Say it isn’t so. Asheville, NC is famous as a small tourist city. The city has seen its population grow in contrast to other small cities in the south. They’ve focused on improving their arts output and carving out numerous hiking trails, making it a key destination for tourists wanting to see the south. Now, it’s one of the most thriving small cities of the entire region (just look at hotel prices there, it’s out of control).
With tourism, and a focus on arts however, come liberals. Asheville is seen as a hip city, for better or for worse. But that hipness has brought in money. The city is filled with vegan restaurants, etc.
The city of Asheville has seen a 20% spike in crime in just the past year. Why? The liberal city council in slashed the police budget by a whopping 40% in a year, with previous plans to slash it even further.
Now, homelessness is ballooning downtown, driving tourism away.
The city manager sounded the alarm and pointing the reality of a crumbling downtown. “The efforts we are taking will be tracked and regularly updated on a newly created Downtown Safety Initiative Page. At the end of the 60 days, staff will assess whether or not our actions are having an impact on downtown safety and determine next steps to support a safer downtown and city as a whole.”
Not much of a pledge, but it could result in a tangible restoration of the police budget. They will already be adding a handful of officers downtown on foot.
Let’s hope those reforms are just the tip of the iceberg for a truly stunning and wonderful city.
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