I blogged here about the notice that West Asheville was getting from Men’s Journal magazine yesterday, and today the mag has posted a link to their story. What’s your take — is West Asheville a trendy cool neighborhood, or a backwater dump?
I blogged here about the notice that West Asheville was getting from Men’s Journal magazine yesterday, and today the mag has posted a link to their story. What’s your take — is West Asheville a trendy cool neighborhood, or a backwater dump?
24 Comments
So glad I moved from Asheville. Gone for 2 weeks now. Hooray! I know people are trying to make good on whatever they’ve invested in their move to Asheville, but it remains a pass-through city trying to be something it forever fails to live up to. I lived there 25 years. I moved there when businesses were establishments, not a result of concocted tourism or economic development. Instead of developing useful businesses, like trades for practical purposes, Asheville has been over run by the next best muffin or coffee or beer. Thank sites like Yelp for that. The worst for Asheville is every outsider’s new moniker for Asheville, as if throwing a name against a wall for the sake of their own branding to see what sticks. ‘AshVegas’ is just one of them. Sorry, but so true. The straw that broke my back was yet another spiritual guru (ala Mountain XPress) who tagged it ‘Akashaville,’ because she’s a Shaman that can read your 20,000 year old records! Funny how each of these traveling Gypsy circus shows arrive with THE answer to your problems that the hundreds of others didn’t have. Asheville used to be a common sense salt of the earth place filled with businesses built on local needs. Now it’s over run by every stripe of weirdness, selling to an increasingly gullible public. The topless parade… (cover up honey, those are nothing to brag about), has upended the conservative culture. The most amazing thing is that these ‘flappers’ actually travel from out of town to parade. They can’t get their jollies at a nudist camp?!! Good bye Asheville. And all the freaks there are probably saying good riddance to me too! Good! Asheville? What a dump now.
West Asheville. Please. This place is full of a bunch of wanna be’s. To answer one of the above posts, they have never heard of nor used a mop because they can’t see the ground for their noses are too far up in the air. What about I have no idea but this place is full of stuck up wanna be earthbunnies with NOTHING to be stuck up about. I can’t wait to get outta here and on to a location that actually has something going for it.
Five years later it is still the same. i can’t stand West Asheville. What a dumpy, snobby row of weird hipsters who can’t dress anyway. They won’t even hold the door for you and look you up and down at times because you aren’t like them. The whole vibe of W. AVL just blows in terms of self-conscious, hidden insecurity. Creepy!
Yo Karine, maybe if you would give me your phone number next time I stop in to see you, I can change your mind about this "backwater dump". I love Asheville.
West Asheville is more then the strip of Road known as the colony of Haywood road.
Love it or Hate it, West Asheville has an important place in the history, culture and heritage of Asheville. The gentrification and rising rents in downtown Asheville has made the Haywood Road Business district more desirable to small business entrepreneurs in the area. Through the years, various Asheville Mayors and City Council elites have overlooked the problems, concerns and troubles of this area of town west of the river. They would rather cater to the the power elites living in wealthy North Asheville neighborhoods and spend the limited city resources on endless downtown Asheville public projects. For too long, West Asheville has been a forgotten area of town. It’s time that the residents of West Asheville stood up for themselves and demand an equal place at the table of Asheville neighborhoods. They deserve no less.
I’m delighted I bought my house in Best Asheville — I love it. It’s like downtown, but with a local focus. I think of Westville as downtown for locals, though I love our real downtown, too. I’m a card-carrying fan of my own hometown.
Haywood Road has a nonsmoking pub, a great local video store, a fun consignment shop, the best ice cream in town… Incredible gardens by Chrisopher Mello, wonderful metal art by Steebo… Art spaces, funky condos, Arts and Crafts homes, even a thriving community garden at the local elementary school. Its best restaurants (Tomato, Lukcy Otter, Burgermeister’s, Sunny Point, The Admiral), cater to people who want good food without spending too much.
My own neighborhood is leafy, quiet, pedestrian-friendly and full of people who look out for each other. It’s not perfect, but it’s a wonderful place to live. Several of my neighbors have lived here and loved it for over 50 years.
Maybe you have to live here to appreciate it, or just have good sense.
West Asheville Trendy??? LOL.
It’s most definitely a backwater Dump!
if there was ever a sure fire way to get the # of clicks up on a asheville web site, it would be to do a story or poll to compare the different areas of town!
i think west asheville is mostly pretty ugly. no reason to go there unless you have to.
I was going to get a house in West Asheville about 6 years ago (about a year after the stories appeared in the citizen times) and although i found a few houses that appealed to me they all wanted about 60 grand over the appraised value because they lived in an up and coming area. Additionally I only had one pair of skinny jeans so I didn’t have the mandated 3 pairs (I’d bought them by accident thinking they fit all the way down my legs). As a native to the Asheville area I enjoyed atmosphere at parties I had attended in West Asheville, the constant amazement by a 20-something anarchist or traveler, or whatever they called themselves that although I had grown up here I could "talk like people" and "read".
As an avid drinker I have occasionally experienced the self-righteous territoriality of the modern West Asheville resident. Once at the Admiral I suddenly found myself surrounded by 10 mop headed fixed gear cyclists angry that I didn’t live in their neighborhood (They had evidently deduced this fact because I didn’t order a PBR). I escaped by running up a hill which they didn’t have the appropriate cog for on their bikes.
As a result of these difficulties, I ended up living closer to downtown near the Shiloh area. The houses are cheaper, there is a wide variety of neighbors, and you don’t have to listen to an approved list of crappy lo-fi art bands to fit in with your neighbors.
Also PBR sucks.
"We don’t want "investors" to come in and "discover" the area."
Too late, "investors", "greedy developers" have already "discovered" and ruined my West Asheville neighborhood. Just drive up Riverview Drive and take a look at those God-awful stilt homes and see for yourself. While your at it pull over and take a walk down one of our lovely sidewalks…
I LOVE West Asheville. I can walk to Sunny Point (one of the best restaurants in town), the grocery store, and the pub. Even though the pub can suck sometimes, its still a great meeting place. Our neighbors are much more welcoming than those my girlfriend had in Arden, that hellhole of traffic and stripmalls. When we moved in 2 years ago, she still hadn’t met anyone from her old neighborhood, but people on our westville street saw the moving van and came over to help.
Also, according to the US Census and Gaydemographics.net, 28806 is the third gayest zip in the state. Of course, that might be a drawback for some, but not for us.
I think some people like Arden because they feel like they can get everything they need really easily by hopping in their car, but living somewhere like that with no community makes me feel gross.
West Asheville is definitely not one of the "Top 30 Neighborhoods" of this, or any city. Mostly it is just an undistinguished area that is a real mixed bag of housing and commercial establishments. There is no center or focal point of West Asheville and I don’t see anything at all that could be considered "trendy". A lot of the area is downright ugly and rundown and there a always lots of trailers, cars in yards, and really horrible commercial strips such as Patton Ave and Leicester Hwy. The area seems much less clean than other parts of the city. Sorry, but I would agree that it is "Worst Asheville"
Just post an extreme "either/or" dichotomy and whaddya get? A pointless argument. Life’s more complicated. My own block is part trendy/cool and part backwater dump.
No thanks to me, West Asheville’s sure a lot better than it was when I moved in a decade ago. I love it, and don’t need a magazine to validate my feelings. But I won’t be insulted if you stay away based on older impressions or newer ones at odds with my feelings.
In fact, it is probably for the best that lots of people hold onto their "Worst Asheville" views. My home would be worth more than double if it were in one of the more "desirable" places across the river. But living in an undervalued place is OK. That means I can afford it!
It’s actually "Worst Trasheville", Kaleb.
West Asheville is not a tourist trap like downtown. The businesses are by locals, for locals. We don’t want "investors" to come in and "discover" the area. West Asheville is for the people who live in it. And, considering how much my property value has gone up since I bought out here – even after the housing collapse, I’d say there are more people that agree with me than "West Asheville resident."
i live in westville…moved here four years ago from downtown condo… dont understand how some posters who say they "avoid worst asheville whenever possible" can actually have an opinion… since they avoid it, how would they know what we have to offer?
i’m in the "love it" group… oh and btw… i think we are "cozy" and full of "content" (whatever the hell that is supposed to mean!)
I agree with most of what "West Asheville resident" said especially about "lacking content."
I lived there in the late ’90’s when businesses were starting up and it seemed like a turn around was eminent. We used to have neighborhood "block parties" that really were that!! We moved "out" in 2001 because ,at that time ,you could afford a much bigger house with less taxes and good schools and that is what we needed.
Having just recently visited the area, I was shocked at how similar it felt to anyplace USA. You could go to any small city in the US and find a neighborhood that feels exactly the same. I also felt like a total outsider! The West Asheville I knew accepted anybody and everybody! It has lost its’ identity. You used to have a "melting pot" living there, now it’s a lot of the same. West Asheville has lost its’ grit. Being named in a magazine about how trendy it is, is the start of its’ downfall.
The Colony of Haywood road looks like downtown Asheville from about 12 years ago, but since the gentrification things are getting better.
West Asheville is still a long shot from being the 30 best neighborhoods, if we had a neighborhood to get that honor we have other, healthier and safer districts. But when you say West Asheville is more then just Haywood road its the entire area that is West Asheville including all those areas no one likes to talk about.
And yes the Colony of Haywood road is a VERY unfriendly place, mostly due to people thinking itts something other then what it is.
Both of the above comments could be combined and summarized as:
"When will West Asheville become as gentrified and homogenized as downtown is becoming?"
I love the West Asheville neighborhood I live in. Most people around us have a thriving garden. They get together socially in each other’s yards for potluck dinners. There are presently two interesting living breathing communes within 50 steps of my mailbox. I’ve lived at beaches. I’ve lived on remote mountain creeks. I’ve lived in cities. Yet here in West Asheville I’m exactly 2 miles from my downtown office here (short commute) and there is so much to do and see here close to home. It’s woodsy around our log cabin and we can have a campfire and play music in my backyard. We can see a great view of the sun setting over the mountains. Carrier park is at the bottom of the hill– great biking and dog walking. EVERYTHING is SO close! My girlfriend and I agree.. this is as good as it gets.
"is West Asheville a trendy cool neighborhood, or a backwater dump?"
neither, but somewhere in between. I work in publishing and these people always have to come up with some B.S. to sell their magazines…
West Asheville seems to be lacking content. There is a few local populated eateries and they are nothing to brag about because the worn out atmosphere. Have they ever heard of a little paint much less a mop.
As for stores, much of the same. It seems they businesses in West Asheville are not interested in making more profit or attracting people from outside their circle. I wish they would get it together so investors would take them serious and then West Asheville would thrive. Again, let me say that there is potential, but West Asheville has no direction. Also note, West Asheville is not warm and cozy to outsiders for some reason so I really don’t know why the magazine picked it. I feel people that come here based on the article are going to be very disappointed and might just keep driving.
West Asheville is definitely the worst section of our city. That’s why it’s always been referred to as "Worst Asheville" I avoid it whenever possible.