Should we keep them secret?

I get a lot of work-related hate mail, which is interesting because I have a relatively benign job. I’m not trading blood diamonds. I am not a pharma bhai. I write articles about great places to visit and fun things to do. Sometimes, I write about hill towns for this magazine— Hill Towns You Can Actually Buy And the best mountain bike cities, just to name a few. That’s when I start hearing you in emails and social media messages, questioning my purpose on this planet and asking me to please not write about your cities.

Of course I’m exaggerating. Commentators never say “please.” Most become quite salty. And on a certain level, I understand the frustration. I have lived in Asheville, North Carolina, an iconic mountain town, for over 20 years. It is one of those media darlings that is consistently included in the “Best Places to Live” lists of various magazines including this one. House prices have gone up since I came here. The footpaths have become more crowded. Now we need a miracle of timing to make a campsite in a nearby national forest or at my wife’s favorite restaurant.

Crowds suck. Rising housing prices are even more troubling. Realizing that the quiet adventure town you fell in love with is changing can be heartbreaking. Sometimes, I’ll walk around my town and wonder where all the bachelor parties came from, and why they’re at my favorite backcountry swimming hole.

But then I take a step back and admit that I have no right to keep this amazing city or the outdoor adventures outside of this city to myself. And neither do you.

So you’re saying the place you live is amazing – it has a vibrant arts scene, great restaurants, access to trails right from downtown, and a population that prioritizes healthy living and work-life balance. And you don’t want to share it with anyone else?

I love writing about mountain towns and adventure towns because living in one of these towns changed my life nearly three decades ago.

collective desire to be outdoors

I grew up in a small town north of Atlanta at a time when that sleepy village was transitioning from farms to suburbia. It was extraordinary in every possible way. The pastures became circles of houses. Then a mall. Then rows of chain restaurants. There was very little public land there. My parents didn’t really choose to live there. They moved there in the 70s because my dad got a job there. That’s why everyone lived in that city. I didn’t really believe in anyone until I moved to Boulder, Colorado for graduate school at age 23. chose Where did they live? For better or worse, they simply bought or rented a house closer to their work. But Boulder was different. People chose to live there not because of jobs, but because of the desire to be outside.

That time I met someone at a party, and they asked that ubiquitous small talk question, “So, what do you do?” I realized that they were not inquiring about my job. They were asking if I went skiing or snowboarding. They wanted to know whether I had climbed a mountain or ridden a bicycle. It was the first place I lived where the emphasis was on play, not work. This is the magic of mountain towns – priorities are skewed in all the right ways in these bergs – and it was an absolute eye-opener for me.

After graduate school I left Boulder for Southern California, not because I got a job, but because I wanted to learn to surf. I left the beach to head south because I wanted an adventure city with a slower pace and a more diverse socio-economic population. My wife and I were looking for a special kind of place to raise our family. We found it all in Asheville, North Carolina.

We got married here, built our careers here, bought a home, and are raising our kids here.

There’s a good chance that it was through an article I wrote in this magazine more than two decades ago that I “discovered” the city I now call home. Was it better before everyone else discovered it? There were definitely less crowds. But was it better? It doesn’t matter. Because what right do I have to keep this wonderful place to myself? What right do you have to keep your adventure haven?

I have a friend who is visiting my hill town this month. I have to help her move her furniture into her new rental next week. He’s 50 years old and has lived all his life in the same town we grew up in – a farm town that’s now just an extension of Atlanta. He wants a more active lifestyle. He wants his kids to be able to find places to go hiking, biking and swimming on the weekends. He wants to ride his bike with a group of people his same age on Wednesday nights and go camping 20 minutes from his home.

He is going to this mountain town for the same reasons I came to this mountain town. He is doing it after 20 years. Doesn’t he have the right to follow the same lifestyle that I follow?

Home prices are definitely rising in these mountain towns, and sometimes people come to hang out and behave like idiots. I don’t like any of these things. I don’t want my neighbors to be evicted from their homes. I don’t want any jerk leaving trash on my favorite trails.

But trying to keep your city a secret from the world isn’t sustainable. It’s also not a healthy way to approach the good fortune you’ve been given. If you’re concerned about moving out of your city, that’s a valid concern. I can no more control the real estate prices where you live than I can control the real estate prices in my city. I can simply vote for elected officials who prioritize affordable housing. I advise you to do the same.

Is there a solution to the mountain town housing crisis?

Some cities and states are using some interesting solutions to address these issues.

A bill being debated in Florida would divert 100% of the state’s tourist development tax revenue from tourism promotion to lower state property taxes. A housing tax passed in Colorado in 2022 allows counties to fund housing and child care for workers in certain industries. In Breckenridge, they’re using a combination of public money from a housing tax and private investment to add nearly 1,000 units of workforce housing. In Crested Butte, a 2.9% excise tax was imposed on short-term rentals to fund affordable housing. Leadville offers down payment assistance for locals. Big Sky has a resort tax on luxury goods and services that funds infrastructure and affordable housing development. The city also offers cash incentives to property owners who hire local workers. Some towns have imposed limits and restrictions on short-term rentals.

None of these solutions is complete; They are not comprehensive enough. Affordable housing is still an issue in most cities with access to world-class adventure. Congested streets and packed parks are an ongoing issue.

It is also important to note that some mountain towns need Adventure tourism and a fresh influx of full-time residents serve as a new economic springboard. Most of the small towns I detailed in my recent affordable mountain towns article are former mining centers that were struggling to find an economic base beyond resource extraction.

Take West Virginia. The “Mountain State” is one of the most beautiful states in the country, with some of the best adventure found east of the Rockies. Historically, West Virginia’s economy has been centered on mining and logging. There is also the issue of “brain drain”, where young residents leave after high school and college to find work elsewhere. As the logging and mining industries took off, West Virginia has leaned hard on adventure tourism as an economic driver, and they are addressing the “brain drain” issue by paying remote workers up to $12,000 to move to one of their cities. climb west virginia Program.

I want each visitor to take three pieces of litter with them when they hike the trail. I want us all to practice Leave No Trace principles. I wish that residents of the city you live in would vote for elected officials who prioritize sustainable development and affordable housing. I really do. I want every mountain town in America to have smart strategies in place to limit second home ownership, and to have pathways that allow care providers, teachers, and hospitality workers to buy their first homes.

But the fact that more Americans are trying to move to these mountain towns and explore our trails is a good problem to have. This means that his priorities have changed. There are crowds at our trailheads as more people choose to get outside. Our mountain towns are growing as more people want this kind of lifestyle.

I agree that we need to preserve these places for locals and visitors alike. But I don’t think we should keep them secret.

Graham Averill is Outside The magazine’s national parks columnist. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina, and tries not to get upset when there’s no parking at the trailhead for his favorite mountain bike trails.

Tell Us: What do you think about the concierge system in mountain towns? Do you think Graham has a point? Or do you think there is another solution? Share your thoughts in the comments.