The wealthy white people of the state used the Dillon rule, the outlawing of annexation, and independent city law unique to Virginia to keep all of the cities needs within city limits but it’s benefits accesable to anyone who can drive in and out.

It has a lot of the needs of larger metros but not the resources to fix them.

There are tons of poor people in town but because the rich people fled across imaginary borders and into the suburbs the money to address these issues is kept out of reach.

So the schools generally suck, utilities don’t work, and our government is populated by openly corrupt locals, resume builders, and naive disinterested weirdos.