Nice parts of town (Charlotte, Asheville: fit in, apartments, city hall)

[southerngumdrops]

I came to Asheville for the first time last week to interview for a job and much to my surprise was not really impressed. I was really excited and did not find what I was looking for......everything was really run down and very hippy-ish (there is absolutely nothing wrong with this but i'm not sure i'd fit in). I'm from GA and am in Birmingham right now. Should I have gone more towards where Biltmore is?????? I don't want to turn down this job offer just because I didn't find the right areas of town.

[Cofga]

Without knowing where you were it's hard to say where you should go! You might want to look at the thread below titled Downtown Asheville is not Asheville. But, it sounds like you might enjoy Hendersonville more.

[oneluckymug]

Originally Posted by Cofga

Without knowing where you were it's hard to say where you should go! You might want to look at the thread below titled Downtown Asheville is not Asheville. But, it sounds like you might enjoy Hendersonville more.

Look at haw creek homes online....good area...would you be buying?

[gigimac]

All towns have their good impressions and bad impressions, depends on whereabouts you visited. So, I reckon if you told us the general areas you looked at, we could tell you how come they seemed not so great. But to get a good impression of Asheville, the city places and neighborhoods would include these: City - Wall Street, Haywood Street, Pack Square, Biltmore Village, Blue Ridge Parkway. Homes - N. Charlotte Street area, Beaver Lake area, Beverly Hills area, and Historic Montford Park. There are plenty of other places well worth a look, but I just picked those off the top of my head.

See, if you had your interview on Tunnel Road or on Patton Avenue, those are busy hamburger alley arteries in and out of town. If you had your interview along Broadway downtown, that can look kind of second-hand. Parts of West Asheville look old. And any few blocks next to a main street or highway can make even a good neighborhood look rough. But if you think you had a pretty expansive look around, you can still work in Asheville, but you might want to live in one of the smaller outlying towns.

[Dreamy46]

Google's Street View mapping is your friend.

http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/

See the hood and never leave the house...

[pslamp32]

Originally Posted by southerngumdrops

I came to Asheville for the first time last week to interview for a job and much to my surprise was not really impressed. I was really excited and did not find what I was looking for......everything was really run down and very hippy-ish (there is absolutely nothing wrong with this but i'm not sure i'd fit in). I'm from GA and am in Birmingham right now. Should I have gone more towards where Biltmore is?????? I don't want to turn down this job offer just because I didn't find the right areas of town.

Well what parts of town did you explore and what do you find attractive. It's all relative. If you like new, suburban we've got that. Check out South Asheville. If you like really old areas with beautiful Victorians we've got that. See Montford. If you like well manicured older areas with larger floorplans see Beaver Lake-Town Mountain (North Asheville). I guess the point is we have pretty much the entire gamut of areas, similar to most cities. Not to be snarky but I've been to Birmingham and wasn't all that impressed either. Perhaps I didn't visit the correct areas to fit my tastes...

[drfranklin]

I've lived in Birmingham and visit Asheville occasionally (I currently live just south in Greenville, SC).

Birmingham is gigantic compared to Asheville. Birmingham's metro population is 1.2 million. Asheville would be compared to Hoover (a Birmingham suburb) in population size.

Birmingham has 2 incredible towns surrounding it: Vestavia and Mountain Brook (one of the wealthiest towns in the country). Both have a multitude of fascinating (and very pricey) neighborhoods. Homewood is also a gem (just south of Birmingham) especially with its new SoHo district. Unfortunately, the city of Birmingham itself languishes in corrupt politics, crime, and (relatively) high taxes. Metro Birmingham is a textbook case of "white flight" and suburban sprawl.

I love Biltmore Forest just south of Asheville - this would compare to Mountain Brook - but on a much smaller scale. I also like Mills River/Fletcher and the Hendersonville area. If you're a "suburban" kind of guy, check these areas out.

[southerngumdrops]

thanks so much everyone for the input! i honestly have absolutely no idea what part of asheville i was in....i got lost and just kept driving. i came in on sweeten creek road and then got lost from there.

also, i completely realize that everything is relative...i may be impressed with an area while the next person might hate it. but everyone's i've ever talked to who has come to asheville has loved it and i was looking for some direction...i REALLY wanted to be able to fall in love with the area.

p.s. for those that mentioned homes: i would be renting more than likely...very young and don't have quite enough savings for a house yet unfortunately....looking for rent in the 600-900 range for a 1 bedroom....

[eiafjam]

check out the swannanoa/blk mtn area

[gigimac]

Dear Gumdrops,
Sweeten Creek is a bit of an older area. It's been raining a lot in Asheville lately, and during the time frame you came, a lot of the leaves had fallen off the trees, plus since you were driving along Sweeten Creek, it might have looked kind of gloomy to you, altho one end does empty out next to Biltmore Village, an olde English shopping area.

I'm assuming you came to Asheville via the usual hwy routes, I-26 or I-40, which the views along those roads as you approached should have showed you the natural mountain beauty of our area. Always pleasant driving around Asheville, becuz you'll have mountain views from many vantage points of the city. If simply coming into Asheville did not impress you, then could be living in the Blue Ridge/ Smoky Mountains is simply not your style.

I liked what someone else pointed out about Birmingham being a much larger city. Asheville is a medium-sized mountain town, kind of split up into neighborhoods and areas depending on the terrain. We are not particularly "modern," not many high-rises; rather, kind of snug and historic, if you will. But there are lots of real nice and newer residential areas, in all different parts of town, especially to the South, but there's more travel time and traffic by living in the Arden and Fletcher areas or in any outskirts locales.

You can indeed get a nice apartment in your price range. Just as an example, I had mentioned N. Charlotte Street as a nice neighborhood a few days ago, and in the Manor Apartments along there you can get your 1 bedroom for about $800. It is an amazing historic building (not modern) that was renovated in the 1990s, grand residential area, and REAL easy to get from there onto I-240 that goes around Asheville, so wherever you work, you can get there quickly. But there are plenty of places in town in your price range to rent, both complexes and houses split into apartments.

If you decide to come back for a visit, ahead of time check out a map of the city, and it's fairly easy to figure out, because the North, S, E, W axis, which neighborhoods are often referred to by directions, they come right out of the downtown area like a compass (but you have to go over a river or a freeway to get to them). One of the centers of downtown is called Pack Square, has a monument, park, the courthouse and city hall, and some outdoor cafes, roughly arranged in a square facing each other. The Renaissance Hotel is close to there, good for an overnight because of the views from the upper floors.
GG