Moving woes

March 7, 2008 8:22 AM

Asheville, NC: I'm moving there close to the end of this month, what do I need to know?

I mainly need to know of a good gym (with possibilities for rockclimbing), an awesome general practitioner doctor, a dentist and a good veterinarian. (All this close to downtown, please)

Also, if anyone can give me insight into securing an awesome house/apartment, please share. I'm aware that places are rented mere minutes after posting on CL/MountainX/Citizen-Times. I'm looking around the Montford, Aston Park, and W. Asheville areas. Are there any other areas I should consider that are close to downtown and 2 BR prices don't far exceed $1000?

Which monopoly service sucks less when it comes to internet? Cable and internet through the cable company (Is it Charter?) or DSL(AT&T?) and DirecTV (I have an HDTV, so if I'm gonna pay $50 a month I at least want HD). What are the prices you pay for what you get? I will not be getting a landline phone.

Lastly, (and I hope this isn't too chatty) I'm looking for outdoorsy people to hike/rockclimb/etc with. Are there mefites around there that enjoy such things or groups I can find somewhere to meet some people with similar interests? I may try to schedule a mefi meetup in April.

Lastly, if there are any "gotta check it out" places, post those too.

Much thanks

posted by ijoyner to Travel & Transportation around Asheville, NC (3 answers total)

1. Gym: most people downtown go to the YMCA or the YWCA. I've been to both; the YW is smaller, friendlier, slightly cheaper. I don't think the YW has rockclimbing; don't know about the YM.

2. Can't help you with a doctor, but, you know, this is Asheville: you can't swing a psychic healer/massage therapist without hitting a banjo playing yoga instructor.

3. Try the Iwanna for your rental; that's what we use. Craigslist here is still relatively new and doesn't have a lot of stuff yet.
4. Montford is gorgeous, kind of pricey, although reasonable apartments are still to be found, and easy walking/biking distance to everything downtown. Aston Park is over by the YWCA; houses, not apartments, can be sketchy, mostly African-American neighborhood. West Asheville is where I live; it's a big neighborhood and be aware that most of it is actually not walkable/bikable to downtown. You might want to check out Five Points, sort of between downtown & Montford. Woodfin is getting more and more popular; it's cheap, but a ways out. Avoid South Asheville - it's mostly apartment complexes, chain restaurants & Baptist churches. Unless, you know, you like that sort of thing.

5. They all SUCK. Charter SUCKS SO BAD it's kind of hard to describe without shrieking hysterically. I pay $100 a month for high speed internet & basic cable. I haven't tried the others, but my friends with BellSouth DSL also start shrieking hysterically, so I think it's six of one, half dozen of another. Without basic cable, by the way, you will probably have no TV at all. There's only one local TV station - WLOS - and due to the mountains, most people can't even get that without cable or a dish.

6. Check the Mountain Xpress; I think there are quite a few hiking/climbing groups.

7. Sure, we're always up for a meetup. All three or four of us.
posted by mygothlaundry at 9:07 AM on March 7, 2008

Here's what I heard about Charter in Asheville from one of my friends there: the speed & reliability absolutely sucked, especially in the weekday evenings and other high-use times. At first they just said, well, that's what you get with cable. Then she complained enough to Charter that they came to her place, admitted they had installed some outdated/wrong part, and replaced it. Then all was great. Maybe the lesson is to complain if it sucks, because it sure worked for her!
posted by sparrows at 10:40 PM on March 7, 2008

Really quickly because I have to go to work:

For $1000/mo. you can live just about anywhere in town. The places you mentioned are nice, I used to live in West Asheville, and it is sort of it's own little neighborhood like mygothlaundry says. You could also check out North Asheville, near the university. I wouldn't recommend the apartments anywhere near the school just because of noise, but there are lots of houses for rent in that area and all over town.

I pay $70/mo. for 3 Mb internet and standard cable (~70 channels) through Charter, but none of those are HD. I have to say that I've been reasonably happy with their service, hardly any outages in five years, speed stays pretty good. I tend to think that's just the luck of location though. I've heard really bad things about the DSL in the area, but haven't experienced it firsthand. They both offer good sign-on deals for your first three months or so, so just get one and if you don't like it, switch. You can always go back later.

Oh and to get you started on places to eat, here's a Google map I'm working on.
posted by Who_Am_I at 4:26 AM on March 10, 2008