Down Town, Part 1: Merchants and workers say district is deteriorating
Fed-up merchants describe the city’s downtown district as nearly lawless. People sleep and do drugs in doorways, barge into businesses yelling, brazenly shoplift, and frighten customers and employees. Some long-time downtown workers are calling it quits, disgusted with having to clean up human excrement, needles, broken windows, and trash. Aggressive panhandlers and transients, some appearing to be mentally ill, make them fear to walk alone…
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Down Town, Part 2: A Thinner Blue Line
On an ordinary day in Asheville, 16 to 18 police officers patrol the entire city, an area covering 46 square miles. That’s down from 30 cops on duty three years ago, when Asheville first started losing officers faster than it could replace them. The Asheville Police Department has been operating at a reduced capacity, now just 60 percent, for more than two years — and…
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Down Town, Part 3: Life on the Streets of Asheville
LaVyonne Evans is college-educated, well-spoken, and now, in his seventh decade, unhoused. “I’m 67 years old, and I’m homeless with a walker,” he said. In the nearly two months since he was evicted from his rent-subsidized apartment in the River Arts District for non-payment, Evans said he has slept on the streets, in the city bus station, and a U-Haul storage unit. “There are a…
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Down Town, Part 4: The Responders
Some need only a little assistance: a bus pass to their sleeping spot, access to a computer, a sandwich, or a kind word. Others are in deep crisis, shouting or crying out in public, convulsing on drugs, or in need of life-saving medical intervention. Still others are just sleeping, but the mere sight of them on a sidewalk or under an overpass has prompted someone…
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Down Town, Part 5: ‘Every time I hit it, I hope it kills me’
Michael Barber Sr. sat by himself in the east side of downtown’s Pritchard Park on a recent Tuesday afternoon, wondering where he would spend the night. That’s if his next hit of fentanyl doesn’t kill him. And sometimes, he said, he hopes it will. Barber, 37, acknowledged being a daily user of meth and fentanyl, the two drugs that have taken over the drug scene…
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Citing Watchdog Reporting, City of Asheville Says Sheriff’s Deputies Will Join With City Police to Step Up Patrols Downtown
Downtown Asheville is getting an infusion of police presence under an arrangement announced Friday that the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office will begin patrols alongside Asheville Police. The move follows Asheville Watchdog’s “Down Town” series of stories documenting concerns from businesses and residents about increasing crime, a depleted police force, and the challenges of a homeless population with untreated mental illness and addictions to potent drugs that cause aggressive behavior. “I definitely want…
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Down Town, Part 6: The Mental Health Maze
On a busy day, some 300 people visit the AHOPE day shelter on the western outskirts of downtown Asheville for a free meal, a chance to shower, or to collect their mail. They all share the same plight: homelessness. It’s not unusual for arguments to break out and for conversations to turn delusional and paranoid, because almost all of the people at the gray, two-story…
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Down Town: Document Reveals Details of Buncombe Plan to Assist Asheville Police
The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office pilot program to increase the law enforcement presence in downtown Asheville will involve only a few deputies, working only on Friday and Saturday nights for only four weekends, at a cost of thousands of dollars in overtime, according to a document obtained by Asheville Watchdog. The project also will tap into a network of public and private video surveillance cameras,…
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City Announces 60-Day Initiative to Make Downtown Streets Safer and Cleaner
Days after Buncombe County announced it would send deputies to help the Asheville Police Department patrol downtown, the city announced a two-month plan to increase safety in the city’s downtown area. Beginning May 1, the city’s “Downtown Safety Initiative” commits to increasing law enforcement foot, bike, and vehicle patrols downtown; launch a Community Responder Pilot Program led by the Asheville Fire Department to help people…
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Down Town, Part 7: The Justice System’s Revolving Door
Kenneth Dale White has been arrested more than 278 times. Shay Fox, at least 160 times. They are among dozens of people who cycle through the Buncombe County Detention Center, in and out, again and again. They’re arrested, released, and arrested again, sometimes the same day. Their crimes for the most part: drinking in public, sleeping in a business entryway, asking for money on street…
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Ambassadors Downtown, a Police Substation, Community ‘Eyes and Ears’
The Asheville Police Department’s original proposal to address downtown safety issues earlier this year was much broader than the City of Asheville’s initiative announced in April, according to a draft document obtained by Asheville Watchdog. The 16-page document, drafted in March and titled “Downtown Action Plan,” was created to “address criminal activity that has steadily risen Downtown over the last three years and the numerous…
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Down Town, Part 8: Who’s In Charge Here?
Before the end came to his downtown Asheville ministry, Pastor Samuel L. Payne Jr. and his wife Janice tried mightily to demonstrate love and charity to the deeply troubled homeless people who overwhelmed the Sycamore Temple Church of God in Christ. Every Sunday after services the couple offered free meals in the church basement, just like Payne’s father and his predecessors had done since the…
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Down Town, Part 9: An old idea — the Business Improvement District — gets new life
A decade ago, downtown business owners and workers had some serious — and familiar — concerns: Public safety was lacking. Aggressive panhandlers were out of hand. Streets and sidewalks were filthy, and graffiti covered many buildings. The city didn’t have enough police officers on patrol. After three years of meetings and contentious debate, in 2012 downtown stakeholders agreed to push for a Business Improvement District,…
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Down Town, Part 10: Looking to Other Cities For Possible Solutions
It wasn’t always this way. Yes, downtown Asheville has long had problems with homelessness and petty crime, but something has changed profoundly in just the past few years. That’s how Asheville Watchdog began its Down Town series three months ago, meticulously reporting how and why, particularly since the pivotal year 2020 — the pandemic, the George Floyd protests, the closing of the downtown police substation…
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Down Town, Part 11: Better Alternatives to Mental Illness Treatments
In previous installments of our series Down Town, Asheville Watchdog identified untreated mental illness as a primary driver of the perceived deterioration in downtown Asheville. Of the people living on the streets of Asheville, of the people arrested for petty crimes downtown and booked into the Buncombe County jail, many are struggling with mental illness or its frequent companion, substance abuse, according to local law…
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Down Town, Part 12: Affordable Housing Solves Homelessness. Asheville Has a Problem
It all comes down to housing. A safe, affordable place to live is both the primary solution to ending homelessness and the key to preventing it, according to two of the country’s leading experts. In the final installment of Down Town, our Asheville Watchdog reporters examine the lack of affordable housing in Asheville, and whether efforts to address it are enough. We talk with those…
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Asheville, Buncombe leaders vow changes in wake of Down Town series. What are the next steps?
The public conversation about Asheville’s downtown has changed a lot in the last three months. Through our 12-part Down Town investigative series, which ran from late February to the end of May, Asheville Watchdog highlighted the effects of a depleted police department on downtown safety, the frustrations of merchants overwhelmed by crime and a justice system that often operates as a revolving door. We examined…
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