Given the off-year opportunity, city and town voters were checking the boxes beside those supporting greener policies, this week in CIB:

Campaign Watch: Cities Elect Green Candidates

Voters backed environment-friendly candidates in many municipal elections across North Carolina last week. Here are just some of the noteworthy results.

Asheville: Vice-Mayor Esther Manheimer, a land-use attorney with broad environmental backing, rolled to a blowout win for the open mayor’s seat in Asheville. Incumbent council members Gordon Smith and Cecil Bothwell were re-elected, and were joined by newcomer Gwen Wisler. Wisler actually led the voting for the three at-large council seats, despite having not run for public office before. All three enjoyed support from environmental and alternative-transportation advocates; Wisler is remembered for having told a September forum organized by bicycle and environmental groups, “You’re my peeps.” More here.

Boone: At “ground zero” for a statewide “voter-suppression campaign”, a “dedicated, sleep-deprived, over-caffeinated crew of young organizers and Appalachian State students helped sweep the Boone Town Council races for a slate of progressive, forward-looking candidates, including Andy Ball for Mayor,” declared long-time state political analyst Gary Pearce (Talking About Politics). Ball handily defeated two other candidates for the open seat, and was joined by Rennie Brantz, Jennifer Pena and Quint David in a sweep for progressive-backed candidates with pro-environment leanings.

Charlotte: In Charlotte, Democratic candidates swept the mayor and three at-large city council seat contests, in which Republican criticism often targeted city alternative transportation investments, especially the proposed downtown streetcar line. (Modern streetcar systems are considered by transportation planners to be powerful redevelopment magnets, attracting new growth to city centers and away from suburban sprawl.) More here.

Winston-Salem: In Winston-Salem’s only open-seat contest, one Northwest Ward city council candidate sought to make city financial waste her lead issue, and consistently offered the proposed streetcar system as her lead example. In this swing district, voters instead selected candidate Jeff MacIntosh, a realtor and neighborhood advocate who has supported the streetcar system. Other council incumbents successful in their re-election campaigns benefited from pointing to city investment in sidewalk projects and bus service expansion.

Greenville: In the three-way contest for Greenville’s open District 5 city council seat, Rick Croskery, a physician interested in redevelopment, green space, and sidewalks, narrowly prevailed over commercial realtor Micheal Overton, the former chair of the Washington (NC) Historic Preservation Commission. Croskery took 50.69% of the vote to Overton’s 45.41%. (A third candidate took the remaining votes.) All three candidates talked about “smart growth” and green issues. More here.

Wilmington: Voters in the port city returned three incumbent city council members to office, including Earl Sheridan, a political science professor at UNC-Wilmington who was the only one of six candidates to openly criticize the Titan cement plant permit. Sheridan turned back local “tea party” favorite Skip Watkins from the final seat. Top finisher Kevin O’Grady told reporters that his top priority would be getting more green space along the Cape Fear River which borders the city. More here.

Other results: Other municipal contests of interest took place around the state last week. To search for the outcomes in any particular city or town, go here.  (If you have trouble loading this comprehensive report document, you can search more specific results here.)

Washington Watch: EPA Upgrades Enforcement Database

The Environmental Protection Agency recently released a beta version of its enforcement and compliance database search tool. EPA says that the new version should make it easier for the public to find information on facilities in or near their communities with pollution control violations. The tool is called Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO). Check out ECHO here.

Around the State: All Aboard!

Public transportation advocates in North Carolina will be happy to learn that our state’s AMTRAK passenger routes set ridership and revenue records in federal fiscal year 2013. The N.C. Dept. of Transportation says that the two state-supported AMTRAK routes between Charlotte and Raleigh have now grown for four straight years. More here.

Education & Resources: Coal Ash Webinar

Pollution hazards from coal ash storage have become a hot topic in North Carolina and elsewhere around the Southeast, where power production continues to rely heavily on coal-fired plants. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) will hold a webinar entitled “Coal Ash: The Southeast’s Toxic Legacy,” this Wednesday, November 13, at 2 p.m. More information and registration is available here.

That’s our report for this week.