Quote:
Originally Posted by eschaton
Generally speaking, gentrification is not a problem if it happens on a neighborhood level. However, it's a big problem if it happens on a metro-wide level, as working-class people need somewhere to live.
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This. That's what pushed us out. My husband's and my income combined are six figures, but the amount we were approved for to buy a home would have bought nothing at all inside the city limits of Asheville, and nothing but a few doublewide trailers on the fringes of Buncombe County. So, we considered our options, which were to stay near Asheville but move far enough out to negate any benefit to being near it, or to do what an increasing number of Ashevillians are doing and move to the next nearest place that purports to be a city. That means north to Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol, Tennessee or south to the Greenville-Spartanburg area. We chose Greenville, where that same money that wouldn't have bought us anything in Asheville bought a two-story, four-bedroom house on a quarter of an acre, fifteen minutes from downtown Greenville. Meanwhile, up in Asheville, with so many people, including artists, performers, and the people who fuel the service industry moving away because they can't afford to buy and are tired of sharing a rental with four or five roommates, the city gets whiter, richer, and more boring by the day. Asheville used to be vibrant, exciting, even a little mysterious... and now's it's mainly just a clot of rich old white people being dull together.