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.

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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.

The Mountain Xpress reported at the end of July that the Asheville economy is still going strong, despite the national downturn. Both fundamental economic sectors - health services and tourism - in Asheville are still seeing growth, according to economists.

Asheville had 51 straight months of job growth through the beginning of 2008. And, while home prices and new construction are declining, home appreciate rates are staying strong. The article breaks down each of Asheville’s strongest sectors: industry serving new residents, professional and business services, manufacturing, health services and tourism. I’ll stick to the tourism review.

Tourism saw the most new jobs, the restaurant industry counting for 80% of them. There was a small increase in leisure travel, a decrease in business travel, and less restaurant spending. Hotel and motel occupancy rates were also down for the first time since 2004 (at Carolina Mornings, we’d like to think it’s because people are choosing the benefits of vacation rentals!).

What does this mean for you? If you live in Asheville, it’s good news for your pocketbook or wallet. If you want to visit Asheville, it means you’ll be contending with fewer travelers - making your reservations easier to secure, restaurant waits shorter, events less crowded, and your accommodations offering quite a few specials… like these with our Carolina Mornings Asheville vacation rental owners.

ECO (Environmental & Conservation Organization) of Western North Carolina has 5 homes to display during the 2008 Green Home Tour. This tour requires guests to drive themselves, but encourages carpooling by offering discounted tickets to those who will drive in a group of 3 or more.

You will view the homes and have the opportunity to meet owners and local eco builders. You will learn about green technology and how it saves energy and water (and as a bonus, saves you money!) and works with the natural environment.

The 5 homes include: garden watering with rain barrel technology, edible landscaping, salvaged wood for building materials, passive solar heating, radiant floor heating, a newly constructed home with the distinction as a Gold Certified Healthy Built home, energy efficient renovation, computerized energy consumption measurement, and more.

Details
Saturday, August 23
10 am - 4 pm
$15 per person, $13 if traveling in a group of 3 or more

On Friday, step back in time…

• …simultaneously to the days of folklore and Thomas Wolfe. Listen to local folklore from storyteller Marilyn McMinn-McCredie at Thomas Wolfe’s house. She was born in Henderson County and weaves her Appalachian heritage and personal experiences into her storytelling material.

Thomas Wolfe Memorial
7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Admission $6

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Update: AM from MyWeaverville commented to let us know about another Friday event! It sounds like a lot of fun too.
The Secret Garden in Weaverville is hosting a Summer Evening Concert Series starting this Friday. Tickets are $12 or 2 for $20 if you buy in advance, or $15 at the door. Doors open at 7 p.m. and shows start at 7:30 p.m. They’ll have a cash bar with wine and beer, and you can bring lawn chairs and/or blankets if you want. To reserve tickets or for more information, call 658-9317 or visit www.secretgardennc.com.

August 8 - The Sireens
The series kicks off on Friday, August 8 with The Sireens, a 1920’s and 30’s style Jazz vocal group backed up by members from the Firecracker Jazz Band. The ladies sing in three-part harmony, reminiscent of the Boswell Sisters with the fabulous sounds of stride piano and styling swing guitar.

See the full series schedule here.
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On Saturday, make a choice or choose to do it all…

• Morning:

Shop with a Chef at Asheville City Market. Local chef Mark Rosenstein (of the MarketPlace and Bar 100) performs two cooking demonstrations, providing samples, advice and answering questions. Don’t worry, if you can’t make it this time, it happens on the 2nd Saturday of each month.

Cooking demonstrations at 9 and 10:30.

• Afternoon:

Hang out in quaint Black Mountain, recently written up in the New York Times as a “haven” to escape to, for the 31st Annual Sourwood Festival. According to the Explore Asheville Web site, the festival “is named after the regions important honey source, the Sourwood tree, which blooms in mid to late summer each year. Two hundred booths and areas of crafts, food, games and fun attracts over 30,000 visitors from all over the country.”

10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

• And, of course, at night:

Get a dose of traditional local music and dance at Shindig on the Green. String bands, bluegrass, ballad singers, big circle mountain dancers and cloggers entertain you outside on the lawn at Martin Luther King, Jr Park. Bring a blanket and/or a chair, a light cover up (hey, it cools off after sundown in the mountains!), and of course a little bit of cash for the concession stands.

Starts around 7:00, winds down around 10:00 p.m. - the timing is laidback to fit the lazy mountain summertime!

Enjoy! And as always, share things I haven’t mentioned, or if you decide to attend any of these events, let us know how they go!

Thanks to Google alerts, I just found a really interesting article on the Winston-Salem Journal’s Web site.

Seven friends in their early 20s (all of legal drinking age) are making a nine-day North Carolina road trip documentary of state breweries. They’ll cover all 26 breweries across the state. Asheville is a huge stop on their route, with our seven brewing companies and six breweries.

The plan is to have the documentary available in beer and wine shops across the state around the winter holidays.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Asheville micro-breweries:
Asheville Brewing Company
French Broad Brewing Company
Highland Brewing Company
Green Man Brewing
Pisgah Brewing Company
Wedge Brewing Company - Asheville’s newest

Check out the Asheville Brews Cruise - A bus tour of the local breweries. 21 and over only.