002 - Balloons, Christmas Trees, Sprinklers, & Trump

Good morning, Asheville. All right, so today is October 22 and a lot, I guess, to report on. So this is sponsored by making it in Asheville. You're on making it in Asheville's podcast channel, YouTube page. But this is the daily pod hoping to share business stories and everything you need to know as a business fan in Asheville, business owner in Asheville. And so let's get into it. Biggest thing happening in downtown that we can tell is open doors downtown, which you know, is headlined by most of the shops that we know well, curate, Grove Arcade, Mass general, etcetera. The idea is that this past weekend on October 9, and then coming up on October 26, all downtown businesses are invited to participate in displaying a balloon on their door. That balloon will signal a readiness to come back for and, you know, welcoming locals and visitors in their door. And so really inspiring to see that in downtown when, you know, there are moments where downtown. Driving through downtown has felt pretty eerie. Seeing those balloons, I think is a sign of good things to come. And so, in addition to the October 26 open doors downtown event, the downtown Business association is having a Halloween block party Thursday, October 31 from 04:00 p.m. to 07:00 p.m. it's going to involve trick or treating by participating businesses. There's going to be kids activities including tile painting at fired up, there's gonna be a dog costume contest at Spicer Green and live music. Other activities. Seems like it should be a good time. In other news, the Biltmore estate, Asheville's fifth largest employer, announced that it will be reopening as of November 2. That feels soon. Well known that Christmas at Biltmore is a nationally recognized major driver of travel and tourism in the area. And honestly, it's good to see Biltmore signaling that they'll be back online. Christmas at Biltmore, I mean, Biltmore generally is studying Christmas at Biltmore is a very special thing to see. Excited for that city of Asheville also lifted a fire watch code which indicates that the now water has been supplied to all commercial buildings that have sprinkler systems. That's pretty cool. It feels like a big milestone. That is another important step in the process of getting potable water back online. Water is not potable currently, but now everything with a sprinkler system has water running through its pipes. Count that as a win. And then Trump, former President Trump visited Asheville. Very interested to get more context and details as those arrive on the effect of both presidential candidates visiting Asheville in the wake of Helene, but it's a little too soon to say at this point. Last two notes is that there's a really successful Kickstarter campaign that you should know about, if you don't already. Asheville Arts Flood collective collection. We'll get you the link if you visit makingit.com daily. You'll see the notes for this episode, but Asheville Arts Flood Collection is a collection of playing cards and a coffee table book with 54 original arts prints of 54 original arts from Asheville river arts district artists. Their target on Kickstarter a week or so ago was to get to 15,000, and they are well over 100,000. So at this point it's piling on. If you want to support some local artists in Asheville, this is one small way you can do it. 54 artists involved, I believe, and divided by 100, it's a couple thousand per artist, which is nothing, nothing pretty exciting. And the marketer in me likes in some way or another the nuance between Kickstarter campaign and a GoFundme. There's a difference. And it's exciting that this is a Kickstarter campaign and that it's been so successful and there's a bunch of time left. So go check that out. Participate support, if that speaks to you. And then lastly, friend of the pod and wonderful human, Alyssa Phillips of Ampt design is offering really beautiful, like, compelling pro bono support for local businesses. So if you were affected by Helene, she's offering graphic design support primarily through squarespace, canva, um, etcetera. Like helping update on websites was how she kind of leaned into it initially in recent posts, and we have a link to one of them. In recent posts, she's gone to say, like, if you need help with anything, she'll go move heaven and earth to find you local support who can be helpful. So if it's not her wheelhouse, she will help you find what you need. And that is a beautiful thing. So amped design, Alyssa Phillips hats off to you. Last thing to know today, looking like highs in the low seventies, mostly sunny, spattering of clouds in the afternoon, according to our research analysts. And that's pretty much it. So as a reminder, we are freewheeling. We are figuring this thing out in real time. If you want to be one of our, you know, the feet on the street that help us get source compelling stories and news, just send an email to hello at makingit in asheville.com. hello@makingitville.com or send a DM on Instagram. We're making it in Asheville tomorrow. We're looking to potentially flip how this is delivered and play in a new way. If you're watching on a podcast, please subscribe. If you're watching on or listening on a podcast, subscribe. If you're watching on YouTube, give us a follow. If you are seeing this somewhere else, just like I'd love to know where you want to consume this type of content, the daily, and we will make sure that we're there. All right, take care. Be good, and I'll see you tomorrow.