Cities do not reinvent themselves. It takes many people, dedicated people. Fortunately, Asheville has had such people.
There was a time, not that many years ago, when downtown was a 9-to-5 place. Asheville Mall had become the commercial heart of the city. Once the banks and government offices and other institutions were closed for the day, the streets were given over to the pigeons.
There were so many vacant buildings that some people even wanted to destroy part of downtown in order to save it. They would have, had not voters in 1981 rejected the $40 million in bonds necessary to level and prepare most of the area between Haywood Street and Broadway for a mall with department stores, a hotel and office space.
Whatever the voters’ motivation – some probably just didn’t want to spend the money – their decision was the right one. The area today is a booming part of a booming downtown. North Lexington Avenue is eclectic even by Asheville standards.
Downtown as a whole has a new life. The dining and club scene gets the headlines, but there also are a lot of independent merchants who make the daytime as busy as the nighttime. Hotels and apartments are bringing more people downtown to live or spend the night.
Many small decisions, and a number of big ones, can be cited. Among the latter was the successful campaign to replace an erstwhile movie theater and the old library with the Pack Place Education, Arts and Science Center. If one single person can be said to be responsible, it would be Roger McGuire.
McGuire was both a leader and a major fund-raiser in the public-private effort that led to opening of Pack Place in 1992. He once told an interviewer his favorite quote was spoken in the musical “Man of La Mancha.” by Don Quixote.
“He said, ‘Madness is seeing things as they are and not as they might be.’ The group of people who worked on Pack Place … are people who insisted on seeing things for Asheville as they might be,” McGuire said.
Others also have dreamed the impossible dream. Consider Julian Price, whose Public Interest Project has renovated many downtown buildings. He formed a group that pushed for improving facilities for pedestrians, helped lead an effort to preserve trees on Tunnel Road and contributed to the environmental publication Green Line, predecessor of MountainXpress.
The good times also have rolled into South Asheville. Jack Cecil’s Biltmore Farms has built residential developments and a city-within-a-city named Biltmore Town Square. Pulliam Properties, founded by Winston Pulliam and run by his son Rusty, has been responsible for much of the Hendersonville Roade development.
The most recent boom area is the River Arts District, where old buildings are being renovated or replaced by new ones, notably the New Belgium brewery on the west side of the French Broad River. The public role here is significant, $50 million worth, but there should be an additional $200 million in private investment.
The new Asheville has its critics. These critics say it has become too dependent upon tourism and the low-wage service jobs such an economy provides. They have a point, but the remedy is to create more high-wage jobs and not to turn away from the path to rebirth.
Government has a role to play in redevelopment, as demonstrated by the Pack Place money then and the River Arts District spending now. But so does the private sector, in the form of visionaries such as Roger McGuire and Julian Price. Working together, the two sectors can make Asheville even better.
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