Asheville City Council candidate interview — Spencer Hardaway

by David Forbes October 30, 2015

What motivated you to get into the campaign and what are the top three priorities that you want to get done if you’re elected?

What motivated me was that I did not feel we were talking about neighborhoods should have more participation in the development of communities and I think that’s very important. I’ve gone around with the Neighborhood Advisory Committee and we’ve held different meetings in the East, West, South ends. What I gather about those meetings is that people are kind of dissatisfied that they’re heard but not really listened to, that their voice is not being heard to a substantial degree where it generates a response. That’s one of the reasons why.

My top three are probably no different from anybody else’s. One, I think that it’s important for the city to see how we can employ our youth during the summer. Some kind of summer job that will allow our young people to earn income, a job that will bring to them some sense of confidence, some sense of hope, some sense of maturity. If you remember how you felt when you had your first job, you walked a little differently.

Doing that provides an economic stimulus, because young people do spend money. They buy clothes, they buy dvds, they get their hair done, so it’s an investment. I think we, as a city, ought to say, and ought to show, to our young people that we’re investing in you, that we think you’re important. So providing some kind of summer employment.

I devised a program called HAY, Hire A Youth. We would have a centrally located place and people would call in saying ‘I need my lawn mowed, I need my garage cleaned out, I need my basement cleaned out’ and we would send two youth and a truck. They wouldn’t pay the youth, but they would pay us. We in turn would guarantee the young people 25-30 hours at a minimum wage. If there was no work, they could also do some clean-up or training opportunities. It keeps them gainfully employed. I’m sure with the thousands of people we have here, they would want to get themselves involved. They’d say ‘I need a youth’ and we’d send two youth and a truck out to provide them service.

The other thing I think will create jobs is small business. Small business is the backbone of America and it’s the backbone of Asheville. People come to Asheville not because we have a Dillard’s or a J.C. Penny’s, they come because we have a variety of small businesses that they can get something there that they can’t get anywhere else. Creating an opportunity for more people to own their own small business, that’s a definite plus for our community.

You can bring in a company and they can hire 250 people, which is good. But if we had 50 small businesses in operation that employed 10 or even seven people as an average, then we’ve done substantially better.

What role would the city have in encouraging that?

I think we have to set out some funding for that. Are there federal funds for that kind of program? How do we use the funding we have and what kind of funding would others — like foundations or federal funds — be willing to provide.

Next is jobs. We’ve got to bring in some jobs where people can earn a living, a living wage. How do we dialogue with that? I know, in New York somewhere, all the restaurants had a minimum wage of $15 an hour. I don’t know if we can do that here just because of the dynamics of our city and our responsibilities to the state. But what is it that we can do to bring in jobs that will allow our people — our citizens and residents — to earn a living wage? How do we talk with developers?

If we have someone who’s coming in from an outside source — if we import some company or contractors — then what are the stipulations that we can reach that can say ‘you have to hire people that live in the city, you have to hire residents.’ We have journeymen, we have electricians, we have plumbers.

Affordable housing is an issue probably across the board in a lot of places. How do we build, how do we provide opportunities for builders to build affordable homes? The model that we’re using now doesn’t seem to be working. It doesn’t provide affordable housing. I’ve talked with people out in the city that work with the county, who work at our hospitals, hotels and restaurants and they say they can not live in the city. It’s tragic to work in a city but you can’t live in a city because you cant afford a house.

So what do we do? Is it because some of our regulations are too restrictive? How do we make it easier for those who are likeminded who would like to build a truly affordable house?

One of the biggest tasks facing Council in these next four years is the overhaul of the UDO. If elected, what would be your priorities in that overhaul?

I think it’s talking with communities, it’s looking at what we have, where we’re going and how to do we figure it out. We’ve got to have much more citizen involvement. We have to look at our funding, we have to look at requirements and restrictions. We have to look at what the state requires, because it seems like, for us to make any kind of change or go any kind of direction we’ve got to get Raleigh’s approval in some instances. How do we work with the county commissioners? How do we sit down and really analyze where we’re going with our UDOs.

You mentioned affordable housing. One of the proposals going around on that front is inclusionary zoning, probably based on Davidson and Chapel Hill’s ordinances. What’s your thoughts on that?

To some degree we’ve been doing that. I don’t know if the numbers are balancing out. We’ve talked about that, we’ve talked about 80/20, 90/10, but it doesn’t seem to be providing the affordable housing we need. Maybe we need to be looking at a different model. How do we make it truly affordable? If we’re talking about 80/20, then that doesn’t really make a larger percentage of our community able to afford to live there. Maybe we need to look at a different model or different way in which we apply that.

I’m open for suggestions, but again the 80/20 doesn’t seem to be working and I’ve heard that since I’ve been in Asheville the last 14-15 years. Are there areas in our city that were once vibrant or that had plant or business, is it possible to make affordable homes in there? How do we look at different ways of providing the development of affordable homes?

Another suggestion that’s been going around is either a tax break or some form of other incentives for smaller landlords with a side unit or basement apartment, etc. What are your thoughts on that?

Any kind of incentive that will allow someone to have a second income coming in is important, just as long as someone’s not renting out a house and living in Florida somewhere, that’s what we don’t want to do. But then, how do you balance that out? We need to get the community to say ‘this is the right number’ and ‘this is what we want our community to look like.’

That relates to another issue that’s attracted a lot of attention, which is the debate over short-term/vacation rentals. What’s your position on that and what do you think of the city’s recent vote to strengthen the ban and up the fines on that?

Sometimes I think we’re living in a time that’s more restrictive. We’re restricting land, we’re restricting building, we’ve got a lot of restrictions on building permits and now we’ve got another restriction and we’re raising the fine. Again, I think there has to be some balance in there. We have to look at the community and have to have the neighborhoods’ involvement in how they envision their community. At the same time, as I mentioned before, we don’t want someone saying ‘we’ve got a bed and breakfast and we’re not living there’ rather than ‘we’ve got a room or a house we rent out occasionally.’ What happens is that takes it off the market for housing, for someone to live in.

So how do we strike that balance? I’m always talking about how we do it the right way. How do we develop and build Asheville the right way?

Moving closer to downtown, another issue we’ve seen controversy over is the explosion of hotels lately. With the city considering new development rule, is it the right time to look at restrictions on hotels, especially in that area?

That’s a good question. We have to realize people don’t come to Asheville because we’ve got a Dillard’s or JC Penney’s, they don’t come to Asheville because there’s a Renaissance or a new hotel or parking lot. They don’t want to wake up and say ‘oh, that’s a great parking lot, I’ve never seen one like that before.’ They do come because of the community of Asheville. Like I mentioned before, they do come because of the specialty shops that we have and just the atmosphere of coming to Asheville.

So how do you balance that out? Because they do need to stay in a hotel and they do need somewhere to park their car. What’s too much in downtown Asheville? I think we’re coming up on a point where there’s borderline too many large structures in downtown Asheville that overshadows the beauty of Asheville, the atmosphere where people can walk and even see the mountains. That’s the important part: we don’t want people walking through Asheville where they’ve got to look at a large hotel, a large parking lot. We want to keep those aesthetic views of Asheville and its surroundings. The larger those hotels are the more it blocks those views of Asheville, the panoramic view that shows the majesty of the mountains and the beauty of a sunrise or a sunset. They don’t want to see a sunrise or sunset behind a monstrosity.

We talk about restrictions, well, how about negotiating where to build somewhere else, not just the centrally located part of the city. Then, if we build the hotels out on the fringes, we need to look at what kind of mass transit avenues we have that would develop so people can move from the outside to inside.

The next topic is something you’ve been involved in: tere are a number of neighborhoods, specifically, historically African-American neighborhoods like Shiloh here and Burton Street with plans. In the course of developing those and in the years since, there have been concerns expressed about how much the city is following those. What’s your perception on that and does it need to change?

It does. It definitely needs to change. No neighborhood and its residents should have to put together a 2025 plan, spend their time over a series of Saturdays, come in, talk about it, get excited, be creative, envision what their community could look like and then not have the city hold developers to that plan, for whatever reason.

No community should be asked to give their vision, to come up with creative ideas that this is what we want our city or community to look like and then have the city say ‘oh we didn’t certify it or we can’t implement it.’ That should discussed long before, through some kind of discussion that these are the steps and this is how it’s going to be validated and certified and then ensure that we’re going to hold the developers accountable. While realizing that there’s federal guidelines and laws — what you can do and what you can’t do — and limits on their ability to say ‘we’re going to adhere to your plans and designs.’

That’s what happened with Shiloh in some areas: it was if the plan was not adhered to.

One of the other major issues the city’s looking at over the next four years is its involvement in the redevelopment of Lee Walker Heights. Of course this comes at a time when there’s disagreements and even tensions in public housing over evictions and transparency and some of the changes that are going on. If elected, what would be your approach to the city’s role in that redevelopment?

We can not ask people to relocate somewhere else and tell them to find a place because we’re going to redevelop this property and then not give them opportunity to move back where they’ve established roots. I think that’s the issue, the uprooting. Some people would say that there’s long-term occupancy there, second and third generations. But they’ve built up some sentiment towards their community, they’ve been entrenched there, they’ve lived there, they’ve built up ties to that community. We can’t ask them to relocate but not have an opportunity to move back.

Then you have to ask how to make it affordable for them to come back, how do we build so that those that we’ve displaced are able to be re-placed back into their neighborhoods. We do a disservice to the residents of Lee Walker if we locate them outside the goods and services of the city. If we relocate them in other areas [while the redevelopment is going on] that just makes it more difficult and challenging for them to get to the city.

Would you support making any deal on Lee Walker that the city was a part of dependent on the approval of the Residents Council?

People have to be validated and given some sense of ownership and say so in determining their future. You have to address that issue in order for it to be done in a peaceful way.

Another issue that’s been brought up concerns the plot across from the St. Lawrence Basilica, rather it should be sold in some fashion or whether it should be retained as a public space in some fashion. What’s your stance on that issue?

I always kind of cringe when anyone says ‘we’re selling property’ even if our church said ‘let’s sell some property’ I’d say ‘well, let’s think about that’ because property has a lot of value in and of itself. I’m not for just selling it outright because once we’ve done that, there’s a whole other list of issues that come in as far as who’s going to develop it, what is it going to look like, how do we negotiate the way in which it’s going to be developed, what it’s going to look like aesthetically.

If we maintain it, then what could we do with it that could aesthetically fit within the downtown community that brings community, that’s something where people kind of gather and build alliances, not something that’s going to make it harder for us as a community to come together and share it.

The Southside Advisory Board has petitioned for the city to prioritize the renovation and upkeep of the Walton Street Pool. What’s your position on that?

That pool has a lot of historic value to that community. At times residents in that community may feel that building, that property, that pool have a lot of historic value to them. They’ve watched it, they’ve played in it. Other generations with that kind of legacy have been torn down, removed somewhere else. The value of Walton Street pool and what it means to the residents that live there has to be taken into consideration. How do we build that? We can not, maybe, answer the question of how it got that way and was allowed to fall into disrepair. We may not ever know that and why it was allowed to get into the condition that it is.

But what are the steps to improvement? What are the steps to building or rebuilding it? This generation, in the time in which we live, can act so those who come after us will say we made a good decision because we left something that had some historic value and allowed people to help shape it.

You’ve mentioned several time about emphasizing neighborhoods and the city changing the way it deals with neighborhoods. Of course, you’ve been part of that with the planning process, with the Neighborhood Advisory Committee. What would a better process for the way the city interacts with neighborhoods look like?

Probably coming out from behind the chambers of City Hall. How do we take opportunity to have some town hall type of meeting, discussion. Some time we hold it too late or when people are at work. How do we change our schedule so people can come and participate and voice their opinions? Why not move our dates? How do we make it more amendable for people to attend and voice their vision, their dreams, their ideas?

Nothing I’ve said it just going to happen. We’ve got to be very intentional in it. If we’re not intentional it’s just not going to happen. There has to be some intentionality in all that we do. Sometimes people may not feel that they’re excluded, they just feel they’re not included in the process. So we have to be very intentional about that.

The state’s just unveiled new plans for the I-26 connector. Right now it seems that many of those run counter to what local leaders have been requesting for some time. Does the city need to change the way its dealing with I-26 and if elected, how would you approach it?

I’m not really sure how much impact we have because the state, they really hold the key on that. Sometimes it comes down to: who do we elect to hold offices at the city level and the state level? How do we hold them accountable? As a city we can voice very adamantly wishes and desires of the community that will be impacted by the decisions on the state level. But we also need the communities to rise up with us and us with those residents, saying we are going to fight this until it’s resolved. I believe when the communities are able to voice their opinion with the city behind them saying ‘yes, we advocate for this community’ then I believe it sends a message to the state that wil enable to them to readdress those decisions and change the direction in which they’re going or at least come to some parity where there’s give and take on both sides.

Since 2012 the city has not had a staffer who’s just devoted to arts and culture. Is that something the city needs to change? Are there other changes, or different changes, the city needs to make with how it deals with the arts?

I think we do need someone who’s dedicated to ensuring that opportunity is given for those that come behind us – our children, our adults — to benefit from having arts, the whole side of arts, the art community available for our residents to participate in. The arts are extremely important to every civilization and every city. We need to ensure that the legacy we leave behind is a legacy that says we support the arts and that we have someone that’s dedicated and committed to bringing in the kind of entertainment, the kind of activity, the kind of culture that impacts us a city and that takes into consideration that we are diverse and we have a diverse culture, diverse lives. We need to see that diversity in our arts.

One of the biggest duties City Council has is to oversee the city manager and the city staff. Gary Jackson has been in office for ten years and that’s seen everything from the city get a AAA bond rating to major problems with the police department. What’s your assessment of Jackson’s conduct and if elected, what would be your approach to providing scrutiny over him and city staff as a whole?

I believe that Mr. Jackson has done extremely well with the environment and resources he’s been granted and given. He’s been creative, he’s been cooperative and I think he’s trying to take a lot of different views into consideration as he seeks to manage the city and provide what’s best for the city. As far as the future, I believe as we move forward, there is a great dialogue between city council and the manager, there’s a dialogue between the community as we bring the desires and ideals more to the forefront, it helps him shape with his skills and talents how to provide what’s best and do what’s best. He manages the resources and personnel that have been given to him so we have to provide him the best conditions and input that will help him bring the best to Asheville, the most talented, the most qualified.

Who else are you supporting and voting for?

We live in a great country, a country I’m proud to live in and have had the opportunity to serve in combat situations. One of those privileges we have is to say ‘I don’t have to tell you who I’m voting for.’ I hold to that, other than saying I’m going to write in Spencer Hardaway, I hold to that privilege and that right.

Any other issues or topics you’d like to discuss?

Some growing issues are: how we’re going to handle the homeless. Somewhere down the line I think we all have to say: what are some things I can do to help those along the way?’ What are some of the things I can give up? Basically we need to look at what I can do without that can help another person along the way, even to communities, neighborhoods. If we don’t give this streetlight or paved parking done, that that funds can be diverted to something, somewhere that has a greater need than others.

Two quotes to take into consideration. One was by Robert F. Kennedy when he mentioned “some men see things as they are and say why. I dream of things that never were and say why not.’ We need to move form saying what we can’t do, an attitude of our inability to make a positive impact on our future, of what we can’t have. We need to envision some things out of the box, not just the way things are, but some things that are greater.

Another quote by Mother Theresa, she said “if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” Wherever you live in Asheville — whether it’s East, West, South or North — we’re still citizens of Asheville and that we belong to each other. We are our brother’s keeper. What impacts me will impact you, what impacts you will impact me. Somewhere down the line we’ve got to begin to say ‘what’s going to be the best for all of us.’ I don’t advocate special interests, but I’m an advocate for the interests of people, not what’s best for my group, what’s best for my neighborhood or community, but what’s best for all of us. That’s going to require use to sit down and interact with each other and say ‘that community’s no different from mine, the residents in that neighborhood want the same things I want.’ We’ll find that there’s not that much difference.

The Asheville Blade is entirely funded by its readers. If you like our work, donate directly to us on Patreon. Questions? Comments? Email us.