i didn't post this, a boy that was living with me did on my account. it was misspelled and just not too good to begin with. i'd delete it.
Asheville has become a victim of creeping gentrification. There used to be a cool hippie scene there, which attracted rich wannabes who liked to look at the hippies, which attracted more rich folks, who proceeded to run off all the dirty, nasty hippies. There's a police surveillance cam on the roof of the building with the big head shop on lower Lexington, what's the name of it, Instant Karma, or something....I've never been to San Fransisco, but I guess it is rather like Asheville, only bigger....OK, if you have the $$$$. I'd much rather live in East TN, if I was going back to that area.
I'm not really sure. How close are you in Jersey to NY? i know that makes a difference in the expense, doesn't it?
south jersey..its 800 to 1500 for cheap housing...ashville is 400 to 800 were just trying to find a comfortable hippy town if asheville isnt the place to be where is? we like the atmosphere the most
I lived in Asheville for a few years. It is true that the hippie population is declining somewhat. When I was there, a lot of the young hippies had moved there with their parents, and they probably had to move away to find jobs after college. Some of the parents had made a lot of money in the software industry of northern California, and did not need to work full-time anymore, even though they were not at what most people consider to be retirement age. They liked the New Age feel of Asheville. I encountered all kinds of hippies there, from pretenders to metal heads to violent anarchists and pure nut cases. Some lived there full-time, some were there summers only, and there were always some vacationing hippies from all over. Whatever you want, it is there, though there may be less of it than 7 or 8 years ago. The cost of housing is all over the place. There are plenty of pricey houses with mountain views, but you can always find a dumpy loft up above some business that anybody can afford to split with a roommate. Musicians are especially notorious for paying a few dollars a week for the right to sleep on somebody's couch or on the living room floor in a sleeping bag for a while. Other costs are not much different from the rest of North Carolina, which is lower than almost anywhere up north in a big city.
I spent some time in Asheville this weekend. I can assure you that the hip community there is still alive and well. The first thing I did on N. Lexington Avenue was step over a young hippie with blonde dreadlocks sitting on the sidewalk, smoking a joint in the early afternoon sun. Is that cool enough for you? The street musicians were out enjoying the mild weather, and I saw my first barefooter of the year. Downtown is booming like I have never seen it. More shops than ever. Touristy crap continues to concentrate around the Haywood Park Hotel and the Grove Arcade, while pricy art galleries spread south of Pack Square on Biltmore Avenue. I can’t afford their impressionistic original oil paintings and watercolors, but I can look for free and enjoy the talent and creativity. Hip destinations continue to dominate Lexington Avenue but are spilling onto Broadway. The infamous security camera outside the head shop was nowhere to be found. A lot of the non-hippies I saw downtown were people I would classify as hippie sympathizers. They share a lot of the values but can’t deviate far from a mainstream look, because of their jobs and other responsibilities. I fit into that category myself. For its size and location, I think Asheville is incredible, and getting better all the time.
