Buncombe residents warn downtown Asheville feels unsafe, cite crime concerns

Residents and transplants have been warning each other to stay away from downtown Asheville after dark, describing a street-level unease that has become a political issue as much as a public-safety one. That perception now lands in a city where visitors spent nearly $3 billion in Asheville and Buncombe County in 2023, and where travel and hospitality account for about 20% of the county’s GDP.

The City of Asheville responded to downtown safety concerns with a 60-day Downtown Safety Initiative that began May 1, 2023. The plan called for more foot, bike and vehicle patrols, along with enhanced security in downtown parks. Then-Police Chief David Zack said the effort was “driven by data” showing “a disturbing trend” of increased property and violent crime downtown. Mayor Esther Manheimer called it a “complex problem.” The city says many parts of that effort continued beyond the initial 60 days, and the downtown safety project page was last updated and reviewed Sept. 4, 2025.

The gap between perception and geography is part of what makes the debate so charged. A Feb. 20, 2024 analysis highlighted by Blue Ridge Public Radio found downtown Asheville had less violent crime than several other city neighborhoods, while some of the higher incidence of violent crime was in areas with public housing. That does not erase the complaints from people who say they feel unsafe downtown, but it does show why the public argument often mixes visible disorder, fear and crime patterns that are not distributed evenly across the city.

Countywide numbers also show a more complicated picture than a single downtown narrative. The FBI Crime Data Explorer lists Buncombe County’s violent-crime rate at 50.8 per 100,000 residents in 2020, 53.4 in 2021, 45.4 in 2022 and 47.7 in 2023. Those figures do not settle what people experience on Pack Square or Haywood Street, but they do place downtown concerns in a broader county context.

Staffing shortages at the Asheville Police Department have also shaped how the city responds. A Jan. 25, 2024 report from the USA TODAY Network’s Witness site said APD had 65 of 238 sworn officer positions vacant, a shortage of 27%. The city’s police job page, updated April 2, 2026, lists hiring bonuses of $5,000 for new lateral officers and $3,500 for police officer trainees, a sign that recruitment remains part of the fix.

For Asheville leaders, the challenge is no longer just whether downtown is safe on paper. It is whether residents, workers and visitors believe the city can keep pace with the crime concerns, the staffing gap and the economic stakes tied to a downtown that still anchors Buncombe County’s visitor economy.