Asheville UNCA Buncombe Catch All

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ronjon said:
Yeah, it’s such a terrible situation. I didn’t realize you taught at UNCA. That’s awesome. I live up in Woodfin and we frequent Hickory Nut Gap in/near Fairview. When the city gets going again would love to get drink (alcohol or not)
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Let’s do it! I’m out of town for a while as my place is in the ‘rebuild’ area for water. No electricity either.
 
ronjon said:
Yeah, it’s such a terrible situation. I didn’t realize you taught at UNCA. That’s awesome. I live up in Woodfin and we frequent Hickory Nut Gap in/near Fairview. When the city gets going again would love to get drink (alcohol or not)
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My buddy Jamie owns HNG. They've done a great building it up.
 
Mulberry Heel said:
Politically, pretty much the whole state of NC could be described that way. Charlotte/Mecklenburg is a deep blue island surrounded by suburban and rural counties of deep red.
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There really is quite a stark contrast in political persuasion once you cross out of Mecklenburg County lines in any direction. Also a bit of a contrast between areas within Charlotte city limits and the Mecklenburg County suburban towns. You also notice a difference within Charlotte city limits the farther you travel southeast within the city. But even in the much more conservative southeastern part of the city, there were only two precincts where Trump got more votes than Biden (and both we’re close); the only two precincts in the entire city where Trump got more votes than Biden.
 

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www.ourtownsfoundation.org

Asheville Just 'Happened' to Develop a Nice Downtown or Did It - Our Towns

In the immortal words from Liberty Valance, "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Herewith the legend and reality of Asheville.
www.ourtownsfoundation.org www.ourtownsfoundation.org

Jumping to the meat of the article after the author's explanation of why he's writing it...from 2015.

1) Asheville had a large number of beautiful old buildings built in Art Deco style and otherwise during the 1920’s boom period.

2) When the depression hit, Asheville was devastated. The City itself nearly went bankrupt; an economic pall settled over the area for over 50 years; and there was no reason to do anything other than let buildings stand vacant or underutilized because nothing much was happening.

1728919412152.pngGrove Arcade building before the Asheville renaissance (before-and-after photos via J. Patrick Whalen)
3) When the interstate came through downtown and the Asheville Mall was built in the 60’s and early 70’s, downtown was effectively dead.

1728919412162.png

Grove Arcade now (Romantic Asheville)
4) What followed was basically a 30 year period during which businesses closed and downtown was left boarded up with empty sidewalks. Combined with the long-term economic challenges the mountain area had faced, a profound pessimism settled over the community so that every new idea floated to bring the city back was met with an oft-repeated refrain: “That will never work here – don’t even try.”
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5) Some of that pessimism was reinforced when large-scale solutions attempted by city leaders failed. A proposal was floated demolish a large part of the historic downtown and replace it with an enclosed mall. That idea was voted down but in the process local citizens became much more invested in saving and bringing back downtown. Citizen resistance was led by John Lantzius, who was already busy, with his sister, Dawn, renovating buildings, in one of the blocks slated for demolition, and providing low-cost spaces for local businesses. Other large-scale projects were actually completed by out-of-town developers during this period but the projects failed financially. The large-scale failures were part of the story of the 80’s.

6) However, another part of the 80’s story was that the local citizen reaction to the downtown mall proposal combined with the fact that those failed large-scale projects which were completed also served as sort of “first buds of spring” to give people a little hope, encouraged some of the remaining local entrepreneurs to hold on and some new ones to take a chance on downtown.

The City Council and City staff, who had partnered with and supported those developers, took a number of other brave, forward-looking steps to actually kick-start revitalization: liquor by the drink was approved for restaurants (in a formerly dry community); sidewalk dining was approved; Bele Chere, a major outdoor summer festival was established; the City built new parking garages at a time when nobody really saw a need for new parking; and the City and the County kept all major public buildings downtown. All of these steps had no large immediate effect and provoked a political backlash which forced those leaders out of office, but without their actions, our downtown miracle would never have happened.
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7) Although that pessimistic “it will never work here” response to revitalization efforts was a solidly entrenched local reaction, the beauty of the area continued to attract hopeful new residents. In particular, two new residents, picked up the baton after the political backlash in the 80’s forced the public sector to back off.

Roger McGuire was indefatigable in working to drum up support for revitalizing downtown, raising money and leading nonprofit efforts to that effect; and leading the campaign for a new arts and science center downtown. Julian Price, after conversations with Roger, committed his small fortune to supporting downtown entrepreneurs and creating places for people to live downtown. Those two men, along with the local creative-types and artists who had served as pioneers of downtown living and as entrepreneurs running some of downtown’s shops, kept the faith and made extensive personal commitments to bring the heart of the city back.

8) Roger and Julian both saw the need to create residential activity in formerly empty downtown buildings. Julian’s company in particular, Public Interest Projects, planned and helped put in place an interesting mix of downtown businesses by either financially supporting local entrepreneurs or creating businesses out of whole cloth, so that downtown would have: a great local bookstore, a movie theater, a European bakery, a grocery store, a number of interesting and appealing restaurants, a nationally known live music club, and high-speed Internet for downtown, while at the same time creating a number of affordable market rate apartments and condominiums so that people could live downtown.

9) Creating significant residential opportunities downtown and the pioneering response of the people who took up the challenge of downtown living had an almost magical effect on the atmosphere downtown and encouraged more and more local entrepreneurs to take part. Soon other local developers saw the opportunities and also took part, taking advantage of the stock of interesting historic buildings suitable for renovation. At present the process continues unabated and is, in fact, picking up steam as hotels and other residential opportunities are being added downtown. A looming challenge, with downtown’s booming popularity, will be creating moderately-priced housing downtown so that more people who want to live downtown, can do so, while also preserving the character of downtown and the diverse energies created by the strong local business vibe.
10) All of the above is a vast oversimplification of the process and doesn’t do justice to all the people who took part, but the public/private efforts which gave us the Asheville downtown that people love today assuredly did not “just happen."
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donbosco said:
www.ourtownsfoundation.org

Asheville Just 'Happened' to Develop a Nice Downtown or Did It - Our Towns

In the immortal words from Liberty Valance, "when the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Herewith the legend and reality of Asheville.
www.ourtownsfoundation.org www.ourtownsfoundation.org

Jumping to the meat of the article after the author's explanation of why he's writing it...from 2015.
Click to expand...
Close architect friend worked at a firm that among other projects, specialized at restoring/rehabbing old buildings in Asheville. His favorite part of his job. Owns a couple condos 3 bloks from Pack Place in a neat old building. Bought in early or mid nineties. Rented and B&B'd them when that became a thing. No problem filling them. A very diverse mix of folks from all over have stayed there.

But like many places, once discovered, it often gradually gets overgrown and loses some of the appeal it once had. Still a nice place but a bit of a caricature of its former self. My 2 cts.

FWIW Been a regular visitor since a childhood friend went to UNC-A in early 70s and then got my land up near Marshall.
 
I've been here on and off since the mid 60s. What happened was not unique. Whenever any place gets, "cool" the mainstream moves in to try to catch some of it and they ruin it. It's now more an image of what it once was. Cool left about the same time the Rainbow People left Bele Chere. You will not find places like O'Henry's circa 1980 anywhere in North Carolina today.
 
I wonder if there is a chance to revitalize river arts district. I’d love to see salvage station come in along with a rebuild of artist / restaurant spaces. There were some industrial companies (recycling etc) closer to the north end. I don’t know their situation, but seems like there are much better places for them to be.

Silly thing to be thinking about when water hasn’t been restored and so many are and will be suffering for a long time. It’s great property, need to take advantage of it to maximize revenue.
 
Update on UNCA, etc.

Starting classes online on Monday.

No potable water on campus. Time in offices for faculty is restricted to just a couple of hours on selected days though a list of certain buildings, including the library and Kimmel Arena, has been issued where faculty and mandatory office staff can work beginning Monday. There is no potable water on campus but apparently flushable water is running. The report as to why certain buildings cannot be occupied is that the water available would damage their sprinkler systems (do individual buildings have their own filtration systems?). There is also some talk of deteriorated air quality in some buildings.

Frankly, given recent actions by administration, many are suspicious of any announcements and assertions coming from them. Trust is very low.

They say we’ve heard from all students. I know that at least one student died but admin has made no comment on it - https://www.citizen-times.com/story/new ... 489635007/- Perhaps they don’t know?

I’ve have personally heard from about 50% of my students. I hope I will hear from more by Monday. We’ll see how many have the bandwidth to join class when we attempt to meet. Zoom gobbles it up. Camera off takes less. I will record all meetings and post that on our class platform. Hopefully all will be able to access that. Faculty are trying to work out both synchronous and asynchronous options accordingly.

Technical challenges abound - I’m not faced with any in my end but plenty of the faculty are - themselves with weak to no internet not to mention still enduring water issues. In addition to the soon-to-open campus buildings, AB Tech has offered space to work and so has Blue Ridge Community College. I’m hearing that Mars Hill University will also.

How much students (as well as some faculty) have been able to process all the needed info is unknown.

Students have been involved in rescue and remediation - some have lost their jobs (some have found new ones with new work hours) - plenty have lost their living spaces and are staying with friends and family. I suspect many of those situations are uncomfortable and perhaps unsafe even - certainly not conducive to study or attending class.

Some students left books and even laptops behind on campus. Many will need to do work on smart phones. If they don’t have WiFi that will suck up data.

Planning for this is a conundrum. What students can actually do is unknown - on a strictly technical level their situations will vary from fine to super challenging to literally ‘not possible.’
 
Adding that any help understanding the kinds of challenges my students will be facing in regard to bandwidth, no WiFi, and mobile data use would be most welcome.
 
Stats

This is the student body you are now serving. With regards to barriers they are facing:
  • 27% don't have access to their physical course materials
  • 25% don't have access to a disruption-free work environment
  • 22% have increased family care or other responsibilities that might interrupt classes
  • 13% lost their job and need a different way to support themselves to take classes
  • 10% have a shift in their job situation, and can’t attend classes during when they are scheduled
  • 12% don't have access to wifi at their current location (internet access)
 
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