[jbawgs]

Its the only actual town for miles in any direction. All those other dots on the map nearby are incorporated hilltops. If they have a gas station with a Hunt Bros pizza franchise, its a town.

That said, our leaders spend any aid money we get on 'tourism' which never pays off, but they don't learn.

[Animats]

Check out the tourism site, "Pikeville, Kentucky's Outdoor Family Playground".[1] There's zip lining, kayaking, and a riding stable. There's also a web site for downtown Pikesville.[2]. Boosterism is alive and well in Pikesville. It's a pretty little town. But it's just not going to draw tourists from far away.

There are bigger places in much worse shape. Youngstown, OH, population down to about 60,000. It was once a bigger industrial city. When the steel industry shut down, it lost its purpose. Plenty of industrial space is available if you have some use for it. Ohio and Pennsylvania have too many cities like that: Akron, OH; Erie, PA, Bethlehem, PA. Pittsburgh came back from losing its steel industry. Cleveland didn't.

[1] http://www.visitpikeville.com/ [2] http://www.pikevillemainstreet.com/

[bsder]

> Pittsburgh came back from losing its steel industry.

Not really. It's still down population almost 10% from 2000.

Losing Westinghouse was a gigantic loss--and it didn't need to happen. Westinghouse should have been a source for tech talent during the Dot Com boom to combine with CMU and Pitt students. Instead Pittsburgh was a technology desert in that same time (I remember trying to find WiFi hotspots there in 2000-2002 and people staring at me like I was from Mars).