As Asheville City Council discussed a proposal to tweak the city’s bus system on July 28, Council member Kim Roney interjected with an update for her colleagues.
A coalition of over 30 local businesses, Roney noted, had signed a letter in November to back a “ridership-focused” transit plan: frequent service in denser areas, making the system more reliable. But that was before the release of a draft plan, developed at Council’s direction by Portland-based consultant Jarret Walker & Associates, that boosted frequency by cutting less-traveled routes.
After learning about the plan, Roney said, roughly a third of the letter signers had withdrawn their support. Mayor Esther Manheimer subsequently requested to pull Council’s vote on the plan, which had been
scheduled for August.
What Roney didn’t mention, however, is that she had personally contacted many of the letter’s signatories to seek their opinions.
Roney’s text, a copy of which was obtained by the Citizen Times, said she was “concerned” that business owners supported cuts to “service industry workers, the homeless shelter for women & children, and people accessing healthcare.” She offered to add each letter signer “to a list of people stepping back from that position.”
Hi-Wire Brewing CEO and co-founder Adam Charnack, a longtime transit advocate who spearheaded the November letter, confirmed the text’s authenticity but declined to speak on the record about Roney’s outreach. He did share regret that Council had pulled the transit discussion “because it’s too controversial” during an election season.
But Manheimer, who faces Roney in this year’s mayoral election, said she was unsettled by her opponent’s actions.
“It should give everyone pause that a Council member running for mayor contacts small businesses via text messages, urges them to change their opinion with the veiled threat that they’ll be portrayed as anti-worker, and pressures them to add their name to a list for use at a public meeting,” the mayor wrote in a statement to the Citizen Times. “Local, independent business owners facing that pressure would rightly find it inappropriate.”
Asked for comment on the matter, Roney wrote in an email to the Citizen Times that she valued both local businesses and workers “who are often excluded or not able to participate in the process.”
She said she reached out “to businesses that I have a personal relationship with or where I know staff who work for them” after the draft plan’s release to ensure owners were updated.
Destinations like the Grove Park Inn, Mountain Area Health Education Center, and Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry’s Transformation Village were all slated to lose bus service, she noted.
”Some asked me to communicate their updated position on the record during the Council meetings, which I did,” Roney wrote in her response to Citizen Times questions. She said she was meeting with local business owners this week to continue discussions over transit.
Of the businesses Roney cited by name as withdrawing support July 28 — Anoche, Ben’s Tune Up, Chai Pani, Crucible, PennyCup Coffee Co, and Olde London Road — only one owner responded to a Citizen Times request for comment.
“I just realized that I didn’t know enough about it to have a say either way,” wrote Amber Arthur, who owns Anoche, PennyCup, and Olde London Road, in an email to the Citizen Times.
Jack Igelman, chair of Asheville’s Multimodal Transportation Commission, called Roney’s outreach “a pretty aggressive move” but said it wasn’t unethical. He added that his commission, which voted to support the draft transit plan June 24, was disappointed with how discussions on transit have unfolded.
Igelman said the draft plan would have had real benefits. Reduced connection times for crosstown bus riders and better service in parts of South and West Ashville, he argued, had the potential to modestly grow transit ridership.
But Igelman suggested that those theoretical gains, which would benefit the system more generally, were overshadowed by concrete cuts to specific areas. He encouraged Council members to have a more robust conversation about the tradeoffs, and explore creative solutions for places that would lose coverage, rather than focus solely on the negatives.
“Loss inspires outrage, and the transit network had loss for people, in term of service, in meaningful ways,” he said. “That could potentially be exploited for political gain.”
What’s next for the bus system?
At Council’s Aug. 25 meeting, Assistant City Manager Jade Dundas told officials that Asheville staff would conduct additional research on potential transit changes. He mentioned revenue options, program funding, partnership opportunities, and evaluation of regional models as specific areas of exploration.
Asked for an update, Asheville spokesperson Kim Miller told the Citizen Times that city staff were reviewing a 2021 study conducted by the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization.
“The study's goals included evaluating the provision of regional services with a focus on equity, facilitating cross-jurisdictional public transit, enhancing connectivity options, and funding strategies, among other areas,” Miller wrote. “Additionally, staff continues to monitor how other North Carolina cities are addressing similar funding and regionalization questions.”
Miller did not say when staff’s work would conclude or when Council might next consider transit changes. Asked about a timeline, Manheimer said transit would return to the calendar “after the additional information requested from Council is provided.”
Daniel Walton is the City Government Watchdog Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Email him at dwalton@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Roney texted businesses to question transit plan support | Exclusive
