Your favorite part of Asheville

[jr7777]

So what is your favorite part of Asheville and why?

Downtown is my favorite because it's unique. I doubt there's any other place like it. The art-deco buildings, the hippies, it's all great. Merrimon Ave comes in a close second, and Montford comes 3rd.

EDIT: Orulz, can you delete the other 2 identical topics? There was a problem with the server and it messed up my post.

[GSP Tiger]

When I head up to Asheville to shop, it is straight to its eastern side around Tunnel Road. Most of your stores are in Asheville Mall or down East Tunnel Road. South Asheville would also be with that.

Downtown is a nice area. It is not my favorite because there is not enough parking. If they had more centralized parking decks with enough parking, I could park and walk around easier.

West Asheville, espeically along Patton Avenue, has the retail. They just need to make traffic flow more efficiently by synchonizing various signalized intersections.

Merrimon Avenue has a nice park on its way up to Weaverville. It is a narrow two lane road clogged with so much traffic no one has thought about widening it to four lanes. The I-26/US-19/US-23 route does not help that much.

[jr7777]

Which part of Merrimon are you talking about? Most of Merrimon is 4 lanes with no median.

[GSP Tiger]

Which part of Merrimon are you talking about? Most of Merrimon is 4 lanes with no median.

It is the stretch from Beaverdam Road to the intersection with US-19 Business/US-25 Business and the entrance to I-26. It has been two years since I last drove in that area.

[SouthJersey7]

Downtown is a nice area. It is not my favorite because there is not enough parking. If they had more centralized parking decks with enough parking, I could park and walk around easier.

I think that's why DT Asheville is so nice. Just look at most other NC cities. They have parking decks or lots on every block, and, well not much else. Many of the old building, that Asheville has kept, have been torn down in say, Charlotte or Greensboro, so most of these cities have greatly reduced urban feel. When I have been to Asheville I parked and then spend an hour or two walking around. No it's not as convenient as being able to park within a 30 second walk of every destination, but that kind of defeats the purpose of a city IMHO.

[JDC]

I think that's why DT Asheville is so nice. Just look at most other NC cities. They have parking decks or lots on every block, and, well not much else. Many of the old building, that Asheville has kept, have been torn down in say, Charlotte or Greensboro, so most of these cities have greatly reduced urban feel. When I have been to Asheville I parked and then spend an hour or two walking around. No it's not as convenient as being able to park within a 30 second walk of every destination, but that kind of defeats the purpose of a city IMHO.

Agreed. Less parking = better city. You can't expect sustainable vitality from people driving in, parking, walking around for a couple hours and driving away.

[GSP Tiger]

Less parking dones not make it a better city. A city will strive when it is able to bring in visitors who can find ample parking in centralized areas and be able to walk around for hours at a time to conduct business and other functions.

I am not saying Asheville's downtown needs a parking deck on every block. It is purely addressing the needs of more visitors to downtown who want to find a place to park so they can spend more time to walk around without wasting two gallons of gas driving on Lexington and Patton Avenues searching for a parking space. Is it feasibly possible to add levels to the current parking decks like Wall Street? Is City Council persuading developers of multi-level structures to have underground parking?