their apartments even if their units remained dry, a question the developer could not definitively answer.
Bear prevention should be practical for everyone
The BearWise presentation made clear that Asheville’s bear problem is becoming substantially more serious. Buncombe County generates roughly 38% of North Carolina’s bear-related calls, with about 800–1,000 annually; 11 of the state’s 17 reported human injuries since 2017 occurred here. Bears have forced their way into homes about 250 times since 2017, including 143 times in the past three years. Wildlife biologist Ashley Hobbs said human-provided food – particularly unsecured trash – is driving both increased reproduction and increasingly dangerous behavior.