How a tap water crisis activated Charleston’s small business community. Jennifer Pettigrew Burns was washing dinner dishes when she got the text from one of her sons’ teachers. “‘Have you seen the news? You have to turn off your water.’” “I turned the TV on and the president of West Virginia American Water was on the news,” Burns recalls. “I…
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The role of mayor takes many forms across West Virginia. Running a municipality of any size is a heroic job. Traffic, garbage pickup, zoning—it’s the on-the-ground stuff that makes our daily lives frustrating or enjoyable, and the people who run our cities hear every detail. Asked who runs a city, those of us who haven’t engaged in city politics might…
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More than 16,000 people voted in our unprecedented Turn This Town Around campaign. Meet the winners! In January, we announced a monumental campaign called Turn This Town Around. Why would we do such a thing? Because we believe our publications are more than just magazines—they are community builders. The future of our state depends on being able to create sustainable…
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Meet the eight towns competing in our monumental Turn This Town Around campaign—a historic partnership between West Virginia Focus, the West Virginia Community Development Hub, and West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Have you ever driven through a town where once majestic buildings stand as bruised and battered stewards and thought, “What would it take to turn this town around?” Well,…
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The balance of West Virginia’s population has been drifting northward since the 1950s. Political power seems to be moving now, too. Should our southern counties be worried? Enticing teachers to move to economically depressed areas across the U.S. isn’t easy, but in McDowell County, one group hopes that’s about to change for their local schools. Reconnecting McDowell is changing the…
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