Building a Bohemian Boom Town: The Construction of a 'Creative Class' in Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville North Carolina is currently on the radar for developers, tourists, young couples and retirees looking for the perfect place to relocate. As a result of the development, sleek new buildings are popping up downtown and sidewalks are expanding to accommodate outdoor cafes and more and more visitors. This is occurring in a non-industrial city dependent on hype to attract newcomers with significant money. An examination of how this is happening is presented along with interviews of significant players in Asheville's development patterns to show how people pretty much tend to buy into the marketing of their hometown by the development community using the concept of the economy of the mind. The case-study approach is used.