Last Saturday, we took an out of town visitor into downtown Asheville to see the sights and have dinner. We wanted to show off our town.
I was shocked and embarrassed to see the state of things!
As we walked on Haywood, in front of Woolworth Walk on Haywood St., we passed a man passed out/sleeping, flat out on the sidewalk. You may think that’s not a big deal. You see that all the time in many cities. Not in Asheville. At least I’ve never seen it before. Especially in the middle of the afternoon.
Then we walked over to Pack Square, where groups of 20-somethings, obviously feeling no pain, stumbled around and out into traffic. The topper was the guy who was vomiting as we stood nearby.
Asheville, we need to face this and find a solution.
Update: This article is about my experience on the streets of Asheville, not about how long I’ve lived here, economic growing pains, or tourists, or antisemitism, or racism, or homeless people. It’s about getting so drugged up or drunk that you are public nuisance. Bad behavior is bad behavior, whatever the reason.
We observed the same in our visit there last month. Perhaps it’s time Asheville developed some programs to support the homeless (assuming they don’t already have strong ones in place.) I know that many homeless would prefer to sleep outside, weather permitting. Substance abuse programs that work and are available to all, job development programs that provide an income and a sense of purpose, all could help remedy this issue.
Thanks for your comment, Kelly.
These programs exist in Asheville, Kelly. They are and have traditionally been located Downtown. That said, the hotels that many visitors stay in when visiting Asheville are encroaching on the part of town where the shelters have been and developers are pressuring those few remaining shelters to leave. Hotels that who don’t contribute taxes to the city that could be funneled towards helping these shelters and programs(http://ashevilleblade.com/?p=1240). I’m not joining the chorus of “let’s blame the tourists” if it weren’t for tourism this town would be dead… but I will say visitors to Asheville may well have more sway on our City Officials than residents do, so if you feel strongly, please let our city council and government know.
Didn’t know about the push from hotels not to pay occupancy taxes. Don’t agree with that at all. They absolutely should contribute financially to the city/county. In fact, I’d support (with some research to be sure I’m not missing something), a percentage of the occupancy tax going toward social programs. The cycle of gentrification has gone on for centuries, some even refer to artists moving into derelict parts of town as a kind of gentrification. “Historians say that gentrification took place in ancient Rome and in Roman Britain, where large villas were replacing small shops by the 3rd century, AD.” ~ Trade, traders, and the ancient city, ed. Helen Parkins and Christopher John Smith, Routledge, 1998, p197. I also agree with residents making their feelings known to city officials.
I am guess neither the commenter above nor the author of this article has been in Asheville very long. Asheville has always had a problem with vagrants, this is not a new development. The “underside” in the headline has been in full swing for decades.
Lol out of towners just now noticing homeless people in Asheville. Wow. If anything, due to the city’s blatant attempts to kick homeless people out of downtown without aid and assistance programs available, there is LESS homeless/ transient population downtown
yes, thank you for stating the truth.
I’m sorry but there have been homeless in Asheville for at least the 20 years I’ve been here. I am a WNC native and if you haven’t notice the homeless before now you are probably not from here.
Asheville has never been a big job producing city but even more so in the last 5-8 years. It caters to tourists and locals do not have the means to keep up with the high rents and high cost of living.
Tourists need to pay a fee or toll coming in.
Must be new here- Asheville has as much darkness as light. Satanists on Town Mountain, ritual sacrifices found in Bent Creek, heroin heroin heroin, lots of drunks for sure, we had a serial arsonist for over a decade who took out the Richmond hill Inn among other businesses, dead hookers in the river. I could go on and on. Only the new people don’t know this. In the mean time all the quirky weird Asheville scene is gone and replaced with shiny boring tourist oriented crap. So just keep your noses buried in the tourism board’s pamphlets, and over look the human trash to maintain your pretty blinders.
I’ve lived in Asheville for 9 years and have always been aware of the homeless here, and in every other city. What I was embarrassed and shocked by was bad public behavior. These people were not necessarily homeless, perhaps with the exception of the older guy sleeping on the sidewalk? One was vomiting on the sidewalk outside the art museum. Others were staggering and leaping out in to traffic – dangerous. Not acceptable public behavior, homeless or not. Let me say this again, I am NOT upset at the fact that there are homeless people in Asheville. I am upset at unchecked unacceptable public behavior.
I find this funny… the bad behavior from the 20 somethings could’ve been caused from tourism in the beer city. More than likely tourists themselves. Asheville has always had a dark side. I have spent almost 40 years in WNC. There have always been homeless and vagrants. I can remember when most just didn’t go down town. There were no shops and restaurants just abandoned buildings, crime, and homeless. Now we are so over run with tourists and newbies that have their idea of Asheville that people who have stuck by her side for many decades can’t afford to live here. That homeless person you had to step over probably used to live in an apartment above that very same sidewalk until most of you showed up…… that’s truth
The truth is, bad behavior is bad behavior, whatever the reason. This article is about my experience on the streets of Asheville, not about how long I’ve lived here, economic growing pains, or tourists, or homeless. It’s about getting so drugged up or drunk that you are public nuisance.
I lived in Asheville from 70-81 and what is described in this article already existed, sorry to say. The reality is that it exists everywhere. If you look you will see it. I live in AZ now and I’ve lived in 7 other states. People are people and where there are people you will find people problems.
Agreed. Nothing new. Just seems to be getting markedly worse. Maybe this was just a particularly bad day?
Are you kidding me? This is not new. This article has somewhat to do with how long you’ve been here, otherwise you wouldn’t have posted this. A solution is funding and volunteering for programs that help the homeless. Asheville has been a crossroads for traveler kids that raise cane at least as long as I’ve lived here. Which has been my whole life. My parents didn’t dare take me down Haywood rd in west Avl when our church was there, now look at how safe it is. Short story short, this is nothing new.
This article is about my experience on the streets of Asheville, not about how long I’ve lived here, economic growing pains, or tourists, or homeless, or racism, or bigotry, or “rich” people. Just because it used to be much worse (which it was by all accounts) doesn’t mean unacceptable behavior is okay because it’s not as bad as it used to be. It’s about getting so drugged up or drunk that you are public nuisance. Don’t care who you are, where you’re from, how old you are.
Speaking as someone who grew up here and also loved Asheville in its early “revival” days circa 1990, I do think there’s a lot worse behavior. And I’m not talking about the homeless, though I think Asheville attracts a lot of them. Just incivility, pandhandling, drunks/drugs, creepiness, traffic… it’s a bit off-putting now, honestly. Maybe I’m showing my age, but despite all the neat things there are to do in Asheville, it doesn’t attract me much anymore. Sometimes I love Asheville experinece, but mostly it just makes me tired to go there and back again these days.
I’ve lived here off and on for most of my life, and while it is true there has always been a dark side (the deaths of Amber and Zebb, to name just a couple) and there have always been homeless (remember Ram Man and Johnny Yarborough?) But it is a whole lot worse now. I work the graveyard shift in the center of downtown a couple nights a week, and if you go outside it’s like a massive slumber party. Every bench and most doorways are filled with people in bedrolls sleeping. And it really wasn’t always like that. I have observed it get dramatically worse in the last couple of years. Frankly, I blame the downtown cheerleaders–not naming any names–the businesses and tabloids and marketers who strived for so many years to make Asheville a DESTINATION. Well, you succeeded. There is no affordable housing anymore and wages are stagnant. I see the future here as pretty bleak. Vast swaths of property devoted to luxury vacation homes that stay empty most of the year. More burglaries, more crime, more desperation. Congratulations.
My husband has lived in Buncombe County all his life (50+ years) and I have lived here over half mine. We love it! We love going to downtown Asheville and do it often. We love dining at some of the fabulous restaurants. I go to a hair salon downtown. Our granddaughter has ballet lessons downtown.
My husband took granddaughter to ballet lessons Saturday morning and then they spent the entire day downtown. They went to Pack library, Splashville, a good restalurant for hamburgers, an ice cream shop, a museum, funky great stores. They brought me some of the natural soap I love, purchased on Wall Street.
We are not wealthy people, far from it, we live paycheck to paycheck. But we live and appreciate living in a beautiful place, like we are on vacation all the time. We are not blind to the social problems, not just in Asheville, but everywhere today. We volunteer and donate as we are able. We have compassion rather than scorn for those less fortunate, no matter the reason.