100 Best Small Towns

[BLS53]

Just curious, please name a few.

Thanks,
Golfnut

Metropolis
Harrisburg
Marion
Carterville
Herrin
Anna
Jonesboro
West Frankfort
Johnston City
Eldorado
Benton
Murphysboro

I could also include Carbondale, but it has a population of 25,000, and is a college town. The lifestyle there is somewhat different than the towns in the rest of the region.

 

[Ronstar]

None of the towns in BLS53's list could be in Money's top 100 list, because "real" small towns have limited movie theaters, restaurants, bars, and libraries within 15 miles and museums within 30 miles. According Money, these are some of the criteria for "best places to live." The average number of libraries within 15 minutes of those towns in the best 100 places is 74. Hasn't Money heard of the internet? We don't need 74 libraries within 15 miles to be cultured. IMO, their list doesn't represent the best 100 small towns because they do not know what really makes a small town a great place to live.

 

[Mulligan]

None of the towns in BLS53's list could be in Money's top 100 list, because "real" small towns have limited movie theaters, restaurants, bars, and libraries within 15 miles and museums within 30 miles. According Money, these are some of the criteria for "best places to live." The average number of libraries within 15 minutes of those towns in the best 100 places is 74. Hasn't Money heard of the internet? We don't need 74 libraries within 15 miles to be cultured. IMO, their list doesn't represent the best 100 small towns because they do not know what really makes a small town a great place to live.

I'm like you Ronstar as I perceive a small town as to be independent of itself, not connected to another entity. But I guess it's all perspective. I am an outstate person, so when I go into the city, I see all these little " towns" as just an extension of the metro "city". While my friends who live in the city think of these places as being out in the boondocks.

 

[Badger]

We will be moving there next spring . It is west of Charlotte, has a lovely small town feel, and 10,000 residents. While we will live in a smaller town, it's 10 minutes to the airport, and 20 - 25 minutes into "uptown" Charlotte, and the eclectic near south side ot the city. Mt brother & SIL live just 7 minutes awy, across the Catabwa River.

I lived in Belmont, NC for 5 years back in the late 60's while going to college there. Best 5 years of my life. I don't know what it is like now but the town and the area had great charm and easy access to the large city. Oh if we could only turn back the clock.

Cheers!

 

[harley]

Metropolis
Harrisburg
Marion
Carterville
Herrin
Anna
Jonesboro
West Frankfort
Johnston City
Eldorado
Benton
Murphysboro

I could also include Carbondale, but it has a population of 25,000, and is a college town. The lifestyle there is somewhat different than the towns in the rest of the region.

I thought Metropolis was a big city. That's why Clark Kent moved there from Smallville. Now THAT is a real "small town".

 

[haha]

As a current legal resident of Leesburg, there's no way it's a small town. Basically a DC suburb

Ditto Mukilteo WA. It's a northern suburb of Seattle, or or a southern suburb of the Everett Boeing plant and Navy Base. It's hard to tell where Mukilteo begins and Everett leaves off.

Ha

 

[beowulf]

This is a poorly created list that, as many have said, shows towns that are not really independent towns, but integral parts of much larger communities and towns that are on the close fringes of major metropolitan areas. I can only speak for my area of Northern Virginia, but Oakton isn't even a real town. It's zip code with a named post office and it's smack in the middle of Fairfax County which has over 1M people. No schools of it's own, no fire department, no police and no separate tax. It's like naming a zip code and saying it's a "town."

Leesburg is a separate, incorporated city, but as someone said, it's in the middle of tremendous development and shopping. Traffic is also horrible. Herndon is a town, but it has very little of it's own and depends on Fairfax County, which surrounds it completely. Without that surrounding area it would disappear. Montclair is another zip code entity - it's not a town. Manassas Park is a town, but it's really more like a neighborhood in Manassas that surrounds it.

If this kind of reporting is what was used for the other locations, I don't have any faith in the listing at all.

I'm more of a suburb person - the thought of living in a real small town gives me hives. That's what you get when you grow up in Da Bronx.

 

[BLS53]

I thought Metropolis was a big city. That's why Clark Kent moved there from Smallville. Now THAT is a real "small town".

Superman's Hometown, Metropolis, Illinois