Roanoke’s four quadrants reveal a deep and persistent divide. 

While legal segregation ended with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, its legacy continues to shape cities and their neighborhoods across the country. In Roanoke, access to education, job opportunities and even how long you live can look vastly different depending on the zip code you were born in. Just a few miles apart, life in Roanoke can often feel worlds away. 

In this new Q&A series, The Rambler invites members of the community to reflect on what it means to live in a divided city. By sharing perspectives across generations, backgrounds and quadrants, we hope to spark honest conversations that are too often left unspoken. 

This month, we spoke with Jessica Mahuron, the co-chair of I Heart SE, a nonprofit community group representing Southeast Roanoke. Mahuron has been living in Southeast since early 2024, when she and her husband moved to the city from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. First drawn to the Roanoke’s arts scene, mountains and historical buildings, then hooked by Southeast’s “eclectic” community, Mahuron is now immersed neighborhood advocacy. With a background in community organizing, Mahuron helped I Heart SE achieve its nonprofit status and hone its mission of “growing the good.”  

We met on a rainy day at the Belmont Branch Library, a hub for I Heart SE’s community engagement efforts. Almost two years into living and working in Southeast, Mahuron reflected on her leadership role with I Heart SE, widespread misconceptions about the quadrant and her hopes for Southeast’s future. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. If you or someone you know is interested in being interviewed for this series, please reach out to sinclair@roanokerambler.com.

Tell me about your decision to move to Roanoke. What attracted you to the city?

My husband and I had this running list of things that we were looking for in a community. We wanted arts and culture. We wanted to have a mixture of outdoor recreation. We’re really into hiking and camping and all those things. We wanted to make sure that we had a good community vibe. And affordability was key. And so Roanoke really just checked all the boxes. We purchased a home through a realtor, and that was an online process, although my husband did come down and do the inspection and looked around the neighborhood, all those things. 

Of course, there were lots of thoughts and feelings from residents about where you live, about where you buy your home. And there most certainly was some negativity around buying in Southeast. But I have found it to have been a great choice. I am within walking distance of downtown where I live in Starview Heights. It’s really easy access to Elmwood Park, to 5 Points Music Sanctuary. It’s just a really good location. 

And I already knew in advance, before even moving to Roanoke, that I wanted to be specifically involved in neighborhood organizing. I wanted to connect with the local neighborhood group, and I wanted to at least connect with the Office of Neighborhood Services that has the Roanoke Neighborhood Advocates and does other kinds of more resident-facing work, which is what I do. And I was excited that Roanoke offered that because where I lived before, I do not remember any sort of those different neighborhood groups. 

You mentioned hearing negativity about buying a home in Southeast. What kinds of things were you hearing?

I was not even living here yet, and the realtor who had been living in the area since he was born, he was an older gentleman, he was telling me stories like, “Oh, you want to be careful, because of this and this and this.”

I know that they can’t really downgrade neighborhoods, but he was talking about the history of it, like back in the day it was known to be a rougher area. I also saw a lot of times people were online talking about visible homelessness, they were talking about crime. They were talking about drug use. 

You see on Facebook, you see on Reddit, you see people like, “I’m interested in living in the area. Where should I live?” Everyone, almost always seems to say, “Go live in Grandin Village. Go live in Wasena. Go live in Cave Spring. Go live in Southwest. Avoid Southeast and avoid Northwest.” Nobody ever talks about Northeast. I don’t know why. It’s almost like, constant that you see it. I think that you just had to take it with a grain of salt. 

There’s this really interesting way that the city divides itself into the four quadrants. And there’s the literal things, you know — to get out of my neighborhood, I have to cross the railroad tracks. There’s I-81, there are these physical things that separate the city. But there’s also just this whole culture that has been instilled, this whole four-quadrant Roanoke, instead of just talking about Roanoke as a whole. And yes, the neighborhoods are really wonderful, but I think we don’t talk enough about Roanoke as a whole. 

If you had to pick three words to describe Southeast, what would they be?

I’d say “eclectic,” “diverse” and it’s not one word, but “unpolished gem.”

Do you want to expand on any of those?

When you walk down the streets and we do the plawking (which is picking up trash in a social group) in Southeast, you just kind of see it. Like oh, look at that beautiful building, that beautiful home. And you admire the things. And sometimes there are things that are a little rough around the edges, but you see what its potential is. You know, there’s homes that have murals on them. There’s buildings where I’m like, gosh, what did that used to be? What could it be? 

So it’s kind of unpolished. It’s interesting, because it’s affordable, right? And you don’t necessarily want it to become gentrified. However, when we put in our pergola in our yard, people in the neighborhood say they love it. Or when I see that my neighbor painted their steps, I like that. And I think that we all actually do love seeing those steady improvements in Southeast. You have Habitat for Humanity, Restoration Housing taking abandoned homes and turning them into something beautiful that is affordable for someone to live in. 

And when we hear about investment — potentially at Riverdale, what is is hopefully to come one day, or 9th Street, you know, efforts there for economic development — I think that we all applaud that, because we recognize that in Southeast, a little bit of investment will go a long way.

You’ve spoken about the negative perceptions that many people have about Southeast. Does that play a part in I Heart SE’s mission?

It definitely is about highlighting the good. It’s just like having this great logo, right? It’s kind of like I Love New York, but it’s like, I Love Southeast. 

We are all completely aware of what the negative aspects are, and what the stigma is, and we see the problems without a doubt. But when those problems start to cloud your entire perception of an entire quadrant of the city, and the people that live there, and the businesses that are there, you need to take some sort of action.

And so that action really is to highlight the positivity and to grow the good. You got to do what’s within your control. And if you identify the strengths of an area and you actually put human energy towards that, and start building that up and putting attention to that, I think over time, it does make a difference. Like, there are studies that show how a mural can impact a city when it comes to blight and other social problems. It’s literally things like putting in murals, putting in new trees — which we did last weekend in partnership with the Tree Stewards. It’s these little things that actually do really make a difference. 

I Heart SE lists inclusiveness as one of its core values. Why is inclusiveness important to the group, and what ways do you work to make the group inclusive? 

Well, the vast majority of what we do is free. We had an art showing and social, and it had a surprisingly good turnout. When we did the tree planting the weekend before, other people we don’t always engage came. We try to be inclusive by putting together activities and co-hosting things that appeal to a broad amount of people. Like our trunk or treat, you get everybody in the neighborhood at that — all sorts of kids, all sorts of families that live in Southeast, you really get a pulse of it. And that is obviously a free event, and we have community partners that do that outreach as well. So I guess it’s inclusive, where we welcome everybody, and we try to create opportunities for all walks of life to participate.

Roanoke has long been recognized as one of the most segregated cities in Virginia. As a resident of Roanoke and an advocate for Southeast, what does segregation mean to you?

When I think about Roanoke, first of all, I know that there was a lot of racial segregation. But I think nowadays the biggest piece is the economic segregation. There is a huge difference in home values from Southeast and really close by in Southwest Roanoke neighborhoods — it’s a totally different story. Or going into Grandin Village, or going into Northwest, too. It’s all across the board. 

So I think for Southeast, I think for a long time it had been historically known for working class white people. That’s what I understand. Like it was first the railroad workers, that’s where the railroad workers were, and then you had the American Viscose plant. But I think over time, and I don’t know how long that’s been, it became more and more of a melting pot. You see people from all different cultures and backgrounds in Southeast, which is, I think, a beautiful thing. However, I do think that there still is an economic segregation, so to speak, in Southeast. 

A lot of people would really like to see the city invest more in Southeast. And I know it feels like they have been, because they’ve been doing the Belmont-Fallon target area, and there’s these target investments. But I find it very interesting when they propose they’re going to bring some sort of service for people that are maybe experiencing homelessness or drug addiction, and they may want to put it in somewhere like Southwest, but they always default to, “Well, let’s put it in Southeast.” And you see this “not in my backyard” rallying and organizing in other neighborhoods. But I’ve noticed in Southeast there’s actually not a lot of rallying against it. But it doesn’t mean that people are always for it. 

The whole act of being involved in your local community and local politics and using your voice, there’s a lot to do with income there. And there are a lot of young people that live in Southeast, like working families who have children, who are maybe working one or two jobs. It is a luxury to be able to go to a community meeting or go to a city council meeting and speak up. So I think when it comes to Southeast, when it comes to the citizen voice, I feel like there’s really not a good avenue for that right now. 

I do think that I would like to see more of a concentrated effort on getting voices of Southeast involved in local policy-making and decisions that are being made. There is nobody on City Council that is from Southeast. And that that might change in the future — I’ve heard rumors, maybe there’s somebody that might want to run. I will say, there’s at least a couple people on the council right now that do come to events, and I think they really care. But there needs to be more investment, I would say, in Southeast. 

I don’t think that there should be any “bad part of town.” That just shouldn’t be right. We shouldn’t say that Southeast is the bad part of town, or Northwest is. No. 

What are your favorite things about living in Southeast?  And what do you hope to continue to improve moving forward? 

I love the walkability. And I recognize that that same type of walkability isn’t everywhere in Roanoke, which is an equity issue in a lot of ways, too. But I love that I can walk downtown, and I can walk to different places within this quadrant, and it’s just easy. I love that we have some really nice parks in Southeast, and Morningside Urban Farm is gorgeous. I love where I live. I see the star right from my house, and I have a great view of it. 

And I love the potential. I love the people. The number one thing I love about Southeast is the people. Like, I have met some amazing people through plawking and joining this group. Like, that’s where all my friendships came from. And that really, really fulfills me. 

One thing I want for Southeast is just more gathering spaces. Like the coffee shops, restaurants, those types of things. That’s just me personally. I think that our nonprofit cares a lot about that too. If on 9th Street, some building opened up and it said it’s going to be a restaurant, it’s going to be a brewery, it’s going to be a coffee shop, it’s going to be a place where people can be — oh, we’re going to rally around that 100 percent. I want to see more places like we have at the library.

So that’s what I want to see — local businesses, and seeing what can we do to help inspire more of that investment, so that I can spend my money in the neighborhood that I live in. So that I’m not always spending all my resources just in downtown or in Southwest Roanoke or in other spaces. I want to be able to invest here, locally. 

We do have some good local business owners, and I don’t want to say that there’s none. And we really try to support all those. There’s little pockets that I think are really interesting to pay attention to. So there’s MAKE Roanoke and Motel Studios. Also Starr Hill Brewery is considered in Southeast, and they are doing a lot, including sponsoring us for several community events that we’re going to hold in the winter. They really want to be able to attract more people that are living in Southeast to their destination. There’s a lot of excitement happening, but I just hope to see more of that.