Asheville’s downtown was up until around 2000. The influx of outside money, tolerance of and increase of homeless people, vast increase of tourists on the streets and whacked out weird people including a plethora of tranny/homo/lesbos has changed what once was an engaging area into a condensed version of a major city. It is not fun to be there anymore.
I went to high school in Asheville in the mid to late 80s. It was probably 90% appalachia and 10% artsy farsty types back then. Now those percentages have been reversed. The place has been overrun by Leftist Yankees who have no appreciation for Asheville’s history and culture. Its all but a colony of New England now. Its disgusting.