"We're getting a lot of growth in Center City and certainly a lot of growth in emerging suburbs, but a lot of the inner-ring older suburbs were struggling with loss of jobs and loss of residents," Barry Seymour, executive director of the DVRPC, tells GlobeSt.com. "There were a few that were doing their own marketing, but we realized that with so many communities in our region and each one trying to get their own message out, they would get lost. So we created the Classic Towns umbrella to help them market together."

Eight of the inaugural "classic towns" are in Pennsylvania: Ambler in Montgomery County; Bristol and Doylestown in Bucks County; Lansdowne and Media in Delaware County; West Chester in Chester County; and the Philadelphia neighborhoods of Manayunk and Overbrook Farms. Also included are three New Jersey communities: Collingswood, Haddon Heights and Riverton. Each will kick in $2,500 per year to help fund the program, matched by DVRPC, Seymour says.

"We'll be working one on one with communities to help them promote their own programs, but then they also will learn a lot from each other," he says. "We'll have different forums and workshops where we bring them together. They can share success stories and learn from one another about what works and doesn't."