If you had to live in a small town or city (<150k), what would you pick?

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I don't mind "blue collar."

What I do mind are hyper-masculine hyper jingoistic guys that have a tendency to get drunk when not on base, and generally start acting like assholes.

I've seen it in Oceanside and San Diego, and Oxnard. I've seen fights break out among these kind of people. And I know people who've experienced the same thing. A female friend of mine and her boyfriend at the time were harassed by racist jarheads (her words). But this is all subjective, of course.

For what it's worth, I have a few relatives who were in the military. They agree with me that a lot of them can be assholes. I don't doubt that many of them have authoritarian personality disorder; some of them probably even joined because of that. These are the same people who become asshole cops (vs. good cops).

sure, sure, who could argue with anecdotes

[muertecaza]

I could definitely live in Jackson, WY (population ~50,000 between the Wyoming and Idaho sides of the border):


https://brushbucktours.com/blog/thin...yoming-winter/

And the Bend, Oregon MSA is right about 150,000--not exactly an urbanist paradise but a nice little walkable downtown and a beautiful area:


https://www.visitbend.com/about-bend...downtown-bend/


Someone already mentioned Santa Fe--that would probably be near or at the top of my list.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I don't mind "blue collar."

What I do mind are hyper-masculine hyper jingoistic guys that have a tendency to get drunk when not on base, and generally start acting like assholes.

I've seen it in Oceanside and San Diego, and Oxnard. I've seen fights break out among these kind of people. And I know people who've experienced the same thing. A female friend of mine and her boyfriend at the time were harassed by racist jarheads (her words). But this is all subjective, of course.

For what it's worth, I have a few relatives who were in the military. They agree with me that a lot of them can be assholes. I don't doubt that many of them have authoritarian personality disorder; some of them probably even joined because of that. These are the same people who become asshole cops (vs. good cops).

You do realize more enlisted folks in the military are 18-24 years old. They are college age people who can't do drugs, so drinking it is.

[The North One]

This thread is just people listing random mountain/beach towns across the world. yawn

[harryc]

Waukegan Ill.

Waukegan by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

My hometown.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by The North One

This thread is just people listing random mountain/beach towns across the world. yawn

Should someone have mentioned Las Cruces or Bismark instead? Flint?

[Black Box]

Walla Walla, WA

[Buckeye Native 001]

I really enjoyed visiting Juneau, AK and wouldn't mind living there if I had the means.

Juneau is insanely remote (inaccessible by car) but I fell in love with it's compact downtown, waterfront and the surrounding mountains.

[The Chemist]

I would probably choose Kelowna, BC or one of the other smaller towns in the Okanagan Valley (such as Penticton or Osoyoos). One of Canada's warmest climates, a beautiful lake for summer activities, wineries, orchards, great hiking and mountain biking terrain, close proximity to mountains for winter skiing, only four hours drive to Vancouver and 6.5 hours to Calgary. Since my wife doesn't think much of Calgary winters, it's actually one of the places I'm considering when we eventually move to Canada at some point in the future.

[10023]

Originally Posted by Minato Ku

Don't confuse urbanized area and city proper.
All of them have urban area over 150,000 inhabitants, even more if you include the metropolitan area.

------ urban - metropolitan area
Tours: 353,042 - 492,722
Clermont-Ferrand : 265,892 - 479,096
Metz: 285,268 - 389,849
Le Mans: 210,018 - 347,348
Brest: 200,530 - 318,829
Amiens: 162,637 - 295,892
Limoges: 183,347 - 283,823
Nîmes: 184,750 - 266,593
Saint-Denis (Réunion): 179,925 - 202,993

Aix-en-Provence: city proper 143,006 but it's part of Marseille metropolitan area: 1,752,398.

How about somewhere like La Rochelle? Historical city, beautiful climate, good train connections, an airport, and connected to Île de Ré which is beautiful.

Or Dijon, Besançon, Valence, Narbonne... there are dozens of small cities in France that outclass everything of comparable size in America.

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by 10023

How about somewhere like La Rochelle?

Roughly 80k, I think...
City proper: 75,736
Urban area: 215,503

But it's packed with loads people on vacation in the summer.

I agree, it's a good place with a very quaint downtown mostly from the 17th century or so.
Moreover, Bordeaux and Nantes are not too far by car. A 2-hour drive to get to either one.
The couple of villages on Île de Ré are fine too. Real estate has gone pretty mad over there by the way.
They say some poor local fishermen suddenly went millionaires just because of their old homes on the island.
I find it funny, but of course it was a better idea to purchase any property over there before it grew expensive.

[10023]

Or I could be almost stereotypical for a certain tribe of Brit, and retire to a small stone chateau in the Dordogne, which even with the recent increase in values is priced similarly to a central London flat:

Why Dordogne property seduces British buyers
https://www.ft.com/content/e4626af2-...0-77d3101896ec

In that case you’re moving to a rural village, not to a small city, which frankly is more appealing if it’s in the right places. Villages in parts of the world like the Cotswolds in England, Provence in France or Costa Brava in Spain have culture and nice restaurants because there are moneyed homeowners.

But you could also be close to Bergerac or Perigueux (famous for its Perigord black truffles) and 90 minutes from Bordeaux.

[Vlajos]

I'd probably choose something like Chania on Crete.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by 10023

Slightly off-topic question: what’s the deal with Oxnard?

It is on a fertile plain halfway between Santa Barbara and Malibu with some of the world’s best weather, and yet on Google Maps it looks like it belongs in Nebraska.

If America had any kind of decent rail service places like that would boom.

to me, it feels like a piece of the central valley on the coast. once i was randomly visited by a russian guy in my malibu campsite who was resting halfway on his daily multi-hour commute between oxnard and somewhere in LA. dude just wandered right into my campsite - i think delerious, but friendly. oxnard is one of the stranger places in socal, though.

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by 10023

Slightly off-topic question: what’s the deal with Oxnard?

It is on a fertile plain halfway between Santa Barbara and Malibu with some of the world’s best weather, and yet on Google Maps it looks like it belongs in Nebraska.

If America had any kind of decent rail service places like that would boom.

As others have mentioned, it does have a direct link to union station L.A. via the Surfliner and Metrolink and is only 60 miles away from DTLA, 45 from Santa Monica and most of the Valley.


There isn't a huge population that commutes to and from Downtown L.A.[especially from Oxnard] for work, so there is no need to have trains every 10 minutes.

-----

Btw, Oxnard has population of 210,000 and is the largest city in Ventura County, it is 71% hispanic [non-hispanic whites are about 13% of the population] with a higher crime rate than most other cities in V.C.
1960 pop: 40,000 [it's growing].

The demographics above don't really sound like Nebraska, nor does the picture below resemble Nebraska:
https://goo.gl/maps/ahnyRMbrw9uyVzD37

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by ATXboom

Santa Fe, NM
Sedona, AZ
Fort Collins, CO
Monterey, CA
South Lake Tahoe, CA
Key West, FL

To name a few...

Good list!

I would add Charleston, SC to the list, but the metro region is too big and with high growth, won't be long before it hits 1 million people For Pete's Sake!

2000: 549,033
2010: 664,607
2016: 761,155

[10023]

Originally Posted by Sun Belt

As others have mentioned, it does have a direct link to union station L.A. via the Surfliner and Metrolink and is only 60 miles away from DTLA, 45 from Santa Monica and most of the Valley.


There isn't a huge population that commutes to and from Downtown L.A.[especially from Oxnard] for work, so there is no need to have trains every 10 minutes.

As always, Americans miss the chicken-and-egg nature of this.

People don’t commute between there and downtown LA (or west LA) because there is no reliable, fast train service at regular intervals.

If it’s 60 miles from DTLA then in Europe there would be a train every 15 mins that took an hour (with a few stops along the way in Thousand Oaks, etc) and people would move there in order to have cheaper housing close to nature.

[Sun Belt]

Originally Posted by 10023

As always, Americans miss the chicken-and-egg nature of this.

People don’t commute between there and downtown LA (or west LA) because there is no reliable, fast train service at regular intervals.

If it’s 60 miles from DTLA then in Europe there would be a train every 15 mins that took an hour (with a few stops along the way in Thousand Oaks, etc) and people would move there in order to have cheaper housing close to nature.

Just stop already.

What you fail to understand is America is not Europe. North America is not Europe. And here's the kicker, Americans don't want to be a Europe. It's really that simple.

This is a huge country. California is 3,000 miles west of Manhattan and has developed independent of what New Yorkers might think is best for them as has every single other town, city, state.

[The North One]

Originally Posted by JManc

Should someone have mentioned Las Cruces or Bismark instead? Flint?

I prefer Gary, IN.

[202_Cyclist]

My mom lives in Hailey, Idaho, which is next to Sun Valley. The population of Blaine County, where Sun Valley is located is approximately 25,000 residents. I don't know how feasible it would be to make a living in a resort town but it is difficult to find somewhere more scenic.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/396036...57687104273485