By Thomas Calder
Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer speaks with Xpress about lessons learned from 2025 and what her leadership goals are for the new year. Manheimer is running for reelection in 2026.
Xpress: What was a key insight you learned in 2025 that you’ll carry forward in 2026?
Manheimer: For me, 2025 reinforced the idea that progress takes serious teamwork across all perceived and real differences of opinion, party and every other differentiator that can stand in the way of collaboration and delivering for our residents. Congress only voted in December of 2024 to fund our hurricane recovery after I and other leaders from WNC created and maintained bipartisan lines of communication for months and then traveled to Washington to work with our congressional delegation to push through that funding.
And the story isn’t over, because moving that funding through the federal administration to the city is a continuing challenge. What I believe is needed is to continue authentically working with our local, state and federal partners for the good of our residents and for me to continue to serve the governor as co-chair of the WNC Recovery Committee, which is a position that allows me to elevate the voice of this community and strengthen our regional partnerships. I want to see Asheville and all of WNC come back stronger than ever.
What are your top three priorities for the City of Asheville going into 2026, and what needs to happen to turn these priorities into realities?
- Affordable housing for workers earning low to moderate incomes, people transitioning out of homelessness, and elderly and disabled people. What needs to happen is to effectively leverage the support of voters who passed the affordable housing bond and also the hard-fought award of millions in federal dollars for housing, and create life-changing investments in safe, affordable downtown housing like we’ve seen accomplished by Haywood Street Congregation and in other neighborhoods by Mountain Housing Opportunities.
- Rebuilding after Helene with great resiliency and equity. The city expects to receive approximately a billion dollars in Helene federal and state recovery funding over the next six years. We must effectively invest in what residents need in the form of meaningful infrastructure to provide basic services, enrich lives, and restore and preserve our environment. My focus is especially on the essentials that low- and moderate-income residents rely on; these are must-haves for equity and resilience.
- Creating greater opportunity for higher-wage jobs for our residents. How we can accomplish this, even as prices rise, is through strategic economic growth and community investment. East Fork Pottery is a great example of a local company with integrity capitalizing on what people love about Asheville and using that success to create even more great jobs for locals. I support diversifying our economy as an effective tactic for ensuring that it’s not just recently relocated people who work remotely who can afford to live, work and play in Asheville.
READ THE ARTICLE ON MOUNTAIN XPRESS:
https://mountainx.com/news/local-government/mayor-esther-manheimer-stresses-economic-growth-and-community-investment-in-2026/