So saddened to see these two articles: “Asheville rises (slightly) to No. 46 on ‘Best Places to Live’ 2022 rating” and “Fallout from Asheville’s ‘political agenda’ cited for ranking, FOP official says” in the latest Asheville Daily Planet.
I’ve been a big supporter/promoter of Asheville and her culinary scene since the birth of Carolina Epicurean in 2007. Carolina Epicurean was the ONLY outlet that published Press Releases from restaurants, Chefs, the Cheese Trail, local producers, etc. deemed too insignificant by traditional media. This was at no cost to anyone, because I looked at it as a community service.
After developing & producing five successful Small Plate Crawls in Hendersonville, I worked with the Asheville Independent Restaurant Association (AIR) to produce the Asheville Small Plate Crawl, following that up with developing & producing the first Asheville Restaurant Week. Eventually the Chamber took it over, which was fine with me. 🙂
Reading the “Best Places to Live” article, motivated me to look at previous Asheville rankings going back to 2014, when Outside.com Ranked Asheville 6th in their Aug 12th, “The 16 Best Places to Live in the U.S.” article. I’d forgotten they’d included the Small Plate Crawl!
What I hear most often about Asheville from locals outside Asheville these days is, “We don’t go into Asheville much anymore.”
Hopefully, this will change over the coming years, especially after “a one-time infusion of $4.7 million intended to reduce homelessness is coming to the Asheville Regional Housing Consortium” (Citizen Times 3/24/22). The Consortium consists of Buncombe, Henderson, Madison and Transylvania counties.
Part of that money will go to the National Alliance to End Homelessness (Mountain Xpress), winning bidder at $73,000 (WLOS) in the joint Asheville/Buncombe County search for a homelessness consultant.
“Work is expected to begin next month and conclude in December 2022. Its first task: conduct a comprehensive needs assessment using data collection, analysis and interviews with stakeholders throughout the community, including people who are unsheltered, service providers, neighborhoods, and business and faith communities.” – WLOS
Hopefully this massive influx of funding will be tracked, transparently accounted for, and result in real, measurable, and lasting change for the better of all involved – business owners, citizens, and the homeless.
But then there’s this. Asheville’s long history with using consultants to solve homelessness.
