It’s a fact, Bacon’s Rebellion doesn’t write enough about Lynchburg. So let me remedy that deficiency by highlighting the following factoid: Lynchburg has been highlighted in a Smart Growth America report as one of Top Ten small metros in the United States in which the core city is growing faster than its outlying jurisdictions.
Between 2010 and 2011, the city’s population grew 1.04% while the outlying counties grew only 0.2% — a differential of 0.84%. While the back-to-the-city trend is a national trend, it is even stronger in small metro areas than large ones, the report says.
Bacon’s bottom line: Virginia has many attractive small cities. (My favorites are Roanoke and Staunton.) Most lost vitality as they experienced their own localized, versions of sprawl (scattered, disconnected, low-density growth). It’s a positive sign that some of them are making a come-back.
My question is this: How much is Lynchburg’s faster growth due to smarter urban planning, and how much is it due to the spectacular growth of Liberty University, which now bills itself as the largest university in Virginia?
— JAB