Your favorite small urban cities in North America?

[eschaton]

Hey guys,

I thought it would be interesting to have a discussion about some of the better small urban cities in North America. To help set up the discussion, I'd add the following qualifiers:

Small: Under 150,000 people in city.

Urban: High level of walkability throughout city. This means cities which have a cute historic downtown area but are basically suburban otherwise wouldn't count, unless they were so small that everyone was a 15-20 minute walk or less from the downtown. In...erm...larger small cities, there should ideally be more than a single walkable business district. In terms of built vernacular, bonus points come from denser housing than detached SFH.

City: Obviously it needs to be incorporated. However, I'd also add the caveat that smaller cities which form part of a cohesive urbanized area don't count. Hence you cannot really bring up somewhere like Somerville, Miami Beach, or Santa Monica. The city needs to stand on its own as a regional hub for the surrounding area essentially.

There are of course the obvious ones I'm sure people will bring up, like Savannah, Portland ME, and Burlington. One that has always stuck out to me however is Lancaster PA, which I think in a lot of respects is the perfect small city. It has a large commercial core, with a vibrant restaurant scene, and a public market right downtown. While the city really lacks secondary business districts, nowhere is more than a 30-minute walk from the urban core, with corner stores and the like peppered throughout. The city is nice and flat, making for easy biking, and you can take the train into Philly if you want, making a car unnecessary. The built vernacular is basically all rowhouses all the way out to city limits, meaning there's a high level of urbanity. It also - at the moment at least - has a nice balance in terms of development. It's not super sanitized/gentrified like a lot of smaller cities, with a lot of working-class neighborhoods and an increasing Latino population. At the same time, the city never really experienced any urban blight to speak of, and it's broadly safe. Thus there's lots of affordable ($100k-$250k) homes in livable neighborhoods.

Anyway, I'd be curious to hear thoughts from others.

[Crawford]

The U.S., generally speaking, is terrible re. small towns. Very hard to find nonmetropolitan small towns with good bones and vibrancy that aren't either college towns or touristy weekend towns.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Crawford

The U.S., generally speaking, is terrible re. small towns. Very hard to find nonmetropolitan small towns with good bones and vibrancy that aren't either college towns or touristy weekend towns.

I don't actually disagree with this. My example of Lancaster arguably counts as well, given it has Franklin & Marshall College and is a bit of a regional tourist draw.

That said, at least that means the number of cities we will be discussing will be fairly restricted.

[dc_denizen]

Lancaster PA

Lancaster Panorama by WabbyTwaxx, on Flickr

York PA

Downtown York, PA Fall 2019 by WabbyTwaxx, on Flickr

[dc_denizen]

Originally Posted by Crawford

The U.S., generally speaking, is terrible re. small towns. Very hard to find nonmetropolitan small towns with good bones and vibrancy that aren't either college towns or touristy weekend towns.

I think this comment pertains mostly to the midwest and south.

[Crawford]

Maybe Kingston, NY? It gets weekenders, though. But only modestly gentrified. Glens Falls? Portsmouth?

PA is littered with towns with great bones, but vibrancy is more hit-and-miss. WV too. Lancaster and York look pretty good, though.

[dc_denizen]

Hagerstown, MD

Frederick, MD

Newport, RI

[The North One]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Urban: High level of walkability throughout city. This means cities which have a cute historic downtown area but are basically suburban otherwise wouldn't count

Would any US town qualify then? Because this is pretty much every single small town in America.

[Boisebro]

I've never been to Ithaca, NY, but based on what I've seen and read, it would seem to merit consideration.

[The North One]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

York PA

Oh wow, York looks fucking gorgeous.

[bossabreezes]

Santa Barbara

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Maybe Kingston, NY? It gets weekenders, though. But only modestly gentrified.

I spent some time in Kingston two years ago when the family was coming back from a trip to Boston and looking for a place to stay overnight. Seemed like a nice little city. We stayed in the little business district by the river (Rondout) which was nice but a little sleepy. The Stockade District was quite lively for a small city though, and there was the patchy but clearly gentrifying business district in Midtown along Broadway as well. Seems like everyone I talked too was a transplant from Brooklyn.

Originally Posted by Crawford

PA is littered with towns with great bones, but vibrancy is more hit-and-miss. WV too. Lancaster and York look pretty good, though.

York has good bones, but there's not really a hint of revival as in Lancaster as of yet. Harrisburg is actually further along, as the Midtown area has been gentrifying there for decades.

I'd say after Lancaster the smaller city which has the most promise is Bethlehem, due to the presence of Lehigh University. It's not quite as urban as nearby Allentown though.

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

Hagerstown, MD

I've spent some time in Hagerstown. It's nice from a built structure perspective, being part of the "rowhouse belt" in the Mid-Atlantic. It does still feel a bit undiscovered/run down, which stands in contrast to nearby Frederick, which has been absorbed to some degree by the DC exurbs and is pretty yuppified.

[Acajack]

My nominee: Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

Population: 35,000 (metro 75,000)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLSbrBk2j8k

[Centropolis]

for the “south” i like lexington, ky. its like a sprawlier asheville sort of but they routed the interstate around town and its built on a more UK (united kingdom not university of kentucky but that too...) type regional planning model with also a growth boundary.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by The North One

Would any US town qualify then? Because this is pretty much every single small town in America.

Lots of them.

Basically every small city in the Hudson Valley and in the Mid-Atlantic from the Leigh Valley in PA down to Northern Virginia was part of the "rowhouse belt" in the 19th century. Wherever a substantial amount of 19th century construction survives, you find plenty of rowhouses and walkup apartments with first-floor commercial. Sometimes in ridiculously tiny cities like Jim Thorpe.

Good-quality urban form in smaller cities in New England and the South is much rarer - in part because they took an earlier turn towards proto-suburban construction (generous setbacks, lots of green space, etc).

[Crawford]

Ithaca is great (disclosure- I went to college there so quite biased) but owes its vibrancy to two universities and an extremely scenic, touristy setting. Finger Lakes, wineries, gorges, some of the most impressive waterfalls in North America. And almost no sprawl.

But the downtown and collegetown areas are both vibrant and have great bones, and the entire town is walkable. Also, unlike most of Upstate, feels booming and quite prosperous.

[eschaton]

It's a little bit too big based upon my OP, but if we're talking about the South, everyone talks about the relatively small boutique cities of Savannah and Charleston. People seldom talk about Richmond even though it has a collection of nice, rowhouse-like neighborhoods in its core. The Fan is the most famous of these, but there are others, like Oregon Hill and Church Hill.

[Yuri]

Isn't a 150,000 people city, which in the US usually means a 500,000 metro area or so, too big to be considered a "small town"?

[Crawford]

Oxford, MS has a tiny but very nice core, but obviously it's due to Ole Miss.

Vicksburg and Nachez MS have attractive and substantial cores, and, while there are tourists, don't feel cutesy at all

Manistee, MI has great bones. You get some tourists, but not a ton.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by yuriandrade

Isn't a 150,000 people city, which in the US usually means a 500,000 metro area or so, too big to be considered a "small town"?

I wanted to keep the discussion kinda broad. Didn't see the reason to have threads for both medium-small and tiny cities. The point was more to avoid discussing major metro areas.