Once a good city, now a place one should avoid.
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8/14/2022
Lived around this city my entire life, and have spent countless hours in every part of it- at one point, Asheville was the place to be, it had a high standard of living, a low cost of living, and friendly, welcoming people, but the natives of the city have slowly been pushed out by people moving in from elsewhere.
Transplants in and of themselves aren’t a problem, quite the opposite in fact, however, where Asheville is concerned, the people who’ve moved in have fundamentally transformed the city into something different, something more resembling west coast cities like San Francisco, than what you’d expect in a North Carolina city. The cost of housing has skyrocketed, and as of 2022, there are 15 known gangs operating in a city with under 100,000 residents, a shocking number given how low the crime rate is in the rest of the region. On top of that, Asheville has recently entered the top 1% of cities for crime, meaning that it is more dangerous than 99% of US cities, an unsettling number given how characteristically safe the rest of WNC is supposed to be.
Roads leave much to be desired once you leave the downtown area, and much of the infrastructure wasn’t built to handle the increasing number of people living here, to the point where traffic is a serious problem just about everywhere. On top of this, and worst of all, Asheville is currently having a bleed-out effect as people in Asheville move to nearby areas for affordability, turning much of the rest of the region into a gigantic Asheville.
That’s before even mentioning the number of retirees who’ve flocked here in recent years, all from predominantly one state that shall remain unmentioned. If you’re a Gen Z or Millennial, don’t expect to ever be able to afford to live here.
Matt | Canton, NC