2009: The Year in Review

Barack Obama becomes the first African American to be elected to the office of President in the history of the United States.

The economic problems revealed in September 2008 – bankrupt corporations, the failure of banks that were “too big to fail,” automakers teetering on the brink – did not happen overnight; they were the result of decades of laissez-faire, hands-off government.

Deregulation, housing speculation, the savings-and-loan debacle in the 1980s; the dot.com-boom in the 1990s; derivatives, more deregulation, housing (again) and high-tech (again) in the Bush years – each of these bubbles offered unimaginably huge profits to the lucky few and disaster for the nation.

During the 2008 campaign the public surprised itself and shocked media pundits – the self-proclaimed know-it-alls who knew nothing – by listening to candidates who told the truth. In national, state, and local races, voters chose those candidates over the rabble-rousing faux-populists whose tall tales, fear-mongering, and race-baiting (“I want to take back MY America”) revolted the majority.

Monetary Value

The world’s economic collapse did have one good effect besides helping an honest man reach the Oval Office. It put an end to a quarter-century of denying reality in favor of myth. The myths took many forms:

“We can defer maintenance of and improvements to the nation’s infrastructure, because it’s way too expensive to bother with” – until…

• a Minneapolis bridge collapses, killing 13
• the electric grid collapses, blacking out the entire Midwest
• the levee system collapses, destroying New Orleans, killing 1,836 “We don’t need to put money into education, because those who really want to learn will find a way to pay for it” – until…
• the public schools teach test-taking instead of learning
• the banks take such a profit off student loans that graduates are indebted for their entire lives
• our high-school students rank 15th in science, 23rd in math compared to other developed nations “We can cut taxes, double the military budget, and borrow our way to prosperity” – until…
• the earnings of the rich go from 40 to 400 times those of low-paid employees
• the sharp blade of falling tax revenues slices through the safety net
• some of the wealthiest Americans are discovered avoiding taxes by hiding assets in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands – despite the widest wealth gap and lowest tax rates in a century
• China holds more than half our national debt, and deficits go from $60 billion (1980-81) to $450 billion (2008-09)

“We can trust the market – Wall Street – to regulate itself because it’s in their enlightened self-interest to do so” – until…

• Enron
•  Lehman Brothers
•  AIG
•  IndyMac
•  Washington Mutual
•  Citicorp
•  Merrill Lynch

2009 put an end to all that, or at least marked the beginning of the end by kick-starting a partial return to reality. The $787 billion-dollar stimulus package was designed to put Americans back to work, and the temporary take-over of Chrysler and General Motors saved both from oblivion. (This was the second time Chrysler had to be rescued by taxpayers.) A reevaluation of dozens of Bush policies – mining leases, EPA rules, anti-discrimination laws, equal pay rules, bank regulation, trials for Guantanamo prisoners – began in January and if results seem slow, it’s because the ship of state is like an ocean liner – it can take a long time to turn around.

Personal Values

Mayor Terry M. Bellamy is back on the job for a second term.  Photo: Urban News

New Asheville City Council member Esther Manheimer.

New Asheville City Council member Cecil Bothwell.

New Asheville City Council member Gordon Smith.

Corporations were not the only entities that collapsed in 2009; many reputations did, too. Nationally several arch-conservative, “family-values” Republicans were caught with their pants down, and not with their wives, while a Democrat or two were put behind bars for having their hands in the till. North Carolina’s Mike Easley, who had enjoyed a reputation for probity during eight years as attorney general and eight more as governor, is facing investigation and, conceivably, indictment for ethical and legal misbehavior.

On the positive side, Buncombe County legislator Martin Nesbitt was chosen State Senate Majority Leader – the second-highest-ranking job in the legislature. With Walter Dalton of Rutherfordton as Lieutenant Governor, this is the first time in decades that elected officials from the western part of the state have wielded real power in Raleigh.

Locally, the only elections taking place in 2009 were on the municipal level. Terry Bellamy was reelected in a landslide (80 percent) to a second term as Asheville’s first African American mayor; another mayor, Bett Stroud of Weaverville, retired after 20 years in office, during which the town grew, beautified itself, and prospered almost beyond recognition.

Asheville City Council welcomes three new members this month, Esther Manheimer, Gordon Smith, and Cecil Bothwell. They fill seats vacated by Robin Cape, who chose not to run for reelection and then decided to wage a write-in campaign, though to no avail; Kelly Miller, appointed in 2008, who withdrew for personal reasons; and Carl Mumpower, whose frequent position as the solitary “Nay” vote reflected an unflinching, sometimes inflexible, conservativism, and who lost his seat after two terms. Our prediction is that Smith’s votes will echo those that Cape would have cast, and that Manheimer’s will be very similar to those of Miller (she’s a real estate attorney, he works for the Chamber of Commerce, but both seem more inclined to vote their consciences than to follow any party line). But Bothwell in place of Mumpower could make a big difference in the approach that Council takes to local government’s involvement in a wide range of issues, including rules for development.

Serendipitously, some projects that might have changed the nature of downtown are on hold, or gone. The Ellington, a hotel-and-condominium complex proposed for Biltmore Avenue, won’t cast its long shadow over The Block, at least in the current market; and developer Stewart Coleman’s luxury apartment building adjacent to City Hall, its back facing the YMI, will probably never see the light of day. Fingers crossed.

To Your Heath

While Washington struggles to revise the nation’s health insurance system, and North Carolina is still picking up the pieces of its mental health services, Asheville has had to deal with health issues of its own.

Dr. Charles Blair’s untimely passing was a great loss both to his family, his patients, and countless others who benefited directly or indirectly from his vision. Part of his legacy is the determination to provide affordable health care to all people: shortly after his arrival in Asheville he founded a clinic, since closed, that quickly demonstrated just how deep and broad the need is. To help carry out his vision, the Buncombe Mountain Medical Society has established the Dr. Charles Blair Health Parity Fund to provide scholarships to African American youth pursuing health careers. BCMS also operates Project Access, providing care directly to low-income, uninsured residents. (wwww.bcmsonline.org)

Since the demise of Dr. Blair’s clinic, three nonprofits – WNC Community Health Services, Three Streams Family Health Center, and the ABCCM Clinic – have been primary caregivers for countless area residents. Many others have gone directly to the Buncombe County Health Department building on Woodfin Street downtown for healthcare.

The County Steps Back

This fall the Health Department announced that it will no longer provide some of the services that it offered, instead sending patients to WNCCHS sites in West Asheville and a new facility just south of Short Coxe Avenue.

The Health Department web site explains that “As a federally qualified health center, WNCCHS has access to enhanced Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, federal financial support for the care of the indigent and uninsured, and reduced pricing for medications. WNCCHS … will provide primary medical care, behavioral health care and dental care to children and their families at the Minnie Jones Campus in West Asheville and to adults at 257 Biltmore Avenue, a new location for the agency.”

Woodfin Street will still provide prenatal care, family planning, WIC, and breast and cervical cancer programs, and will operate school health services, nurse-family partnership services, and on-site communicable disease services including immunizations, tuberculosis prevention and control, sexually transmitted disease services and disease investigation and control.

In Review

Since Ronald Reagan asked, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” the people have elected a generation of politicians who have made their lives worse. This year, we’ve been blessed with a leader who prefers truth and facts to myths and lies. So today we ask, “Are WE better off than we were a year – ten years – 28 years ago?” We’re not sure just yet, but we’re confident we – as a nation – will be soon.