Small Towns

[War on Want]

They suck.

Discuss.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Locked in 3.. 2.. 1..

Living in a really small town sucks unless it is close to a bigger town.  Then it's not quite so bad.  I've grown up in a city of 30,000... far from anything larger.  It hasn't been ideal, but there are things to do here besides cow tippin and muddin'.

[angus]

They suck...

...which isn't necessarily a bad thing, depending on how well you like a good sucking.

I guess I'm in a smallish town.  Cedar Falls has maybe 40 thousand residents, although it is adjacent to the county seat, Waterloo, which has maybe 70 thousand residents.  I think within a ten-mile radius there are about 130 thousand residents.  Still, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls SMSA is probably a small town.  Disadvantages:  obvious to you--and to me, admittedly--so I'll not waste the typing.  Advantages:  Here, the cost of living is very low.  We got a house for about 300K that I'm sure would be much, much more expensive in, say, San Francisco.  Or Los Angeles.  And non-existent in New York.  The public schools are much better (at least according to the mean fourth- and eighth-grade composite math and reading scores), but then that's not an issue if you're single.  I can appreciate that.  Driving is a breeze.  I live about 1.5 miles from where I work.  Mind you, most of the time I cycle, but when I do drive it's like, I don't know, a nanosecond to get to work.  Okay, I'm exaggerating.  I don't know how long it actually takes, but I have driven 1.5 miles to work in New York, Boston, and Arlington, and I'm certain that here it takes a shorter time than that.  My wife drives 17 miles to work, and again home.  Here that's like 17 minutes.  Definite advantage for her.  On the other hand, you'd think it might be quiet here, but that hasn't been the case.  I lived in Manhattan for a period, and in Boston and the DFW metroplex for five years each and in the SF bay area for about three years, and believe it or not, here is not more quiet than any of those areas.  There are motorcycles, lawn mowers, snow-removal devices, and any number of noise-making gadgets in suburban population densities that you don't have to put up with when you're sixteen floors above street level.  So don't move to a "small town" thinking it'll be peaceful and quiet.  

But really, small towns suck only if you're over 12 and under 30, which I gather describes the overwhelming majority of the posters here.  Before that, when the world is enormous and your bicycle takes you most everywhere you want to go (and after that, when the world is quite small, and your bicycle takes you most everywhere you want to go), then small towns are no worse or better than big ones.  In between, amid the sturm und drang und angst of early adulthood, when we're drawn like moths to the light but can't really say why, it certainly must suck to be so far away from those bright lights.  I wouldn't know, because between 12 and 30 I avoided being to far away from them myself, but it seems to be the case.

Still, just remember:  it's not always a bad thing to find things that suck.  And if you've ever had a broken vacuum cleaner, you'll appreciate that.  

[War on Want]

I guess I shouldn't be complaining because I'm part of a large metro area that has hundreds of thousands of people in it but it's probably one of the worst developed areas in the West along with Bakersfield, Tacoma and Billings. Who actually likes Spokane? The weather/scenery are nice but it's a terrible combination of white trash, suburbanites and there's no culture here. My region would be so much better as a nature reserve.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Why do they suck?

[Free Palestine]

Small towns tend to have less crime.

*Awaits BRTD*

[J. J.]

Small towns tend to have less crime.

*Awaits BRTD*

Not necessarily.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Small towns tend to have less crime.

*Awaits BRTD*

Tend being the proper word here.  The town of ~700 residents 10 miles east of here has a higher murder and violent crime rate than even "Murderapolis" in its crime heyday of around 1990-1995.

But that's what happens when you mix meth, gangs, and other drugs with old, decrepit federal tract housing on an Indian Reservation.  I can't remember of it's Tract 28 or Tract 33 that are the worst.. but a woman I know came home a couple months ago to a crime scene in her front yard where a man taking his young daughter for a walk had been shot in the back by some gang members that drove by.

Of course someone like BRTD has never heard about this because Minnesota ends at Brainerd in the Twin Cities.  To them, Bemidji is some town in Canada.

[Free Palestine]

Small towns tend to have less crime.

*Awaits BRTD*

Tend being the proper word here.  The town of ~700 residents 10 miles east of here has a higher murder and violent crime rate than even "Murderapolis" in its crime heyday of around 1990-1995.

But that's what happens when you mix meth, gangs, and other drugs with old, decrepit federal tract housing on an Indian Reservation.  I can't remember of it's Tract 28 or Tract 33 that are the worst.. but a woman I know came home a couple months ago to a crime scene in her front yard where a man taking his young daughter for a walk had been shot in the back by some gang members that drove by.

Of course someone like BRTD has never heard about this because Minnesota ends at Brainerd in the Twin Cities.  To them, Bemidji is some town in Canada.

The nicer ones tend to be more remote.  Milton, WA, has only five thousand people, yet from what I hear it isn't exactly too much of a step up from nearby Tacompton.  Big Bear City, CA, has a similar population, yet from what I've heard it's a pleasant community.  The difference is that one, the latter, is more remote.

[useful idiot]

I like them. I prefer it to dense urban, suburban, or rural areas. It really depends on what you consider a small town though. If we're talking under 30 or 40 thousand, then I've only lived in three: Price, Utah(about 10,000), Kodiak, Alaska(6,000), and Dodge City, KS(25,000). I lived in Rockland, ME but that was when I was little and I don't remember it. Next up going into medium cities I lived in Bellingham, WA (around 80,000) and Lynchburg, VA (73,000 but the metro area is about 200,000), Wilmington, NC (340,000). The only really big metro area I've lived in was Norfolk, which is a bit over 2 million.

I think I prefer the medium cities because they have that small town atmosphere in a lot of ways, but access to most of the big chains and malls, and they still have unique neighborhoods.

[Joe Biden 2020]

My alma mater was in a town of 5,000 residents (Alva, OK), about 75 minutes from the nearest bigger city of 48,000 (Enid, OK), about 2 hours from the nearest mid-size city, Wichita, KS and about 3 hours from a metro area of about 1.25 million (Oklahoma City).  The bad thing is Alva was a huge city compared to the surrounding holes-in-the-wall.  The biggest town real close was 2,500 people an hour's drive south in Fairview, OK.  Most of the towns in Woods County (where Alva is the county seat) have less than 1,000 residents.  The town of Waynoka which is 28 miles southwest of Alva is the second-largest town in the county with about 950 people.  The third biggest town is Freedom, OK with 300 people and the fourth biggest is Avard, OK with a grand total of 26 people.  The entire county only has about 8,500 residents and is one of the bigger counties in the region.  The eastern neighbor to Woods County, Alfalfa Co. has a county seat of 1,700 residents (Cherokee) and the western neighbor, Harper Co. has a county seat of 1,100 residents (Buffalo).  So, to a town like Avard or Freedom or Waynoka, Alva looks like Oklahoma City, OKC looks like Dallas, Dallas looks like New York, and New York looks like Tokyo or Mexico City.  So, I know what small, isolated towns are like.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Small towns tend to have less crime.

*Awaits BRTD*

Tend being the proper word here.  The town of ~700 residents 10 miles east of here has a higher murder and violent crime rate than even "Murderapolis" in its crime heyday of around 1990-1995.

But that's what happens when you mix meth, gangs, and other drugs with old, decrepit federal tract housing on an Indian Reservation.  I can't remember of it's Tract 28 or Tract 33 that are the worst.. but a woman I know came home a couple months ago to a crime scene in her front yard where a man taking his young daughter for a walk had been shot in the back by some gang members that drove by.

Of course someone like BRTD has never heard about this because Minnesota ends at Brainerd in the Twin Cities.  To them, Bemidji is some town in Canada.

Uh, I'm from North Dakota. I'm quite familiar with northern Minnesota.

I lived the first 9 years of my life in a small town that no doubt had a higher per capita crime rate than my current Minneapolis neighborhood.

As for their quality, depends on a lot of factors. They aren't so bad in high school though I understand the desire to leave. But I'd much rather grow up and go to high school in a place like Albert Lea, MN than the Twin Cities suburbs. I wouldn't consider Bismarck a small town but in high school it was quite easy to get away with stuff I know I wouldn't in some rich suburb down here. Remember my report about my relatively lax high school.

[phk]

I like them. I prefer it to dense urban, suburban, or rural areas. It really depends on what you consider a small town though. If we're talking under 30 or 40 thousand, then I've only lived in three: Price, Utah(about 10,000), Kodiak, Alaska(6,000), and Dodge City, KS(25,000). I lived in Rockland, ME but that was when I was little and I don't remember it. Next up going into medium cities I lived in Bellingham, WA (around 80,000) and Lynchburg, VA (73,000 but the metro area is about 200,000), Wilmington, NC (340,000). The only really big metro area I've lived in was Norfolk, which is a bit over 2 million.

I think I prefer the medium cities because they have that small town atmosphere in a lot of ways, but access to most of the big chains and malls, and they still have unique neighborhoods.

Lived there in 1992.

[Holmes]

They suck.

Discuss.

Go wash your mouth with soap.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Locked in 3.. 2.. 1..

We have no (legitimate) reason to lock this - as much as Mikado and I are dying to get a legitimate reported post from one of our boards right now.

[fezzyfestoon]

Yeah, not my thing either.  Though the small towns I've been to haven't been that isolated since I have yet to leave the east coast.  I've always wanted to visit some small towns out west to see what it's like.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I've always wanted to visit some small towns out west to see what it's like.

Just go rent Gummo.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Locked in 3.. 2.. 1..

We have no (legitimate) reason to lock this - as much as Mikado and I are dying to get a legitimate reported post from one of our boards right now.

Well.. I'm glad the thread spawned legitimate discussion.  I just figured if no one picked up on it right away it might be locked because the OP didn't add any insightful discussion to a thread he created.

[Countess Anya of the North Parish]

Everyone is famous in a small town. I actually like small towns compared to cities.

[War on Want]

They suck.

Discuss.

Go wash your mouth with soap.

I actually had to do that once when I was little. Worst experience ever.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Locked in 3.. 2.. 1..

We have no (legitimate) reason to lock this - as much as Mikado and I are dying to get a legitimate reported post from one of our boards right now.

Well.. I'm glad the thread spawned legitimate discussion.  I just figured if no one picked up on it right away it might be locked because the OP didn't add any insightful discussion to a thread he created.

No - in fact, if that happens, I'd be even more inclined to let it be and die on its own - but I don't lock stuff for simply not having insightful discussion.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Everyone is famous in a small ton. I actually like small towns compared to cities.

I would imagine you would be famous if you were around a small ton.

[Earth]

I'm not particularly a fan of urban environments, but small towns, particularly if you're stuck, is just as hellish. A happy medium is a having a place outside of a small town, with less neighbors, and under a hundred miles from a city.

[War on Want]

Yeah, not my thing either.  Though the small towns I've been to haven't been that isolated since I have yet to leave the east coast.  I've always wanted to visit some small towns out west to see what it's like.

There's actually a few that seem like okay places to live in but they're the really isolated areas filled with hippies. Look up McCall, Idaho on google maps. It's a cool little town. There was a foot of snow there in April when I passed through there to get to Boise so the weather's really cold but in the summer it would be perfect.

[fezzyfestoon]

I've always wanted to visit some small towns out west to see what it's like.

Just go rent Gummo.

Haha EW, that looks like it'd make me feel weird for like a week.

Yeah, not my thing either.  Though the small towns I've been to haven't been that isolated since I have yet to leave the east coast.  I've always wanted to visit some small towns out west to see what it's like.

There's actually a few that seem like okay places to live in but they're the really isolated areas filled with hippies. Look up McCall, Idaho on google maps. It's a cool little town. There was a foot of snow there in April when I passed through there to get to Boise so the weather's really cold but in the summer it would be perfect.

That does look cool.  Idaho seems to have some really nice places.