Forbes Best Places - Asheville #6 for Business & Careers

This year Forbes rates Asheville #6 on their list of Best Places for Business & Careers.

According to their summary, we also rank in the top 100 for costs of doing business (#2), cost of living (#94), job growth (#39), and income growth (#41).

You can learn more about Asheville, and other city rankings by visiting the link above!

If you are considering relocating, check out the Asheville Chamber Web site for a relocation guide, and contact us at Carolina Mornings to book a reservation for checking out the city!

Asheville beer retailer ranked #3 in the world

Congrats to Bruisin' Ales! We're always glad to boast about our wonderful local businesses.

Asheville's own Bruisin' Ales claimed the #3 spot in the Best Beer Retailers 2009 at BestBeer.com.

This global award comes from the world's largest beer competition for the past 8 years. Over 1.97 million reviews of 91,000 beers from over 8,700 brewers worldwide were tallied.

Brusin' Ales is owned by Jason and Julie Atallah, self-proclaimed beerlanthropists... but I won't give away everything here so go check out the Web site for more.

They are located at 66 Broadway Street in downtown Asheville.
Hours are:
Monday closed
Tues-Thurs 12-8pm
Fri-Sat 12-9pm
Sunday 12-4pm

Join them on Facebook, tweet them on Twitter, subscribe to their blog.

Did You Know? about Asheville accolades

Asheville makes it onto the list for several national rankings. Here are a few interesting ones (with some related Asheville links thrown in):

One of "The 50 Most Alive Places To Be" (Modern Maturity)

One of "America's Top 25 Arts Destinations" (AmericanStyle)

The "Happiest City for Women" (Self)

One of the "Best Places to Reinvent Your Life" (AARP Magazine)

The "New Freak Capital of the U.S." (Rolling Stone)

"A New Age Mecca" (CBS News' Eye On America)

The "most vegetarian-friendly" small city in America (PETA)


Plus, Asheville Magazine wrote an interesting story regarding the attraction of Asheville.

Asheville ranked in the top 50 performing cities of 2008

From the Mountain Xpress:

Asheville has placed 46 on the Best-Performing Cities 2008 list, just released by the Milken Institute/Greenstreet Real Estate Partners—up 71 spots from the city’s 2007 rank. That’s the second-largest gain among all 200 cities on the list.

The annual study, Best-Performing Cities: Where America’s Jobs Are Created and Sustained, ranks metropolitan areas by how well they’re creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth.

Factors used to determine the ranking include: short- and long-term job growth; wage and salary statistics; and the concentration of high-tech industries. Asheville’s rise in the rankings was driven primarily by strong one-year and five-year job growth.

That's some good news for the locals on "Main Street" concerned about the economy. Let's hope we move up again for next year's ranking!

Asheville included on list of 'Best Green Places'

Yahoo! - Real Estate has the article of the Best Green Places for 2007 and how they were chosen. A collaboration of Country Home Magazine and Sperling's BestPlaces, the article declares Burlington, Vermont the top Best Green Place. Asheville also makes the list, which probably won't surprise many residents - or visitors for that matter.

The article goes into full detail about how the places were chosen. Here is an excerpt:
The Best Green Places study, which is based on data discovered by Sperling's BestPlaces, examines 24 data metrics in 5 major categories -- including air and watershed quality, mass transit usage, power usage, farmers markets, organic producers, and number of green-certified buildings -- to determine which metro areas are the best places to live a green life. Sperling's BestPlaces ranked the 379 major metropolitan areas, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Over 80 percent of all U.S. residents live in these 379 metro areas.

-----
Keeping with Asheville's green living theme, Carolina Mornings has an eco-friendly certification program for our Asheville vacation rental properties. You can read more here, and also view our certified cabins and rentals here.

Asheville's Accolades

While Asheville has received many accolades in past years, the 2007 Southern Living Reader's Choice Awards show that readers rank us at the top in 5 out of 15 categories! Categories include best family vacation (Disney - no surprise there), shopping (Atlanta), beach towns (Destin, FL), various restaurant categories, and city/town categories. Here's how Asheville shaped up.

Mountain Destination
Another expected victory for Asheville, with all the city has to offer by way of food, fun, and culture - plus gorgeous mountain surroundings.



Best Scenic Highway
The Blue Ridge Parkway - the best part about this highway through the mountains is that you don't have to pay for it! (Unlike Virginia's Skyline Drive.)


















Also....
Best Resort/Hotel
Asheville took both the #1 and #3 spots - no surprise the Grove Park Inn & Inn on Biltmore Estate, respectively, won these.
Best Country Inn/Bed and Breakfast
Again, GPI ranked in this category, taking the #2 spot.
Public Gardens
Biltmore took the #2 spot. The Estate's kick-off to Spring, the Festival of Flowers, is just around the corner! One more sign that we're close to moving out of this cold weather slow season.