Scranton, Pennsylvania, is one of those much-maligned towns that's attained almost a mythical status as a rough, hardscrabble, blue-collar place nobody wants to live.
It's portrayed as a dreary, dead-end locale on "The Office."
And earlier this month, an SNL sketch about the VP debate poked fun at Joe Biden's frequent put-downs of his hometown: "Don't be telling me that I'm part of the Washington elite, because I come from the absolute worst place on Earth: Scranton, Pennsylvania," said the actor playing Biden. "It's a hellhole! It is just an awful, awful sad place filled with sad, desperate people with no ambition!"
But the truth is that Scranton is actually on the upswing. From the Wall Street Journal :
The population here is growing for the first time in 60 years, following a decades-long exodus that halved the city to barely 70,000 people. Its architecturally distinctive downtown, long vacant, is undergoing a dramatic renovation. And tourism is spiking, thanks in no small part to "The Office"....
There's a distinctly white-collar movement behind Scranton's comeback. A return of college-educated natives from cities like New York and Philadelphia is fueling a population rise and a civic makeover. Bringing them back are the very small-town qualities many once wanted to escape: the likelihood of meeting acquaintances and relatives on the streets. The embrace here of modest ambition. The deeply held belief -- only heightened by ridicule from the outside world -- that Scranton matters.
The WSJ article goes on to say that Scranton may be on its way to becoming the new Peoria -- a symbol of Middle America.
Michael Scott would be proud...
Zach Patton -- Executive Editor. Zach has written about a range of topics, including social policy issues and urban planning and design. Originally from Tennessee, he joined GOVERNING as a staff writer in 2004. He received the 2011 Jesse H. Neal Award for Outstanding Journalism
E-mail: zpatton@governing.com 
Written and compiled by staff writers and editors, GOVERNING View is an on-the-ground, and sometimes behind-the-scenes, look at the topics we're covering in print and online. From notes on what's up in statehouses, county courthouses and city halls, to encounters with people, places and things, GOVERNING View is a window into the side of state and local government you don't always see.
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