The River Arts District Summer Locals Are Actually Walking

Twenty months after Helene rearranged the French Broad's east bank, the River Arts District is open again. What it is not is the same district. The loop that residents used to walk on a Saturday afternoon has quietly reorganized itself around a different set of anchors, on different corners, with a different rhythm. If you have been staying north of the tracks because the last time you tried the RAD it was construction fencing and closed doors, this is the summer to recalibrate.

The old loop is gone, and a new one has replaced it

Before the storm, the resident version of the district ran on a fairly predictable spine: park near Wedge Foundation, walk south through the studio buildings on Roberts and Depot, end at a brewery. That spine still exists in outline, but almost every anchor along it has been rebuilt, replaced, or relocated.