The Bootstrapping Success of Roanoke, Virginia

"Roanoke is back on the map," according to an article by Colin Woodard. Only a decade ago, noted Woodward, the U.S Census counted only 15 people living in the city's downtown. Now, however, "downtown has been revitalized and, for the first time in its history, has 2,000 people living in it, many of them getting to and from other parts of the city via a refurbished greenbelt."

The article includes a lot more data to back up the narrative of Roanake of a revitalization success story before answering the question of how "a small city in a disadvantaged region four hours from a major metropolis—one that had seen its signature industries atrophy or depart, that lacked so much as a branch campus of a state university—[transformed] itself from the forgotten stepsister of the Appalachians into a formidable rival to Asheville, North Carolina?"