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)
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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 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.
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.
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
"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.
I grew up in Texas in a large city. Alot of my friends would not want the "small town" aspect but want the dense city feel because of the walkability. Here, in Texas, a small town is a place where things are many miles apart from each other.
That's not a small town, that's a homestead area ;) Really one of the reasons teh US is so spread is that homesteading history. In Europe those isolated houses existed too, of course, but they have consolidated to villages or even agricultural towns (as in a few thousand people inside a wall who mostly still work on their fields in front of the wall)
Yeah, my family is from a small ish town in Ohio (slightly larger than the size listed here, I think about 15k.) Sure it was walkable... if you got a ride to that one street that was walkable. I spent the rest of my time in big cities (Montreal and Toronto) and between the two big cities are infinitely more walkable. All my cousins learned how to drive asap in a small town, none of my friends did in a big city. We could walk or public transit to anything.
Maybe small pockets in the Down Town areas..? But which TX City do U speak of…? Dallas, Ft Worth, Amarillo, Lubbock, Austin, Houston, SA.? I don’t know of any itches that are very walkable..
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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
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)
"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!?"
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
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)
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.
@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).
A lot of others in the comments are articulating the same experience that I had. Growing up in a small town (pop~3,000) I felt like I was in an isolated wasteland. When I moved to the SF bay area I experienced community and "small town feel" . I'm starting to think that walkability is the real key to feeling a sense of belonging in an area, and not the actual population.
I read a post somewhere recently that really stuck with me: "Maybe the reason Americans love 'the college experience' so much is because for many of them it's the only time in their lives that they live in walkable communities."
Walkability plays a big role, but I think it's also more about integration of the community. Having some public areas where people congregate to/meet up, having more small local businesses where it feels more community than a big box store, chances to meet people around you and chat/make it easy to come by... it's feeling like a community of people, rather than just a bunch of individual houses. Walkability is a big part there, but not everything - I'd also add in parks/other public spaces that people congregate in and where there can be events held, and local businesses/markets that have that more personal feel to it.
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 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.
@@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.
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.)
@@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.
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".
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.
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
I grew up in a small town and now live in a midsize city. I don't miss the small town. I know all my immediate neighbours anyway, but I also have access to good restaurants, grocery stores whose international aisle doesn't just mean pasta sauce, schools with music, visual arts and language programs and a dating pool that's not entirely 3rd cousins.
My town of 8000 has some good restaurants and cafes, grocery stores that carry interesting things (even the weekly farmers market has a good French bakery, a very good cheese stand, excellent Oaxacan tamales, really good espresso), dunno about the schools, the midsize city a half hour away has more, the larger city two hours away yet more. Good points, but I think that there are a few kinds of small town, and I'm seeing more and better in various ones that I visit.
This "small town feel" seems to be summed up by walkability, charm, and community, which in my experience seems to be pretty indicative of many urban neighborhoods in cities like Philadelphia and NYC.
I think walkability is the main one. If you can walk around areas, then you see people doing things and can stop and chat. If you're living in a stereotypical American now car-based city (e.g., Houston), you can't walk around a lot and thus there's not a lot of ways you can walk around to people close to you
@@boqbloblo Walkability is definitely a huge factor, though, I'm not sure I agree with the idea that the stereotypical American city isn't walkable. Sure, many of the cities have been made more auto-centric at the expense of pedestrians, but there are loads of highly walkable cities. Most of the major big cities fit that bill, like NYC, Chicago, Boston, Philly, SF, and Seattle just to name some. I think the concept of community plays on this as well. In my experience in both NY and Philly, neighborhoods can feel very close knit, creating a community that I'd say is better and more open than a small town.
@@redbird_33 that's why i said stereotypical, not true. I agree that lots of especially old cities (although there are others like you mentioned) that are very walkable, but the stereotype/idea of an American city, which is true in practically any city in some part of it, is that it's not walkable
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.
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. .
@@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).
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...
@@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).
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.
It's interesting how the perception of what a "small town" is varies from place to place. For me, 9000 population is a large town or a small city where a small town would be in the sub 2000 or so range.
It happens on the other end, too! Growing up, my definition of a "city" was set by New York City, so I was shocked to find people could even pretend to call their 30,000 population place that. I've since reset, but it took a looooooong time.
Indeed, and for me any place with less than 50,000 is super tiny and would make me uncomfortable. Calling some of these places "urban" just blows my mind.
@@Tokahfang Yes, indeed. I've lived in a city with over a million population for long enough that visiting a city with "only" 50,000 feels "quaint". :)
For me anything under 50,000 is town. 20,000-50,000 is large and under 20,000 is small. Your definition of a small town would likely be a village in my mind.
@@Tokahfang Yeah, my city is, give or take, around the 39k - 41k mark in population and I'm surprised people call it a city. The infrastructure isn't really there to make it a 'city' in the real sense.
The small town I currently live in is about 9,000 residents, and it has been that size for 120 years. It hasn't varied by more than about 1000 people in that entire time. It is very dependent on two main industries though, so I'd say it's at high risk for disappearing in the next few decades. If either the local manufacturer or the college leave/stop operating, I don't know how they'd recover.
Providers of higher education tend to be quite stable institutions, though. There are some universities in Europe that are over 1000 years old and still occupy the original buildings.
@@BrokenCurtain I agree with you generally. Our school being 150+ years old is evidence of that. Recently though, (especially after the 08 downturn) a lot of small colleges have been dying off, especially ones in rural areas like mine. Small schools have a harder time weathering economic shocks than larger uni's.
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.
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.
One thing is that the people moving into small towns have often found them in a magazine article, so many others often will move there because of the same article. Also, people moving to small towns are bringing it closer to becoming a suburb. Many native small town residents don't want you there as well, unless the town is made up of transient Floridians, Atlanteans, and Californians.
I suspect this is a global phenomenon. I've found that people genuinely welcome people who come to live in a small town, because they like small towns and don't want to change it (ok they are on probation for a few years). However people who come to swan around in big fancy cars like they own the place, don't use local services, thus encouraging gentrification because local services are not 'good enough' for them and push up housing costs, not so much.
A much less talked about form of gentrification than what urban communities face is what rural communities face. Often a lake will have a small hamlet or town on/near it and the super rich will buy as much property as possible and drive up land values until the locals are incapable of owning anything amd they turn a public body of water into their own private lake. (Personally this should be illegal and punishable with prison time) But even just a normal small farming community could face similar problems if overly rich folk drive up property values above what local jobs can pay for.
It depends on the numbers. In a lot of quaint, picturesque villages all over Europe and Asia, rich city folk can REPLACE the original population by buying their houses and pushing up prices beyond what locals can afford, but as long as those locals move out, the population remains the same and the infrastructure remains in place and sufficient. What seems to happen in the USA is that towns boom, triple their population by building new subdivisions and therefore infrastructure is under pressure: not enough water, parking, teachers, public space and what have you to keep everyone happy.
It’s so funny to me when people say they’re from a “small town” but then show clips of busy streets, tons of shops, nice infrastructure, etc. To me that’s a city. Growing up in a SMALL small town, I cant imagine living anywhere that doesn’t have farmland or isn’t spread out. It amazes me that people will look at their town and think it’s “small” or “rural” when it’s something that i, along with many others who grew up in the same kinds of areas, would honestly call a city.
@@lindatisue733 that’s crazy. In east PA my small town has like 13000 ppl with a few other small towns a short drive away. It’s mad dense too most ppl live in row houses or apartments
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 TH-cam algorithm suggested it to me
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.
@@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.
@@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 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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
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"
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
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
@@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.
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
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.
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 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.
@@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.
My grandparents live in Door County in the summers and it's wild to see Sturgeon Bay featured so much here. Door County is fiercely protective of its small town feel and the results really are amazing in some places.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
@@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.
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 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! :)
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.
@@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.)
@@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.
I've found that in small towns, especially those with an agricultural base, have "established" populations, who find it difficult to accept "newcomers".
That’s generally true of any area with a population that hasn’t seen much change over the long term, you can see it in particular streets, districts, even as small as specific buildings - anywhere that has a fairly isolated population long enough develops an awkwardness around people that aren’t from the same population; it’s basic human tribalism
@@beechnut79 Only when the next generation has no local opportunities *and* can otherwise leave. What we're seeing in a lot of places now is bifurcation - the ones who can leave, do, and the ones left-behind are those most in need of support, either due to age or poverty.
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.
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).
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.
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.
@@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.
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).
@@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.
@@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.
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.
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...
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
"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.
Americans: I like small town feel and walkability Planners: okay what if we try and make it easier to use alternate transport or walk Americans: no that is too small and I cant drive
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 :)
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.
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.
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.
Small towns often provide historic urban street grids and denser zoning. Since these attributes are both incredibly rare now in the US and Canada thanks for decades of suburban development, towns are often pressured into redeveloping into denser urban hubs. I personally don't have too much of a problem with this, but it is another way in which we are reducing the amount of affordable housing and commercial buildings that are in that sort of "missing middle" category.
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
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.
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.
The majority of small towns I have been through have been pretty depressing, especially in the Midwest (IA, IL, IN, MI). Deserted main streets, boarded up buildings, welfare offices, Dollar Stores, store front churches, lots of dirty looking corner liquor stores and of course a Walmart on the outskirts of town surrounded by the usual fast food places. If there is a mall it is half or almost empty with no anchor stores and the inline stores are local Mom and Pops on their last legs. There will be one side of town where there are some new very expensive homes for the few professionals that live there. A larger area of older but ok housing and then lots and lots of run down looking old houses, trailers, run down apartments, very scummy looking, lots of beat up old cars, unsupervised children running all over, these are the types of places you beg borrow and steal to get out of, not move to. I the small towns that people SAY they want are like Starz Hollow on Gilmore Girls (note no poverty, drugs and very few brown people). Or perhaps Hudson on Heartland, again no drugs, crime, or brown people. Now of course there are very wealthy small towns, like Aspen CO or numerous places in New England, but they are extremely expensive and tend to be about 95% white. I was born in Muscatine IA a town on the banks of the Mississippi River and thank God my parents took us and left a year after I was born and moved to Denver. We would never have had the educational opportunities or career opportunities in Muscatine that we had in Denver. For every wonderful and well off small town there are 20 that are just as I described. I'm very happy to live in a urban area that does not look like a set from The Walking Dead.
But you will find your share of that within urban areas as well. In Chicago region try Harvey and Chicago Heights. Parts of those towns look worse than third world.
"of course a Walmart on the outskirts of town surrounded by the usual fast food places" That is a big part of the problem. Neither of those are places of small town feeling right? You want your restaurant in what used to be the town inn, another place that is more a drinking locality and a small supermarket in the center. Preferably right between church and town hall and a park on the other side of the street with a good place for children to play. That is where life happens in a small town and this is what creates that feeling.
I'm from a small town in a coastal state and you wouldn't know it from the housing prices, but my hometown is not much better than your Iowa one. You could argue that back in the 90s it was semi-decent but the Amazon/Walmart effect is real, and that town is a depressing shell of a town now and I can't imagine why anyone would want to live there.
Thank you for pointing out what the video did not. "Small Town feel" in so many US minds seems to equate to "few/no people of color", which is reinforced by media and less scrupulous real estate brokers, mortgage lenders, and home appraisers. "No poor people" is also an unspoken factor - those are actually wealthy suburbs, or at best, vacation getaways like on Cape Cod, not self-sustaining small towns. In New York State, we have wealthy suburbs upstate with a constellation of dying/poor small towns, where all the folks live who do the service jobs for the wealthy communities. I think that's the future - Big Agra has pushed out most family farms, and the Industrial Rust Belt has come to encompass most of the country.
The same thing that's happening in small towns in the US is happening in the villages in Russia. During soviet times, people lived on collective farms and these were pretty much self-sufficient communities. But with privatization of farming and young people leaving for cities, what I used to remember as thriving communities with animals roaming everywhere are now rotting houses with the elderly who remain. They don't have the strength to take care of livestock or grow crops anymore and are essentially abandoned. But they used to be similar to small towns - with their own little schools, churches, libraries, and grocery stores.
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?
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.
You keep skirting the edge of, but never exactly discussing the Strong Towns movement. I'm interested to see a video of your take on Strong Towns book/movement/concepts and how they can be applied to dig North America out of the unsustainable suburbia we've trapped ourselves in. Thanks.
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.
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.
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'.
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!
It feels so weird to listen to this haha. "Small town" with a population of 9.000 people. I'm from Denmark, roughly 5 million people max. Grew up in a town with like 100 people haha.
@@CityBeautiful yeah haha. Still feels weird to me that California has almost 40 million people. I always thought Denmark was quite big with 5 million people lol
He did mention that the definition of city or town is different. 200 people isn't a town from my perspective it is a village that is often affiliated to a real town with its own townhall ...
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...
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.
Personally the thought of always seeing people I know any time I go anywhere sounds miserable to me, but I appreciate videos like this and the work of Strongtowns that dispel the myth that density is synonymous with skyscrapers. Much of what people enjoy about the look and feel of traditional small towns comes from density, as opposed to the sprawl model of freestyle-style roads and chain stores that make up most of rural America today
Dear FPOAK: An advantage of small town living where "everyone knows everyone" is the lack of "stranger crimes". Consider that the 1st organized Police Dept in America was established in NYC in 1842. The 1st modern prison as we know them today was Eastern Penitentiary in Philadelphia which opened in 1832. Organized Police Depts, Penitentiaries, and Crime as we know it today didn't even exist until the Industrial Revolution began around 1800. It was then that people started to migrate into the first Big Cities of the Modern Anonymous Society. It was the Anonymity of Big City Life that facilitated Crime because it is morally easier to commit a Crime against a stranger as opposed to someone who you personally know. This Anonymity of Modern Life is just one factor that spawned many of the Social Ills we know today, including alcohol and drug addiction, mental illness, and homelessness, and disintegration of the nuclear family. You must remember that Big Cities weren't built for the convenience of Common Citizens but for the convenience of GREEDY Capitalists who saw that it was cheaper and more efficient to run a company in one 20 story building than in 20 one story buildings, although the latter choice across all companies would've led to less dense and more livable cities. Consider that 33% (1/3) of all American Homicides since 1965 remain unsolved. That's because most of these unsolved homicides are "stranger crimes" where there is no social link between the murderer and his victim. It goes without saying that it is much harder to commit a "stranger crime" of any type in a small town where "everyone knows everyone else".
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
I live in a small college town, Lexington, Virginia, during the school year. Having two colleges in the town being a constant flow of money into the community, so I think it’ll be fine
I was thinking about Lexington through this whole video! It's a lovely place and it's hit the small town jackpot- you got both the state funding and rich private school endowment, and all without a constant pressure to keep growing and sprawling (like Blacksburg does) or the threat of being absorbed economically/politically into a major nearby urban area.
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.
@@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.
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.
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
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.
I currently live in a small town in Wisconsin.... Hurley. We've got 1,500 people and neighboring Ironwood MI has just over 4,000. And honestly I love it - I grew up in Pittsburgh PA and it was a big change when I moved to this region, but I don't know if I can give up the small town lifestyle - too peaceful.
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).
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.
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
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
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?
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)
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.
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.
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.
Having grown up in a small, and isolated, town I always feel there's a bit lacking with pieces like this, since the focus is often on small towns within or near larger centres. Probably once a month CBC has an article about a small town in Ontario turning things around (it's in the Golden Horseshoe). So it was nice to see you give some attention to places that don't have that advantage! Addressing an affordability crisis isn't simply building more housing where needed, it's also about lessening the primacy that those urban centers have.
@@wclark3196 Stay where you are it's fine--we all must make the right decision for ourselves, hence why cities are so desirable. I'm not expecting any individual to move to Legit Small Town Canada, especially someone who comments the sort of thing you do. I'm saying that as a society we would benefit from spreading our population--Canada's population & economy is too concentrated in too few places. Our government ought to commit to a northern & rural strategy. It would be good for the whole country.
Door County: the Cape Cod of the Midwest! In all seriousness, having moved to New England from D.C., there is quality of life increase where there is walkability, familiarity, and access to natural preservations. That can happen in urban areas, but I continue to "rail" against planning for private automobiles.
One often under-noted contributing factor to small-town feel is sidewalks in the residential neighborhoods, which create a public and shared space. In my large suburban town of over 30,000 people, almost every residential street has sidewalks, which are used by: commuters going to the train station, kids walking to school, dog walkers, runners, parents with strollers, or just people walking the neighborhood on a pleasant summer evening. People passing on sidewalks tend to nod, smile and greet each other-a small thing, but one that definitely contributes to a small town feel.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
@@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.
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.
just stumbled upon this video in my recommended, and the genuine surprise to find you were from sturgeon bay blew my mind! I'm from the valley, and have been up to door county more times than i can count. i also race my dirt bike on some property in sturgeon bay owned by the door devil's motorcycle club, so it's great to see someone more local create such great content. very fascinating video, look forward to seeing more!
![Stroads are Ugly, Expensive, and Dangerous (and they're everywhere) [ST05]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ORzNZUeUHAM/mqdefault.jpg)
Any other small town residents or people who grew up in small towns? Where are you from?
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)
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"
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.
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.
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.)
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.
Basically, the opposite of postwar suburbs.
I wish you could tell the name of the town without doxing yourself, but alas.
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.
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
@@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.
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.
does it still operate today?
@@dalton-at-work Yes, it does. It's located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and it's a very popular place on weekends.
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
Wewe mtanzania rudi kwenu bongo
"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.
I grew up in Texas in a large city. Alot of my friends would not want the "small town" aspect but want the dense city feel because of the walkability. Here, in Texas, a small town is a place where things are many miles apart from each other.
That's not a small town, that's a homestead area ;)
Really one of the reasons teh US is so spread is that homesteading history. In Europe those isolated houses existed too, of course, but they have consolidated to villages or even agricultural towns (as in a few thousand people inside a wall who mostly still work on their fields in front of the wall)
Texas isn't exactly known for urban and walkable cities outside of their immediate downtown area.
Yeah, my family is from a small ish town in Ohio (slightly larger than the size listed here, I think about 15k.)
Sure it was walkable... if you got a ride to that one street that was walkable. I spent the rest of my time in big cities (Montreal and Toronto) and between the two big cities are infinitely more walkable. All my cousins learned how to drive asap in a small town, none of my friends did in a big city. We could walk or public transit to anything.
Big cities in Texas aren’t even walkable either
Maybe small pockets in the Down Town areas..? But which TX City do U speak of…? Dallas, Ft Worth, Amarillo, Lubbock, Austin, Houston, SA.? I don’t know of any itches that are very walkable..
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.
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.
Yeah, living in the city can be great for that. It's the suburbs that suck.
I live in a small town where I have to drive for most things. It defeats the purpose of living in a small town.
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.
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.
agree but not. cities are better. with huge gentrification, a few much more richer, and a bunch of poor pretending their lives are normal
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.
@@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.
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)
"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!?"
Your grocery store is only 1/4 mile a way? Must be nice lol
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
The one grocery store I knew I could walk to was recently demolished.
ya gotta walk at least 45 minutes through a highway interchange to get to the big box store.
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)
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.
Dundas is a cool neighbourhood
I live in Lincoln next door, this area is very smalltown
Winnipeg has several neighbourhoods that have a small town feel. They were once separate municipalities that the city annexed over the years.
@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).
@Jason Thompson Hopefully this can change. I love Oakville, and I do not want to see more cookies cutter streets.
A lot of others in the comments are articulating the same experience that I had. Growing up in a small town (pop~3,000) I felt like I was in an isolated wasteland. When I moved to the SF bay area I experienced community and "small town feel" . I'm starting to think that walkability is the real key to feeling a sense of belonging in an area, and not the actual population.
I read a post somewhere recently that really stuck with me: "Maybe the reason Americans love 'the college experience' so much is because for many of them it's the only time in their lives that they live in walkable communities."
Walkability plays a big role, but I think it's also more about integration of the community. Having some public areas where people congregate to/meet up, having more small local businesses where it feels more community than a big box store, chances to meet people around you and chat/make it easy to come by... it's feeling like a community of people, rather than just a bunch of individual houses.
Walkability is a big part there, but not everything - I'd also add in parks/other public spaces that people congregate in and where there can be events held, and local businesses/markets that have that more personal feel to it.
oh
@@silver6380 No, it’s because we’re free from our parents.
It’s a common misconception that big cities have no community. It’s the suburbs that lack community.
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.
To attract cafe's or something like it etc you need 100 costumers a day at least
@@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.
@@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.
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.)
@@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.
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".
Absolutely Tommy Jones.
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.
Fuc Atlanta
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
@@matthewbarry376 Did you really say Mexicans are criminals?
I grew up in a small town and now live in a midsize city.
I don't miss the small town. I know all my immediate neighbours anyway, but I also have access to good restaurants, grocery stores whose international aisle doesn't just mean pasta sauce, schools with music, visual arts and language programs and a dating pool that's not entirely 3rd cousins.
My town of 8000 has some good restaurants and cafes, grocery stores that carry interesting things (even the weekly farmers market has a good French bakery, a very good cheese stand, excellent Oaxacan tamales, really good espresso), dunno about the schools, the midsize city a half hour away has more, the larger city two hours away yet more. Good points, but I think that there are a few kinds of small town, and I'm seeing more and better in various ones that I visit.
This "small town feel" seems to be summed up by walkability, charm, and community, which in my experience seems to be pretty indicative of many urban neighborhoods in cities like Philadelphia and NYC.
I think walkability is the main one. If you can walk around areas, then you see people doing things and can stop and chat. If you're living in a stereotypical American now car-based city (e.g., Houston), you can't walk around a lot and thus there's not a lot of ways you can walk around to people close to you
@@boqbloblo Walkability is definitely a huge factor, though, I'm not sure I agree with the idea that the stereotypical American city isn't walkable. Sure, many of the cities have been made more auto-centric at the expense of pedestrians, but there are loads of highly walkable cities. Most of the major big cities fit that bill, like NYC, Chicago, Boston, Philly, SF, and Seattle just to name some.
I think the concept of community plays on this as well. In my experience in both NY and Philly, neighborhoods can feel very close knit, creating a community that I'd say is better and more open than a small town.
@@redbird_33 that's why i said stereotypical, not true. I agree that lots of especially old cities (although there are others like you mentioned) that are very walkable, but the stereotype/idea of an American city, which is true in practically any city in some part of it, is that it's not walkable
Then you got mugged and regretted those words lol.
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.
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. .
@@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).
A good bus service could easily solve the problem
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...
@@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).
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.
It's interesting how the perception of what a "small town" is varies from place to place. For me, 9000 population is a large town or a small city where a small town would be in the sub 2000 or so range.
It happens on the other end, too! Growing up, my definition of a "city" was set by New York City, so I was shocked to find people could even pretend to call their 30,000 population place that. I've since reset, but it took a looooooong time.
Indeed, and for me any place with less than 50,000 is super tiny and would make me uncomfortable. Calling some of these places "urban" just blows my mind.
@@Tokahfang Yes, indeed. I've lived in a city with over a million population for long enough that visiting a city with "only" 50,000 feels "quaint". :)
For me anything under 50,000 is town. 20,000-50,000 is large and under 20,000 is small. Your definition of a small town would likely be a village in my mind.
@@Tokahfang Yeah, my city is, give or take, around the 39k - 41k mark in population and I'm surprised people call it a city. The infrastructure isn't really there to make it a 'city' in the real sense.
The small town I currently live in is about 9,000 residents, and it has been that size for 120 years. It hasn't varied by more than about 1000 people in that entire time.
It is very dependent on two main industries though, so I'd say it's at high risk for disappearing in the next few decades. If either the local manufacturer or the college leave/stop operating, I don't know how they'd recover.
Providers of higher education tend to be quite stable institutions, though. There are some universities in Europe that are over 1000 years old and still occupy the original buildings.
@@BrokenCurtain I agree with you generally. Our school being 150+ years old is evidence of that.
Recently though, (especially after the 08 downturn) a lot of small colleges have been dying off, especially ones in rural areas like mine. Small schools have a harder time weathering economic shocks than larger uni's.
If its a small public state uni you'll be fine, if its private who knows
What town?
@@BrokenCurtain Yes, but they also want to add a property tax to your already high property taxes.
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.
Haha trains everywhere lol
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.
@@LARKXHIN pog, time to start another Cities Skylines playthrough
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.
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
One thing is that the people moving into small towns have often found them in a magazine article, so many others often will move there because of the same article. Also, people moving to small towns are bringing it closer to becoming a suburb. Many native small town residents don't want you there as well, unless the town is made up of transient Floridians, Atlanteans, and Californians.
I suspect this is a global phenomenon. I've found that people genuinely welcome people who come to live in a small town, because they like small towns and don't want to change it (ok they are on probation for a few years). However people who come to swan around in big fancy cars like they own the place, don't use local services, thus encouraging gentrification because local services are not 'good enough' for them and push up housing costs, not so much.
Two well known songs on the subject:
“Small Town” by John Mellencamp.
“Small Town Saturday Night” by Hal Ketchum.
A much less talked about form of gentrification than what urban communities face is what rural communities face. Often a lake will have a small hamlet or town on/near it and the super rich will buy as much property as possible and drive up land values until the locals are incapable of owning anything amd they turn a public body of water into their own private lake. (Personally this should be illegal and punishable with prison time)
But even just a normal small farming community could face similar problems if overly rich folk drive up property values above what local jobs can pay for.
It depends on the numbers. In a lot of quaint, picturesque villages all over Europe and Asia, rich city folk can REPLACE the original population by buying their houses and pushing up prices beyond what locals can afford, but as long as those locals move out, the population remains the same and the infrastructure remains in place and sufficient.
What seems to happen in the USA is that towns boom, triple their population by building new subdivisions and therefore infrastructure is under pressure: not enough water, parking, teachers, public space and what have you to keep everyone happy.
It’s so funny to me when people say they’re from a “small town” but then show clips of busy streets, tons of shops, nice infrastructure, etc. To me that’s a city. Growing up in a SMALL small town, I cant imagine living anywhere that doesn’t have farmland or isn’t spread out. It amazes me that people will look at their town and think it’s “small” or “rural” when it’s something that i, along with many others who grew up in the same kinds of areas, would honestly call a city.
Yeah, as a kid going to the big city, was the town with 10,000 people.
@@lindatisue733 that’s crazy. In east PA my small town has like 13000 ppl with a few other small towns a short drive away. It’s mad dense too most ppl live in row houses or apartments
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 TH-cam algorithm suggested it to me
Similar experience for me in France.
Coming from a small town (
I prefer cities like Madrid too
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.
@@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.
I am not American, but I think Steven Spielberg and Stephen King made the image of a stereotypical American town.
It's older than them! (Consider Frank Capra's 1946 movie IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE...)
@@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.
@@mandisaw And there's also MGM's Andy Hardy movies from the late '30s and early '40s...
@@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.
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.
Geography world!!!!!!!! I love your videos.
i know the town i live in now annexed an entire township. it grew like 5x in size, both in population and land area
There was a little town near me called Eola which got swallowed up by the ridiculous expansion of both Aurora and Naperville.
@@UserName-ts3sp McCarthy was right with his accusations
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.
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.
@@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.
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"
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
@@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.
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.
Ironically, small towns often have higher crime stats on a per-capita basis
As a small town resident, I definitely don’t leave my doors unlocked, even though NH is basically the safest state
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.
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.
@@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.
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
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.
Never thought I'd see Cecil tuckey represented on a random TH-cam video, let's gooo
Eyy another Maryland lad.
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.
Very true. Many small towns are unwelcoming and have high poverty rates.
@@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.
@@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
@@ten_tego_teges Yes. Is there a problem with that
@@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.
My grandparents live in Door County in the summers and it's wild to see Sturgeon Bay featured so much here. Door County is fiercely protective of its small town feel and the results really are amazing in some places.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In germany there are villages with 800 people and a recently added train stop.
That sounds like it would be really expensive considering how expensive a normal taxi is.
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
@@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.
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
200 was probably big in this story but really is not big in reality
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"
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
@@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! :)
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.
@@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.)
@@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.
I've found that in small towns, especially those with an agricultural base, have "established" populations, who find it difficult to accept "newcomers".
"we don't like strangers 'round here" *Insert western music*
That’s generally true of any area with a population that hasn’t seen much change over the long term, you can see it in particular streets, districts, even as small as specific buildings - anywhere that has a fairly isolated population long enough develops an awkwardness around people that aren’t from the same population; it’s basic human tribalism
Which is why these towns tend to evaporate once the Lon term residents die off.
@@beechnut79 Can you think of an example? I find that idea interesting.
@@beechnut79 Only when the next generation has no local opportunities *and* can otherwise leave. What we're seeing in a lot of places now is bifurcation - the ones who can leave, do, and the ones left-behind are those most in need of support, either due to age or poverty.
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.
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).
But the food is delicious
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.
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.
@@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.
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).
@@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.
@@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.
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.
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...
You have trains to these towns tho so you can still reach them from the capital
Compact small towns are the best. If we had those in the states I might consider living in one.
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.
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
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.
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.
And a lot of small-townies want all that too. No one was forced to shop at Walmart.
Been watching some Not Just Bikes, huh?
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.
"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.
Americans: I like small town feel and walkability
Planners: okay what if we try and make it easier to use alternate transport or walk
Americans: no that is too small and I cant drive
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 :)
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.
A few cities have "Old Town"s, which basically have small town feel, though they're a lot more expensive.
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.
@@lindatisue733 Yeah, it really depends on how big your city is and how well the old town can appeal to tourists.
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.
I lived in a small town. My neighbour was 300m away from me and the store was almost 1,5km away.
Rurual as fuck
It must make for some nice walking sessions.
Oh the very edge of what most consider walkable like the very borderline.
Small towns often provide historic urban street grids and denser zoning. Since these attributes are both incredibly rare now in the US and Canada thanks for decades of suburban development, towns are often pressured into redeveloping into denser urban hubs. I personally don't have too much of a problem with this, but it is another way in which we are reducing the amount of affordable housing and commercial buildings that are in that sort of "missing middle" category.
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
I lived in a town of around 5,000 people and it sucked. Small town, big hell.
What made it suck!
@@paxundpeace9970 What didn't it?
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.
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.
The majority of small towns I have been through have been pretty depressing, especially in the Midwest (IA, IL, IN, MI).
Deserted main streets, boarded up buildings, welfare offices, Dollar Stores, store front churches, lots of dirty looking corner liquor stores and of course a Walmart on the outskirts of town surrounded by the usual fast food places.
If there is a mall it is half or almost empty with no anchor stores and the inline stores are local Mom and Pops on their last legs. There will be one side of town where there are some new very expensive homes for the few professionals that live there. A larger area of older but ok housing and then lots and lots of run down looking old houses, trailers, run down apartments, very scummy looking, lots of beat up old cars, unsupervised children running all over, these are the types of places you beg borrow and steal to get out of, not move to.
I the small towns that people SAY they want are like Starz Hollow on Gilmore Girls (note no poverty, drugs and very few brown people). Or perhaps Hudson on Heartland, again no drugs, crime, or brown people. Now of course there are very wealthy small towns, like Aspen CO or numerous places in New England, but they are extremely expensive and tend to be about 95% white.
I was born in Muscatine IA a town on the banks of the Mississippi River and thank God my parents took us and left a year after I was born and moved to Denver. We would never have had the educational opportunities or career opportunities in Muscatine that we had in Denver. For every wonderful and well off small town there are 20 that are just as I described. I'm very happy to live in a urban area that does not look like a set from The Walking Dead.
But you will find your share of that within urban areas as well. In Chicago region try Harvey and Chicago Heights. Parts of those towns look worse than third world.
"of course a Walmart on the outskirts of town surrounded by the usual fast food places"
That is a big part of the problem. Neither of those are places of small town feeling right?
You want your restaurant in what used to be the town inn, another place that is more a drinking locality and a small supermarket in the center. Preferably right between church and town hall and a park on the other side of the street with a good place for children to play.
That is where life happens in a small town and this is what creates that feeling.
Say what you want about the boarded up buildings, but dollar stores aren't inherently trashy. They're a decent source of cheap dishes and necessities.
I'm from a small town in a coastal state and you wouldn't know it from the housing prices, but my hometown is not much better than your Iowa one. You could argue that back in the 90s it was semi-decent but the Amazon/Walmart effect is real, and that town is a depressing shell of a town now and I can't imagine why anyone would want to live there.
Thank you for pointing out what the video did not. "Small Town feel" in so many US minds seems to equate to "few/no people of color", which is reinforced by media and less scrupulous real estate brokers, mortgage lenders, and home appraisers. "No poor people" is also an unspoken factor - those are actually wealthy suburbs, or at best, vacation getaways like on Cape Cod, not self-sustaining small towns.
In New York State, we have wealthy suburbs upstate with a constellation of dying/poor small towns, where all the folks live who do the service jobs for the wealthy communities. I think that's the future - Big Agra has pushed out most family farms, and the Industrial Rust Belt has come to encompass most of the country.
The same thing that's happening in small towns in the US is happening in the villages in Russia. During soviet times, people lived on collective farms and these were pretty much self-sufficient communities. But with privatization of farming and young people leaving for cities, what I used to remember as thriving communities with animals roaming everywhere are now rotting houses with the elderly who remain. They don't have the strength to take care of livestock or grow crops anymore and are essentially abandoned. But they used to be similar to small towns - with their own little schools, churches, libraries, and grocery stores.
Oh Lord you're from Wisconsin.... Now I cannot unhear or unsee all your Wisconsinite patterns lol
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?
I've been to Sturgeon bay before, it is an excellent place to visit and I would highly recommend it!
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 😅.
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.
You keep skirting the edge of, but never exactly discussing the Strong Towns movement. I'm interested to see a video of your take on Strong Towns book/movement/concepts and how they can be applied to dig North America out of the unsustainable suburbia we've trapped ourselves in. Thanks.
You're a fellow wisconsinite? AND from the most beautiful part of the state? LET'S GO!
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.
Welcome to Tennessee. (Because Southern Hospitality is a myth, and my fellow Knoxvillians probably aren't that welcoming.)
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.
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'.
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!
It feels so weird to listen to this haha. "Small town" with a population of 9.000 people. I'm from Denmark, roughly 5 million people max. Grew up in a town with like 100 people haha.
Yeah, it's all relative. Here in California people call cities with like 50,000 small towns!
@@CityBeautiful yeah haha. Still feels weird to me that California has almost 40 million people. I always thought Denmark was quite big with 5 million people lol
@@odin5255 TIL Denmark has the same population as my home city/region, the GTA en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Toronto_Area
He did mention that the definition of city or town is different.
200 people isn't a town from my perspective it is a village that is often affiliated to a real town with its own townhall ...
@@paxundpeace9970 we have a community hall, meeting place for residents etc.
Towns only like maybe 150 people.
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...
you need to make more videos, i've rewatched some of them like 3 times
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.
Personally the thought of always seeing people I know any time I go anywhere sounds miserable to me, but I appreciate videos like this and the work of Strongtowns that dispel the myth that density is synonymous with skyscrapers. Much of what people enjoy about the look and feel of traditional small towns comes from density, as opposed to the sprawl model of freestyle-style roads and chain stores that make up most of rural America today
Strong town makes great work by challenging beliefs.
I can recommend Not Just bikes and Oh the Urbanity! They make great content
Dear FPOAK: An advantage of small town living where "everyone knows everyone" is the lack of "stranger crimes". Consider that the 1st organized Police Dept in America was established in NYC in 1842. The 1st modern prison as we know them today was Eastern Penitentiary in Philadelphia which opened in 1832. Organized Police Depts, Penitentiaries, and Crime as we know it today didn't even exist until the Industrial Revolution began around 1800. It was then that people started to migrate into the first Big Cities of the Modern Anonymous Society. It was the Anonymity of Big City Life that facilitated Crime because it is morally easier to commit a Crime against a stranger as opposed to someone who you personally know. This Anonymity of Modern Life is just one factor that spawned many of the Social Ills we know today, including alcohol and drug addiction, mental illness, and homelessness, and disintegration of the nuclear family. You must remember that Big Cities weren't built for the convenience of Common Citizens but for the convenience of GREEDY Capitalists who saw that it was cheaper and more efficient to run a company in one 20 story building than in 20 one story buildings, although the latter choice across all companies would've led to less dense and more livable cities. Consider that 33% (1/3) of all American Homicides since 1965 remain unsolved. That's because most of these unsolved homicides are "stranger crimes" where there is no social link between the murderer and his victim. It goes without saying that it is much harder to commit a "stranger crime" of any type in a small town where "everyone knows everyone else".
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
I live in a small college town, Lexington, Virginia, during the school year. Having two colleges in the town being a constant flow of money into the community, so I think it’ll be fine
I was thinking about Lexington through this whole video! It's a lovely place and it's hit the small town jackpot- you got both the state funding and rich private school endowment, and all without a constant pressure to keep growing and sprawling (like Blacksburg does) or the threat of being absorbed economically/politically into a major nearby urban area.
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.
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
It's on the list. I'll get there eventually, especially since I live in one.
@@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.
@@CityBeautiful can you do one on Montréal? It's famous for its walkable urbanism and bike friendliness around the world.
@@carfreeneoliberalgeorgisty5102 'Oh the Urbanity!' is based in Montreal.
@@carfreeneoliberalgeorgisty5102 Great Name!
"People love small towns, even if they've never lived in one." Especially then! (Read PEYTON PLACE...)
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.
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
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.
I currently live in a small town in Wisconsin.... Hurley. We've got 1,500 people and neighboring Ironwood MI has just over 4,000. And honestly I love it - I grew up in Pittsburgh PA and it was a big change when I moved to this region, but I don't know if I can give up the small town lifestyle - too peaceful.
A lot of the things about small towns are appealing but everyone knowing everyone else's private details is a deal-breaker for me
Or how about going to the ONLY doctor in town and he sucks?
Depends how small. 10,000 people is fine, but you get into the
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).
Je pensais que c'était mieux réglé que ça, la Suisse.
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.
I never felt the need to fit in in High School. I was slightly introverted.
Especially if it's one with low influx of new people coming in or no tourism.
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
2:50 The population of Shirakawa was slightly reduced after an outbreak of Hinamizawa Syndrome.
Higurashi reference?
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
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?
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)
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.
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.
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.
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
In stuck in a big city that isn't a metropolis
6:10 Calgary, a small town of 1 million people.
Having grown up in a small, and isolated, town I always feel there's a bit lacking with pieces like this, since the focus is often on small towns within or near larger centres. Probably once a month CBC has an article about a small town in Ontario turning things around (it's in the Golden Horseshoe). So it was nice to see you give some attention to places that don't have that advantage!
Addressing an affordability crisis isn't simply building more housing where needed, it's also about lessening the primacy that those urban centers have.
I like the primacy of my urban centre. I don't want to live in some tiny, racist shithole.
@@wclark3196 Stay where you are it's fine--we all must make the right decision for ourselves, hence why cities are so desirable. I'm not expecting any individual to move to Legit Small Town Canada, especially someone who comments the sort of thing you do. I'm saying that as a society we would benefit from spreading our population--Canada's population & economy is too concentrated in too few places. Our government ought to commit to a northern & rural strategy. It would be good for the whole country.
Door County: the Cape Cod of the Midwest! In all seriousness, having moved to New England from D.C., there is quality of life increase where there is walkability, familiarity, and access to natural preservations. That can happen in urban areas, but I continue to "rail" against planning for private automobiles.
Door County is wonderful. Traverse City across the lake is nice, too.
One often under-noted contributing factor to small-town feel is sidewalks in the residential neighborhoods, which create a public and shared space. In my large suburban town of over 30,000 people, almost every residential street has sidewalks, which are used by: commuters going to the train station, kids walking to school, dog walkers, runners, parents with strollers, or just people walking the neighborhood on a pleasant summer evening. People passing on sidewalks tend to nod, smile and greet each other-a small thing, but one that definitely contributes to a small town feel.
Is the age demographic for small towns different to cities?
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.
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.
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.
I grew up in a small town, and the feel was "don't be different or else"... not so romantic.
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.
I grew up in a village with 3500 people in Denmark the bus came with 25 min intervals.
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?
@@RenegadeShepard69 To be honest it was hard being a nerd in a rural village in the 80's.
@@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.
@@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.
I love the use of Sacramento in your video. Such a beautiful unique place in America. Large valley and beautiful weather
It might be on the list.
He has made some video covering some elements of Sacramento.
Check out his video on street trees.
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.
just stumbled upon this video in my recommended, and the genuine surprise to find you were from sturgeon bay blew my mind! I'm from the valley, and have been up to door county more times than i can count. i also race my dirt bike on some property in sturgeon bay owned by the door devil's motorcycle club, so it's great to see someone more local create such great content. very fascinating video, look forward to seeing more!
Everyone wants that small town feel until the entire town knows your business
My personal preference is living in a small town, less than an hour's drive from a big city.
8:05 This is what happened around Houston suburbs: small towns became "unincorporated areas" and became suburbs.