Any other small town residents or people who grew up in small towns? Where are you from?
@lambda6564
3 жыл бұрын
Germany, town of 10.000 inhabitants. Actually transit here is fairly good. We have 3 different train lines and bus service to all villages. We have a historic old town that is completely walkable, different factories, a big regional hospital and city park. I am quite happy that the economy is good here, because our neighbouring small town completely died out. (in an economic sense)
@kaengurus.sind.genossen
3 жыл бұрын
I grew up in a small town, but I am from Germany, so I assume it doesn't count. The German language also doesn't distinguish between "town" and "city"
@ttopero
3 жыл бұрын
I appreciate the technical info about size of communities, what’s considered urban/rural & how many communities within commuting distance get annexed or grow too large for the designation. I think it’d be worth exploring the sociological & economic aspects of the small town feel. I bet lots of people living in one small town but working in another feel less connected than someone in a larger town that lives & works there.
@halgerson
3 жыл бұрын
I grew up in a town of 500 people in South Dakota. I have trouble considering any town with more than 5000 people as "small". Sturgeon Bay would be the 14th largest town in South Dakota...practically a metropolis. But I also grew up 30 minutes from a McDonalds, so I accept that I have a skewed perspective. I should also say that the town is barely a town anymore, with barely any industry or retail. Everyone who isn't a farmer commutes to the local city for work. My town is just where people live. If it were 10 miles further out, it might have died completely by now.
@sollamander2206
3 жыл бұрын
I grew up in a slightly larger town called Floral Park (around 16,000) that is geographically just an NYC suburb but has that small town feel due to the walkability and the presence of a main street with lots of local businesses as opposed to only big box chains with massive parking lots. When I went off to college, I was struck by how innocent people from my town that borders NYC were because we never really had to deal with needing to drive home from parties where teenagers were drunk. The town was generally so quiet that cops had the time to really clamp down on loitering and as a result most teenagers were familiar with every cop in town and their differing styles (with about a third being the dads of classmates). It would be interesting to see you do a video where you mention Vermont, a state almost entirely made up of small towns (I think they have fewer than 10 municipalities with over 10,000 people in the entire state.)
@Vespuchian
3 жыл бұрын
I note how walkability is usually a huge part of "small town feel", as if everyone already knows that being able to use public spaces without needing a vehicle is desirable, even if they can't articulate it. The town where I currently live also fits that Small Town definition and they've put a lot of effort into expanding and upgrading the bicycle and walking trail infrastructure in order to reduce traffic even as they plan to increase population density by redeveloping more streets like the historic downtown with mixed-use buildings. I'm very optimistic about this town, even as the housing prices have skyrocketed because of how desirable it's becoming.
@doomkitty8386
3 жыл бұрын
Basically, the opposite of postwar suburbs.
@ohjahohfrick9837
3 жыл бұрын
I wish you could tell the name of the town without doxing yourself, but alas.
@aquaticko
3 жыл бұрын
I think the important point there is that, in these situations, it's essential to continue to allow density to increase, and allow that increasing density to spread to more areas. There are two things I feel like I see often when reading about real estate in the U.S.. The first is that contra the "millenials want to live in cities" narrative, "millenials moving to suburbs" crops up, too, conveniently skirting the fact that in most of the geographic area of the U.S., suburbs are all that's legal to be built (that nasty R1 zoning doing its thing). The second is "suburbs are seeing huge price increases because of demand", to which my brain says "yes, that's because these suburbs want to become cities". When lots of people want to move to a particular area, the correct and productive thing to do is make it possible for all of them to move there, not to let older, more restrictive zoning or selfish land owners continue to restrict an area's potential.
@silan2335
3 жыл бұрын
Isnt that the problem that prices skyrocket and then the only people that can afford to move in dont contribute that much to the community
@Vespuchian
3 жыл бұрын
@@silan2335 Only if no new development is added to take up demand. Mixed use buildings also have the benefit of often being rental units, which can keep individual rents manageable by splitting the building costs between all the tenants and the shop below.
@jnyerere
3 жыл бұрын
As a child growing up in DC, my mother used to take us to Eastern Market every Saturday where she would sell her jewelry and we would roam around the neighborhood. That's the earliest memory I have of a "small town feel" in a major metropolis.
@dalton-at-work
3 жыл бұрын
does it still operate today?
@rickposter3534
3 жыл бұрын
@@dalton-at-work Yes, it does. It's located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and it's a very popular place on weekends.
@ThecrazyJH96
3 жыл бұрын
Just took my grandma around her old house in Anacostia, old working class neighborhood in the late 50s and 60s. Beautiful hearing The old stories, definitely a small town feel
@hochiminh9884
3 жыл бұрын
Wewe mtanzania rudi kwenu bongo
@mandisaw
3 жыл бұрын
"Planned communities" - there were a bunch of them built pre-war, or immediately following. Basically a "small" community within a city, often with mixed-use development and walkable streets. I ought to know - my grandparents lived in one (after a major desegregation fight), and now I do as well.
@tomtrask_YT
3 жыл бұрын
I grew up in small towns at least from the age of about 7 and the number one thing that I liked about them is that even if I wasn't old enough to drive, I could probably walk to the stuff I needed. This is precisely the metric by which I measure my current housing since that time. Long, unavoidable, daily commutes suck but being able to walk to get a library book or a coffee or something for dinner or to see your friend are great. And what I've learned is that small towns don't have a monopoly on that.
@user-rx9ny4yo2e
2 жыл бұрын
This is specially valuable for older children and teenagers as it allows them to develop freely in a safe enviroment without making their parents nervous.
@TechnicalHotDog
2 жыл бұрын
Yeah, living in the city can be great for that. It's the suburbs that suck.
@ryanfraley7113
2 жыл бұрын
I live in a small town where I have to drive for most things. It defeats the purpose of living in a small town.
@StLouis-yu9iz
3 жыл бұрын
As someone that lives in a rural area currently, I feel like you are underestimating the decline… Most of the people left in these small towns around me are older, and those are the only ones with money unfortunately. So I am very concerned with the future of rural America.
@mandisaw
3 жыл бұрын
CB has rose-colored glasses due to his hometown being very wealthy and economically-stable, in no small part due to public investment (ships, schools, those bridges looked pretty well-kept, too). So many US small towns haven't had any public-sector money sent their way since Carter, or even the Kennedy/Johnson Administration. Ironically, despite all the conservative complaints about Biden's infrastructure plan, that's probably the last, best hope for rural America. A lot of places won't make it through another economic downturn.
@victorianascimentodesa6931
2 жыл бұрын
agree but not. cities are better. with huge gentrification, a few much more richer, and a bunch of poor pretending their lives are normal
@gage3725
2 жыл бұрын
I do not like small towns. I have lived in a small town all my life and hated it. I cant find like minded people in it.
@jennifertarin7748
2 жыл бұрын
@@gage3725 that has been my experience as well. I would say that only about a third of the people in my town have left the state for more than a day trip or two. I much prefer living in a city where I have many amenities at my fingertips.
@AssBlasster
2 жыл бұрын
This is why I would micropolitan towns (10k-50k ppl) are far better options than small towns. Usually towns of this size have a few reliable employers, like colleges or mid-sized companies, that allow for sufficient support for younger folks in jobs at cafes/restaurants/shops. They will still often have a decent main st or several blocks for a semi-walkable downtown. My 20k college town is the perfect size for a "small town feel" where I can easy walking access to shops if I live near downtown (apts or houses are nearby)
@TommyJonesProductions
3 жыл бұрын
Midtown Atlanta has the community feel and walkability of a tiny town, but is in the center of a major metropolis. You don't have to live in the middle of nowhere to have that "small town feel".
@sirprinceblair
3 жыл бұрын
Absolutely Tommy Jones.
@mz4ahs
3 жыл бұрын
same goes for like, Lake Claire or Candler Park or other locations ITP in the metro. IMO midtown isn't the best example bc of the density and type of buildings around. But you 100% are onto something.
@kyboy5
3 жыл бұрын
Fuc Atlanta
@pascalecnto68
3 жыл бұрын
Maybe in parts. But Atlanta analysed as a whole is the antithesis of the small town feel. It's arguably the biggest city in the US sprawl wise (depending on method of measurement) and is a poster hold for all that is wrong with certain US cities - awful scale. People wind up living 16+ hours a week of their lives stuck in cars. It's a scale so incredibly vast that people have become isolationist and distant in their character. This is not a small town feel. I could go on for hours of the awfulness of cities like Atlanta, DallasFW, Houston, Phoenix etc
@BalaKrishna-bq5iz
3 жыл бұрын
@@matthewbarry376 Did you really say Mexicans are criminals?
@fernbedek6302
3 жыл бұрын
Hamilton Ontario has a few ‘small town’ segments in the city itself. A good layering of urban feel. Especially with Toronto right nearby, accessible by public transit.
@carfreeneoliberalgeorgisty5102
3 жыл бұрын
Dundas is a cool neighbourhood
@jakebyday
3 жыл бұрын
I live in Lincoln next door, this area is very smalltown
@herschelwright4663
3 жыл бұрын
Winnipeg has several neighbourhoods that have a small town feel. They were once separate municipalities that the city annexed over the years.
@sm3675
3 жыл бұрын
@Jason Thompson Living in Mississauga, I can agree and disagree. Oakville's neighborhoods near the lake are very quiet and tightnit, but the northern and newer subdivisions are the classical suburban style building. Sadly Oakville's new subdivisions (and the same can be said for the whole Greater Toronto area) are dense interms of population, but lack walkability. A great example of this ugliness is north of Dundas (the road).
@sm3675
3 жыл бұрын
@Jason Thompson Hopefully this can change. I love Oakville, and I do not want to see more cookies cutter streets.
@Croz89
3 жыл бұрын
Co-working spaces have been touted as a solution for small town economies. Instead of everyone commuting to one office, people commute to a co-working space near where they live and interact together remotely. This would then attract cafe's, restaurants and shops where these people would buy lunch or go shopping after work, and would also provide a place outside the home for work, without the long commute.
@paxundpeace9970
3 жыл бұрын
To attract cafe's or something like it etc you need 100 costumers a day at least
@Croz89
3 жыл бұрын
@@paxundpeace9970 You might be able to do that, a co-working space can have 25-50 members so a few of them downtown could probably support a couple of cafes or restaurants.
@dalton-at-work
3 жыл бұрын
@@Croz89 or if real estate wasn't being artificially held at high prices (by big real estate corps. leaving buildings empty rather than lower the price) the buisinesses could actually afford to move to where their employees live. also overly strict zoning "codes" dont allow mixed use in a lot of areas.
@hackel137
3 жыл бұрын
I think especially during the pandemic people have realized what a pointless waste of money co-working spaces are. But a properly designed small town could achieve the same by building denser housing integrated with shops and restaurants that are accessible from people's homes. The problem is nobody wants to live in an apartment in small towns. All they care about is *sprawl*. (In North America.)
@Croz89
3 жыл бұрын
@@hackel137 I disagree. Home working can be very isolating and not everyone copes well with it. Having a "work place" and a "home place" can help people be more productive, and it also allows for in person socialisation which has mental health benefits. Also, as you say, not everyone wants to live in a mixed use area, it will be busier and less peaceful than a purely residential area. A co-working space allows for a shorter commute while also getting people out of their homes.
@Quasihamster
3 жыл бұрын
"I wish this place felt more like a small town!" "Well one big step would be walking to the grocer, it's just a quarter mile!" "WHAT WALKING?! YOU KIDDING ME!?"
@brianisbrined9255
3 жыл бұрын
Your grocery store is only 1/4 mile a way? Must be nice lol
@dalton-at-work
3 жыл бұрын
does walking that quarter mile require using a 2 foot wide sidewalk next to 6 lanes of cars going 50mph, if there even is a sidewalk at all? not all "walkable" distances are created equal. 1/4 mile on a stroad feels like a life-threatening trek compared to a 1/4 mile down a tree-lined street with 10-foot wide sidewalks
@kurisu7885
3 жыл бұрын
The one grocery store I knew I could walk to was recently demolished.
@chrisw443
3 жыл бұрын
ya gotta walk at least 45 minutes through a highway interchange to get to the big box store.
@ChemySh
3 жыл бұрын
lol this behaviour persists even when Americans travel abroad me and my US friends lived in a walkable Asian city, and they've adjusted pretty well to walkability because driving as a foreigner is a legal and financial hassle, but whenever they're drunk, their tendency to prefer motor vehicles to walking resurfaces (like when you're drunk and gets the munchies at 2 AM)
@chrisaguilera1564
3 жыл бұрын
I think it's more of a community feel than just based on population density. Tokyo Japan is one of the largest cites in the world yet much of it has small town communities within the metropolis.
@qjtvaddict
3 жыл бұрын
Haha trains everywhere lol
@LARKXHIN
3 жыл бұрын
Yep. Life Where I'm From just did a great video on zoning in Tokyo that compliments this. A community in a large city is something i'm okay with.
@ChemySh
3 жыл бұрын
@@LARKXHIN pog, time to start another Cities Skylines playthrough
@beechnut79
3 жыл бұрын
Chicago is also a classic example of that, yet not as much as once was the case. Many of the original ethnic residents moved elsewhere and the feel of these areas changed, most either became gentrified or ghettoized. Wicker Park for the former; Marquette Park for the latter.
@linuxman7777
3 жыл бұрын
It helps that outside of the central wards, there are few high rises, and the organic nature of the steet layout makes tokyo feel very human oriented
@jscythe74
3 жыл бұрын
As far as the transit thing goes, a lot of small towns are almost completely residential. There are a few businesses like grocery stores and gas stations, but most people work in larger neighboring towns. So rural America has the exact opposite transit problem of urban America. In big cities, they worry about the last mile. In small towns, the pressing concern is the twelve to twenty five miles to the next town over. As a result, car ownership is mandatory because there's just no other way to get to work.
@paxundpeace9970
3 жыл бұрын
Technical 15 miles is at the edge commuting range of an e -bike. But without cycling infrastructure outside quite residential streets this is not an viable option. .
@SunriseLAW
3 жыл бұрын
@@paxundpeace9970 An e-bike is an electric motorcycle. Several times I have been passed on the bike path at "e-bikes" that are moving at least 40 mph, possibly as much as 50 mph. I don't think most people understand just how fast some of those things go because if they were they would keep them on the road and regulate them like motorcycles (and they can use the roads with the other motorcycles).
@ishthiaqshaik1083
3 жыл бұрын
A good bus service could easily solve the problem
@wclifton968gameplaystutorials
3 жыл бұрын
Thats only really a problem in the USA/Canada since places have been built car-dependent since the 1930s and en-mass since the end of the 2nd world war; Here in the UK, in the majority of the countryside there is bus service usually between large towns serving little villages and farms normally upto every 30mins mondays-saturdays and hourly or once every 2 hours on Sundays to running upto 2 or 4 times day in the deepest parts of the countryside but areas have only be served like this since 1989 when bus services were privatised and deregulated by PM Margaret Thatcher, in the small town of Hindhead, Surrey with a population of ~4,000 people, there are several bus lines to nearby services mostly operated by the Stagecoach group running from nearby towns such as Haslemere, Guildford and a daily coach service from National Express into Victoria Coach Station, Greater London and so providing services between several miles i.e. 9miles to 35miles is easily possible its just that American road design is car dependent and spread out en-mass and not because distances between large population centres are too far...
@langhamp8912
3 жыл бұрын
@@SunriseLAW Most eBikes that I've seen are just a little bit faster than the slightly fat middle aged white guy who spent a lot of time and money getting himself to average 16 mph. I would say 100% of whiners of eBikes are MAMIL (Middle Aged Man In Lycra).
@busslayer4790
3 жыл бұрын
My experience growing up in a small town is that it was less walkable than the urban and suburban places I have lived since. Most streets didn't have sidewalks because the city, and the people, weren't interested in spending money on those kind of things. Additionally, even if I were to try to walk, the shopping was all on the strip leading into and out of town, not particularly centrally located. I think small town people are more reliant on automobile transportation because of the distances to neighboring larger cities and lack of mass transit so they don't really consider walking to things. Walkability seems more of an urban/suburban concept.
@2handsomeforlaw
3 жыл бұрын
I am not American, but I think Steven Spielberg and Stephen King made the image of a stereotypical American town.
@Blaqjaqshellaq
3 жыл бұрын
It's older than them! (Consider Frank Capra's 1946 movie IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE...)
@mandisaw
3 жыл бұрын
@@Blaqjaqshellaq Even when Capra did it, it was kind of made-up. The Great Depression just accelerated the urban migration that began at the turn of the century. Arguably, the GI Bill/FHA loans and creation of the suburbs was meant as an elaborate subsidy program for all those too-far-to-be-urban rural areas.
@Blaqjaqshellaq
3 жыл бұрын
@@mandisaw And there's also MGM's Andy Hardy movies from the late '30s and early '40s...
@mandisaw
3 жыл бұрын
@@Blaqjaqshellaq Too true! More people probably formed their idea of "small town feel" from Mayberry than actual lived experience. Ditto "life in the 50s" and Happy Days, from people who are too young to possibly have any useful memories of the actual 1950s.
@afroceltduck
3 жыл бұрын
I think a big part of what people mean when they say "small town feel" is safety. They want to feel like they can leave their doors unlocked and not worry about crime. Obviously, crime still happens in small towns, too, and cities don't necessarily have high crime rates.
@graham1034
3 жыл бұрын
Ironically, small towns often have higher crime stats on a per-capita basis
@EvanAviator
3 жыл бұрын
As a small town resident, I definitely don’t leave my doors unlocked, even though NH is basically the safest state
@graham1034
3 жыл бұрын
Growing up in the 90s in a suburb with around 200k population we never locked our doors. Usually when we were away overnight we'd lock the front door but the rest were always unlocked.
@hackel137
3 жыл бұрын
And by "safety," they usually mean all white people, even if they don't admit that part out loud. Small town lovers hate diversity more than anything. They find their safety in surrounding themselves with people they perceive to be just like them. Really disgusting attitude.
@Paperbagman555
3 жыл бұрын
@@hackel137 The drawbacks of a small town are that they can often include some small minded and people. The conservatism can be quite jarring and hard to relate to if you're from a big city.
@Alex-RealApplebees
3 жыл бұрын
I grew up in a small town, and damn I wish more small towns had the "small town charm". My childhood hometown was physically small enough for convenient walkability, but as summer tourism was the biggest economic driver of my community, most infrastructure spending was used on car infrastructure. This meant sidewalks were left to decay, while the charming narrow streets were widened, with some even getting four total lanes. This was pretty universal for all the small towns in the area I grew up, even neighbouring towns which used to have predominantly industrial driven economies, streets were widened for trucks because the railway infrastructure was abandoned, their downtowns left to become abandoned or redeveloped into car-based shopping centres in failed attempt to attract more people. Its depressing, as many small towns are going the way that many cities went 50+ years ago, with regards to predominantly car-based dependency. I left my small town because I couldn't go anywhere without driving, even to the grocery store because the non-car infrastructure was so bad. In most cities now there is at least a bigger push to bring back more of what made small towns so good.
@ChemySh
3 жыл бұрын
yeah same, I grew up in a plantation town and my govt is too inept to build any public transport, so cars were mandatory. I dont have too much fond small town memories of that place. Funnily enough, the first time I experienced small town feel is in the "old town" of a metropolis, with each neighborhood having its own identity and some business owners that doubles as community figures.
@mandisaw
3 жыл бұрын
@@ChemySh That's the irony - living in a city neighborhood, I know many of my neighbors, familiar faces on the street and in the shops, and you've got multi-generational families & aging-in-place. My friends from college, who live in various car-dependent suburbs around the country, basically live in a bubble of just their [work] friends, and almost never interact with anyone in their well-manicured, but soulless developments.
@olenickel6013
2 жыл бұрын
This seems so counterproductive on all fronts. "Let's pave over everything the tourists come here to enjoy, so tourists have an easier time arriving by car"
@millevenon5853
2 жыл бұрын
Why does America just destroy everything that's good? It should follow the European model of walkable cities, suburbs and urban areas and organic villages
@mandisaw
2 жыл бұрын
@@millevenon5853 Partly it's politics, since isolating/segregating people makes them easier to control. Partly there was just a "fashion" in urban planning & development to make these sorts of suburban sprawls, because cars were going to be the wave of the future or something.
@madridwalkbikeridesbyzvist2534
3 жыл бұрын
Despite the supposed walkability that small cities may have, in my life experience I have found just the opposite: that those of us from large urban centers (in my case Madrid, Spain) we usually walk daily to move around the city much more than compared to my friends in rural areas or small towns, who usually go to buy bread a street away in their cars! In fact, it seems to me that the bigger a city gets, the more it influences the perception of the distances of the citizen. Congratulations on the channel. I'm glad the KZitem algorithm suggested it to me
@MrT3a
3 жыл бұрын
Similar experience for me in France. Coming from a small town (
@--julian_
3 жыл бұрын
I prefer cities like Madrid too
@lindatisue733
3 жыл бұрын
Yes, but American cities are not designed to be walkable, nor is it encouraged. My sister lives in Cincinnati Ohio, similar in size to Stockholm, but there aren't even walkways many places to go to the nearest supermarket. It is more difficult and dangerous to bike/walk 3 km in Cincinnati than 30km in Stockholm.
@madridwalkbikeridesbyzvist2534
3 жыл бұрын
@@lindatisue733 You are right that the same does not happen in all cities ... and that if the urban part (with more population density) is smaller than the suburban (with more single-family homes), those residential areas may be quieter to live but with the cost of having all the shops very far away and the need to use the car. That is why I mentioned "large urban centers" in my comment, to refer to the type of city that grows so in width but especially in height; maybe due to the lack of land to expand and build, and the high demand to live in the center (surely a more common problem in Europe than in the U.S.A. except for a few examples). I invite you to come to Spain! To take good walks and make friends.
@ajhare2
3 жыл бұрын
I live near a town called North East, in Maryland and it could be improved if the main street was turned into pedestrian only, and the neighboring road called Mauldin Ave turned into a two way road for the lack of one way main street
@Game_Hero
3 жыл бұрын
Get in touch with your council and show them videos like this channel and studies by Strong Towns. You have a good chance if it can help the local economy.
@wierdo301
3 жыл бұрын
Never thought I'd see Cecil tuckey represented on a random KZitem video, let's gooo
@FreshTillDeath56
3 жыл бұрын
Eyy another Maryland lad.
@GeographyWorld
3 жыл бұрын
Great video! Would love to see a full video about city boundary extensions and the annexation of small towns as 2 years ago my home city Cork had a massive boundary extension, increasing 5 times in area and almost doubling its population.
@haroldinho9930
3 жыл бұрын
Geography world!!!!!!!! I love your videos.
@UserName-ts3sp
3 жыл бұрын
i know the town i live in now annexed an entire township. it grew like 5x in size, both in population and land area
@beechnut79
3 жыл бұрын
There was a little town near me called Eola which got swallowed up by the ridiculous expansion of both Aurora and Naperville.
@somebonehead
2 жыл бұрын
@@UserName-ts3sp McCarthy was right with his accusations
@parkmannate4154
3 жыл бұрын
Well, my wife's hometown disappeared when it got down to just her parents farm, and it got annexed by the neighboring big town of 200
@nicholascuevas7447
3 жыл бұрын
200 was probably big in this story but really is not big in reality
@AlexCab_49
3 жыл бұрын
I think people like to romaticize small towns because they've never lived there. I too but when I went to a small town called Avenal, it felt desolate and lonely and I even felt vulnerable knowing there wasn't much ppl and that the empty grasslands wasn't too far to walk to.
@danielp.673
3 жыл бұрын
Very true. Many small towns are unwelcoming and have high poverty rates.
@AlexCab_49
3 жыл бұрын
@@danielp.673 Most small towns are populared by white conservatives and I'm latino and socialist. The small towns populated by latinos are a little more welcoming but offer very little opportunities outside of agriculture and there's a lot of poverty as you mentioned.
@ten_tego_teges
3 жыл бұрын
@@AlexCab_49 Lol, so you really just wanna hang out with people that are of the same background and are like-minded to you XD
@AlexCab_49
3 жыл бұрын
@@ten_tego_teges Yes. Is there a problem with that
@ten_tego_teges
3 жыл бұрын
@@AlexCab_49 No, but you start of with saying that small towns are this and that, while your actual problem is that you don't like white conservatives.
@paveladamek3502
2 жыл бұрын
A Czech here. When I started to learn English at the age of 7, we learned in language school that "city" is used to refer to a settlement that has a cathedral. In other words, it must be "impressive" or "representative" enough to be called that. Later I realized that Americans like to use the term for what would be a village in Europe. And yes, ALL independent villages have a council and assembly. And Glasgow, MT with it 3,000 residents would almost definitely be a "village" in much of Europe.
@bearcubdaycare
2 жыл бұрын
In America, the word city often has more to do with administration. I live in a city of 8000, even though most everyone, including the mayor, tend to call it a town. I grew up in a town of 60,000-70,000, which didn't want to be a city, so no mayor, only representative town meeting. The usage is definitely different than Europe, at least officially. There's an interesting story about the word village in a treaty, and the claim that something was actually a town or city, leading to the Spanish exclave of Llivia.
@paxundpeace9970
3 жыл бұрын
Knowing your neighbor and meeting people in shops and on the street isn't limited to small towns. The feel of community applies to many places and areas.
@flaviop5472
3 жыл бұрын
Something fun where I'm from is that many towns have colectivos, which are taxi cabs with a set route they follow, sort of like a bus, but with a capacity of only four people because it's a taxi cab. They're a great transit option for communities that could use transit but don't yet have the population to support buses, given the lower operation costs and capacity. Admittedly, I am thinking of cities of 30.000 or 50.000 people, so maybe it's still overkill for under 10.000 people, but regardless, I think colectivos are a good option to alleviate car use once it becomes, I guess, less optional.
@AaronOfMpls
3 жыл бұрын
On a related note, college towns in the US often have local bus systems with really small busses, that hold about 10-15 people. Their routes connect the college campus to the town center, and maybe other places around town. Colleges with student housing (dorm rooms) rarely have much student parking, so it makes more sense for students to take a bus around town, if they're not walking or riding bicycles.
@Jacksparrow4986
3 жыл бұрын
In germany there are villages with 800 people and a recently added train stop.
@rachelcookie321
3 жыл бұрын
That sounds like it would be really expensive considering how expensive a normal taxi is.
@SurprisinglyDeep
3 жыл бұрын
Those collectivos sound like a great idea! Maybe if collectivos in the U.S./Canada/UK/elsewhere had bicycle racks on the front, top and/or back of them it would solve the "last mile" problem. (People could bicycle to a collectivo stop, take their bicycles with them when they ride the collectivo and then bicycle the rest of the way to work.) pulled a trailer behind it that people could
@2712animefreak
2 жыл бұрын
@@SurprisinglyDeep These tend to be harmful to actual public transport, though. They sprung up all over Russia after soviet times and people operating them became like a mafia. Some such groups have destroyed actual tram networks in small towns so that people can only use them for public transport.
@12kenbutsuri
3 жыл бұрын
There were cities that were considered "small towns" in people's minds, that were over 300,000 in japan, just because it felt like one with all the trees and mountains, and japanese cities are gigantic.
@steemlenn8797
3 жыл бұрын
Japan has many small "towns" - more villages - though if you leave the big plains. Or agricultural areas where you have a house ehre and there between fields. (The last is also true for areas in the Netherlands). I really want to make long trip along the mountain rroads through those small villages and look at all those small shrines (I like small shrines).
@ramencurry6672
3 жыл бұрын
But the food is delicious
@SurprisinglyDeep
3 жыл бұрын
Just 1 thing: someone said the place at 6:23 was Calgary. That is a GIANT Canadian city. Its nightmarish urban sprawl makes it the OPPOSITE of a "small town" Edit: Miswrote "it's", "nigthmarish" and forgot to add the "a"
@mikescott7123
3 жыл бұрын
The square dance scene would have been from an event during the stampede, which in itself draws over 1M people for the 10 day event
@kjyost
3 жыл бұрын
@@mikescott7123 Yup. I came here to point that out too! I saw "Calgary" then "Sportschek" and thought, Hmmmm... That's not a small town. YWG here representing! :)
@OntarioTrafficMan
2 жыл бұрын
It (accidentally?) illustrates the point that you don't need to be a small town to have small town feel. Walkable medium-density urban neighbourhoods can also have a great sense of community.
@SurprisinglyDeep
2 жыл бұрын
@@OntarioTrafficMan Except that Calgary is not walkable except for the downtown district. The rest of it is a hellish unplanned gigantic sprawl. (While Calgary's a fairly nice place to visit or live, it's almost totally impossible to live there without owning a car unless you live in the downtown area.)
@bearcubdaycare
2 жыл бұрын
@@SurprisinglyDeep Calgary is a very nice city with very good transit and an off road bike path network that spans the city, quite a few bicycle commuters. Sure, if you want a car free life, areas nearish the downtown are best, but then loads of stuff is walking distance, great variety. If you want a certain way of life, you need to make the effort to make the relevant choices.
@rachelcookie321
3 жыл бұрын
I used to live in a small town, it sucked. It was so boring and we had to go into the city for everything. I still live in the same town, it’s just double the size now.
@davidburrow5895
3 жыл бұрын
I've lived in small towns almost my whole life. One of the big differences I notice in cities and suburbs is that the yards are fenced. In small towns they almost never are. While I agree with you that walkability is part of the "small town feel", there are a lot of small towns that really aren't very walkable. In MANY small towns downtown hasn't been viable for years. Instead people have to drive to the outskirts to buy groceries and dry goods.
@rachelcookie321
3 жыл бұрын
I find that interesting because in New Zealand gardens are always fenced no matter where you. I always found it weird how Americans seem to share a big garden with their neighbours.
@mandisaw
3 жыл бұрын
@@rachelcookie321 It's entirely down to the local zoning laws. A lot of what is called a "small town" is really a residential development, and they may have either laws (public/government) or homeowner's association rules (private) specifying everything from fence height to setback of your door from the curb.
@mandisaw
3 жыл бұрын
Yeah, I visit a friend in WI in the summertime, and in his "small town" you have to drive just to get to Walgreens or grab a sandwich. Meanwhile I live in a mixed-use residential community in NYC, and was able to basically spend the entire pandemic with every service necessary within a 5-10min walk (and at least 10 different regions' worth of ethnic food).
@rachelcookie321
3 жыл бұрын
@@mandisaw there are rules about fences but there aren’t any rules about needing to have fences. People just choose to have them for privacy or to keep young children or pets from running off.
@mandisaw
3 жыл бұрын
@@rachelcookie321 Hmm, more like here there are rules that dictate that you *can't* have fences. Which is... not great IMO, since that precludes kids playing out front. That said, in the city we have a hodgepodge of different fences, including some truly garish and aesthetically-hostile ones, so there's something to be said for loose guidelines, just not strict dictates.
@3of11
3 жыл бұрын
Suburbanite: I want that small town feel where it’s safe for kids and everyone knows each other. Also suberbanite: expand that road into a stroad, make the parking lots bigger, only allow SFH on 1:2 acre lots, never build any commercial within a mile of my home, and increase that urban highway speed and size.
@elizabethhenning778
3 жыл бұрын
And a lot of small-townies want all that too. No one was forced to shop at Walmart.
@joeyshmoey6659
3 жыл бұрын
Been watching some Not Just Bikes, huh?
@johnbarham9991
2 жыл бұрын
I've often called Pittsburgh the biggest little town you can live in, for a number of reasons. Many of the transplants to the city grew up in smaller cities and towns throughout the region and brought with them that sentimentality. Another big reason is the geography. Small business districts dot the entire city on the few flat areas that exist. Only a few died with the steel industry, leaving behind communities that are very walkable, so people are more in daily contact with each other and not hidden inside their cars. However, due to mismanagement the public transit system is in a state of decline and threatens the stability of these communities. Jobs are returning to the region, especially construction and healthcare, and the demand for this small town feel within a city is great, and has been in the decade I've lived here. City government seems to know what they have going for them and have been prioritizing public transit, affordable housing, and bike infrastructure. But everyone above them seems to be sleeping on the burgh.
@plasticwrapofdoom
3 жыл бұрын
"Cows, probably" is the best way I've ever heard to describe the difference between urban and rural. A screengrab of your graphic is going up in my office.
@Jacob-yg7lz
3 жыл бұрын
A few cities have "Old Town"s, which basically have small town feel, though they're a lot more expensive.
@lindatisue733
3 жыл бұрын
Most of the "old town" in the US have nothing any more. Last time I was in my hometown, of 10,000 people there was nothing but city hall, a police station and two restaurants. In the 1980's there were 20-30 retail business. One didn't really need a car, now Walmart has a super centre that is 5 km from the old town.
@Jacob-yg7lz
3 жыл бұрын
@@lindatisue733 Yeah, it really depends on how big your city is and how well the old town can appeal to tourists.
@leonhardpauli5815
3 жыл бұрын
More than a quarter of the Austrian population (9M people) live in it s capital, Vienna. But small towns (after US definition) are thriving And small towns in Austria are much more compact the US small towns. For example Schladming, Leoben, Gmunden, Ischl, Kitzbühel...
@qjtvaddict
3 жыл бұрын
You have trains to these towns tho so you can still reach them from the capital
@briankirkpatrick8888
3 жыл бұрын
Compact small towns are the best. If we had those in the states I might consider living in one.
@sirBrouwer
3 жыл бұрын
here in the Netherlands smaller villages are quite often just swallowed up by bigger cities. however do to the way villages are often build they will keep there identity at least in the old village centre. but even just new build residential areas can get a Small town feeling by making sure there is a elementary school, kindergarten, a small shopping area and lower traffic with in the actual area. the ring road around it could act as the boundary
@extrastuff9463
2 жыл бұрын
And it's in general pretty hard to find a residential area here that wouldn't be considered walkable, sure we might consider the distance a bit far and use a bicycle instead for the trips between "short walk" and "definitely need a car or public transport". Except for the villages that lost the ability to support what is expected of a regular supermarket today there's likely one in walking range for a normal healthy adult in most cities and larger villages. It seems to be somewhat fluid what local people consider to be a "stad" (city) or "dorp" (village), I guess it might come down a lot to what you're used to and local variation in population density. Oh and then there are the oddball old places that used to have city rights in medieval time which are often still referred to as a city by the locals. Sleat/Sloten comes to mind for example in my province with its below 1000 current population. There's an even smaller one in Gelderland with a population below 50 that I forgot the name of.
@jamisonswift8320
2 жыл бұрын
I grew up in the heart of an urban area, but it was an old-school style neighborhood. When people talk about small-town feel that's what I had too, just surrounded by many other urban neighborhoods.
@The_Real_Frisbee
2 жыл бұрын
I live in a small, rural town of 2000 people, and I tell my mom all the time that with the current state of things, this town will disappear. The older generation refuses to allow businesses from "outsiders" to start here, they're generally unwelcoming, refuse tax increases that we honestly do need since our roads, sidewalks and school are horrid, and the younger kids just don't want to be here so they leave. And since there are so few jobs in the area, once you come here and if you happen to lose your job, you're basically stuck, which is what happened with my mom and eventually me since I was dumb enough to come back after HS where my dad lived. The ONLY benefit is that it is cheap, but what you're sacrificing isn't worth it in the long run, and goes into what I said about getting stuck since I can afford a under $700 3 bedroom house by myself. To tell a story, when I worked at the local Dollar General I met the previous Marina owner. The Marina on the river was the biggest selling point of our town with annual boat races that drew in a large crowd of non-locals to our town. She told me that even after 20 years of ownership, the local leaders in the town still wanted her to be gone because she was an "outsider" and they "don't want outsiders taking away business from locals". To add onto that, another "outsider" moved here from Texas and opened up a BBQ restaurant. The local bar and grill saw this as competition, and since this bar and grill has been in town for decades, they used hearsay to draw business away from the BBQ restaurant, and after 5 years she had to close doors. Again at DG, I was talking to a local and the local said "Can you believe they tried to open a place here? We don't need a BBQ place!" I am absolutely appalled at how self-defeating a community can be, and I believe that a lot of small towns are like this. This mindset is part of why small towns are disappearing, and they're doing it to themselves.
@Revelwoodie
2 жыл бұрын
The problem with connecting small towns to cities using public transit is that as soon as you do, that small town becomes a bedroom community. Population goes up, developers come in, and property values skyrocket. That "small town feel" disappears pretty quickly.
@TheLunkan22
3 жыл бұрын
You have no idea how happy and surprised I was at 02:43, seeing LEKSAND, my hometown. What are the odds you picked JUST that place, out of a million different small towns, you know :)
@urphakeandgey6308
3 жыл бұрын
I think a lot of people moving to small towns forget one important detail: *_You are an outsider and everyone knows it. Plain and simple._* If it's truly a "small town," chances are most people know each other. They won't know you.
@chrishieke1261
3 жыл бұрын
I think that is the main 'feature' of a small town. People live there for generations and most people know each other or at least the know 100-200 families. Generations of inhabitants went to school together, worked together at one point or join the same societies/hobbis (f.e. choir, sports club, reading club, festive society, etc.). You can't really be part of a small town when you weren't born into it. Maybe you become semi-integrated after forty years, if you embraced the social life and your childern an THEIR children went to the local school. There are livelong friendships as there are feuds, a lot of gossip and as well as a very strong sense of community. All the other things mentioned (f.e. walkabilty ... that seems to be a mainly USA centred problem because in most other places your usual settlement is always walkable) are just aspects of a small town. For me, I grew up in a small town from day 3 (I was born in a hospital in the nearest city) and lived there until work forced me to move. I still resent that and as soon as possible I'm trying to move back. It's my home and will always be my home ... I may 'live' somewhere, but thats not 'home'.
@ttopero
3 жыл бұрын
I’d argue that having a service business or one in a storefront would accelerate the acquaintance & familiar aspect more quickly than just any regular employee. Especially if it’s an essential business, townies will get to know them quickly-just develop a great reputation early or you’re dead!
@justanotheryoutubechannel
2 жыл бұрын
Where I live in the UK, most rural places feel very disconnected and you need a car, but into the medium sized rural villages they do feel nice with its own charm, the centre is usually full of old Tudor houses and ancient architecture, and are typically quite walkable and nice, but our government is awful and as a result you need a car these days as literally every service aside from local shops are in the nearest city, and no closer. If you just want a takeaway, you sometimes even need to drive.
@mmsizzlak
3 жыл бұрын
Oh Lord you're from Wisconsin.... Now I cannot unhear or unsee all your Wisconsinite patterns lol
@andersonneil2293
3 жыл бұрын
I grew up in a small town if about 4k people, I wouldn't necessarily say its walkable. like most of that walkability comes from a lack of traffic not from any infrastructure choices. And while there are some stores you can walk to in town, the best place to get groceries is 20 minutes away in the slightly larger town of 9k people with a Meijer. Like sure I know everyone, but community exists here in Chicago where I currently live too, a much more walkable place. But I think tourism, in some ways, is killing my town, instead of useful stores, everyone is a bar, restaurant, or gift shop, the housing prices are sky rocketing, and everyone who use to live in the city limits are being pushed into the surrounding countryside
@lordkent8143
3 жыл бұрын
I'm from Honolulu, where it feels like a small town despite having a population of a million. We have natural borders that keep it this way 😅.
@j.s.7335
3 жыл бұрын
It was my dad's charming, small hometown of Elkader, Iowa, that sparked my love of cities, because cities have a small town feel, whereas the suburbs where I grew up do not.
@douglasjgallup
3 жыл бұрын
I'm from a very small town (793 people) but then moved to NYC, then Portland, then Knoxville. Portland actually feels like several small towns that grew into each other. It feels quite community oriented.
@HarryLovesRuth
3 жыл бұрын
Welcome to Tennessee. (Because Southern Hospitality is a myth, and my fellow Knoxvillians probably aren't that welcoming.)
@mugwump242
3 жыл бұрын
The taxonomy of "village," "town," and "city" you describe isn't used in the western US (where I live). Once you get west of the "Midwest" (i.e., the central US), there are just counties and cities. All incorporated municipalities are cities, regardless of size. Even a small town, like the fictional Podunkville with a population of 650, bears the legal name of the City of Podunkville. There is no legal, structural designations of town or village. 'Township' is purely a land surveying term with no regional government administration meaning. Non-incorporated settlements are administered by and as part of the overall county they are within. They are referred to as "Census designated places." Of course, in common conversation, the word "town" is widely used. In my experience, "village" isn't really in the Western US lexicon (we know what it means; we just don't use it). There may be some slight variations on what I've laid out here from state to state but, generally, I believe it holds true.
@YungFitzy24
3 жыл бұрын
I grew up in a small town and the thing that really bothered me is that most of the business and markets moved to the highway. So eventhough I was walking distance from downtown, there isn't much there, and everyone has to drive to walmart for everything
@PonchoANS7
3 жыл бұрын
I lived in a town of around 5,000 people and it sucked. Small town, big hell.
@paxundpeace9970
3 жыл бұрын
What made it suck!
@PonchoANS7
3 жыл бұрын
@@paxundpeace9970 What didn't it?
@Earth098
2 жыл бұрын
In addition to the features mentioned, less people, less cars, less noise, more greenery, and easy access to nature, are also some of the most popular reasons people like small towns.
@thewhacc2448
3 жыл бұрын
The obsession with small towns is something I honestly never understood. I was born and raised in a fairly large city, and got stuck in a small town for pretty much all of my teenage years. Finally being able to get out of there and move to a city again was the best feeling ever. It's something about the very quiet, slow atmosphere that makes me feel like life is flying by, while I'm stuck in place, unable to move with it. To each their own I suppose.
@RenegadeShepard69
3 жыл бұрын
Yeah I can definetly relate to your experiences, however I felt like that while growing up in a suburb to a huge city, one of the biggest on earth, where life is never quiet, never slow, always overwhelming, yet it still felt to me like life was flying by. I don't think I would enjoy much better to live in a small town though, but my point is that, and this is something I took from another comment below yours, I think it's mostly about 'having stuff to do', a big city where life feels boring, so much to do that you can't even decide, doesn't feel like living to me. It depends a lot on the big city. I relate to the disastisfactions of people from mega cities in asia often, but to yours too.
@AlexCab_49
3 жыл бұрын
I also sometimes idealize small town living or even leaving in the middle of the woods but in reality it probably wouldn't be as nice as I'd think
@paxundpeace9970
3 жыл бұрын
In stuck in a big city that isn't a metropolis
@zhl5806
2 жыл бұрын
I live in Kharkiv, Ukraine, ex-USSR... I live in a "microrayon" in the edge of the city... I am sure you know what it is... And I want to say, even though I live in a large city of more than 1 million ppl with subways and a lot of jobs, I do have this "small town feel" that you are talking about... Our unique Microrayon system ( elaborated back in Soviet times) allows city residents to live in good pedastrian zones, with a lot of trees, of benches, where one would enjoy to walk, with high density and consequently -with all the benefits of a big city! I personally do enjoy when I take a stroll in my Microrayon - it is so spatious, it is so tree-full, is has a lot of fresh air, a lot of benches near every entrance to a house, and in the same time, our public transport allows you to be in the downtown in just 45 minutes... I am sure our city is designed better than a lot of US or Canadian cities, even though our local people complain...
@GiulioGiorcelli
3 жыл бұрын
Hey there! I've recently discovered your channel and let me tell you, it's an absolute masterpiece! I've been living in the US for the past seven years but I grew up in a small town (35K souls) in northern Italy and from time to time I do miss the walkability of small European towns, however I think that a medium size US city with walkable parts and good transportation can offer a better life quality. Anyways, I watched you video on new urbanism and I found it very interesting. I mentioned a couple towns in that video but I'd be curious to know, where else in the US have seen that concept applied? Or even maybe a different planning concept with similar results?
@comicbookguy2326
3 жыл бұрын
you need to make more videos, i've rewatched some of them like 3 times
@alcaulique8358
2 жыл бұрын
Funny to see that the population threshold for cities here in Switzerland is also 10,000. But because we cannot have something simple, we have town that have more than 10,000 inhabitants because their population density is small. And cities with population lower than 10,000 because they have historical importance (usually dating back to the medieval period).
@thierrydesu
2 жыл бұрын
Je pensais que c'était mieux réglé que ça, la Suisse.
@호두랑야
3 жыл бұрын
도시에 대해 고민하고 생각할 수 있는 진짜 뜻깊은 영상💎🏙 Acutally, I always think about how can we make the city like small town which has the real identity and communication to each other. This video give me the confidence about my way in the Korea.
@ripleyjune
3 жыл бұрын
I actually think a lot about how we can make the city like a small town through it's identity and how we communicate to one another. This video gives me confidence about living in Korea....... I think I got that right unless he/she meant confidence about how they feel/think about Korea.Cheers
@lindatisue733
3 жыл бұрын
Yes. I miss that about Korea, even Seoul had places that felt like small towns. Having a high population density makes it easier, and S. Korea has invested in having public transportation since the war. That makes a huge difference.
@Taladar2003
3 жыл бұрын
A lot of the things about small towns are appealing but everyone knowing everyone else's private details is a deal-breaker for me
@joltjolt5060
3 жыл бұрын
Or how about going to the ONLY doctor in town and he sucks?
@graham1034
3 жыл бұрын
Depends how small. 10,000 people is fine, but you get into the
@charlesalwyn3486
2 жыл бұрын
I feel like “small town feel” is simply a feeling like you are part of the community. I am from a small town and I will say that small town charm is fun and cozy when you “fit in” but things change when you’re “different.” I like to compare small towns to high school and large cities to colleges….everyone in high school wants to just fit in while everyone in college wants to be themselves. Small towns scare me more than any inner city and I honestly want little to do with most of them unless they have a college or a university within their jurisdiction.
@icecreamhero2375
2 жыл бұрын
I never felt the need to fit in in High School. I was slightly introverted.
@rowanwax
Жыл бұрын
Especially if it's one with low influx of new people coming in or no tourism.
@skystreak1983
3 жыл бұрын
2:50 The population of Shirakawa was slightly reduced after an outbreak of Hinamizawa Syndrome.
@DieNibelungenliad
3 жыл бұрын
Higurashi reference?
@Vivacior
2 жыл бұрын
There's one reason why small towns aren't going away anytime soon... Retirees. The fastest growing population segment. For retirees, The good: 1. Cost of living is low. 2. No worries about loss of employment. 3. Low crime. Like zero. 4. Oh yeah..."small-town feel". It's definitely a thing, and it's great. The bad: 1. Friends coming to visit. If you live in the sticks, don't expect many old friends from out of state to stop by...(you might be okay if you live near an interstate) 2. Travel. Where's the nearest airport? How many jumps and how many hours would it take you to get to Miami/LA/Vancouver/your BFF's town? Regardless, it's gonna cost ya. 3. Boredom. Maybe you've got a "Dandelion Festival" in the spring, and "Christmas Tree Lighting" in December...plus a Farmer's Market with a dozen or so stalls during the summer. That's it....woot! The ugly: (and this is really bad) Lack of nearby medical facilities. Experience a major heart-attack or stroke? Hope you like waiting 45+ minutes before getting to a real hospital. (this can be negated by living in a college town that has a university hospital....but those tend not to be small)
@joegrecco1636
3 жыл бұрын
6:10 Calgary, a small town of 1 million people.
@hamishashcroft3233
3 жыл бұрын
My town of Aberfeldy, Scotland. Definitely fits the small town which is walkable mould. Lots of nice shops, services, cafes etc, town is only 20 mins walking from end to end. Great community. Just a good place to live
@Tenchinu
Жыл бұрын
every single point in the towns “feel” creeps me the hell out. Everyone has their preferences… but a place where everyone knows each other and only have about three different career paths sounds like a nightmare
@Chameleox
3 жыл бұрын
It’s hard to have a conversation about a topic without clear definitions. You astutely pointed out how this is a big part of the problem. Without the context that you provided, I would not have considered Sturgeon Bay a small town. Great point about “economic gardening”. SB is the de facto gateway to Door County so it makes sense that restaurant, tourism, and hospitality are major players, but the diversification into maritime and agriculture sectors is a big benefit. Compare to Janesville and Beloit, where those cities were heavily locked into specific industries or companies.
@matthewmccallion3311
3 жыл бұрын
Here in Northern Ireland, settlements are defined by Bands. Bands A-E are Urban; Bands F-H are Rural. Band A is the City of Belfast (the capital and largest city), pop. 333,871 (as of 2011 Census). Band B is the City of Derry/Londonderry (the 2nd city), pop. 83,163. Band C are Large Towns, pop. 18,000 plus. Band D are Medium Towns, pop. 10,000-17,999. Band E are Small Towns, pop. 5,000-9,999. Band F are Intermediate Settlements, pop. 2,500-4,999. Band G are Villages, pop. 1,000-2,499. Band H is classified as pop. less than 1,000 and open countryside. * NB: Armagh (pop. 14,777), Lisburn (pop. 45,370), and Newry (pop. 26,967) have been granted City status by the Queen.
@thetropicalyeti3776
3 жыл бұрын
I LIVE in glasgow montana and might I just say, as someone who is candian and grew up in a bigger population center in the greater ottawa area. This place is absolutely DESOLATE and is an urban planning enthusiasts nightmare
@ANTSEMUT1
3 жыл бұрын
What is everything ridiculously far away from each other including other residents houses? So if you were to say borrow some sugar you'd have to drive there by car?
@chaseashley6775
3 жыл бұрын
Channels like yours and Not Just Bikes have made me think that I may want to be a city planner or work somewhere in that field. I’m 16 and have been feeling hopeless regarding my future career due to having ADHD and not knowing what kind of jobs I’m cut out for. But when I took human geography as a freshman and looked at population growth and transportation patterns, I loved it, even though that class was hard. I care about systemic issues affecting lower income people like food deserts and school placement. I’m taking environmental science this year because I’m passionate about the environment, and I’ve looked into how individuals could be more self-sustaining. I also want to go into politics, so city planning might be a jumping-off point. Just wanted to let you know how your videos help people.
@Sofus.
3 жыл бұрын
I grew up in a village with 3500 people in Denmark the bus came with 25 min intervals.
@RenegadeShepard69
3 жыл бұрын
I live in a city of over 600 thousand people and my bus to the mega city bordering mine comes in more than 30 min intervals. Did you enjoy the "small town feel" of your village growing up?
@Sofus.
3 жыл бұрын
@@RenegadeShepard69 To be honest it was hard being a nerd in a rural village in the 80's.
@RenegadeShepard69
3 жыл бұрын
@@Sofus. Yeah many people from small towns that I met in big cities felt unconfortable being themselves in those places. Makes you wonder if that whole 'everybody knowing each other' is not as romantic as it's said.
@Sofus.
3 жыл бұрын
@@RenegadeShepard69 It's probably good growing up as a kid in a country town. It can be problematic as a teenager, where you can feel quite constrained.
@LucasDimoveo
3 жыл бұрын
Can you do a video on college towns? I live in one and the bike paths and public transportation is amazing for a town of this size
@CityBeautiful
3 жыл бұрын
It's on the list. I'll get there eventually, especially since I live in one.
@RenegadeShepard69
3 жыл бұрын
@@CityBeautiful I love how for most videos you make you are able to connect the topic to something in your life, it's one of the things I like about this channel, gives an specific perspective.
@carfreeneoliberalgeorgisty5102
3 жыл бұрын
@@CityBeautiful can you do one on Montréal? It's famous for its walkable urbanism and bike friendliness around the world.
@paxundpeace9970
3 жыл бұрын
@@carfreeneoliberalgeorgisty5102 'Oh the Urbanity!' is based in Montreal.
@paxundpeace9970
3 жыл бұрын
@@carfreeneoliberalgeorgisty5102 Great Name!
@jimburris
3 жыл бұрын
Small towns are great, if you go to church, like high school sports, and shopping at Dollar General, which describes my hometown. About the best thing to be said about it is the that the “country” is only a few miles away.
@earnthis1
3 жыл бұрын
I grew up in a small town, and the feel was "don't be different or else"... not so romantic.
@ReapTheWhirlwind
2 жыл бұрын
My city, Buffalo, NY, has been incorporated since 1832 but there are still many signs of the towns and villages that existed before it. I didn't realize it until I was an adult but there are several locations that have a Main St feel to them but aren't anywhere near the actual Main St and it's because they used to be the central hub of a small town. The surrounding suburbs are also heavily incorporated and there's a struggle in many to achieve the small town feel. When suburbs started building things to accommodate car traffic many historic structures and street plans were altered or destroyed and now it's hard to make many of the historic Main Streets and downtowns feel like a small town. Once you leave the first ring of suburbs there's another ring of suburbs that often have "Village of" or "Town of" attached to the name but the populations would still be considered urban by the census definition. There's not much of an effort in these suburbs to achieve a small town feel because they're where most of the malls and retail are. Several of the suburbs that are adjacent to the city took very big NIMBY attitudes regarding malls and big retailers in their borders, as those are not a part of the small town aesthetic, while others have simply put them far enough inside to discourage city dwellers from venturing there casually. Western NY is an interesting place tbh and is one of the few major metro areas I've been to where you can be an hour or more from your home and still see multiple friends and family members in a single outing.
@phongphong4640
3 жыл бұрын
I live in New York City. It feels like this Magical city is composed of dozens and dozens of unique "small towns" ( aka. Neighborhoods.) And the bonus is that nobody minds your business. You can Re-invent yourself without being imprisoned by the past. I truly enjoy my small town NYC. Everything ( including 2 funeral homes and half a dozen supermarkets, among other Fun and necessary things) is within walking distance (20 minutes max.)
@mandisaw
3 жыл бұрын
NYC is great :) But the increasingly-expensive housing market is liable to force out a lot of the working folks who give the outer boro neighborhoods their charm.
@johnathin0061892
3 жыл бұрын
NYC is just like a small town, except for the sky high taxes and murder.
@wclark3196
2 жыл бұрын
Walkability, convenience, and a sense of community has nothing to do with why people say they like a "small-town feel". Sturgeon Bay in 2010 census: The racial make-up was 95.1% White, 1.0% African American, 0.9% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 1.0% from other races, and 1.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.7% of the population. (from Wikipedia). "Small-town feel" is code in the USA.
@kevindolan529
3 жыл бұрын
I absolutely love Sturgeon Bay. One of my favorite "small towns." It has one of the nicest main streets I've ever seen. And Door County in general is wonderful. Love it!
@TheOneGuy1111
2 жыл бұрын
It should be noted that there are different types of small towns. I grew up in a college town which, while technically defined as a city and over the 10,000 resident mark, has a lot of the elements of how small towns are described here. I guess I've always called it not a small town or city, but a large town. Meanwhile in the surrounding area is a lot of farmland. There can be found a whole bunch of small towns in the form of a small town center and with a bunch of the surrounding farmland. While more close-knot then where I grew up, it definitely doesn't have the walkability since residents have to drive all the way from their farms. And then there's where I live now: Also technically a city, but under the 10,000 people mark. The big difference here, though is that it's in the metropolitan area of a larger city, and organized much more like a city. Despite its historic center, it feels more like a hub extension of the city than any sort of community of its own. Three different towns, all with small town elements, and yet all completely different.
@_TehTJ_
3 жыл бұрын
Ironically I think large cities that try to recreate a "small town feel" usually feel the least like a small town. If a small town is about having a strong community, cities like Houston, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona fail miserably as those places seem, to me, highly alienating. A good small-town has shit to do, has active people, and has so few forms of employment that the entire town practically has to support each other. The major city that most replicates small towns are the ones in Ohio, Columbus and Cincinnati (I don't know anything about Cleveland though). Just my feel though.
@hobotify
2 жыл бұрын
It´s weird to hear that a town of 10000 people is considered a ´´small town´´ by US standards. Here in central Europe anything above 10000 people is basically an urban center. to have a ´´small town feel´´ it needs to have less than 2000 people. I come from and currently live in such a small town, but the nearby city is growing so fast that we´ll quickly become a suburb and that makes me sad. For me the ´´small town feel´´ has to do mostly with population density. Big plots, big gardens, little traffic.
@warriorson7979
3 жыл бұрын
My personal preference is living in a small town, less than an hour's drive from a big city.
@nomaderic
2 жыл бұрын
I spent most my life back and forth from rural town to big city. One day shortly after I reached adulthood it hit me. I was in the city and about to leave the grocery store and my car wouldn't start. I literally had jumper cables in my hands and spent over 2 hours asking maybe 100 people if the would be willing to give me a jump. Half the people wouldn't even look at me or answer me. Many looked afraid of any interaction and the very few that did would just say no. The one guy that finally helped was a guy visiting from a rural town. Fast forward maybe a week later and the same thing happened but I was in a rural town. As soon as I popped my hood I had people coming up to me asking if I needed help. Even while I was getting jumped by someone there will still more people asking if we needed help or needed anything. It was right then when I realized the huge differences between city people and small town people. It's crazy that in cities with millions of people, many people just live there with little to no friends and just stick to themselves while in a small town everyone knows everyone, everyone is involved in each others lives and helps each other if they need help.
@dimitruscherry
10 ай бұрын
Overgeneralization…. But i see the point you’re trying to make… just because people don’t want to take time out of their day to help you doesn’t make them bad , i mean after all, people have shit to do bro they all can’t stop lol …. I mean at the end of the day it comes down to who wants to give af about helping u out lmao
@thesandboxbandit3838
3 жыл бұрын
My main takeaway from this video is that Thanos was right. With the snap of a finger, every town becomes a small town.
@eleanor8652
2 жыл бұрын
“People love small towns.” me: …Do they?
@princew95
3 жыл бұрын
I love the use of Sacramento in your video. Such a beautiful unique place in America. Large valley and beautiful weather
@paxundpeace9970
3 жыл бұрын
It might be on the list. He has made some video covering some elements of Sacramento. Check out his video on street trees.
@michigandersea3485
2 ай бұрын
When people say "small town feel", they don't mean a town as small as where I grew up... where the closest store or gas station of any kind was 10 miles away in another slightly larger town.
@RainyDayBricks
3 жыл бұрын
Not the topic of this video but I just wanted to comment on the image of the Eugene-Springfield "metro area". I live near Mapleton Oregon and the fact that all of Lane County (which is the size of some eastern states) is lumped into the Eugene metro area is maddening. There is a mountain range, a national forest, and miles of agricultural land between Mapleton and Eugene. They have different climates, different governments, and wildly different economies and still all get mashed into one big lump. I'm sure this happens in other places and it can really obscure the needs and struggles of the smaller, more rural communities. Thanks for another great video. Such a strange feeling to see my area on screen :)
@RatelHBadger
3 жыл бұрын
I live in a town of 30,000 people. It's considered a large town in New Zealand. Most shops are shut on a Sunday, people walk everywhere, there are no buses, most long term residents (10 years+) know each other and the history of the town and people. I wouldn't say it has a "small town feel" anymore. We have lots of little farming communities around us, Shannon, Manukau, Bulls, Sanson, Marton that COULD still be considered small towns, by population and by that "small town community feel". New Zealand is about 90% uninhabited or uninhabitable space. 5Million people goes a long way.
@LightPink
3 жыл бұрын
Is the age demographic for small towns different to cities?
@Game_Hero
3 жыл бұрын
They are older I think compared to cities mostly of people that grew up there or older adults that want a small town to settle down and have a family.
@steemlenn8797
3 жыл бұрын
That heavily depends on the town. Generally there is "young leaving the town to find work" and "young families coming (back) there" (for the small town feeling you could say). Depending on how big the second movement is, the average age can vary drastly.
@bjdon99
2 жыл бұрын
Even in a lot of small towns I have noticed that at some point the grid street pattern tends to end on the outskirts, and the cul-de-sac neighborhoods (often without sidewalks) were built beginning maybe 40 yrs ago. The boundary between the grid and modern design seems to be a definite socio-economic boundary even in those small towns.
@Suzanne-f4x
Жыл бұрын
The rural Texas town I live in (3300 and dropping) has only ONE small "modern" neighborhood development of about 80 houses in a cul-de-sac. It was built that way on purpose to keep through traffic away. Most of the homes were built from about 1980 on and the last two builds were year before last. The neighborhood is built out. The neighborhood is also on the edge of the county, literally. I think that was the plan. ALL of the other housing IN town is old to very old and really shabby and run down. As a taxpayer, I would LOVE for this little town to have some very major gentrification.
@pameladavis2498
2 жыл бұрын
Small towns that suffered when businesses left. Schuylkill Haven, PA... Alcoa employed most of the town. when it shut down, it was almost disastrous. The departing company sold the plant to the town so that it could continue to employ some of the people. That happened when I lived in a small town called Orwigsburg.
@TheOfficialChillClan
3 жыл бұрын
I recently moved from my small town to the center of a mid-sized city. The difference is that I now have all the restaurants, shopping, entertainment, and transportation options that my hometown had within a 3 minute walk. In many cases those options I have now are superior in quality and value to those back home and I don't need to spend any money on gas. The only people who want to live in a small town are the geriatric and those who've never left.
@AaronSmith-kr5yf
2 жыл бұрын
Having lived in the middle Tennessee area my whole life, its just a completely alien concept that a small town can lose population and just die out. The amount of growth in this area just blows my mind, not even Nashville, but places 50, 60, 70 miles away like Columbia, Shelbyville, Manchester, Tullahoma, Bell Buckle, Clarksville, all of them "small" towns that are thriving and growing yet are really too far out to be commuter suburbs to Nashville.
@amac2612
2 жыл бұрын
i was born and lived for 18 years in a small town in north queensland australia, population 300. had a post office, a pub and a corner shop right next to each other, so yeah you could say it was a very walkable town.
@gj1234567899999
3 жыл бұрын
China; Small town definition: less than 1 million people
@qjtvaddict
3 жыл бұрын
LOL 😂 TRUE Their small towns are so populated they have subway lines in them. Welcome to China the country where you take the subway to small towns or if it’s really rural take the high speed rail
@gj1234567899999
3 жыл бұрын
@@qjtvaddict according to wiki China has 102 cities over a million people. US has 9. 😆
@13endo57
3 жыл бұрын
I agree Sturgeon Bay s a charming, pleasantly scaled village. I'm an architect/engineer at Fincantiere Marinette Marine (parthered with Bay). As I'm sure you know Sturgeon Bay is going through explosive growth as we execute our 22 billion dollar new Navy ship building program. It will see how the town relates to our gtowth and if the characrwe will change as our buildings grow.
@GreatOneThe
3 жыл бұрын
Is the lack of consensus of what a small town is due to the lack of development of Ekistics?
@Kratos-kp1uo
2 жыл бұрын
I live in Plymouth, MI, and one thing I've noticed is that despite the city & township having combined 38,000ish population, it feels, smells, sounds, and looks like a small town. It's very easy to bike or walk anywhere you want, as there are many wide sidewalks to ride on, and the people are very friendly. Something I noticed when growing up here is that most other Detroit Suburbs don't have as much walkability as my town does (e.g. Northville), and most other suburbs have a much more car centered layout.
@vincentgraham7010
2 жыл бұрын
The US was born in an era of small towns and cities. The four most populous cities at the first census (1790) were NYC (33,131), Philadelphia (28,522), Boston (18,320) and Charleston, SC (16,359). At the time, none of these cities was comprised of more than a few hundred acres and all were surrounded by local agricultural and nature. This agrarian settlement pattern prevailed from around 8,000 BC to the 20th century when we stopped founding new towns, some of which grew into cities, and started building urban sprawl. The unfortunate automobile circumstance so harmful to large and small urbanism and local agriculture was an unintended (?) consequence of federal land use, transportation and funding policies.
@pash_4904
2 жыл бұрын
I relate to this now. Where I live the largest employer was a single metalworking plant. It burned down a year ago and now there’s nothing here for all those who lost their jobs.
@DrewRueDoo
2 жыл бұрын
I lived in a small town and I hated it. There was no privacy. People in small towns also usually closed minded.
@RsSooke
3 жыл бұрын
Was surprised to see Calgary people dancing in this video. I don’t live there anymore but it’s funny that my home town ended up making it into the video along with City Beautiful’s!
@ScottRycroft
3 жыл бұрын
Especially since Calgary isn't a small town... it's larger than Dallas - 9th largest in the US :)
@nickstefanik3509
2 жыл бұрын
3:38 I live right by campton hills and trust me, urban sprawl is making its way here.
@Drivingusa25
4 ай бұрын
I love the history of different towns . How different each town can look feel .
@jordandr.j4789
2 жыл бұрын
I grew up in Hammond, Wisconsin. It is a town that is in northwest Wisconsin, when I graduated high school in 2017, the town’s population was around 1,600 it’s now just a shade under 2,000… I ended up going to Milwaukee for college but once I finish up my student teaching, I hope to end up in a district in a small town. Nothing against being in a city like Milwaukee, it’s great being here, but I do miss the small town vibes
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