Asheville’s Sustainability Master Strategy
I didn’t get elected to Asheville city council in 2022. At the same time one of the first things I did the following week was ask the Mayor, council, and city manager was to produce the Asheville Public Safety Strategy. I make further comment on GrantMillin.com and will continue to refine and develop the City of Asheville (COA) Restructure and Center of Progress platform my candidacy was in part about. There can be more people voting for me and other Center of Progress candidates in 2024.
As a 2022 Asheville city council candidate I gave a lot of thought to my Top Twelve Solutions that coordinate to form an original and highly valuable example of Sustainability Master Strategy. My campaign isn’t about how good I am at ‘going along to get along’ and letting sleeping dogs lie. It’s not about how successful I was up to today. My candidacy is about original and highly valuable service over many, years and coming up with the example of strategy and innovation we all needed for this election cycle.
Many of my solutions apply to Buncombe residents; not just Asheville. We need to enhance cooperation on the Buncombe side.
I thought these two recent stories were important as to a search for what I call Strategic Innovation. When we all have strategist and innovator skills that are applied to Asheville citywide issues with empathy, ethics, and not just a little genius… versus, say, the unethical exponential growth mindset.
Asheville advisory boards restructuring: ‘An atrocity.’ ‘Total crap.’ ‘A nonstarter.’
My idea for a Citizen Engagement Congress and Academy has some correlation, but is a completely different direction.
After Buncombe’s hotel tax budget balloons, commissioners call for reformed legislation
Why don’t they know to call for new economic development strategy (EDS) leadership? Because the current elected officials should be skilled at the kind of creative, relevant EDS leadership we need right now.
Also getting rid of the occupancy tax sounds confused. Obviously using the occupancy tax for the sake of the people of Buncombe and Asheville is the point.
The Community Economic Development 3.0 (CED 3.0) aspect of the City of Asheville Restructure and Center of Progress that represents part of my campaign and personal platform includes dialing down the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority over five years while ramping up a new CED 3.0 organization. Of course, there will be a brand to this new organization; something besides ‘CED 3.0’.
Please get out and vote. I am happy to see bigger turnout. I don’t care if there are more unaffiliated voters especially. I think the Democratic Party is vastly more ethical and empathetic than the GOP is now. But the point is that being an elected official is about defending Asheville and Buncombe County interests and taking that “truth and make right” oath seriously… for ALL the people.
Asheville’s Sustainability Master Strategy
Instead of devolving into angry recriminations I see opportunities where others see frustration. I get critical, but it’s about pointing out a challenge and then I talk about solutions and the different outcomes likely. None of Asheville’s longtime citizens with the most to lose, as in basic survival, need more bad outcomes. People trying to do commerce in Asheville need security answers… right now. Confront what’s headed our way. It takes courage and investing everything we’ve got to offer; right now… not one day in the distant future. The slack in the system has played out.
It’s not true Asheville is an ala carte ‘Any Way You Like It’ civilization. People are imagining many, many climate migrants moving here with no Tragedy of the Commons effect. My family is originally from California so I don’t hate US citizens looking for a way out of crisis. Same goes for all the people globally looking for a ‘redoubt’. But Asheville isn’t going to be a Crisis Sacrifice Zone. Along with being an honorably discharged veteran and obtaining a Master in Project Management I ended up with several FEMA Continuity of Operations Plan certificates. My BA from UNC Asheville is an Interdisciplinary Studies Independent Degree. I came up with my own subject: Sustainability and Security Studies. At the time no one needed someone who has a interest in strategy, innovation, and sustainability. Now maybe that’s different.
Sustainability isn’t just about the conglomeration of dozens of nonprofit agendas. Governing for sustainability is about the ‘buck stops here’. I completely agree government today can’t be about a laundry list of failures. The stakes seem much higher today. I don’t have allusions about getting to show off how smart I am because I might end up on city council.
At the same time I am the candidate who is offering the opportunity to develop our Citizen Engagement Congress and Academy and a Digital Twin. Almost no one in Asheville has imagined such things. But doing what is not being done but is valuable is about the kind of leadership we need today.
Being a council leader starting this November is about making tough decisions… and forging a fresh start through restructuring City of Asheville strategy and innovation practices so the mix of challenges, solutions, and outcomes add up to a new Asheville formula for success. I honestly don’t know what we are doing as a community right now. I think we need to make sure the current mayor, Esther Manheimer, is reelected. I do not dislike her in any way, shape, or form. Same for city manager Debra Campbell.
At the same time along with developing The Asheville Housing, Migration, and Locals’ Livability Strategy, who the next mayor and city manager will be form a set of central starting points of the Asheville Sustainability Master Strategy. No one has ever heard of anything like Sustainability Master Strategy. There is no ‘Asheville Strategy’. It’s just a bunch of aspirations and challenges flying at us right now.
In no way does that mean all the reports and consulting projects City of Asheville develops have no value at all. It’s just that the crux of what Asheville is compared to worsening dynamics housing, Human Security, economics, etcetera, never appear. Livability in Asheville can’t be a mystery novel where the big reveal happens at the end. Leaders need to show up with everything they’ve got Day One… and they need to bring a whole lot to the table these days.
My Top Twelve Solutions that include the Asheville-Buncombe Citizen Engagement Congress and Academy and a Digital Twin are about allowing us to confront a more undesirable future. Once most of us see the true nature of the challenge we can make the tough decisions.
I challenge other candidates to pull out everything they’ve got right now and demonstrate ethical, empathetic, genius that actually matters. Don’t vote for the Business as Usual version of Asheville Politics. Make Asheville Future Ready.
Grant Millin is a longtime Asheville resident and 2022 Asheville city council candidate.
