Food, Home and Style

Recession Dispatch from… Asheville, N.C.

ASHEVILLE, N.C.–It can be easy to forget about the economy’s collapse when you live on top of a mountain. But even from a lofty perspective, it’s hard not to see the storm clouds gathering, promising to deliver to rain down some bad news on my adopted hometown. Aside from a growing number of “for sale” signs and the more frequent restaurant closings, it’s hard to see any real dramatic impact on the local economy – yet. (It’s a slightly different story just three hours to the east in Charlotte.) But, as we wait on the cusp of the peak season, which could make or break our city’s fortunes in the coming years, you can’t help but wonder if the tourists (which is also the name of our local minor league baseball team) will stay home this year.

While it’s easy to want the city to yourself at times, it’s also fun to remember why Asheville is such a lure. Downtown is a walkable grid brimming with interesting people that frequent dozens of independently-owned boutiques, pubs and restaurants, so many, in fact, that, even as a resident, it’s difficult to visit or dine at every one. The city and its surrounding area (which includes everything from the 469-mile long Blue Ridge Parkway to the Biltmore Estate, America’s largest private home) has been a tourist destination for decades, especially during the summer months. The fall foliage, though, might be the area’s biggest draw where even Yankees come down to gawk at the carpet of red and yellow that extends over the mountains.

And it’s a good thing that the tourists come because there might not be many jobs here otherwise. The major employers are the local hospitals, colleges and the city itself – plum gigs if you can get them. There are several manufacturers in the area like Volvo, but the once fertile local textile industry left for places like the Philippines long ago. Like most areas around the country, Asheville is also experiencing a bit of a housing market hangover. Market values soared over the past few years as wealthy baby-boomers bought or built vacation dream homes and condos to retire to. After all, the AARP named Asheville as one of its “Best Places to Reinvent Your Life.”

Now, however, “for sale” signs seem to be increasingly cropping up everywhere, including tracts of deforested land and denuded mountaintops where developers simply ran out of money to finish the work (which may not have been the worst outcome, anyway). According to statistics published by the MLS, home sales in several of the counties surrounding Asheville are off up to 50% compared to last year. The ripple effect of the housing downturn has meant not only a loss of jobs – everything from construction to real estate agent – but also a significant drop in tax revenue for the city. Other than the persistent drought that continues to plague local farmers and well owners, the thing that surely keeps city planners up at night is wondering what would happen if all those tourists stopped coming. Last summer’s record gas prices, which kept people off the roads, gave them a clue: big trouble.

With spring right around the corner, and no economic upturn in sight, one wonders what the coming months will mean to the future of Asheville and all of Western North Carolina. Maybe folks will still head to the mountains to “get away from it all” – if they can afford it. We’ll see soon enough. It’s no wonder that even the city’s best-known blogger, Jason Sandford of Ashevegas.com, tried to skip town for greener pastures in Australia.

For me, I’m happy to have a different perspective these days. When we first moved to Asheville, my wife and I lived downtown which allowed us to roam around sans car, which, coming from NYC, came naturally to us. Then, we got a dog and a hankering to experience what it might be like to not just look at the mountains that surround downtown, but live on one. So, a few months ago, we rented a cabin up on the side of Spivey Mountain, elevation 3,200 feet. While I still access the real work via my trusty DSL line, I have to admit that the day-to-day affects of the recession look differently from my new vantage point.

While Jess and I fret constantly about the state of our industry, we’re happy to have found meaningful work at magazines like Inc. and Verve, where Jess is the editor, we need only look out the window. Then everything and everyone seem so much smaller and far away and we feel a bit better about what tomorrow might bring.

Tags: business, community, north carolina, real estate