Posted by When we asked anyone in Asheville about their town, to a person we heard outdoors, food, and we are a “blue island in a red ocean.” Maybe the electioneering of 2020 pushed “artist colony” down a notch to number four on the list?
Asheville is nestled in a valley surrounded by the Blue Ridge mountains. Nearby is the country’s most popular National Park, The Blue Ridge Parkway. The Parkway occupies a small niche of American roads: it was designed by a landscape architect as a place to take a leisurely drive through the countryside. The epitome of a “Sunday drive,” the road’s gentle turns expose new vistas with each mile. Built during the Depression, it’s objectives married the country’s interest in parks with the fascination of the modern automobile. Seems quaint in today’s traffic clogged, carbon-fearing zeitgeist…
Said our host: “there is a friendly competition among chefs, so everyone is pushing everyone else’s game – even the food trucks!” Yup. We have a few posts on this topic and suffice it to say there is world-class good eating to be found in AVL.
Asheville clearly values its artists and an artist’s sensibilities are widely evident. The River Arts District is a distinct neighborhood that houses multiple galleries and studios in a series of repurposed buildings. But deeper than that, creativity hangs from telephone poles and adorns storefront mask advisories.
As residents of perhaps the bluest census tract in the world, we saw lots of familiar signs around town. In the West Asheville neighborhood in particular, the density of BLM and “In this house we believe…” yard signs was maybe seven out of ten? During this time of COVID restriction easing (Texas and Mississippi had just lifted mask mandates), there was no sign of easing in Asheville. And yes, just past the island’s shore, we can report scattered sightings of post-election Trump/Pence signs.
