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Message: [QUOTE="ctchamps, post: 4293740, member: 37"] That's a sad situation and I'm aware of many similar stories. Western NC certainly has a lot of poverty. Asheville was in that situation until the brewery scene took off. It's now rapidly gentrifying which is improving the city but at the expense of forcing people who had been residents here prior to the boom getting forced out. I was concerned about the youth who grew up in this area. The change has not helped many of them. Relatively low wages because this area is overly tourist dependent with property values and rentals going up rapidly is not healthy imo. Which is why I described the Pratt relocation to this area as a game changer. It will probably impact my comfort level slightly (more traffic, harder to get parking or dinner reservations in downtown Asheville) but the net gain that I believe will happen for this community (because there will be jobs with better wages) is far more important. I'm not personally into the brewery scene. However my impression that it's "millennial hipster stuff" is a general mischaracterization. Asheville leads the nation in per capita beer production. Tourists only need to do a little more research to find multiple breweries that don't fit that mold. And the music scene in Asheville is not New Orleans or Nashville but for it's size it's wonderful. The mix of the old with the new that is Asheville and the immediate surroundings definitely increases tensions and clashes between change and familiarity. But I feel the negative is far superseded by the diversity of culture this area offers. [/QUOTE]

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