From a new Facebook group that’s popped up, called Bring the South Back to Asheville:
This group is to bring awareness to people about how Asheville has lost it’s southern roots. How Asheville, North Carolina is the least “southern” city in the south.
I hope to encourage discussions and thoughts on how we can bring the south back to Asheville with more southern shops, more southern restaurants, more restaurants that offer southern food on the menu and anything truly southern in nature.
This group is also to promote business and events in Asheville and the surrounding area that are southern owned, southern ran or offer southern values.
The group begs the question: has Asheville lost its Southern roots? What does it mean to be “southern”? This group could just be a veiled promotional vehicle, but the question is worth considering.
47 Comments
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your
point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting
videos to your weblog when you could be giving us something informative to read?
May not be as much as Southern as it was Asheville and part of Asheville Culture, but Asheville was a Southern town never the less, So I will concede the argument. Its a shame, that everyone is too busy humping the current state of Ashevilles leg to understand how a locals feel. Dont get your panties in a wad in the future if a local decides to speak out when the open minded folks of Asheville decide to make fun of them or talk down to them.
And the Indians moved due to the indian removal act, we didnt have a choice, alot of the native folks lived in harmony with their new neighbors before Andrew Jackson enforced the Indian Removal act.
Failing a Strawman much Mat???
You should be used to it. . . .
What exactly are you all trying to prove with all these google searches? The fact that a magazine gave Asheville the title of Best Southern Town, has nothing to do with its "southernness" or it being more "southern" than any other town in the south. It was given those titles because of geographic location. Because NC is considered to be in the south, so the title of Best southern town is given because the town is located in the south. If Asheville had been in the North then it would have received the title of Best Northern Town.
I also have to ask, what does Asheville's architecture, Industrial past, and arts & crafts have to do with being southern? Those are things you can find in just about any town or city in America, there is nothing specifically southern about any of those thing.
Quoted by Asheville Dweller
"When the original folks moved here they moved here to improve or give back not change it and reticule the locals. They embraced the LOCAL culture not ruin it or change it something unrecognizable."
Nobody other than the ones who moved here felt that ANYTHING in Asheville needed to be improved upon, also by definition, improving something is in fact changing it, so if they did not want to change anything then what is there to improve?
If a person moves to a new area with the intentions of embracing the local culture then they will embrace it all just as it is, without the thought or idea of something needing improving upon. They will accept it for the good and the bad that comes with it. If you are unable to accept a culture in its entirety then you should leave and return to a place where you can accept the culture as it is without any change.
Most southern people see this constant influx of transplants from all over the country to our area as nothing more than an invasion, much like the Indians saw the English & Spanish. They too came to America claiming to help the people by improving their way of life and giving back to them. The came to America because they thought it was beautiful, clean air, less crowded and all of the same things people say why they move to the south today. But when the English & the Spanish came to America they did more than just "improve" on the Indians way of life, they introduced them to diseases, they borough pollutions, they brought more and more people, then the Indians had to migrate to new ground to live & hunt. Eventually they brought an end to the entire culture of the Indians, now all that is left is a few government sanctioned towns where they are allowed to live in peace, but their culture is no longer revered for anything, they are now nothing more than tacky tourist destinations where we can go to see stereotypical Indian exhibits and shops.
Eventually the south will become the same thing, we will be seen as nothing more than a tacky tourist destination where people will come from all over the country to see Scarlet and Rhett waving at tourists and a few happy little darkies, singing in the fields.
All for the sake of improvement and progress. What most of the country fails to realize is that in the south, improvement for the sake of improvement & progress just for the sake of progress is not needed nor wanted. Much like the Indians of Americas past. We could have lived very long and happy lives without your help, without your intervention and with out your ideas of what needs to be improved upon. In fact we could very well live for the next few hundred years exactly how we are without any "improvements" of any kind and be a very very happy society here in the south. Change just for the sake of change is not in our nature and never will be.
Your google search got you 11 million results.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Asheville+Mountain+City
This one gives 27 million.
I feel like most of you are missing the point. Saying we are still "southern" because we have bumper stickers, jacked up cars, beer guts, etc…..is not Southern. Nor is it what I think the FB page means when it says Asheville is not as Southern anymore. Just because the area is full of "red-neck" symbols, doesn't mean..SOUTHERN.
What a Laughable rant.
A simple Google Search prooves you differently http://www.google.com/search?q=Asheville+Southern+City&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=&oe=
So all those titles are nothing? False Advertising by all those people? These are all lies?
Wait there is more:
The Art Deco Builings of Asheville, Asheville is very famous or this, and the architecture of the surrounding areas.
Asheville was a city of Industry until that changed, Real Jobs where people went to work made something they could be proud and make a lviing wage.
Asheville Rail Road his history forgotten
Traditional Arts and crafts, not this faux "I have a brush, camera, Potters Wheel, Rust junk layiing around" So im a artist attitude, realy art work that you can use, that was durable and reasonably priced.
When the original folks moved here they moved here to improve or give back not change it and redicule the locals. They embraced the LOCAL culture not ruin it or change it something unrecognizable.
So yes Asheville is a very Southern city deep in cultural history, but not any more folks would rather believe in the pipe dream of Paris of the South. So keep making fun of us, being smug treating the locals like shit just dont get your horned rimmed glasses and panties in a wad if we stop takiing this shit any more. Because enough is enough, our side is going to be heard weather you and your PBR sippiing friends care to hear it or not, because southern folk are going to be here long after you find a new flavor of the month to ruin.
So, you don't think that this:
"The only lack of understanding of culture is the, know it all transplants that move here to “Change” Asheville to this narrow minded utopia."
And this:
"These Southern were cities were once all celebrated for their once culture and southern hospitality, now people from out of town move here and want to change it.
Somehow don't directly contradict this:
"It’s not we are not open to change"
Not to mention that you apparently weight my identity as more of an Appalachian as less important than yours as a Southerner. That doesn't seem open minded or accepting. I haven't said that your cultural choices were wrong, just that they seem a bit more controlled by pop history than actual history. There's a great legacy of the mountains being completely ignored or downplayed in this country, pretty much since the late 1700s, while a great deal of emphasis was placed on North vs South.
I suspect that northern Appalachian people are also more apt to buy into their unity with their Yankee neighbors. And everyone buys into the American Culture Myth, when it is purely a construct of consumer capitalism and political jingoism.
"you and your ilk."
Remind me again, you are speaking as the voice of acceptance and tolerance in this debate?
Now, I didn't bring up an absolute case against racial or political issues with Southern culture. I said, "There isn't anything particularly horrifying or shameful about southern heritage, insomuch as it allows itself to be truly honest about its past." There are plenty of wonderful things about the South. And the North. And the Mountains.
There are also plenty of horrible and shameful things. Slavery in the south. Exploitation of labor in the north. The mountains share in both of those, and likely others (though I'm clearly too proud to think of any!)
You're clearly passionate about this, and that's fine. But, what can you offer up other than just anger about your culture being belittled or trampled on? Can you lay claim that Asheville was a key city in the South, either before, during, or after the war? Can you connect its culinary traditions to anywhere else in the South? Its language?
These aren't made up, phony things. These are the things that define culture. For all I know, you are simply confusing "mountain" with "southern".
The only lack of understanding of culture is the, know it all transplants that move here to “Change” Asheville to this narrow minded utopia.
Asheville is a Southern City, And what you are doing is spinning you’re tires, Asheville was once a jewel in the South along with Charleston and Savannah they are not similar no, that’s a lousy straw man argument your failing at using. These Southern were cities were once all celebrated for their once culture and southern hospitality, now people from out of town move here and want to change it.
Asheville is a southern city, the only reason locals don’t speak up is because of the good open minded folks as your self, they don’t want to be ridiculed or made fun of. 200 years in Virginia big freaking deal, Good for you, I guarantee the folks where you are from are more accepting as you are.
And before you go there because it’s the only argument you try to have with a pathetic deflection your going to come up with, is the only folks to mention Race or political or the Garbage “Heritage not Hate” is you and your ilk. So don’t go there its insulting, especially to me when you don’t know what race I am, although someone as open minded as you would be shocked to hear it.
It’s not we are not open to change, we are not open to being made fun or having our traditions mocked and trampled on, it’s the fact the folks here are tired of you pushing us around and telling us a made up history of Asheville by destroying the real history of Asheville.
But like I said previously enjoy it while you can because this house of cards is not going to last in this economy because its not real, its not real jobs, its not real structure, its this garbage pipe dream built on warm and fuzzies.
Maybe the "up in arms" reaction to the charge of Asheville not being "Southern" enough from some non-southerners comes from the underlying moral superiority that seems to pervade the priggish comparisons of the idyllic "way it used to be when decent people lived here" past and current "weirdoes who don't share our superior values and perfect manners" population as they see it.
As a WNC native, I was here 15 years ago and even more years ago too and I can tell you this new, vibrant, diverse Asheville is a lot more fun than the decaying, dull, boarded up hooker haven it was in the dying 70s and 80s. It's still more interesting than nearby Hendersonville (which has just as many, if not MORE yankee transplants that don't get the local culture, but since they consist of conservative, right wing retirees, they are okay, I guess).
It's pretty clear that the real problem they have with Asheville's "non-southerness" is that it doesn't fit into this 1950s Norman Rockwell fantasy of Joe Crewcut and his superior God-fearin', flag-wavin', everybody decent looks like me and acts like me and believes like me or else they ain't right, frame of what the "South" or at least the South portrayed in Mayberry or Huck Finn or their own faded memories of their cloistered, homogenous youth reference. Obviously, if you are the group considered to be on the outside of this holier-than-thou bastion of decency and sanctimony, you are going to be a bit perturbed at the comparison.
Since I've never fit in with those particular fellow southerners, I don't really mind that things have changed, in fact, I welcome it, and that's really what the problem is here, isn't it? People that can't accept change. Well good luck trying to prevent that!
"Asheville is in the South no matter how you spin it Mat."
This isn't spin. This is a matter of cultural history, not political history. If you want to discuss it as a matter of political history, then certainly the argument can be made about Asheville as a Southern city. I don't think you can make that same claim about the cultural history.
"So its the Paris of the south when it fits but different at other times???"
I think that's the pipe dream of some marketing company, mixed in with the decades old delusion of the mountains being "southern".
"Asheville was a mix of Appalachia and the South but more of a southern city on par with Charleston or Savannah."
Really? I've been in Charleston for two years and the difference between the two is pretty wide.
"mat catastrophe….if Asheville is not in the south then where is it located. Historically all states below the Mason Dixon line are considered the south.
Again, that's a political and not cultural distinction. Political distinctions are at the whims of the people drawing lines, as the recent hullabaloo over redistricting shows and cultural identity is part of what is creating dissent among Asheville residents about being lumped into a Piedmont district.
Since this is a conversation about the supposed decline of southern culture, I would think that any consideration of simple political lines would be moot. Mountain cultures were developing a century before the Civil War drew lines and were developing in different ways than in the industrial north and agricultural south. If anything, they might be considered a mix of both cultures, along with all the idiosyncrasies of the original settlers in the area, who became separated in many ways from the history of both cultures around them.
"When Asking the question of "Has Asheville lost its southern roots?" That question CAN NOT be answered by someone who themselves is not southern born or raised"
You make a pretty wide assumption of my family history.
And this is a really sad comment that plays into a lot of these ridiculous notions about political lines and cultural divides. I was actually born in West Virginia, about twenty minutes from the Virgina state line. My family lived in Virginia. So am I, by birth, a Yankee or a Southerner? My family has roots in the Virginia and North Carolina mountains that stretch back over two hundred years. I certainly never bought into any mythology about being "southern".
"Ask someone who born in the south has a completely different opinion & view of what it is to be southern."
The exact same is true if you ask a northerner about the north. What's the point in even bringing it up? It works both ways and it's a bit tiresome in light of recent (last fifty years or so) population shifts.
"There's no one specific type of southern culture, each part of the south has its own unique culture such as Cajun, Low Country of SC & GA, The Gulf, and the Appalachians.
But is that the entire range of the Appalachians, which runs all the way to southern Pennsylvania (or even further north to Canada, according to some maps)? Or just the part that you want to place below the Mason-Dixon line?
Do you think that the person starting the Facebook group has a grasp of those subtle differences? The page says he misses "southern accents" in Asheville, a town which should have mountain accents, by all accounts. Appalachian accents, by the way, are incredibly distinct from southern or northern accents.
If there really is a mountain/southern culture that exists, why isn't it that culture that the FB group owner misses?
There isn't anything particularly horrifying or shameful about southern heritage, insomuch as it allows itself to be truly honest about its past. Having people running around screaming about "heritage, not hate" and "the war of northern aggression" really doesn't help much to alter the images of the south as a backwards, racist enclave of mouth breathing knuckle draggers. Sorry, that's just the way it is, much the same as a lot of the cultural weirdness of the north or the west is looked upon with incredible disdain in the south (or the mountains).
"Is Asheville not big enough to allow those of us who are southern to have our culture, or is the transplants way of life the only socially acceptable culture for Asheville."
And here's where we really get to the point of the whole thing. This is not the same nation of two hundred, one hundred, or even fifty years ago. There's been a series of migrations of peoples both north and south that have been altering the social, cultural, and political landscape of north, south, and mountains since the Sixties. Of course, the result is that people who are incredibly resistant to change (admittedly, a very southern quality, right?) fall into persecution mode and decry any and all outside influences as unclean or impure, while clinging more and more to an outdated set of cultural concepts, even in cases where those concepts are themselves the result of outside influence.
While I was writing this, the post above from "not a trasplant" showed up. It's pretty much a perfect example of most of what I've said here. A complete lack of acceptance of change, mixed in with some irrational attitudes toward different cultures. Southern is equated with "normal" and anything else is a vile abomination. Is that the message of Southern hospitality, or a look at the atavistic nature of people who hold a nostalgic view of a culture that does not and did not ever exist when and where they believe it did?
I grew up driving into Asheville every weekend. For those who say Asheville is still Southern, you weren't there 15 years ago. Asheville has changed so much that I rarely go there. When I take my children, I have to explain how it WAS back in the day. Where hospitality was key. Staying "in or out of the closet" was not even open for discussion.
Now when I go to Asheville and I don't mean the outskirts, I feel like I am in California. People do not bathe and yet, are allowed to prepare food for others. Dreads that catch dirt and insects are excepted in all the "cool" Asheville areas. The health dept looks the other way. Mice are allowed in restaurants, the health dept looks the other way. People can not hold jobs in Asheville unless they are eclectic. Whatever happened to Southern, what happened to normal? Decent men with short hair and values can't keep their jobs because they don't baby their co-workers. Sensitive. That's the word. Asheville needs to wake up and get real again. If I feel like I am in California, I'd prefer to spend my hard earned money in CA, not a wanna be, that is Asheville.
mat catastrophe….if Asheville is not in the south then where is it located. Historically all states below the Mason Dixon line are considered the south.
When Asking the question of "Has Asheville lost its southern roots?" That question CAN NOT be answered by someone who themselves is not southern born or raised. As you can see from the comments on this page, too many of you that were born and raised outside the south seem to think being southern means poor white trailer trash, redneck, racists, rebel flag waving, toothless hillbillies. Ask someone who born in the south has a completely different opinion & view of what it is to be southern.
Some of you think that Asheville & WNC are more "mountain" and can not be considered southern. There's no one specific type of southern culture, each part of the south has its own unique culture such as Cajun, Low Country of SC & GA, The Gulf, and the Appalachians. While each have their own unique forms of cultures, religious views, food and accents. They still share in many of their fundamental beliefs, ways of life, mannerisms, appreciation for family, and countless other ways. So Asheville for some may fall more under the category of Appalachian or Mountain, they are still a huge part of the south in many way.
What I don't understand is why when someone wants to create a more southern view then people get all up in arms and fight with such passion against it. As if being southern is something we should be ashamed of, something we should keep in secrete or work hard to distance ourselves from. But in Asheville a person can start up a Church of Satan and it would be accepted with open arms. Someone could demolish Grove Park to build a large dog park and several organic grocery stores and herbal pharmacies and very few people would have issue with it. Smoking tobacco could be completely outlawed but smoking marijuana made completely legal and all of Asheville would applaud, but just the mention of something southern in nature coming to town and everyone foams at the mouth, fights break out and protest marches get planned.
Southern people have as much right to be proud of their culture much like black people taking pride in the African heritage, Italian Americans taking pride in being Italian, Jews being proud of their culture. There is no difference between someone who is proud to say they are southern than there is for someone to say they are gay.
Is Asheville not big enough to allow those of us who are southern to have our culture, or is the transplants way of life the only socially acceptable culture for Asheville.
Asheville has always been a blend of southern and Appalachian. It is more southern that the Appalachian area that surrounds it, and more Appalachian than the southern "flatlands."
Let me repeat this for some clarity:
Asheville is in the South no matter how you spin it Mat.
So its the Paris of the south when it fits but different at other times???
Asheville was a mix of Appalachia and the South but more of a southern city on par with Charleston or Savannah.
Im glad you like it here now but dont get used to it, when the economic crash happens these warm and fuzzy shops of Asheville will not make it, neither will the bars on every corner. If gentrification doesnt wipe out this Faux Hippy Crap stain, the economy will.
Let me repeat this for some clarity.
Asheville is not in the South.
" . . .Name another city in the south that had a vibrant Jewish and Greek population like Asheville had at the turn of the century. . ."
Try Columbia, SC, and Charleston, SC, for two.
Ethan–I sound like a "hater"? What is that? Because I happen to love living here and love everything that makes this area unique?
I'm not sure where the "hate" part comes in….
Kudos to Nick. The Phan, Mee Maw & Grumpy Old Lady sound like a bunch of haters.
This new FB group is NOT any sort of promotion, I can attest. I know personally the creator of this group. I attend college classes with him and he is very sincere and simply an avid lover of southern culture. Nothing more, nothing less. I think he is originally from Savannah, which would explain a seemingly disproportionate lack of businesses, restaurants and activities that could/would be deemed 'southern.' If you compare Atlanta to New Orleans, Atlanta is not going to seem exactly 'cajun' or 'creole' now is it. Anyway, although I am an explorer, lover and seeker of southern culture myself, I don't always completely agree with my friend here. I am a member of the FB group because of my southern heritage, but I don't see eye to eye with everything that is stated on there. For example, my friend feels that there are no decent BBq joints here in Asheville. And I know of literally a dozen (at least). I mean, western NC prides itself on its BBQ, right? I am originally from Atlanta and I have to say: Asheville seems a lot more 'southern' than my hometown these days by far. But you guys need to calm down here. Anytime anyone wants to show their pride and it happens to be 'southern' pride, people get all uptight. He's just a guy who loves the region in which he is from. As do I.
It would really be nice if someone opened a real southern home cooking restaurant in one of these empty restaurants. Check out the Moose Cafe, it stays full all the time. It is just home southern cooking.
The Appalachians are not southern nor northern. They are a culturally distinct area.
Stupid thing is stupid.
Seriously. The poll on the page? You miss a Southern accent in the mountains? Do you even know what a Southern accent is? Southern history? Southern history is not mountain history.
Total rubish. Can anyone explain what a return to southern values means? Im afraid my interpretation may not mesh well with this groups definition. Southern values to me include ideas such as self-reliance, sustainability, freedom of thought, and maybe just a wee bit of distrust for government 😉
I have the feeling that this group has set out on a different azmuth from most.
The Junction on Depot Street is a great place to go for "Haute Southerne Cuisine." Southern, but distinctly Asheville. . . . They've got seriously fattening Southern food but it's expertly prepared & the place is next to a bunch of art galleries & it's quite the "Green" establishment in keeping with Asheville values. I wonder what the Facebook guy would make of it.
At the risk of getting lots of negative feedback…Why is it that so many equate being Southern only with being a redneck? There is another part of southern tradition that celebrates the family, helping one's neighbors, and having a kindred relationship with the land and its rich agricultural history. Being Southern is not necessarily such a bad thing. Otherwise, why do so many want to leave the cities to move here, raise their children here, retire here or even just visit here? Sure, we have our faults. However, I sometimes miss the days when people spoke to each other as they passed on the sidewalk, when sitting on the front porch was the Sunday social event, doors were left unlocked and little kids learned how to fish, build a tree house, or even watch their grandmother make homemade jam. True Southerners are proud of who they are, proud of their culture…but they are also some of the kindest "folk" you will ever meet!
As someone who has spent most of his life in the midwest, I don't think Asheville is in any danger of losing its Southerness. Asheville may be unique within the South but it certainly stands apart from the Midwest. I've encountered plenty of Southern charm, Southern hospitality, Southern culture, Southern food, and hear a variety of southern accents. In the Midwest, people don't make eye-contact or engage strangers in small talk. They don't have expressions or colloquialisms in the Midwest. It may come as a surprise to older Southerners to hear someone here say they "have a hankerin for some brie" but this is a crossroads town . . . there will always be a blending of cultures here and it's nothing to fear. I believe the creator of the Facebook page is merely trying to be supportive of long-standing local businesses that have hit hard times or are going under. I take no offense.
Theres more to Southern Culture than the Redneck Stereotype. There is the Neighborly feeling folks getting to know each other in the neighborhood. There is the throwing your hand up at a stranger or a nod to the head. there is a since of community which Asheville lacks.
Anyone who doest look status quo is treated poorly, anyone who has any hints of southern is treated like an undiserable. I love the open mindedness in this are by the transplants.
This faux Hippy garbage is just that garbage.
Theres more to Southern Culture than the Redneck Stereotype. There is the Neighborly feeling folks getting to know each other in the neighborhood. There is the throwing your hand up at a stranger or a nod to the head. there is a since of community which Asheville lacks.
Anyone who doest look status quo is treated poorly, anyone who has any hints of southern is treated like an undiserable. I love the open mindedness in this are by the transplants.
This faux Hippy garbage is just that garbage.
Southern redneck can be a positive or a negative based on the prospective of the individual or group involved. Is Southern culture the same as Southern redneck culture; I think not. I would guess a large majority of the tourist visiting downtown Asheville or the Biltmore area do not want to see rednecks, smell cigarette smoke or know we have a large redneck community living outside of downtown area. A large majority of the people living downtown would feel the same way; more or less. If Southern culture is profitable businesses model businesses with this theme will flourish if not they will die. The same goes for Southern redneck; if a redneck has the capital to open a business based on some redneck theme downtown more power to them; I will not go but I respect their right to roll the dice. Would a true Southern culture restaurant flourish downtown the same as it would in the country where natives may or may not support it? Do the native rednecks go to locally own restaurants or eat at the chains restaurants; I hope they support the local guy.
I do not care either way how people choose to live just respect others choices and keep your mouth shut even if you disagree with the life style they live as long as what they are doing does not affecting your life. I would not want to live a redneck life my self but respect their rights as Americans to do so.
Interesting that so many posters equate 'Southernism' with being a redneck or even a racist. I am a native (I grew up in Black Mountain in the 60s) and really, Asheville is not a Southern city. Very chic, yes, but the transplants are pretty much afraid of the 'locals,' which is a bias that is accepted and even applauded as politically correct. Just witness the decline of two local restaurants, BBQ Inn and Three Brothers, in the name of mass commercialism. Asheville does not have a thriving culinary scene — our restaurants for the most part are highly mediocre, overpriced, trendy without being authentic. The locals are constantly pushed out of this environment in favor of these trends. I love progress and am a PhD, a very progressive person. But the true culture of the mountains is not valued and is rapidly disappearing. And if you think that southern culture is all about 'grits' and 'stars and bars' and other, shallow statements, you are wrong.
So why are posters equating everything Southern with 'redneck culture' and trailer parks? kind of myopic, no?
"The group begs the question . . ." Check your usage, Ash. The group is asking the question. Begging the question means something entirely different. There's even a website devoted to this common mistake: http://begthequestion.info/
Asheville hasnt lost its roots, its lost its soul, Now its one of the most narrowminded towns in the south, being an individual means going against the status quo.
Being an individual isnt thinking alike and looking alike that status quo, down town looks like any urban downtown, its a scratch on a DVD its the same thing over and over.
Now attack me for voicing a different opinion.
Uh, the FB page has a poll that asks what people miss the most about Asheville, with one of the choices being "church bizares." Seems less like a marketing promotion, more like your standard peripheral folks who "don't go downtown." There are two Ashevilles, one in the fairly cosmopolitan southern city full of all the things that used to make the South a pretty nice place, and the other for the folks on the outskirts who have fast-fooded their way right out of a community and into the same corporate shlock that exists all over the South. These are just some crybabies who can't spell. Goodnight.
Using stereotypes to say the Southern Culture is alive in Asheville is ignorant! The reality is whatever culture Asheville has, it appears Southern Culture is not as vibrant! People used to describe the area as "hip little southern town", now it's just a hip town with lots to offer!
From reading the comments, I believe that most of you have the word "southern" confused with "redneck". How is living in a trailer "southern?" Really?
Western NC has always been more Appalachian then southern, with more in common with West Virginia or even western Pennsylvania than Mississippi or Louisiana.
Growing up in East Tennessee, we really never identified ourselves as "Southern," but instead "Mountain." I believe that WNC going up to Pennsylvania feels the same way.
Hogwash. Asheville has really never been a "southern" city (and we could dedicate an entire thread to debating what constitutes "southern" — Cuisine? Confederate-flag hats? Accent?)
And speaking of native status, I'm sure our neighbors on the Cherokee reservation might have a thing or two to say about Asheville's cultural roots.
But to address the question Jason has put forth: Asheville is, and always has been a city of interlopers, transplants, runaways, dreamers, vagabonds and carpetbaggers. And from the very beginning, many of us (including moi) have come here from northern climes.
I recommend reading "Asheville. A History" by Nan Chase. It's a fascinating book and it's impeccably researched and sourced (and a fun read). It's amazing how history repeats itself in this town.
Prior to the railroad reaching Asheville in 1880 we had a population of 2,600. The RR kicked of an economic and population boom that added 50,000 people in 50 years, 10,000+ came within the first decade. "Of the 15,000 residents in 1900, more than a third of them had come from north of the Mason-Dixon line."
Vanderbilt, Coxe, Pack, Carrier (ring any bells?) — Yankees.
I point this out because I get so tired of people playing the "native-born" card or the "I've lived here so many # of years" card in a constant game of one-up-manship. Truth is, this city has long been a collection of outsiders drawn here for many of the same reasons we continue to attract transplants.
And we should celebrate our unique heritage. We're mutts, not purebreds. Name another city in the south that had a vibrant Jewish and Greek population like Asheville had at the turn of the century. We had a degree of diversity that few could rival.
This town has always defied labels. Why start now?
That guy is always posting his rants on public Facebook pages. He really deserves to be ignored.
I don't really care about the Facebook group, but I do care about the conversation, particularly since there is the assumption that southern equals confederate flags and trailers. Of which southern culture are we speaking? What about the South's–particularly southern Appalachia’s–connection to faith, family, community, and small-scale agriculture? How about our independent sprit and wicked story-telling ability? And let’s not forget about our musical traditions…have you been to Shindig on the Green? Take a real look and you’ll see that our culture is much more than the worn out Deliverance stereotypes perpetuated by “Paddle Faster, I Hear Banjo Music” bumper stickers. Our culture is alive and well and we’ll out pot-luck you any day of the week.
I daresay that Miami is really the least "Southern" Southern city. Then again, when people say "Southern," they often actually mean "redneck." Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable terms and I'm delighted that Asheville, while not especially redneck, is most assuredly Southern.
I think that might be some of the positive points about Asheville, that is ISN'T a small town Southern feeling. Travel 10 miles from downtown and you'll find all the Confederate flags you don't see downtown.
Southern culture on the decline in AVL?!?!?!? No way. I see it everywhere here, with the accents, the bumper stickers on trucks, the guns, the beer bellies, the cigarette smokers, the trailer parks, and in the inbred bunch of people who live here. May not seem so southern at times in downtown Asheville, but the mountain rednecks culture is alive and well here for sure.
What are "southern" shops? Wal-Mart? What are "southern" restaurants and "southern" food? Ruby Tuesday? Dennys?
Is "southern" just a code word for something else?
Stop pining for a South that no longer exists most places. In some ways (lots of independently owned businesses; emphasis upon locally grown foods; an African-American mayor), Asheville is actually MORE like the South than the rest of the South.
This group only has 9 members as of this morning, anyway, so while I wish them the best of luck in their Quixotic pursuit, I'm not sure what they hope to accomplish with a Facebook page.
This does seem to smell of some sort of promotion. Facebook and Twitter are notorious for that to try and get interest going.
There is a distinct and definitely a very southern culture thriving here in Asheville and all over Western North Carolina.
This is ridiculous! Asheville is one the most Southern of cities in NC. Just take a drive to West Asheville, out Emma Rd. and you will find a mountain, redneck culture, stars and bars flags, jacked up cars and trailers everywhere. I'd venture to say there are more mobile homes here than in any other part of the state except far eastern NC.
What Asheville does not have is the high percentage of African Americans here that other cities in both NC and SC have, so that may make it seem a bit less Southern.
Without a doubt, Southern culture is alive and thriving in this little city. Just listed to all the folks who "appreciate ya"…..if that ain't Southern, I'll kiss my grits!