2022 The Work | Manheimer for Mayor

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It is my honor to serve my neighbors as the Mayor of Asheville, and I am especially passionate and committed to our community in the aftermath of Helene. We weathered a terrible, tragic storm as a community. We helped one another, and we haven't stopped. I continue working hard each day to ensure we recover fully and that we make Asheville an even better place for all those in our community. I am asking for your vote to continue to do the work to serve Asheville. Thank you!

- Esther Manheimer

RECOVERING & BUILDING A BETTER ASHEVILLE, TOGETHER

In all facets of my service as Mayor, I’ve worked hard to produce real results for our community. Over the past year, as Asheville was thrust into the national spotlight, I led effective advocacy for state and federal resources. There is much more recovery work ahead of us, and the need for effective advocacy is even greater as new disasters impact other communities—taking the spotlight off Asheville. With your support, I will continue to practice collaboration, nurture strong working partnerships, and use equity and sustainability as guiding principles to achieve more for all of Asheville.

Community Safety
- Fully fund the police and fire departments
- Working with the Asheville Police Department to rebuild staffing levels
- Provide needed pay raises for police, fire and other City employees
- Consolidated the City/County 911 call center
- Collaborate with the Justice Resource Advisory Council to support proactive and preventative measures such as the Behavioral Health Justice Collaborative that address root causes
- Work with the County to integrate emergency response to allow community paramedics as first responders along-side APD to better address mental health and overdose emergency calls
- New public safety station on Broadway

Homelessness
- Temporarily housed the unsheltered in hotels during COVID due to traditional shelter lack of capacity
- Work with community partner to provide services to the unhoused: ABCCM, Trinity United Methodist Church, Salvation Army, Homeward Bound, Western Carolina Rescue Ministries, Sunrise, Beloved, Helpmate, Haywood Street Congregation and more
- Facilitated $2.3M of federal COVID response funding for rental assistance
- Funded 185 units of Permanent Supportive Housing (targeted for transition out of homelessness)
  - Homeward Bound - Days Inn: $2M (85 units)
  - Step Up - Ramada: $1.5M (100 units)

Affordable Housing
The city has developed many tools to fund the construction of affordable housing, leverage city-owned land to build affordable housing, and incentivize private developers to build affordable housing. Read about these tools here.
- Advocated for and implemented a 25 million dollar affordable housing bond package.
- The plan to use City owned land to build affordable housing resulted in the first project, 360 Hilliard, and next is Biltmore Ave, with more locations in the pipeline
- Collaborated with HACA and the County to redevelop Asheville’s oldest public housing neighborhood
- Funded non-profit affordable housing construction such as Haywood Street Congregations' permanently affordable housing development, and Mountain Housing Opportunities Eagle Market Place in downtown Asheville
- Created a new hotel review process, resulting in developers providing funding for the city’s housing trust fund and reparations

Quality of Life Infrastructure Projects
- In recent years, and with the help of voter-supported bonds, the City of Asheville has dramatically scaled up infrastructure projects in transportation, streets, sidewalks, greenways, bus stops, parks and recreation facilities, overdue maintenance, and more. An example is a safer Charlotte Street for all forms of transportation. Many of these project are bond project. To find out more about all bond projects, go here.
  - Examples include:
    - Redeveloped the River Arts District with greenways, sidewalks, parking and more
    - Shiloh Community Center Improvements
    - Downtown Haywood Street Redesign
    - Dr. Wesley Grant Center Phase 2

Supporting Local and Minority Businesses
- Adopted the Minority Inclusion Policy to support women and minority owned businesses
- Collaborated to establish the Mountain Community Capital Fund to support small businesses
- Collaborate with the Economic Development Commission of Asheville and Buncombe County to bring employers to Asheville and grow businesses already in Asheville

And more...
- Fought to Save the water system (and won!) from State takeover
- One of the first cities in the US to adopt a Reparations Initiative

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