It is a familiar problem: When an area gets labeled — say Appalachia with poverty or Chicago with gun violence — how do you get people to realize it is also about a lot more?

“All reporters ever want to talk about is drugs,” said Sue Burke, a sixth-generation Portsmouth resident and gardener who volunteers planting and tending the flowerpots downtown. “My kids all have master’s degrees. My daughter-in-law has a doctorate. We have a lot of intelligent, successful people here, and it makes me mad that we are never ever seen that way.”

Mr. Burnside has joined a small group of younger residents — business owners, college professors, Iraq war veterans and museum curators — who people say have brought new energy to solving Portsmouth’s problems. Their goal is to change both the image and reality of life in town, figuring that you cannot really do one without the other.

“They are working harder at this than anybody I’ve ever seen,” said Ed Hughes, who recently retired as head of the Counseling Center, Portsmouth’s main rehabilitation facility. “I think we may be adjusting to the fact that if things are going to get better, we have to do it. The cavalry is not coming.”

As part of Appalachia, Portsmouth has frustrations that are also regional — a rural place that feels looked down on by urban ones. But it is more than image. How it looks to the outside affects how it feels on the inside, townspeople said. Stories seem to miss the effort being poured into the community, like an Etch A Sketch erasing years of work.