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Have you ever been to Asheville? I live in the rural mountainous south, but I'd rather drive to charming Asheville than Atlanta for the taste of city commotion. Asheville is not that big, has a lovely and funky downtown, is settled in a cove of surrounding mountains. It's leftwing, but so is anyplace bohemiam. Tugaloo Honey, Early Girl, Bluegrass, Malaprops, Haywood Inn, Grovepark Inn...Anderson may find that he fits right in, except for the fact that the Baptists surround him.

It's known as an artists' haven w/high tourism in a magnificent topographical setting. It's also in the midst of an urban renewal and construction/population boom (assuming family & friends aren't involved in the Anderson's decision).

Asheville Info Link

Situated in the gorgeous French Broad River valley amid the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky mountains, Asheville’s natural beauty sets the tone for a place you will remember with your heart. Selected by AARP magazine as a top 15 dream town, “one of the best places to reinvent your life,” it offers a little bit of something for everyone.

Gargoyles keep watch over an Art Deco skyline in a bustling downtown filled with high-tech and retail businesses. The great outdoors here are so spectacular that they netted Asheville the ranking of number 1 of 10 Great Adventure Towns by National Geographic Adventure magazine.

Asheville’s size makes it the largest city in Western North Carolina, but surrounding towns in Buncombe County offer small town flair and varied amenities. Asheville Regional Airport serves the region for air travel, and a professional hockey team and a minor league baseball team mean that sports fun isn’t hard to find.

Population is approximately 69,000 in the city and 215,000 in the county. Asheville’s MSA is currently estimated at 386,000. The four-season temperate climate with average snowfall of only 13 inches makes year-round living easy. Average elevation is 2,165 feet above sea level with surrounding mountain elevations of up to 6,685 feet with Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River. Because of this broad range of elevations and corresponding climates and plant growth, the area is one of the most biodiverse in the United States and the world.

The quality of life in Asheville is outstanding, with low crime rate, broad employment opportunities, incredible educational opportunities with two universities and many colleges nearby, and diverse housing markets for rental, purchase and retirement.

I wonder why they chose Asheville?

Probably the foothold held in that city by the eclectic, the wiccan, the tolerance of deviancy. There is, to "magic" much of the forbidden and taboo, though that is not as it once was. You can find an incense and pewter dragon seller in almost any city with a population over 300,000.

Asheville, downtown in particular, is also a haven of "the Homosexual Community," it simply can't go without saying, as well as a hefty drug culture and nasty homeless community. What came first, I'll leave to someone else to analyze.