Asheville? (Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Salem: wages, jobs, hospital)

[the 7 oh 4]

Why are so many locals & Asheville residents so down on Asheville?

My father was born & raised there and I have lots of relatives that still live there.

I think Asheville has become really trendy, funky, & different. That is not a bad thing. I live in Charlotte and would LOVE to live in Asheville. Don't get me wrong, I love Charlotte too, but wondering why so many people are turning against Asheville?

Remember, change is not always bad. I remember going to downtown Asheville 5-6 years ago and you saw alot of boarded up store fronts and nothing was there. Now a totally different story. You don't find hardly any vacant store fronts and downtown seems to be booming (especially on weekends).

I know there are people begging for money & drugs, that is OLD news here in Charlotte. I still think Asheville is a WONDERFUL BEAUTIFUL city. Remember you can't stop growth or progress.

THANKS!

[Asheville Native]

Originally Posted by the 7 oh 4

Remember, change is not always bad. I remember going to downtown Asheville 5-6 years ago and you saw alot of boarded up store fronts and nothing was there.

That wasn't 5 - 6 years ago, but more likely 25 - 30 years ago. Clearly your view of Asheville has nothing to do with the reality of Asheville today. I suspect that the time and distance of not living here has distorted your view of what is now a city of freaks run by the rich with all their plans.

They pulled an end run in the middle of the night and shut down the race track, and now the same group is trying to silence train horns in Asheville. Asheville has become even more of a nanny state for the lazy and the homeless with a master plan to give every worthing bum that will show up a free place to live and they don't even have to remain sober to qualify, and who is going to pay for that, the poor work stiff, and your relatives that still live here.

[the 7 oh 4]

Originally Posted by Asheville Native

That wasn't 5 - 6 years ago, but more likely 25 - 30 years ago. Clearly your view of Asheville has nothing to do with the reality of Asheville today. I suspect that the time and distance of not living here has distorted your view of what is now a city of freaks run by the rich with all their plans.

They pulled an end run in the middle of the night and shut down the race track, and now the same group is trying to silence train horns in Asheville. Asheville has become even more of a nanny state for the lazy and the homeless with a master plan to give every worthing bum that will show up a free place to live and they don't even have to remain sober to qualify, and who is going to pay for that, the poor work stiff, and your relatives that still live here.

I just always remember Asheville as a wonderful, beautiful city.

Homeless and drunks and drug addicts are in every city. We are having to support them here in Charlotte too. That is just life. What can we do about that.

Do locals feel unsafe to go downtown on weekends or at night?

It hasn't been 25 years since downtown Asheville was vacant, but maybe longer than I had originally thought.

And true with any city, if you (not you personally) don't like the city you live in...move! The US is to large for people to live somewhere they do not like or no longer feel safe.

Hope you enjoy Asheville or it gets better in your mind.

[Asheville Native]

We all remember things in a softer light that the reality of what it was actually was like.

Asheville has the highest percentage of people living in public housing of any city in the state. These public housing projects are the core of the drug trafficking and represent 80%+ of the shootings that occur in Asheville, And the socialists agenda of city council is to create more of these cesspools for the drug dealers and people on the dole to further suck on the teat of the property owner, a.k.a. tax payer.

You have you "memory" of Asheville and speak as you have the final answer, when I live here, I just paid ever larger property tax bill, and watch a huge portion of those funds wasted on "feel good" agenda and unwanted (except by the elite friends of council) while the infrastructure is crumbling. Asheville has the highest water rates in the state, thanks to council not reinvesting water revenue into the system, but using those funds for more worthless feel good projects.

We have a civic center in a really poor location, and it is crumbling, the acoustics are miserable, and the only thing council seems capable of doing is spending 100's of thousands of taxpayer dollars on studies and consultants to tell them what should be done with this white elephant. When the consultants make their recommendations, typically council doesn't like the answer, so they do nothing except perhaps hire another consultant to look at it. This process has gone on for 20+ years, and still NOTHING has been done.

The police department would much rather arrest and harasses someone peacefully holding a political protest sign than arrest a drug dealer openly selling drugs on our streets. The Mayor opposed the police checking the immigration status of people arrested for crimes, but fortunately a state law that just went into effect now will overrule council on that one.

And your answer "move elsewhere" is outrageous, this is home, the place I grew up, I guess we are becoming a country of "cut and run" wimps, but this old boy ain't one of them. I fully intend to continue to be the thorn in the side of the socialists that have taken over city council, and I suspect that after the rapidly advancing recession really sinks in, more and more people will agree that their wasteful ways must be ended, and we will again have a council that is fiscally responsible, and represents all citizens, not just the elite ones.

[the 7 oh 4]

Originally Posted by Asheville Native

We all remember things in a softer light that the reality of what it was actually was like.

Asheville has the highest percentage of people living in public housing of any city in the state. These public housing projects are the core of the drug trafficking and represent 80%+ of the shootings that occur in Asheville, And the socialists agenda of city council is to create more of these cesspools for the drug dealers and people on the dole to further suck on the teat of the property owner, a.k.a. tax payer.

You have you "memory" of Asheville and speak as you have the final answer, when I live here, I just paid ever larger property tax bill, and watch a huge portion of those funds wasted on "feel good" agenda and unwanted (except by the elite friends of council) while the infrastructure is crumbling. Asheville has the highest water rates in the state, thanks to council not reinvesting water revenue into the system, but using those funds for more worthless feel good projects.

We have a civic center in a really poor location, and it is crumbling, the acoustics are miserable, and the only thing council seems capable of doing is spending 100's of thousands of taxpayer dollars on studies and consultants to tell them what should be done with this white elephant. When the consultants make their recommendations, typically council doesn't like the answer, so they do nothing except perhaps hire another consultant to look at it. This process has gone on for 20+ years, and still NOTHING has been done.

The police department would much rather arrest and harasses someone peacefully holding a political protest sign than arrest a drug dealer openly selling drugs on our streets. The Mayor opposed the police checking the immigration status of people arrested for crimes, but fortunately a state law that just went into effect now will overrule council on that one.

And your answer "move elsewhere" is outrageous, this is home, the place I grew up, I guess we are becoming a country of "cut and run" wimps, but this old boy ain't one of them. I fully intend to continue to be the thorn in the side of the socialists that have taken over city council, and I suspect that after the rapidly advancing recession really sinks in, more and more people will agree that their wasteful ways must be ended, and we will again have a council that is fiscally responsible, and represents all citizens, not just the elite ones.

That is terrible.

Of course I am looking at Asheville from a non-resident point of view!

I understand that is home, but millions of people move to other places.

Winston-Salem is my home town and I LOVE it dearly, but probably would never ever move back there. Winston-Salem just had the highest murder rate they have had in 12 years. Things are a changing everywhere.

After living in Charlotte for the last 15 years and I live Uptown, I guess you just ignore all the crime and bad stuff. I LOVE Charlotte, 1000%.

Charlotte just had their 5th murder of the year and the year is only 9 days old, you just get numb to that and just say "another one" I am not saying that is right or OK, but Charlotte has been dealing with big city problems for years now.

Hope things improve for you & the city of Asheville!

Good LUCK!

[Zooropa]

Originally Posted by the 7 oh 4

I think Asheville has become really trendy, funky, & different. That is not a bad thing.

I think the problems is that it's not going to stay that way because those people won't be able to afford to live here in the future. They will be priced out of this area. We have high housing costs here relative to the wages here. It's a city in transition.

[the 7 oh 4]

Originally Posted by Zooropa

I think the problems is that it's not going to stay that way because those people won't be able to afford to live here in the future. They will be priced out of this area. We have high housing costs here relative to the wages here. It's a city in transition.

That is a big problem. I have heard about the cost of housing going thru the roof. Supply and demand. Asheville has been a very hot spot of the last several years and has driven the prices way up.

Wages are low cause alot of your jobs are probably tourist based and have low wages.

I will always remember Asheville as a wonderful, beautiful city and hope to one day maybe retire there. That is my families stomping grounds!

[Zooropa]

Originally Posted by the 7 oh 4

That is a big problem. I have heard about the cost of housing going thru the roof. Supply and demand. Asheville has been a very hot spot of the last several years and has driven the prices way up.

Wages are low cause alot of your jobs are probably tourist based and have low wages.

I will always remember Asheville as a wonderful, beautiful city and hope to one day maybe retire there. That is my families stomping grounds!

Yup...most tourism jobs don't even pay enough to be above the poverty line. Yet this city seems to think we can survive and make a decent living on a tourism based economy, what a joke (it's ridiculous no matter what side your political views are on).

[Asheville Native]

Everything is expensive here, including health care. I had a routine colonoscopy done last fall, Wife had hers done the year before. My wife's doctor does them at Mission Hospital, and the total cost was about $2200. I just didn't like the setting at Mission, so I chose to have it done at Asheville Gasterinterologist, facility, an the total cost was about $1700.

I have a friend that has a huge deductible on his health coverage so he went to Charlotte to have his colonoscopy done for just over $800.

[Steve Hazzard]

Winston-Salem is my home town and I LOVE it dearly, but probably would never ever move back there. Winston-Salem just had the highest murder rate they have had in 12 years. Things are a changing everywhere.

After living in Charlotte for the last 15 years and I live Uptown, I guess you just ignore all the crime and bad stuff. I LOVE Charlotte, 1000%.

Charlotte just had their 5th murder of the year and the year is only 9 days old, you just get numb to that and just say "another one" I am not saying that is right or OK, but Charlotte has been dealing with big city problems for years now.

All that evil needs to grow and spread is for good people to do nothing. When they came for the Jews, I did nothing; then they came for the Catholics, again I did nothing; then they came for me...! This country is crumbling around us because good people do nothing. What are you going to do when evil comes for YOU!