1.  The once sleepy backwater is now a thriving city.

2.  And they were highly successful, transforming swamps and deserts into fertile farms and turning small towns into thriving cities.

3.  Architect David Schwarz, a key player in the downtown revival, says downtown residents are essential to a thriving city.

4.  Architect David Schwarz, who designed Sundance West and the conversion of the Sanger and Fakes buildings, says downtown residents are essential to a thriving city.

5.  As the decades passed, many of the old company towns grew into thriving Sun Belt cities.

6.  Downshifting had clearly struck a responsive chord in this thriving city, just as it has in less-favored communities across the nation.

7.  Instead of the expected cookie-cutter suburb, he saw what appeared to be a thriving city, but one in Vietnam.

8.  The psychic damage ran deep, a harsh blow for a once thriving city known for its industrial muscle and swinging jazz clubs.

9.  The street itself is torn up for several blocks as workers repair or replace the vast underground networks of pipes and tubes that sustain a thriving city.

10.  Yet North Carolina remains an economically divided state, where thriving cities prosper alongside depressed small towns and rural regions.