is asheville liberal (Henderson, Hendersonville, Waynesville: homes, neighborhoods, schools)

[greenhornetnc]

I have heard asheville called the little san fransico, is this true? thinking of relocating my family to a small town around asheville but want to know what the people are like. I have an 8 yr old and 4 yr old so the influences a town has is important. Could anyone recommend any towns that are family oriented?

[Niki]

Waynesville and Weaverville are small towns near Asheville. I have a friend in Weaverville and she and her family love it.

[Shadowcat]

Asheville has terrible air quality..sits in bowl! Check it out on EPA site for NC.
There are many small communities around Asheville...Hendersonville and Saluda ( I lived in Saluda a long time back) deserve a look. Asheville is a New Age Mecca these days and several Healing Arts schools are in the area and plenty of acceptance for religious pref. and lots of mixed marriages with no obvious problems..lots of good food and organic resturaunts, as well.

[RaleighRob]

Asheville's very family-friendly. They're friendly, period. I love visiting that place whenever I can. Something for everyone.

Whether it's "liberal" or not wouldn't change that in the least.

[abdnva]

Asheville is indeed the San Francisco of the east. However... here is the thing. Asheville is a smallish mountain town in the south. It embraced the tourism industry in order to rebuild what was a crumbled & dead downtown & metro district. With that embrace of tourism came a welcoming of diversity. Now, you can go as little as 10-15 miles outside of town in any direction and find yourself imbedded in a rock-ribbed arch-conservative stereotypical southern rural community.

I have several relatives that live approx. 20 miles (30 minutes) north of Asheville. Every single one of them is very conservative. Most are EXTREMELY conservative. The kind that think Rush Limbaugh needs to tighten up a little. You know what I mean? All of them complain about Asheville.

Why? Well... 'They have way too many festivals & concerts in town..'

What else? 'They've opened up tons of restaurants that have all these weird kinds of food & shops that have every kind of clothes you could imagine...'

Oh, anything else? 'Yeah... you go into downtown Asheville, and there's people from all over the country that have moved here. Including yankees!...'

Hmm... so those are the reasons, eh? 'Well... there's a whole bunch of people who grew up around here and have sold off their family farms to these big rich developers, and now there's golf courses & million dollar homes & fancy neighborhoods being built everywhere...'

That's essentially the summation of what they think is 'wrong' with Asheville. Now... in my opinion, those are all reasons why I should make a point to at least visit Asheville, if not move there.

Of course, obviously, different strokes for different folks...

Personally, I think Asheville is a great place. It offers a ton of diversity, yet if you choose to remove yourself from that, you can do so VERY easily. There are sooo many positives to Asheville, I'd certainly consider it if I were you.

[silverwing]

Originally Posted by abdnva

I have several relatives that live approx. 20 miles (30 minutes) north of Asheville. Every single one of them is very conservative. Most are EXTREMELY conservative. The kind that think Rush Limbaugh needs to tighten up a little. You know what I mean? All of them complain about Asheville.

Why? Well... 'They have way too many festivals & concerts in town..'

*snort* I guess they were glad to see the Honda Hoot move to Knoxville, then Honda Corp. was more circumspect about the reasons, saying a larger city was needed to accommodate all the riders, I heard (this was 1996? 1997?) that the local authorities hassled the attendees and made it untenable for the rally organizers. All for a bunch of (mostly) gray-haired Goldwingers.

[abdnva]

Originally Posted by silverwing

*snort* I guess they were glad to see the Honda Hoot move to Knoxville, then Honda Corp. was more circumspect about the reasons, saying a larger city was needed to accommodate all the riders, I heard (this was 1996? 1997?) that the local authorities hassled the attendees and made it untenable for the rally organizers. All for a bunch of (mostly) gray-haired Goldwingers.

LOL!

You should hear what they say about Belle Chere!

'You couldn't drag me into Asheville when that mess is going on!'

This from a group of people who wouldn't... well... let's just say that they thrive inside their 'comfort zone' and DON'T welcome any changes...