Rose Conlon

"The bank had shut us down and we didn't know how we were going to go forward."

"It wasn't a lot," said Roslyn Imrie, "But it gave me a lot of hope."

"We're getting a distorted capitalism that does not produce shared prosperity," says Walker.

"It gets complicated after your parents pass away and you have nobody."

Younger shoppers in particular value the brick-and-mortar shopping experience, research shows. Bash Party Goods takes that idea to heart.

Regulation of the tobacco industry didn't happen overnight.

Lila Johnson is still paying back the money she borrowed last shutdown.

"We all started to realize that life was just going to be different."

Mayor Hillary Schieve said playing on the region's strengths and diversifying its economy helped revive the struggling, post-recession city.

Without intervention, the disparity between thriving and lagging economies will worsen.