In a live Jan. 9 television appearance touting Asheville as 2015’s top travel destination, Pauline Frommer changed her tune, crediting artists for making the River Arts District vibrant.
Calling Asheville “a wonderful city” on the Fox Business show, “The Willis Report,” Frommer added: “Now you have a really vibrant River District thanks to the artists in that community. It’s awesome. It’s such a culturally rich city.”
On New Year’s day, the editorial director of the popular travel guide generated a firestorm of local criticism for saying on “Good Morning America” that “the sketchy riverside area has been totally redone thanks to the New Belgium Brewery, which has poured millions of dollars into this area, making new parks, artists collectives, farmers markets, bike paths.” Subsequent media reports noted that New Belgium Brewing is nearly a year away from opening and the river area was a tourist and artist haven long before the brewery chose to build there.
In a Jan. 6 interview with Xpress, Frommer said she regretted the mischaracterization. “Doing live TV is difficult and I, unfortunately, accidentally conflated some developments,” she said.
In the more recent Jan. 9 segment, Frommer touted Asheville’s craft beer scene but didn’t mention any specific breweries. Fox Business host Gerri Willis, who grew up in Western North Carolina, also praised Asheville, calling it “one of my favorite places in the World.”
Watch the short video segment here:
http://www.thebaffler.com/salvos/dead-end-on-shakin-street
Riverlink, dammit!!
Pitchforks, ahoy!