North Carolina’s Contentious Bid to Bridge the Urban-Rural Divide

In Raleigh, North Carolina, these are boom times. The state capital cradles the Research Triangle, where Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University converge. It’s grown by 18 percent since 2010, making it the second-fastest-growing city in the country, and the broader Wake County region is expected to double in population by 2050. It’s got an international airport, a brand-new train station, and soon, an outpost of the cult-favorite supermarket Wegmans.

Sixty miles east down Highway 64 is Rocky Mount, a city of 56,000 straddling Nash and Edgecombe counties that has a little less to cheer about. Once a tobacco and textile hub, the city was gutted during the recession. Nash County has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state, at 5.2 percent; for years, Rocky Mount’s workforce has been shrinking.