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ASHEVILLE, N.C.:

IS IT WHERE YOU SHOULD LIVE?

By Lan Sluder

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Copyright 1994, 1995, 1996 by Lan Sluder, All Rights Reserved.

THUMBNAIL SKETCH OF THE AREA:

Asheville is a mountain resort city in the Blue Ridge mountains of Western
North Carolina.  The combined City of Asheville/Buncombe County
population is about 180,000.  The five-county metropolitan area --
Buncombe, Madison, Henderson, Haywood and Transylvania -- has more
than 325,000 people.  Asheville is the transportation, health, business and
communications hub of the mountain region.

The city itself is at only about 2,200 to 2, 500 ft. elevation, giving it a
moderate four-season climate.  The mountains around it range in elevation
up to about 6,700 feet and include, among more than 200 mile-high peaks,
the highest mountain in Eastern American, Mt. Mitchell.

There are not one but several Ashevilles.   One is the old mountain town,
settled beginning in the late 1700s by people of Scots-Irish and British
heritage moving here from Virginia and elsewhere.   The Appalachian
mountain culture, until fairly recent times, was isolated and developed its
own ways of doing things.  Sadly, the newer generations of mountain
people have by and large given up their heritage.  They have moved off
subsistence farms into urban areas.

Another Asheville is the sophisticated resort town developed beginning in
the mid-19th century by Low Country South Carolina planters coming here
in the summer to escape coastal heat and Yellow Fever.

At the end of the 19th century, the immensely wealthy George Vanderbilt,
grandson of ╥Commodore╙ Vanderbilt, came to Asheville to establish his
grandest estate.  Biltmore House, designed by Richard Morris Hunt after
the chateaux of France╒s Loire Valley,  was a monument to an age before
income taxes.  It took a small army of European and American artisans
five years to build, being completed in 1895.   George Vanderbilt was no
typical capitalist, though.  He spoke eight languages, and  his library at
Biltmore had 22,000 volumes,  reflecting his wide-ranging scholarly
interests.  Originally, the estate comprised 125,000 acres, but today it
has ╥only╙ about 8,000 acres, including gardens impressively landscaped
by  Frederick Law Olmsted and forests established by Gifford Pinchot.

Many of the elite of Northeast society hobnobbed in Asheville, at least
until the beginning of the Great Depression.

Another Asheville is the new Asheville which really began only in the
1970s.  Although the trend began earlier,  it was about that time when
sizeable numbers of retirees and families seeking a better quality of life
began moving to the North Carolina mountains.  Many of these were
escapees from Florida, people who had moved to Florida to find a quiet
retirement but found mostly shopping malls and crime.  Others were
Northerners who wanted a more moderate climate.  The co-author of the
popular Places Rated Almanac, moved to Asheville after researching the
first edition.  In 1994, Asheville (along with nearby Brevard and
Hendersonville) was named by Money Magazine as one of the 20 best places
in the America for retirement.  But Asheville got mediocre to low ratings
in Money's 1994 and 1995 listing of the 300 "best places" to live in the
U.S.    These ratings vary greatly from source to source, and also from year
to year, and one wonders how so many cities can change so dramatically
from one year to the next.

These relocatees and the smaller group of wealthy people have added a
more sophisticated veneer to Asheville which many other cities of its
size do not have.  Many people comment on the number of art galleries,
theaters and museums in Asheville, and these in part are a legacy of
outside influence.  The Asheville area, for example, supports not one but
two public radio stations.

Another historical difference:  Unlike the rest of North Carolina and most
of its neighboring states, the mountains of Western North Carolina never
had much of a slave-based plantation culture.  The reason was that the
mountain terrain was not suitable for large-scale planting.  (In the Civil
War, a large minority of mountain people supported the North. ) Thus, the
region never had a large African-American population and still does not
today.  The city of Asheville is about 20 percent African-American, but
very few blacks live elsewhere in the mountains.

LOCATION:

Asheville is in about the middle of Western North Carolina --a region that
stretches from just west of Charlotte to Murphy, N.C.  By car, it is about 2
1/2 hours from Charlotte, 4 hours from Atlanta, 2 hours to Knoxville.
Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area is about 4 to 4 1/2 hours away.  The
entrance to the Great Smokies National Park is an hour away.  The closest
beaches are not in North Carolina but in South Carolina, with Charleston
being less than 5 hours.  The Outer Banks are an 8-hour drive or longer.

TRANSPORTATION:

Asheville is located at the intersection of Interstates 40 and 26.  A new
link of I-26 is being built into Tennessee, which should help open up the
region to that state and the entire Ohio Valley.  Asheville has a fairly
decent road system.  Traffic can occasionally back up at rush hours, but in
general there is no serious congestion.  Public transportation is poor.

The Asheville Regional Airport is served by US Air and Delta jets, plus
American Eagle, Comair, Atlantic Southeast and US Air Express
commuters.  Regrettably, Delta has discontinued jet service to Asheville
(and to other small cities in the region, such as Chattanooga), replacing it
with more commuter service.   At present there is no train service to
Asheville, but the state legislature is studying adding some intra-state
service.

WHAT TO DO AROUND ASHEVILLE:

It would take years to see and explore all of Western North Carolina. The
mountains, of course, are the big attraction, from the highest peak in the
Eastern United States, Mt. Mitchell, to the low, rolling hills around
Hendersonville, which attracted the poet Carl Sandburg to ╥400 acres of
land and a million acres of sky╙ in his last days.

But the North Carolina mountains offer more than high-altitude scenery.
They are living museums of Appalachian crafts and of a mountain culture
that owes as much to past decades of isolation as to its Scots-Irish-
British immigrant background.  Here are some of the many things to see
and do in and around Asheville. They are rated on a scale of one to four
stars.  Keep in mind that these ratings ultimately are subjective;  your
mileage may vary.

**** Biltmore House and Gardens, Asheville, largest private home in
America, on 8,000 acres, self-guide tours of house, winery, gardens,
conservatory, open daily, sizeable charge (but worth it)

***  Thomas Wolfe Memorial, Asheville, the boyhood home of the famous
novelist, open daily, tours, small admission

***  Carl Sandburg Home and Farm, East Flat Rock, home of the poet in his
later years, open daily, tours, small admission

*  Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, O'Henry and Wolfe are buried here, free

** Black Mountain College sites, Black Mountain, two locations the
experimental college called home, (now privately owned), admission by
request

**  Folk Art Center, Blue Ridge Parkway, Asheville, heritage museum,
demonstration center and shop of Appalachian crafts, open daily, free

**  Pack Place Museum complex, Asheville, four museums in one -- art
museum, health and science center, Black history museum, and mineral
museum, open daily, charge

***  Downtown Asheville -- staging a terrific comeback after almost
closing when the suburban malls opened in the 1960s and 70s.  Increasing
number of restaurants, clubs, coffee houses, art galleries, museums,
antique shops, bookstores, boutiques, craft stores

* Art Deco tour of Asheville (Asheville has one of the largest remaining
collection of Art Deco architecture in the U.S.), on tape or with
Preservation Society, time varies, charge

* River District -- area along the French Broad River being gentrified as
an area of lofts and warehouses for artists and craftspeople, an effort
that was given a set-back in early 1995 when the old Chesterfield mill
and several other buildings were destroyed in a fire

** Brevard, Hendersonville, Flat Rock, Waynesville, Highlands, Cashiers,
Bryson City and Black Mountain -- pleasant small towns around Asheville,
highly rated as retirement places

*** Cradle of Forestry, near Brevard, home of the first forestry school in
the U.S., reconstructed school and living quarters, self-guide tours, daily,
admission

*  Vance Birthplace, interesting reconstruction of 19th century mountain
homestead, self-guide tours, daily, free

* Grove Arcade building -- one of the first "indoor malls" in America.  Now
a federal building, plans are underway to make this a public market
similar to Pike Place in Seattle, c. 1996

****  Blue Ridge Parkway, between Virginia line and Cherokee, with more
than 250 miles in NC, one of the most-scenic drives in America,
sometimes closed due to snow, ice and fog, free

**** Great Smokies National Park  Most visited US National Park --
Highway 441 through the park can be crowded especially on summer and
fall weekends, but once off this road there is all the privacy you want

*** Joyce Kilmer National Forest -- one of the last stands of truly virgin
forest in Eastern America

** Pisgah National Forest -- nature by the square mile

***  Cataloochee, at eastern edge of Great Smokies National Park,
mountain cove with vacant homes, churches, schools and farm buildings,
left standing as monument to early 20th century mountain life, after land
was acquired by Park Service, open daily weather permitting, free

*  Oconaluftee Visitors Center, Cherokee entrance to Great Smokies
National Park, reconstruction of large mountain farm, open daily, free

**  Mt. Mitchell State Park, north of Asheville off Blue Ridge Parkway,
highest mountain peak east of the Rockies, open daily weather permitting
(often closed in winter), free

**  Grove Park Inn, Asheville, mountain resort hotel with interesting
exhibits, including Biltmore Homespun Museum, Classic Car Museum and
large collection of Arts and Crafts-style furniture, open daily, free

*  Penland School, near Spruce Pine, nationally known folk and crafts
school, open by appointment, free

** North Carolina Arboretum, near Asheville, state arboretum now being
developed, open daily, free

**  Asheville Tourists Baseball at McCormick Stadium:  The Asheville
Tourists, a single-A farm team of the Colorado Rockies, in the Sally
League (Single A), play at McCormick Field on Biltmore Avenue in South
Asheville.    McCormick Field, one of the oldest stadiums in the United
States,  underwent a multi-million renovation in 1992-93, and the result
is a wonderful place to enjoy baseball.  Seating is comfortable and close
to the action.  In the cool of a mountain evening, baseball just doesn╒t get
any better than this, except perhaps at Wrigley Field or Fenway Park.

There's more, but these are probably the highlights of interest to the
visitor.

RESTAURANTS:

Mountain Cooking is just a variation on Southern Cooking, with a bit more
emphasis on local items such as vegetables adapted to mountain gardens,
pan-fried rainbow trout, country-cured ham, buttermilk biscuits, and
skillet corn-bread .

The story is told about Thomas Wolfe, six and a half feet, 300-pounds,
would occasionally get together with friends in Manhattan and eat collard
greens, cornbread, pinto beans, country ham, and other favorites from his
mountain childhood.

Does Asheville have a lot of good restaurants?   Ummm.  It certainly has a
lot of restaurants.  Statistics from the trade publication Restaurant
Business show that Asheville is somewhat overbuilt in restaurants.

Asheville has plenty of decent places to eat which offer value for your
money.  Choices range from inns serving local mountain cooking to Thai,
various Chinese cuisines, Cuban, Mexican, Italian, Indian and other ethnic
varieties.   On the other hand, Asheville does not have many -- some would
say it does not have any -- really extraordinary restaurants, those
interesting and trend-setting places run by chefs of with the potential for
national reputation.

The quality of restaurant fare definitely is improving in Asheville, as
more people with well-traveled and well-heeled taste buds relocate to
the area.  Some of our my favorites, rated * to *** (no **** in Asheville).

* Beanstreets (downtown) good coffee

* Biltmore Dairy Bar (south near Biltmore estate), classic sandwich shop

** Boston Pizza (north) , good and cheap pizza and Italian

** Blue Moon Bakery (near downtown), best French bread in town

** Cafe on the Square -- pleasant, Uptown sort of place on Pack Square

** Chelsea's -- tea room cum gift shop, better than it sounds

** Delores and Jose's Mexican Restaurant (west) -- basic but good and
freshly made Mexican, with some popular American dishes such as burgers
and hot dogs

* Donut Wheel (north) -- best donuts in town

* Fishhouse (west)  -- fried seafood in large portions

** Flying Frog (downtown) -- eclectic Indian, French and Cajun menu

* Four Cents Cotton, pleasant little place in Weaverville north of
Asheville

** Harry's Bagels (north), great, just like in Queens

* J&S Cafeterias (two locations -- south and west) , cheap local cafeteria
food

* La Paz (south) -- small regional chain serving good Southwestern and
Mexican dishes

* Laughing Seed (downtown), vegetarian, pleasant space, spacey staff

*** Marketplace (downtown), new American cooking, one of the two best
restaurants in town

* McGuffey's (Tunnel Road), local chain

* Pisgah View Inn (on Blue Ridge Parkway west) -- food is only okay, but
the view is the best in the area

** Pisgah View Ranch (west), best mountain food around, served family
style (closed in winter)

** Red Rocker Inn, Black Mountain -- good country food served family
style (closed in winter)

*** Richmond Hill Inn (near north), the other best restaurant in town,
interesting food, good service, pleasant atmosphere

** Salsa's  (downtown)-- innovative and interesting Caribbean food

** 23  Page (downtown), a runner-up to Marketplace and Richmond Hill

* Tassal's Tea Room -- tea and such

** Wanpen (south) -- excellent Thai food

* Westside Grill (west)

** Windmill (Tunnel Road), eclectic Italian/Indian/other  (operated by the
same family that owns the Flying Frog)

There also are the usual collection of chain/concept restaurants --
Chili's, Red Lobster, Applebees, Olive Garden, Outback, Brueffer's Bagels,
etc.

ECONOMY:

The economy is fairly strong, with a diversified economic base of
manufacturing, services, tourism, health care, retail/wholesale
distribution and some agriculture.  Unemployment is around 5%.

Unlike the fast-growing manufacturing areas of Greenville-Spartanburg,
S.C., and Piedmont North Carolina, the Asheville area topography is not
well-suited for industrial development.  With a few exceptions such as
Champion International╒s pulp mill in Canton and Akzona╒s fiber plant (now
BASF) in Enka, most manufacturing in the area is small or moderate in
size.

Unfortunately, the area recently has lost several sizeable, high-paying
manufacturing units -- Asheville Industries, which designed submarines,
Arden Industries, and Ball, have closed or are closing,  and Ball, and others
have closed or are closing laying off some 1,200.   Several other large
plants, including Champion, have downsized.

These are being replaced, to a degree, by distribution, other light
manufacturing, and telemarketing centers.  For example, Patagonia (the
clothing retailer) is opening a center in Asheville, and the national office
of Outward Bound is relocating here.  The Asheville Area Chamber of
Commerce, stung by some failures in industry recruiting, has replaced its
executive director.  The health services industry is important to the area,
since Asheville is the medical hub of an 11 or 12-county region.  Two
large regional hospitals, Memorial Mission and St. Joseph╒s, with plans to
merge parts of their operations, anchor a large medical services complex
in south Asheville.  A veterans hospital, a psychiatric hospital, substance
abuse facilities and many clinics are also in Asheville.  Most larger towns
in the area also have hospitals, of course.

Tourism is the fastest-growing industry.   The Great Smokies National
Park is the No. 1 park in the U.S. in terms of number of visitors.  The
mountains get visitors from all over the Southeast, some from the Ohio
Valley, and a few from other parts of the country.   Asheville, with about
5,000 hotel rooms,  attracts regional and some national conventions, with
the grand old Grove Park Inn being the leading convention property.   During
the summer and especially the fall, the area╒s inns, hotels, motels and
B&Bs are usually booked to near capacity.  Asheville alone has almost 40
B&Bs.  Biltmore House draws 700,000 people a year, at almost $25 a
whack.

The downside, and it can be a major one for some people, is that salary
levels around Asheville are low.   There are plenty of jobs, but the
majority are in low-pay categories.  This is true at almost all levels,
from manufacturing job to professional/executive ones.  An exception is
probably the medical area, where pay scales are competitive with other
areas of similar size.  The other exception, of course, are entrepreneurial
opportunities -- business owners here do as well, or as poorly, as
anywhere else.

There also is a dearth of jobs in high-technology fields.

GOVERNMENT:

What can you say?  Politicians are politicians anywhere.  Asheville and
Western North Carolina run to conservative politics, but not extreme
conservatism.  The local 11th U.S. District congressional race, for
example, in recent years has been traded back and forth between
Democrats and Republicans.  Asheville and Buncombe politics are only
slightly corrupt, and generally local pols try to take a low-key, middle-
of-the-road stance.

BEST AREAS TO LIVE:

Of course, that's subjective.  For a harder numbers, a Blue Book on the
demographic characteristics of the area has been published by a private
company (available at the Asheville airport and at area bookstores for
about $20), which gives detailed information on income, occupation, age,
etc. of various census tract areas.

The fastest-growth areas of Asheville have been north in the county (the
Weaverville area), south along the US25 corridor and southeast in the
Fairview/Reynolds area. These, along with Biltmore Forest near the
Biltmore Estate, and north in the city on Sunset Mountain and the Grove
Park area, are among the highest income sections.  The town of Black
Mountain, east in the county, has many retirees -- it╒s a lovely small
town.  West Asheville, which has both good areas and some not-so-nice
ones, generally offers the best values in housing.  Good places to live are
available in most areas of the county.  The area southwest in the county
near the new Biltmore Square mall is seeing a lot of new development.

Gentrification of the Montford area near downtown continues, and a
number of the large old homes here have been converted to B&Bs.

Other nearby towns and cities of special interest to newcomers:

Hendersonville, the No. 2 city in the region, attracts large numbers of
retirees.  The city itself is charming, and there are beautiful residential
areas all around it.

Waynesville, in Haywood County, is a gateway to the Smokies and an very
popular area for summer homes.

Brevard, in Transylvania County, offers pleasant small town living.

Each of these towns is about a three-quarter-hour drive from Asheville.

REAL ESTATE AGENTS:

Here are the phone numbers of several larger real estate agencies with
generally good local reputations.  (There are dozens of real estate firms in
the Asheville area, and lack of listing here does not necessarily mean they
are not recommended.)

Beverly-Hanks & Associates (the largest local firm, also with offices in
Skyland and Hendersonville):  704-254-7221

Carroll Butler Demos  704-254-7733

Coldwell Banker Harrell & Associates:  704-274-4141

Four Seasons/Better Homes & Gardens:  704-253-3309

Gatewood-Boettcher Real Estate:  704-251-1800

J.D. Jackson & Associates:  704-258-2222

Preferred Properties:  704-258-2963

RE/MAX Advantage Realty:  704-254-0771

Note that there is no comprehensive land-use planning or even zoning in
most rural areas in the mountains.  Mobile homes are a scourge upon the
land.


SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES:

Student performance statistics show that the Western North Carolina
mountain school systems -- along with Chapel Hill, home of the University
of North Carolina -- have the best schools in the state.  This, however,
does not mean that the school systems are excellent.  Some are good, some
are pretty awful, and most are mediocre by national standards.  The best
Buncombe County school system is widely considered to be the Reynolds
district.  Other above-average school districts include T.C. Roberson,
Erwin and Enka-Candler.  The Asheville City school system has some
problems, although it also has several excellent schools.

There are a number of private and parochial schools in the area.  Carolina
Day (pre-K to 12), an expensive private school with a healthy endowment,
the Asheville School (a nationally known prep school), Asheville Catholic
(pre-K to 8), Asheville Christian Academy (pre-K to 12), Christ School
(another boarding school) and others.

Asheville is home to the University of North Carolina at Asheville, part of
the state university system.  This liberal-arts oriented university offers
degrees up to the master╒s level.  It has frequently been named one of the
best small colleges in the U.S., and one of the best values.

There are two large technical schools in the area, Asheville-Buncombe
Tech, and Blue Ridge Community College, along with several private
colleges -- Montreat-Anderson, Warren Wilson, Brevard,  and Mars Hill.
Two other large state schools are in the region, Western Carolina
University in Cullowhee and Appalachian State in Boone.

North Carolina's state university system is one of the best in the U.S.
UNC-Chapel Hill, with annual tuition of around $2400 for state residents,
offers an excellent education with a national reputation, as do some of the
other parts of the state system, including UNC-Asheville.

CLIMATE:

This is one of the major attractions of the area.  Asheville offers four
seasons without any one of them being burdensome.

Winters -- late November to mid-March -- are fairly mild.  Around
Asheville, there are usually two or three sizeable snows, mostly coming
late in the winter, but unlike in North the snow usually lasts only a few
days and does not stay on the ground.  In January or February there often is
a period of a few days of near-zero nighttime temps, but in general cold
winter days alternate with sunny mild days in the 50s or 60s.  The
northern mountains around Boone and Blowing Rock get more snow -- there
are ski resorts there.  The areas around Hendersonville and Brevard tend to
have warmer winters (the mountains have a variety of micro climates).

Summers, again, are moderate.  Around Asheville, day-time highs in mid-
summer are usually mid-80s F., with lows in the low 60s.  Many people
don╒t have air conditioning, although there are times in July and August
when it can come in handy.   Temps are altitude-dependent.  It is said that
every 100 feet of increased elevation is equal to being 100 miles farther
north.

Autumn and spring are glorious in the mountains.  October is probably the
most beautiful month, with cool dry days and crisp nights.

Humidity is fairly high most of the year, but because of moderate
temperatures it is not as oppressive as in many areas of the South and
East.

BUGS AND NUISANCES:

The mountains have few bug problems -- no ╥black fly season╙ as in New
England, no cockroach armies as in Florida and the Gulf Coast, no black
widow spider season as in Arizona, few mosquitos.

Earthquakes are possible, but none of any importance has been recorded
since the area was settled.  Hurricanes don╒t get this far inland.  The
mountains tend to act as a buffer against tornadoes, and these funnel
clouds are extremely rare here.  Flooding, most typically along the French
Broad and Swannanoa rivers, happens irregularly.  The area does not suffer
from regular dry-season forest fires, as do parts of the U.S. West,
although occasional fires do occur.


HOUSING:

Housing costs in Asheville are moderate to high-moderate on a national
scale, the highest in North Carolina, and on the rise due to demand.  The
area╒s housing costs are similar to that of Raleigh, a much larger metro
area.  While stats on average housing costs can be misleading,
comparisons by real estate brokers show generally a three- bedroom
executive home is around $130,000 in the Asheville area.  Small houses in
West Asheville are available from $40,000, whereas homes in better areas
of North Asheville and Biltmore Forest run $200,000 to $500,000 or more.
Building lots in subdivisions range from about $12,000 to $35,000 or
more.  Land in the county goes for $2,000 to $10,000 per acre in small to
mid-size tracts.  Land in rural areas of Madison County and other
surrounding counties often is less expensive, sometimes under $1,000 an
acre, and of course the larger the tract the lower the price per acre.  Most
land is sold with owner financing.

Houses for rental are difficult to find, especially those in the $300 to
$600 a month range.  It can take several weeks of hunting to find a nice
house.  Apartments, mostly clustered in the south and east areas of
Asheville, are more available and less costly.  You would typically pay
from $350 to $500 for two-bedroom apartment.

TAXES:

Property taxes in the Asheville area are moderate, ranging from around
1/2 of one percent of value to about 1 percent of value.  In Buncombe
County, the rate is .73 percent of actual market value, a $120,000 home
would be taxed annuall at $876.  A fire district tax in some areas would
add a few dollars more.  Personal property (typically 10% of the real
estate value) is taxed at the same rate as real estate.

Taxes within the Asheville city limits are somewhat higher, while taxes
in more-rural areas such as Madison County are lower.

The state income tax ranges up to 7%, although with deductions few
people actually pay that max rate.  The state is running a sizeable revenue
surplus and is unlikely to raise taxes in the immediate future.

A state "intangibles tax" on savings accounts and other financial assets,
once a bain to retirees, has been repealed.

SHOPPING AND SERVICES:

Asheville is large enough to provide the usual mix of national chains --
Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Sam╒s, Home Depot, and the others are all here or will
be soon. In addition, it has a reasonable selection of uniquely local shops
and stores.

Malls:  Asheville has two large regional malls, the Asheville Mall on
Tunnel Road in East Asheville and Biltmore Square Mall on Highway 191
(Brevard Road) Southwest in the county near Enka.  Asheville Mall is older,
slightly larger and busier.  It has 100-something stores including anchors
Sears, Belk, Montgomery-Ward (coming) and Dilliard╒s.  Biltmore Square is
still not fully leased.  It has anchors Proffitt╒s, Belk and Dilliard╒s.

Local:  The WNC Farmer╒s Market, I-40 at Brevard Road, developed and
operated by the state, is a big business, doing over $40 million a year in
sales, even though the market is closed for a few weeks in mid-winter.
Biltmore Village is a collection of boutiques and restaurants, across US
Highway 25 from the Biltmore House entrance,  in old houses once the
homes of artisans who worked at the Biltmore Estate.    Many of the
original cottages and buildings were designed by architects Richard Morris
Hunt and Richard Sharp Smith and were designed and built, with quaint
timbers and pebbledash walls,  between 1889 and about 1910.  The streets
were laid out in a fan shape, with a central axis between All Souls
Episcopal Church, the highest building in the Village,  and the train depot.
The Village remains an oasis of charm, even if ugly billboards and garish
fast-food restaurants have encroached around the edges.

Wall Street offers a group of lovely shops, although sadly sometimes the
clerks outnumber the shoppers.  This area deserves to be successful, and
some day it will.   Merrimon Avenue in North Asheville also has many good
local stores.

Supermarkets:   Ingles is the dominant local grocery chain, with stores --
many of them large new units -- everywhere.  The Fresh Market (in North
Asheville, South Asheville,  and in Hendersonville)  is a local favorite for
upscale groceries.  Earthfare, a new, mostly organic megastore, is selling
tofu like pancakes.

Bookstores:  There are more than 30 bookstores in Asheville, a lot for a
small city,   including several exceptional independent bookstores.
Malaprop╒s,  on Haywood Street near the Civic Center and main library, has
an arty, San Francisco-ish feel.   It has a good selection of
psychology/self-awareness and local-interest books, and a cafe
downstairs.  The Book Store on Wall Street at 18 Wall Street, has a
resident cat and a first-rate selection of children╒s books.  One of the
owners is a widely published children╒s book author.   Among the chain and
franchise book stores, Books-a-Million has the largest inventory,
including the best selection of travel books.    Walden and B. Dalton are at
both the Asheville and Biltmore Square malls, and Little Professor is on
US Highway 25.

Antique shopping is good along Lexington Street in downtown Asheville.
There are factory outlets at River Ridge Shopping Center and elsewhere.

Arts and Crafts:   Asheville is a leading national center for arts and
crafts, especially pottery.  The New Morning Gallery in Biltmore Village is
considered one of the top crafts galleries in the country, with an
extraordinarily appealing, and extensive, selection of pottery, art glass,
jewelry and other items.   The Grovewood Gallery on the grounds of the
Grove Park Inn  is another large shop.   The Grove Park itself is filled with
Arts and Crafts pieces (not for sale), with Roycroft furniture in guest
rooms and Morris chairs in the lobby.  Others include Allanstand, Folk Art
Center, Blue Spiral 1, Flood Zone Studios, with functional pottery at
Pisgah Forest Pottery, Evan╒s Pottery and Brown╒s Pottery.

FINANCIAL SERVICES:  The area has the usual host of local, regional and
national brokerage firms and banks.   Dominant banks in the area include
Wachovia and First Union.  Because of the large number of affluent
retirees in the area, national brokerage firms have a strong presence here.

MEDIA:  The daily newspaper is the Asheville Citizen-Times, tel. 704-
252-5611.  Gannett announced in mid-1995 it was acquiring Multimedia,
which has operated the Citizen-Times.  Observers in the jouralism
community believe that the paper is improving under Gannett management.
There are several free monthlies and weeklies, plus two small business
newspapers.  The dominant local television station is WLOS-TV (affiliated
with ABC).  Channel 33 is the local Public Television station.  With
Greenville and Spartanburg, S.C., the Asheville area is in the top 35
national television markets, served also by NBC, CBS, Fox and
independents.  Most of the Asheville area, except for more-remote rural
areas, is wired for cable.  Asheville has about a dozen radio stations, with
the dominant, WWNC, programming country music.  WCQS, programming
primarily classical and jazz,  is the Asheville public radio licensee, with
WNCW, a public station with a mixed bag of popular, country and some
classical programming,  also serving the area.

OTHER HELPFUL TELEPHONE NUMBERS:

Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce: 704-258-3858

Asheville-Buncombe Library System:  704-255-5203

BellSouth Business Offices:  704-780-2355, or 800-767-2355

Better Business Bureau:  704-253-2392

Buncombe County government administrative offices:  704-255-5000

Buncombe County schools:  704-255-5876

Carolina Power & Light:  704-258-1010

City of Asheville administrative offices:  704-259-5600

City of Asheville schools:  704-255-5304

First Call for Help:  (a general referral service supported by Buncombe
County and the United Way) 704-252-4357

NC Center for Creative Retirement:  704-251-6140

NC Employment Security Commission:  704-251-6200

CRIME:

As anywhere, crime happens in Asheville, but compared with larger or
poorer metro areas, and compared to the national average, crime is less a
problem here.

Violent crime rates in Asheville are well under one-half the rate of the
average metro area in the U.S. and only one-third to one-half the rate of
high-crime urban areas such as New York, Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles,
Miami, Baltimore, Memphis or San Francisco.

Property crime rate is about one-fourth less than the national average for
metro areas.

County and rural crime rates in the mountains are even lower.

DOWNSIDES:

No area is paradise.  Here are some of the downsides to the Asheville area:

:: Because of the diversity of plant life in the Southern Appalachians --
one of the most species-rich areas in the world -- those susceptible to
allergies may well find something to be allergic to here.

:: Salaries and job opportunities are generally lower here than several
other parts of the region including Charlotte, Greenville-Spartanburg,
Greensboro-Winston-Salem and Raleigh-Durham.

::  Living costs are no lower, and in some cases may be higher, than in
similar-sized or even larger cities in the Southeast.

::  Cultural and social opportunities, while better than most cities of its
size, cannot match those in a large metro area such as Atlanta.

::  Public schools, while among the best in the state, generally are
mediocre to below-average by national standards.

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About the writer:  Lan Sluder is a writer and travel publisher.  He is author
of Frommer's Best Beach Vacations:  Carolinas and Georgia and co- author
of two other books.  His work has appeared in more than 100 newspapers
and magazines including The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday
and the Miami Herald.  He is editor and publisher of Belize First, the
independent, ad-free quarterly magazine on travel, life retirement in
Belize.   For more information on these publications, CompuServe members
may contact Lan Sluder at [e-mail] or
[e-mail], or write Equator Travel Publications, 280 Beaverdam
Road, Candler, NC  28715, or fax [phone].