Richmond still losing population, but are we?

The RTD is reporting that has Richmond lost just under 3% of the population since 2000. Does anyone have any numbers on more specific areas of the city?

The article also quotes Mary Thompson in describing something different:

The population figures keep painting Richmond as a shrinking city. Mary Thompson sees a different portrait every time she steps out her front door.

“I don’t worry about those numbers, because I believe there are a lot of good things happening in the city,” Thompson said yesterday in response to a University of Virginia study showing that Richmond lost 2.9 percent of its population between the 2000 census and July 1, 2006.

Thompson, who has lived for 50 years in the Fairmount neighborhood in the East End, is seeing her area and others in the city make a comeback. Fairmount is one of the six Richmond neighborhoods taking part in the Neighborhoods in Bloom program, which supports the restoration of older areas by promoting housing renovation, restoration, construction and sales.

“We are realizing some successes with families moving into the community, and we are kind of stabilized,” said Thompson, president of the New Vision Civic League of East End. “Private development has seen what can be done and what has been done.”