I like the points that shopping locally happens more often and artisans thrive. I used to live in Davis, CA before there were any big chain stores (there are still very few), and loved shopping local. Now that I live in a city, I still frequent small downtown areas that have the small town feel.

Okay, so where is this magical place where I can find piles of farm tables? (:

Yes where is this small town?

I've always lived in the suburbs and had to commute to go to school/work but now I live in the city I work in and absolutely LOVE being able to bike to work & to get groceries, and running into people i know at the bars/shops. I live in Redlands, CA and we do have a Target and other such stores but I almost always shop the local stores in the downtown area. It's so cute and quaint and I love seeing people just milling about, its not a dead lifeless town where everyone keeps to the themselves. It's full of old gorgeous Victorian homes with wrap around porches and tree lined streets. We even have our own "Redlands Bowl" with plays, musical acts and picnics in the park. Granted, all of this could also be a con in that one might get tired of going to the same places over and over, but I'm definitely in LOVE with this town...

Is this Cookville, Tennessee? Looks nice..

I lived in big cities for years (Chicago & San Francisco) but a few years ago moved to a small town in Wisconsin. The adjustment from Big City to Small Town was all about convenience.... my little car fits in 3/4 of a parking spot here; traffic jams are minimal unless you go to The City (45 minutes away). We have little farmers markets, a real bandshell at the park where live concerts are held weekly, and it's a friendly little town where people you pass greet each other. It all makes me smile. The best part is when there's a crisis (this week we had a devastating fire downtown), the community surrounds those in need and helps out.

As for shopping, you are right on! When I visit IKEA (two hours away), my shopping list is planned and a budget set. Luckily, there is a Target about 15 minutes away. *whew*

Great post.

I live in Mt. Angel, a small town in Oregon's beautiful Willamette Valley. We're tucked in between outlet malls and wineries. We're home to the Oktoberfest. We don't have a grocery store or a stop light. It takes us no more than 2 hours to get to the ocean, the mountains or downtown Portland. We have campfires in our backyard and all we hear are frogs and crickets. It's a beautiful life, this small town living.

There are pros and cons to each way of life, of course. I can definitely relate to this article as I grew up in the Catskills. My mom would drag us off early to church rummage sale, yard sales and garage sales and teach us what to look out for. She moved us to upstate NY from a much more urban/suburbun New Jersey and she just loved hunting for treasures. One of the aspects I like about small town living is there is less emphasis on consumerism and more of a diy attitude (kind of has to be when there are fewer stores).

I enjoy towns regardless of size if there is a thriving downtown where you can walk from shop to shop and enjoy unique stores and cafes.

I grew up in a small town, and the very thought of living in one now makes me gag. Americans romanticize small towns and their so-called simplicity and forget the down side. Nothing to do, no museums, greasy cafes and fast food, Super Wal-Mart that is the just about the only place to shop because everything else has closed, lucky if there is even one movie theater, everyone knowing your business, often very conservative and closed to outsiders. I live at the current time in a small city, too small, but somewhat bearable due to some decent restaurants, several movie screens, and a large university that brings in interesting speakers--oh and the close proximity to Nashville, where I go every chance I get--to the Frist Museum and movies and things happening in the Vanderbilt area, Green Hills and Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, good restaurants. I know the back roads in Nashville and do not have as much problem as others with traffic. I also go to NYC every six to twelve months and to other cities as often as I can. The tips in this article could be reasons, perhaps, to visit a small town, to get away from the city, but there are many reasons to not live in one. I thought I was ready for a smaller place, but what I needed was a rest from the city, not to move.

I grew up in a small rural town in CT that had no stores...not even a stop light! The town is full of creative people who respect the beautiful nature surrounding them and many are artists. But within a 20 minute drive we could be shopping to our hearts content at a mall, a string of big box stores or a downtown with quaint little shops...and in a little over an hour we could be in NYC.

Although I know that there are many people who have to drive several hours to go shopping ( my sister now lives in Colorado and is one of them), I hate this misconception that you have to live in the middle of nowhere for small town life.

I agree with WHITGIA. I live in DC, which is as congested and busy as you can think...but I have a lot of local shops, farmers markets, antique shops, and all sorts of community events. You don't have to live in the middle of nowhere for the good aspects of having a community.

I've got to say I agree with WHITGIA. You can have small town life. I find it judgmental and ultra conservative. It's very hard to live green and to be a vegetarian. I'm ready to be back in a decent size city.

I've lived in both and a small town and a big city have a lot in common. In fact they have more in common than the suburbs. I'll run down your list with my comments:

1. "Trendy design is hard to find" - in the city you get annoyed by it and try to do your own thing which is pretty easy to do since it is a huge cultural mix of small mom and pop stores.
2. "Antiques are everywhere." True in the city as well. Regarding the "farm tables" see comment 1 above about being annoyed by trendy design. Those drawn to farm tables haven't seen the beauty of a Moroccan table or a Mexican table.
3. This is true in the city as well. We call them flea markets.
4. Trends last a minute in the city which is a good thing. It is best to avoid the trend for fear of it being dated by the time you buy it. Buy what you like.
5. "forced to be creative." In the city you have creative energy all around you with the mix of cultures and personalities. Most truly creative endeavors happen in the city because of the exchange of ideas from different people.
6. "purchases are thought out extensively." Yes, to go to Target or IKEA, I have to plan my day.
7. "Shopping locally is a pleasure." It sure is. A mom and pop restaurant beats TGIF every day.
8. Yes.
9. Yes.
10. In the big city I have my feet, my bicycle, and public transportation. It is great.

Not too different.

I live in Reno now, but lived in Minden, NV for high school and before that I lived in the Bay Area, so I've had a pretty good sense of big city life, small town living, and now mid-sized city living. I think I've found a great balance in Reno--we have some amazing, world class museums, entertainment and art, and we have a rich technology/DIY culture, and we have an extensive history of farming and agriculture. If I want to go downtown to the river and have dinner at a swanky place before going to watch a live band, I can--or I can go hiking in the hills right behind my house, and go to the farmers market afterward. Sometimes I miss San Francisco and the excitement of it all; other days I miss riding my bike past fields of cows and goats like I used to in high school. There are wonderful things about both big cities and small towns. It would be nice if residents could appreciate where they lived instead of trying to out-do one another.

I love city living, but I think the "anti-small town" folks here might be missing the point. I notice that the original author actually doesn't make a specific reference to "small town community," in part, because I don't think it's entirely true. I have lived in New York and Philadelphia, and have found that, once you get big, you just develop neighborhood communities. I loved NoLita because of it's little shops that you could browse all day.

What needs to be said is that there are many different archetypes of small towns, so one small town isn't the same as the other. Some are conservative and some are liberal, some have no movie theaters and some have a theater or two.

Personally, I'm definitely a "live in the city and visit small towns on the weekend" fellow. I just need to have a sense that there are people all around me. That said, I can more than easily emphasize with those who are the "live in small towns and visit the cities on the weekend." I love the sound of garbage trucks outside my apartment in the morning (I am not being facetious about that. It makes me feel warm and tingly to know that there are people going about their day even while I sleep) -- but I recognize that some (probably most) people hate it. Likewise, the sounds of crickets, birds, owls, etc. can be amazing for others and I completely understand.

Like what you like!

I grew up in suburbs, then spent decades in a major metro area (bless rent control!). Now I'm in a town of <8,000--a rural county seat in a very rural state but less than an hour from a small city that has everything but a Trader Joe's, Target, and Ikea. Great arts and crafts, great music, great local theatre, great fresh food, friendliness, a human scale of architecture, easy traveling that makes daily errands a pleasure. And great natural beauty, wildlife, and quiet. We've been charmed; I can never live in a big city again. But it was too extreme a switch for us, and we're now looking for a small city for what we hope will be our last move, something between a Big City and a Tiny Town. Eugene, OR, is looking promising.

I live in a relatively large small town in Montana, but have no car, making it difficult to get to places like Target. I love just riding my bike the one mile to the hardware store to pick up the materials I need to make something that I want. It's perfect. And I see how you guys feel like you don't need a small town to have a small town feel, I love it. I may be in Montana, but where I live, Missoula, is this lovely pocket of hippies and farmers markets. Literally the best.

I've lived both worlds... BIG cities (this continent and Europe) as well as tiny "towns", populations from millions down to 300 (500 including those who lived outside the "town" limits.) We currently live in a medium size city and I can honestly say I would trade it ALL in for a town of 3000 or so!

That being said each person is different... so what works for me does NOT necessarily work for someone else. There are definitely pros and cons to each point of view. In fact the very things that I consider a "con" are the same exact things that others consider a "pro". Its the variety in life and people that keeps things interesting! So for me, give me the country life but having a city an hour away is lovely for those "occasional" trips.

Oh and when we lived in the town of 300, the closest Wal-Mart was 60 miles away as well as ALL "big box stores". Yes, we had a small general store which carried a little of everything to include ammo, a town library, a couple of restaurants open year round (the remainder catered to the tourism industry), a gas station, post office, and a number of churches.

Moved from NYC to small mountain town in Utah. No stoplights. Dark skies at night. Bird and animal noises, rather than traffic hum.

With the internet, the playing field is leveled . . . I do not miss Manhattan.

I love small town living but do visit Chicago now and then to get my big city fix! It's all about preferences, really. Some people might be bored without the museums, malls, clubs etc., but I'd rather spend my time gardening, visiting local artists, or out on our boat.

You guys are right about small towns being conservative, but part of the reason is that all the free thinkers leave!

@INZA, that is true. But free thinkers need to be mentally stimulated which can be difficult in a small town.

I live in Sioux Falls, SD. It's the largest city in the state, but at about 124k people, I find it to be just right in size. I grew up here, and returned after a decade of world travel/education. Having lived in D.C., Frankfurt, Cairo, Baltimore, El Paso, Charleston, and San Francisco in the past, I chose Sioux Falls.

I have local access to some big box stores, but I don't shop at them. Ikea is 4 hours away, and I've made the trip once so far. But on that same trip, I also went to West Elm, Crate and Barrel, and a few other similar stores. It was fun, but planning was required. Basically I add $150 to the total for food/fuel.

I shop online almost exclusively. I joined Amazon Prime, and another annual flat rate shipping service to keep shipping costs from ruining the fun. There have been mistakes made, of course, (the Italian leather sofa from Overstock that looked great in the photo, but was actually built for Hobbits). But return shipping is still more convenient for me than shopping in person. Usually.

I love being able to live in a fly-over state, where my dollar goes a lot further for living expenses. I love having space and quiet whenever I want it. I love being able to drive 100 MPH on the highway because I'm the only one on it that I can see.

I love being able to go to the latest release movie on a moments notice without ever having to worry about it being sold out. I love that going to a concert is a mini vacation because I have to drive at least 200 miles to get there.

But what I love the most about Sioux Falls, is the people. That was the deciding factor in my choosing to live here. People are kind by default here. It's rare if I don't get a "hi" and a smile from virtually every person I pass. No state income tax is another bonus. :)

I am a native San Franciscan who moved to a rural area. As much as I love my condo and it's beautiful view and quiet neighborhood, I have to jump in a car to go just about anywhere. The post office even took out all except one mail box due to the lack of use. It's not about trendy to me, it's more about convenience. If I could AFFORD a home in SF, I would.
I love going to the smaller towns for their artsy stores on the weekends.

From reading the article, it seems to be describing a very specific kind of small town. I'm very familiar with a few places like this, you go somewhere scenic like northern Michigan or Colorado and they're all over, but they're very tourist-y places and likely would not survive if they weren't. All those local, crafty mom-and-pop stores aren't much use to the average person in their daily life, but people on vacation will spend a fortune at tiny local restaurants and on knick-knacks and antiques.
The average small town in say, Nebraska or Kansas, however, I guarantee will have none of that cutesy charm. There might be 1 restaurant, and it might be in the same building as the town's only gas station. There might be a flea market/antique market, but only if it's close enough to a major highway to draw in people passing by. "Real-life etsy" not so much, but there might be a junk shop selling actual junk. Houses are dirt cheap, but then there probably aren't whole lot of jobs within an hour's drive or so.
I'm not saying small towns are bad, the one I live in is small enough (though we do have a Target, and we just got an Olive Garden a few years ago, so we must be getting pretty big after all) but I think there's a BIG difference between a small-but-busy tourist town and a small town that's mostly there to hold the local grain elevator.

I love small towns. They are charming, especially college towns. I like to shop local, blah blah blah. I've lived in one, and I plan to move to another one someday. Or maybe even a rural area like Utah or Montana.

However, you betcha that Walmart, Target, Home Depot, or Lowe's is within 30 minute-drive from most small towns. I'm talking about towns with local shops and main streets, not rural areas. Those big boxes are not idiots. They know you still need to buy your basic necessities somewhere.

Grew up in a small town in Ohio..we walked everywhere. Live in a small (if 20,000 or so is small) in CT..we can walk everywhere. We have a library, two grocery stores-one local with organic produce; many small shops, tons of antique stores(no $100 farm tables! but farm tables). and a movie theater! Plus we can walk to the train and be in NYC in less than an hour. No gated communities. All the houses are different from 1700's colonial to the "Glass House". I love being close to a big city but far enough away that we have quiet and still very civilized.

No traffic.

There's a big difference between small town and rural! Small college towns, for example, keep coming up as some of the most popular places to live in America because of the cultural opportunities (concerts, museums), the nice shops and restaurants. Lots of other small towns are chock full of artists, farmer's markets, and even high-tech. I'm surprised when I read things like "free thinkers need to be mentally stimulated which can be difficult in a small town," and think about places like Brattleboro or Burlington, Vermont, or towns on the California coast, or even Ann Arbor, Michigan. None of these is conservative or small-minded even though they aren't metro areas.

I can agree on 5 and 6 but not the rest. Do you live in cute downtown Disney? I spent 5 years in a town of 2400 people and it was hell. Overpriced antiques, 0 garage sales (and if you did find some, they were just selling the junk they bought at some else's yard sale ten years before). There is always traffic because there are only 2 lanes and really slow drivers. No movie theatre, the 2 restaurants were terrible. It did have a cute bakery....that bought their dougnuts frozen. Not fun.

I grew up in a small town and thought it was boring...now I work in a rural office near a small town and love it for all the reasons you state. It does tend to make you intolerant of traffic when you get someplace bigger and ruins all travel-time planning skills that need to take into account other cars actually going the same place you are.

I love that the woman who runs the Chinese restaurant knows what everybody is going to order and as soon as you sit down, but she's nice enough to verify before feeding you your usual.

I am a committed big city person and deeply love living in Berlin, but I have noticed that my radius of movement is about the same wherever I live. I grew up in San Diego and will be moving back there soon, and as I was complaining about leaving the best city in the world I realized that I travel about as far within Berlin as I used to when I lived in a truly tiny town outside of Freiburg (800 people) or in Bonn (also relatively small). In Berlin it's a big deal to leave Friedrichshain and go "all the way to the west", whereas when I lived in the town I was traveling in to Freiburg or Basel. I know that San Diego is by no means small town living, but keeping that perspective in mind has helped keep my whining about leaving the big city to a minimum.

I like college towns. Small enough for people to say hello to each other on the street, but with enough education that people are more liberal minded. And there is usually theater, symphony, and films associated with the college.

I could never live in a big city again. I cannot stand to see people suffering, or animals, and they are everywhere in cities. The homeless, the very poor, people with misery and despair in their eyes. In a small town, you can offer help. In a big city, it's overwhelming and dangerous to try and help an individual.

I have to agree with HCL-- it really depends on where the small town is. There are some lovely small towns in the eastern panhandle of WV that have all the qualifications of the post, but there are also many other towns further inside the state that lack cultural and ethnic diversity. There are strong class distinctions also-- at least in the town where I lived during middle school.

I romanticize the notion of a small town myself, but the reality I've seen is that those small towns you're talking about are on the coasts, are nearby major metropolitan areas, or are college towns.

I think the range of comments shows that "small town" can be anything from a fairly well-off college town with little shops, to a hippie resort town, to a dying farm community, to a conservative and inward-looking enclave. I've lived in all of those, and it's pretty much impossible to generalize about "small towns" as such - they can be wonderful or awful for many reasons, just like cities.

But I still had to read this post out loud to my boyfriend, who can't understand my obsessive pre-planning of decor for an apartment we haven't yet moved into. It's *totally* because I grew up in a country town of 7K people, and never saw an IKEA or Target or Pottery Barn until I was in my twenties. Mail-order meant the Sears catalog, you made things if you couldn't find them locally, and you yard-saled every summer weekend at 7:30, bright and early. The idea that I can get what I want online at West Elm or IKEA and it will actually show up at my apartment. . . it's amazing. But I still love yardsales. Yes, they're mostly junk, but there's nothing like the adrenaline rush of finding bargain treasures (or treasures-to-be) among that junk.

One more benefit of small-town living that the author of the post left out: *anticipating* decorating trends by a significant margin (circa 1989: "hey, these library card catalogs they're clearing out are dirt cheap and kinda awesome, let's buy a bank of them.")

Curious to see your space!

Yeah, your small town is way cooler than my small town. Antique stores? Not in years- all out of business. Kitschy little shops? Can't survive. Our downtown is desolate.
We do have a Target, though!!

"free thinkers need to be mentally stimulated which can be difficult in a small town," and think about places like Brattleboro or Burlington, Vermont, or towns on the California coast, or even Ann Arbor, Michigan.

@FOURHATS, these are not small towns, these are small cities. I know because I lived in Ann Arbor, worked in Madison, WI and spent a lot of time in Boulder, Colorado. I loved them because they were mentally stimulating yet I understand that for every Ann Arbor there are about 2000 "small towns" in Michigan that don't offer mental stimulation.

I don't think this is what the writer was writing about.

Small town living is pretty much all we have in Vermont! Reasons 7 & 8 are exactly what we love most. It's nice buying from the person who actually produced the product.

some small towns are nice, some aren't. i am an atheist and don't hunt or fish, which precludes me from 99% of the cultural activities of the town where i grew up. never was accepted, never will be there. but that's not to say that nice small towns do exist. think carborro NC or livingston MT

Well, its got to be the RIGHT small town. The one in the photo looks charming! I live in a small town in Wyoming, and there are no cute, local shops since there's no one for miles (2hr drive to a mall) to support it. If you want to buy underwear, you have to go to the only place in town -- Walmart.

10 reasons I am not crazy about small towns:
1. Trendy design is hard to find, everything looks like it was trendy in 1986
2. Crappy Antiques are everywhere
3. You have to hunt for your finds
4. Back to trends - nobody has a clue what's trendy right now
5. You have to be creative - if you are not crafty, you're screwed.
6. Purchases are a pain in the butt to make, you have to plan your shopping trips with military precision
7. Shopping locally is the only option - forget about trying to find fancy foreign cooking ingredients.
8. Little artisans thrive making touristy crap
9. It's a great excuse to shop online - and pay enormous shipping charges (because most of those big box stores charge more if you are over 100 miles from their nearest outlet)
10. You have a limited choice of restaurants and most of them are greasy spoons.
Don't get me wrong, I live in a small town and love it for some of the reasons named above but this article overdoes the enthusiasm a little bit.
I do find myself shopping mostly at small independently owned shops or online, avoiding the drive to the mall or big box stores as much as possible - I go to Target maybe 3 times a year to stock up on cleaning supplies. Any other small town people notice the same thing about their shopping habits?

Interesting article about what shopping is like if you live in a small town! The only times I've been lucky enough were in Germany. I lived in two small villages, but both were an hour's train ride into cities (Nurnberg, Frankfurt) so culture was easily accessible.

OMG, the life was SO ROMANTIC! Every day i'd take my basket, walk cobblestone streets to the interior where the shops were in buildings hundreds of years old, and visit the baker, the butcher, the veggie/fruit shop...

The one near Nurnberg (Altdorf) amazingly had a hospital for physically disabled kids where I was able to do a practicum.

At the other place, I had to commute to Frankfurt, but could ride my bike all the way in to where I was going to school, and the first 90% of it was through fields, woods, and more tiny ancient villages.

Public open spaces in the villages, beautifully designed, were well-utilized in summer, and in the winter you sat around with your friends making live music, for the most part.

We spent a decade in the core of a major downtown City. After we had kids we moved to a small town and are now even considering moving further to a more rural smaller town. For our lives "right now" there we have no interest in moving back to the City. The fresh air alone is worth the sanity it gives you.

You forgot one plus: STARS!
You will never be able to see more than a few stars (if that) living in Chicago or NYC. And I am not talking about actors and such, but the beautiful night sky. It is one thing I miss terribly living in Chicago.
That and having a yard.

nearest ikea is more than 6 hours away... nearest target is 2.5 hours.. i do not live in a tiny town but a town that thinks its historic roots are much more valuable than they are, because they have glossed over the good, or let it go to rot.. i long for a place like you live in.. i grew up in a very small town.. and while at times, i would love the city.. there is a lot to be said for the sense of community that existed in my home town..

Love your passion for your way of life and I agree with the stars comment--truly remarkable to be able to see so many stars in a small town or away from big city lights! We don't have the small town night sky now, but we enjoying living in our nest as long as we have a patch for vegetables and fruits these days.

Lovely photo, adorable ice cream parlor. But why are all ten reasons about shopping? I love shopping as much as the next person, but geez, how about : one nice thing about living in a small town is that you're less inspired every two seconds to pull out your credit card and buy something.

To be clear, someone has to live in small towns and some people who do really enjoy it. My parents and sisters to name four. I, however, spent my childhood dreaming about growing up and moving to a city where there would be culture and something other than a Wal-Mart, which since it came in around 1979 or so, has become the only place in town for pretty much anything, including groceries. The nearest real city with a real grocery, Kroger, is 45 miles away. I wonder sometimes if the Internet had existed, would it have helped my longing to get away? I think some yes--more stimulation and ability to know what was going on in the places I dreamed about going--and some no--it might have made me want to get the heck out faster, which I did at 17. I barely go back and probably won't when my parents are gone. Nothing bad happened to me there, but I was not happy there. Some of us are born for city life, some rural. My main caution is to not romanticize small town living into something it is not (same for city living). Rare is the small town that can live up to that vision. Even living in my small college city (50K in city; another 50K in county, 20K students rolling in nine months a year) I buy the heck out of drugstore.com (toiletries, green cleaning supplies, even food like quinoa) and amazon. com (books, music, just about everything else) now and shop at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods in Nashville several times a year.

This post is really well timed for me. I currently live in Seattle, and have lived in SF and NYC for many years. My husband is being offered a job in Postville, Iowa, and we're seriously weighing the pros and cons. It's a tough decision, and for every pro, there's an equally valid con.

Postville is smack dab in the very center of nowhere, 1.5 hours drive to the nearest small town, and just over 2 hours drive to the nearest decent size town. It's a good thing I'm an expert internet shopper, an introvert, and crafty!

"You forgot one plus: STARS! You will never be able to see more than a few stars (if that) living in Chicago or NYC."

Of course you can since it's not a long drive outside of NYC before you are surrounded by trees and nothing else. I don't know why people automatically think endless urban sprawl when they think about New York.

I mean, I think this is Cookeville, TN.....Very cute.

I, too, love my small town. We're about 30 mins from the nearest big box and I like it that way.

I agree, many seem romanticize small-town living. Sarah certainly does a good job of enumerating her reasons and doesn't omit some of the workarounds or drawbacks of this lifestyle. I don't necessarily believe it's for everyone. I have always lived in a large city and just the sheer number and variety of people that I encounter on a daily basis makes it interesting. Shopping for me isn't too much of a concern so small shop, big boxes, meh. They all have their pluses, minuses and all can be found in a large city. However, I love the myriad methods of transit available to me. Having commuter rail, subways, buses, bikes, cabs, and cars (in that order) available certainly makes it easier getting around and less reliant on the oil companies, others, and the vagaries of weather.

USERNAME26, usually there are clinics or at least nurses (or EMT/Paramedics) closer than the nearest city. Often there can be "LifeLink" helicopter services to transport critically ill/injured persons to proper medical facilities.

HCL is spot on. I live in a teeny-tiny town in MT. We don't even have a gas station--that's in the next town 8 miles away. A mountain pass separates me from any big box store. Nobody sells their farm tables, and if they do, they sure think it's worth an awful lot.

This is thought provoking to this native Angeleno. More specifically, I hail from one of Los Angeles' many MANY less-than-chic but very diverse small towns. Weeks can go by before I need to leave my small town. Yet I live in the area that wrote the book on urban sprawl.

I think I might miss diversity if I lived in one of the US' smaller, more isolated towns. Far off towns with starlit skies and cows grazing in pastures. It sounds lovely, but I wonder about things like noodle houses, or where you'd go to have Indian food or beauty treatments, Korean spas, mariachi bands for hire. Can you order THAT on Amazon?

I loved reading this post with everyone's opinions and comments. Made me chuckle all the way! As for me, occasionally, I dream about the quaintness of a small, rural town, but I know I would never survive it for more than 2 weeks (thus I have never lived in a truly small town). I am not a cricket or farm loving person. I love big cities and love vacationing at these places, going places and seeing sights, but I wonder if I would be driven away by traffic/congestion eventually. I have spent all my years in either a small city (internationally and in the US) or a moderately bigger city - so I can feed my love of arts and entertainment, museums, diverse people & culture, a little noise and jostle here and there, I can still walk/trek/bike, or ride a train, drive my car or hop on a plane at the nearby airport to get away! If I want quiet, I just vegetate on my apartment couch with all my doors closed, which I do often. It's perfect.

I have lived in the big city and small town both in Europe and North America. There are lots of things to love/hate about both. Love the small town theaters and community based events. One of the highlights of the year for my kids was the local carnival in England. Then there is London/Paris/New York, these places all have a buzz that reminds me of growing up in the big city, down side for me is not knowing my neighbors well or sometimes there are just to many choices . Most small towns have medical facilities however small, and then there are the small local restaurants and thrift stores, local flea markets. I can't choose which I liked best, all the places I have lived have their pros and cons, so I will just be happy where I am now, mid size university town in North America not a bad compromise ,

I have lived in small towns all my life - I'm 53. It really irritates me when anyone has the audacity to even think that somehow, because we live in a small town, that we are all a bunch of dumb hicks. Growing up, my cousins hailed from LA - Denver - NYC...and they all had the attitude (from a young age) that they were better than us, just because they lived near a big city. The reality is - we all (me and my siblings)ended up being better people...good people. Our cousins are still jerks.

I have lived in cookeville, TN for 4 yrs during my college yrs and i loved the small town feel. Now i lived in South Jersey a bridge across Philadelphia N i loved it, its a mid size town, no tall concrete jungle around but we do have plenty of target, anthro, and Ikea close by. I would like to live in the middle of no where, with Online shopping you can be anywhere and still enjoy those stores. I will miss walking into those stores and see the quality of products. But i love the small town feel.

More power to you guys who love small-town life. I grew up in a very small town in Mississippi and was one of those kids who thought, "I'm going to move to the big city, and I'll LOVE it!" In Hollywood movies, that kid always gets proved wrong. Me? I was 100% on the money. I lived in NYC for years and adored it; I'm in a smaller city now, but still a city, and I have dreams of returning to the metropolis someday. But that of course is the whole point - we're all individuals, and we're all going to love different ways of life.

I grew up in Crossville, TN, neighbor to Cookeville. I wouldn't say that Cookeville is a small town, though. And there are still a lot of chain restaurants and shops. It has a cute downtown, and the university is nice, but otherwise it has a lot of sprawl, strip malls, and other development.

I would love to live in a small town if its the one in Gilmore Girls, Stars Hollow. The leafy town square, fantastic houses, kooky residents and cute shops are serious fantasy material. But back in reality, I can't live anywhere without a good ballet company, symphony, art galleries, decent public transit, luxury shops and ethnic foods. I have tried to live in places without some of those things and it was depressing. So that eliminates most towns, cities and even many metropolitan areas.

I am loving your tongue-in-cheek tone regarding small town living. I live in an adequate town who just last year got Target. while I am but 30 miles away from malls, I never seem to make it out of my small town where we bike, enjoy csa produce, hike, visit local artists and bemoan the lack of drive-thrus to our hearts' content. I lived in L.A. and I loved it and now I'm in SLO and I think I love it more. Hear, hear to crafting our own trends n our own little neck of the world!

Your consumerism slant really takes away from the real reason we love to live in our small town of Trumansburg, NY.
It's the PEOPLE, everyone.
The interesting, amazing, creative and dedicated citizens of our little village that have raised the bar over the past 4 decades in our school system. There's a sense of community pride and involvement that brings us all together.
There are nationally and internationally famous (and yes just common) folk in our little village who choose to live here because it's a great place to raise kids.
In addition we have great: bakeries, fooderies, abundant natural beauty, chocolate, music, crops, coffee, 3 second hand clothing stores (but not ONE new clothing store), and a progressive mayor, of course.
I wouldn't want to live anywhere else on earth.

The small town I grew up in was recently used as the setting of a film - based in the early 1960's!

I've lived in the capitol of my state and a small town an hour outside the capitol. My favorite place to live in the country where I now happily reside with the birds, chipmunks, deer, bunnies and other assorted wildlife. I do not miss shopping (internet!!) and do not miss the bustle of the city nor the nosiness/gossip of a small town. I have peace and solitude and a lovely view out my windows. That's enough for me. Happy Independence Day!!!

There are many types of small towns, and not all of them are awesome. You live in a small University town with awesome restaurants? Sign me up. You live in a blue collar town supporting the oil industry in Texas with a Chili's making up the restaurant repertoire, that's a different story.

We moved from down town Salt Lake City to the north shore of Corpus Christi Bay. We moved to the cheapest housing we could find and find ourselves in one of the ugliest little towns around. There are a few good small touristy towns in the vicinity that we go to for restaurants and what not, but it's not the same.

And unfortunately Corpus Christi is the weirdest biggish city ever. It has crime and traffic and almost no cultural advantages. I find myself frequenting the World Market because it is the only place around with anything marginally interesting for sale.

I just wish the 2 hour drive to San Antonio was easier to make on a regular basis.

I like the idea of living in a small town like the one described, I just think they are pretty hard to find.

I'm a city girl living in a country town and these are really on point. Most times I love it but then there are times of utter frustration that everything is so slow.

I read through your first 8 points wondering whether y'all had heard of online shopping. But there it is in item nine...the first 8. My nearest Ikea is two hours away. The nearest Target is 1.5 hours. The nearest luxury shopping mall, ditto. I shop for almost everything online.

*negating the first 8.

I'm so conflicted about this issue. On the one hand, I so hate all the trendy crap that goes on in cities ("oh, nobody goes to that restaurant any more!") and how everything is so expensive. But I hate not being able to get cooking ingredients that I want or not being able to go to interesting restaurants. But I really need my green spaces. And I hate feeling like a freak in small towns. And and and . . . .

This post is for RIVKASMOM - As a more-or-less Midwesterner (lived in 3 parts of the country by age 7 but then lived in Illinois from age 7 to about 22), who moved to the San Francisco Bay Area at age 24 (many years ago), I shudder at the thought of you living in Iowa after you've lived on one coast or another for however long.

Where are you and your husband from originally? Have you ever lived away from the coast before? If not, I think you are going to really, really miss it. (Heck, I live in Walnut Creek now after half a life spent in the city of SF and *I* miss the coast! ... the weather, the foghorns, the sea air, the seagulls, the views, etc.)

I worked for a year in central Illinois, then worked for a year in Iowa after college as part of my plan to (LOL) move 500 miles west every year, working at one newspaper after another, til I got to San Francisco. Well, that lasted 2 yrs. One winter in Iowa, I woke up to the usual sound of cars on the street trying to warm up their engines, and knew in a little while that'd be me, and that I'd have to go out there and scrape the ice off my windshield and warm up the car, and navigate the icy roads, all in the hopes that wherever I was going would be open when I got there.

Not long after that, I gave notice at the paper and to my landlord, went back to the family home in Illinois to pack up or sell stuff I still had there, and FLEW to San Francisco to start a new life. Outside of a few visits to relatives in the Chicago area (parents retired to Florida), I haven't been back to the Midwest since. Don't get me wrong, small Midwestern towns have their pluses, mainly in the form of affordable housing, but also rolling hills, wide open spaces, autumn colors, fireflies in summer (I do miss fireflies!), home cooking, easy parking and no traffic jams ... but I sure understand why you say you're thinking long and hard before you decide whether to move there.

Can you arrange to VISIT there for a week or two and see how you like it over that span of time? Also, are there local bloggers or "Patch" type news sites there that will give you more of a flavor of the town, its events and its pluses and minuses before you make a decision about whether to move or not?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postville,_Iowa

More on Postville, Iowa: these sorts of articles show the disproportionate effect that one big employer (and its ups and downs) can have on a small town:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/06/20/arts/clandestino-play/

http://thegazette.com/2012/06/24/tax-issue-strains-ties-between-postville-county-and-employer/

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/years-immigration-raid-iowa-town-feels-poorer-less-133035414.html

EXCERPT from Yahoo article:

>>>This improbably diverse rural town of about 2,000 people in northeastern Iowa suffered a near-fatal shock more than three years ago when a federal immigration raid scooped up 20 percent of its population in a single day. An ultra-Orthodox Lubavitcher Jewish family from Brooklyn bought the town's defunct meatpacking plant in 1987 and attracted workers from Israel, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. The plant became the largest producer of kosher beef in the world. When the plant was raided one spring morning in May 2008, most of the workers on shift were Guatemalan and Mexican, and undocumented. Many workers later said they had been physically or sexually abused at the plant, and at least 57 minors were illegally employed there, some as young as 13.
Six months later, the plant shut down abruptly. Sholom Rubashkin, the chief executive, was convicted of fraud and sent to prison. The national and local news media documented the near-demise of the town that followed, as businesses were shuttered overnight and hundreds of homes abandoned. The town shrank to nearly half its former size, as many of the illegal immigrants who were not netted in the raid left out of fear or because they couldn't find a job.<<<

It sounds from other articles as though the community is working to recover, and that the population is becoming even more diverse, with the old mix of Norwegians, Germans, Orthodox Jews and Hispanics now being joined by Pacific Islanders (in Iowa winters!) and Somalis, but wow, they all have their work cut out from them as they get over the shock of that one big employer imploding and later changing hands.

I lived and worked in a large city for the last 30 years and retired with my husband to a small resort town by a lake and with four skifields close by. Although the population is just 7,000 permanent residents, we have a great variety of restaurants, a good supermarket, a couple of delis and also good clothing stores. The locals do not want to have fast food places or chain stores. Life is more expensive as the nearest city is 3 1/2 hours away.We do enjoy the international flavour the tourists bring. It is not uncommon to see a couple of cars stopping in the main street with the drivers chatting through the wound down windows. It's still a novely for us and after a hectic working life we are now in the slow lane and enjoying it. I can see the drawback though for the young ones. The jobs in tourism are not that well paid and the jobs in the professional offices generally go by word of mouth. We enjoy seeing the children being able to bike and hike without mum and dad having to take them everywhere. It guess it's probably right for us at our stage in life. I don't miss the shopping - been there, done that! Life in the slow lane is just fabulous

Egh. I'm one of those people that grew up in a city (Detroit) and couldn't wait to get away to a smaller town. Currently, I live in Houghton, MI (population of 7000 but there's also a sister city across the river that's 4000 in population) where I go to college. I think it's perfect. If I want to go hiking or see some waterfalls, it's a 10 minute drive. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that's at least 2 hours away, but I like it.

As for intellectually stimulating, it seems to me that people just don't have an imagination! Or books, evidently. Everywhere can be intellectually stimulating - you just maybe have to dig a bit more.

@Kittkatt says she likes to visit Chicago but prefers small town for gardening, visiting local artists, and going out on her boat. I live in Chicago and these are all things I do, too! (well, not MY boat, but a friend's boat) I find big cities and small towns have a lot more in common than the typical faceless suburb. I'm a lot less likely to go to a chain in either the city or small town than when I visit my parents in the suburbs.
Since I'm relatively young and single I couldn't imagine living anywhere but a big city for now. But put me down as someone who has an affinity for college towns, a nice mix of small town life with some cultural urban elements. I grew up in one, and thought it was a perfect place to grow up, would definitely consider it if I got married, had kids.

I love big cities or tiny towns but nothing in between. I grew up in a small town close enough to the city that it was cool to go for the day. that's probably the best. i'm itching to move back to the city after living as a single person in a tiny town. Boring. And I got addicted to online shopping despite the fact that i run away to the city every weekend.

@username26

i live about 2 hours from a major city and about 40 minutes from two small hospitals (in ontario)
this is a retirement hot spot (i'm young, though) and my experience has been that local families are not all assigned to family doctors. the waiting list for doctors is very long. most people are served by emerg or a walk in clinic. there are no specialists around. those with doctors have to wait weeks for appts.

so yeah. there's a big drawback medically.

The independence that comes from doing yourself is one of the biggest satisfactions I get from small-town life. I recently read of a woman who was included in a large city-wide power outage not being able to even make coffee. Really? Since this never happens in the city, her mind is somehow so dulled that she can't figure a way to do a common task another way? Our generation of city people are becoming ignorant of basic tasks like cooking,gardening,canning,cleaning animals or fish. They seem helpless when the bus doesn't run or the power goes out or their cell phone has no reception!

I live in a town with more cows than people. In fact, we don't even have a post office. We are almost as close to our grocery store as a Lowes, Target, CVS or other big chain stores. I think that the perks of living in a small town, or even a very rural area, (the people, the stars, the outdoors) have *nothing to do with shopping*. People here spend more money in chain stores than the people I knew when we lived in the city. The towns near where I live (Washington County, NY) are thriving and could support people who only shopped in small local stores. That could not be said of my small hometown in rural Pennsylvania.

And although I shop online for lots of things that I would have a very hard time finding locally, even in a box store, shopping online is more detrimental to your local economy than shopping at Target. http://www.the350project.net/home.html

I live in NY and almost always have (college, grad school in small towns) but would loooove to move to a smaller place, perhaps a larger town. But I do wonder how I would earn a living, get medical care, find friends and people to go out with. When I'm traveling, I always wonder, "What do people *do* here? How do they find work?" Without moving for a job or family, I just don't see how people do it.

I live in a town of 300, flanked by a town of 2000 and all wrapped up in a town of about 90,000. so small. I struggled at first...really hated it, felt like, after living in NYC and Boston, that I was living my worst nightmare, cut off from the world. Then slowly, I let go of my fixation on (my perception not necessarily the truth as I found out) lack of culture and the bad clothes and horrible haircuts and got to know the people...and I fell in love. Stripped of all the culture and the style and the trends...oblivious to what was in or out (this is pre internet and I do wonder if it is different now) these people were just a rich and interesting and amazing as anyone I met in any big city. They were so down to earth and I found that refreshing. I will always miss cities. and I have told my kids that my plan is to retire in NYC, but I love that this is where they are growing up. And where I am growing into myself.

i love all of this. i am in an ultimate life contemplation about leaving los angeles for a smaller more simple lifestyle! this just makes me incredibly excited!

@kushkush: my small town in coastal maine is full of big-city expats who telecommute. They almost outnumber the locals. So that's one way people do it.

I guess I am lucky to have it both ways where I live in Alameda, CA - a mid-sized city (80k population) situated on an island about 13 miles east of San Francisco (next to Oakland). We're connected to the East Bay Area by a few bridges and a tunnel - something that makes Bay Area people feel like it's "too far" to travel, which means less congestion and it's fine by me! The town was mostly developed in the early 1900s so we have a ton of gorgeous Victorian homes, two very walkable downtown strips with an awesome mix of mom & pop shops, bars and restaurants, a movie theater, a gigantic antiques fair that takes place each month, a church downtown with a bell that chimes every day at 6pm, and a beach!! As for convenience, there is one pocket of chain stores on the island - TJ Maxx, Kohl's, Ross, Safeway and Trader Joe's... so affordable groceries and discount crap is available when I need it.

I've lived in SF at various points in my life - in both bougie neighborhoods like Nob Hill and Noe Valley, and the toilet of sadness known as The Tenderloin - and each time I lasted about 6 months before longing for the quiet, slowed-down lifestyle (and convenience) of suburban living. Living in a big city it can be difficult to do the simplest things, like buy more than one bag of groceries (carrying anything more up the hills of SF is pure misery), stock up on supplies for a party (I remember once in SF spending more on parking meters and garages than I did on food!), or to find a nice quiet spot you can go each day to smell grass and hear birds chirping. Don't even get me started on the difference in rent (I pay about half as much for twice the space/luxury I had in SF). Unless you're making over $100k/year you really can't live well and set aside savings for your future in a city like SF. I understand that all suburbs are not created equal, but in the right metro area you really can have the best of both worlds.

I can so relate to this story. We have a mall, but the anchors are JC Penney and Sears, you get the picture. A couple of years ago while visiting the city, I realized that West Elm, Anthropologie and others were real store fronts, not just online. This sounds so much like my small town and I love it.

A few posters mentioned what I had been thinking after reading this article: the author focus on SHOPPING! Uh, there is more to life than shopping, and this website is called "Apartment Therapy" (though it also caters to houses, campers, and other types of abodes) not "Shopping Therapy". Sooo, was wondering why the author didn't talk about architectural styles, or decor styles, in small towns vs big cities? I've criss-crossed the US, Central & South America, & a few European countries as well. I've lived in villages where there were more cows than humans and in cities where humans acted like cattle. What I love is checking out the different styles architecture & home decor from the impoverished little village in Mexico to the bustling commerce filled streets of London. Some styles will never float my personal boat, but it is educational and at times humbling to see the way people, even living in the most dire of circumstance, strive to make their homes as beautiful as possible with what little they have. And then there are those whose homes are only showcases for their wealth, devoid of familial warmth, as though they are forever waiting for the magazine camera crews to arrive. It would have been nice if the author had focused on actual small town living style as opposed to shopping pros and cons. Incidentally, I found it hilarious that the author mentioned antique stores and shops that sell crafters wares without mentioning the fact that the only way these stores can thrive in a small town is by catering to tourists- the very same tourists that the residents can't wait to see leave at the end of the day!

...oh and yes, I am aware of the tyos in my previous comment, my only excuse being that I am still making it through my first cup of coffee. In my small south western city I wake up to the sound of both cows mooing, from the nearby rodeo, and bustling commuter traffic. Today is a holiday and everyone, including the cows and the proof reader in my brain, are sleeping in. Hope everyone enjoys their day- whether you are in a small town filled with "little pink houses" or you "party in the city where the heat is on"!

I can relate, we lived in a town where we had a walmart and that was just about it besides the small storefronts, but now they built a JC Pennys and a Target and the small stores down on main street are suffering and many have actually closed. It is really unfortunate. Now we live in another town that has a small mall and some tores, but the downtown strives. It is very nice to see local businesses strive even though they are not the bigger retailers in town.

Frankly, I've never been in a Target and seen anything I had to have. I guess I'm just not that interested in cheap crap from China. I'll take a one-of-a-kind Mom-and-Pop store any day. The American landscape is continually ruined by plopping down the same shopping center containing a Target, a Michael's, a CVS, a Chili's, etc. I never thought it would happen but I've watched New York City turn into a suburban shopping mall. I preferred "Nolita" before it became a real estate neighborhood. I guess I'm just getting old and bored with mediocrity in every form.

The level of community in some small towns is hard to beat. I've lived in several cities including NYC, and never felt the same about the daily interaction as I got from my small town. Granted, Western MA has many of the amenities of cities like culture, restaurants, etc. In my experience, there's more interaction across racial/class lines in small towns, because everyone is smushed together. While NYC is so diverse, it felt stratified to me in a way that my hometown never did.

An addition, the biggest problem I've been having with city life is the materialism and aspirational lifestyles. I feel like it's easy to become fixated on money and status. There's less of a difference in small towns, whereas in cities the gap between the rich and the poor, and the pressure to go to the newest place/etc can be oppressive.

The comments about "free thinkers" is interesting as I've lived in plenty of college towns where I didn't feel the so-called free thinkers actually demonstrated free thinking nor did I find them less judgemental or more intellectually inclined than anywhere else, or for that matter very liberal. If people want to be mentally stimulated why don't they read books and with the Internet it's not as if there isn't a wealth of possibilities to read as well. Then brush up on conversation skills and interpersonal communication.

Most of this article was about shopping opportunties anyway which begs the question of how often people engage in intellectual discussions or conversation of much depth while popping over to the nearest Target (in pursuit of "cheap crap from China"). I mean do people really try to engage the cashier or other shoppers in meaningful conversation.

@Kess "As for intellectually stimulating, it seems to me that people just don't have an imagination! Or books, evidently. Everywhere can be intellectually stimulating - you just maybe have to dig a bit more."

So true or one also needs to learn how to engage others in conversation--meaningful and intellectual is a two-way street.

@REDROOSTER "I guess I'm just getting bored with mediocrity in every form."

So true--I feel your pain as I feel that way sometimes too.

For the record I grew up in Orange County, California and couldn't wait to leave to experience other areas. I've lived in numerous smaller towns, including college towns along the coast and finally moved to Colorado. I'm also a firm believer in being content where you are as I've learned that there are definitely pros and cons to each way of life and people are people whereever you go.

@Rivkasmom -- I grew up in NE Iowa, and you might consider living in Decorah... not too far from Postville, but it's a college town and may have a bit more to offer. Best of luck with your (possible) move!

Holy crap! Cookeville? :D

I just moved away from there last fall after living there for 10 years. I really enjoyed living in a fairly small-ish college town that has grown quite a bit since I arrived. It definitely helps that it is the mid point between Nashville and Knoxville on I-40 for all those UT fans stopping to eat.

A little less than a year ago, we moved from Brooklyn to Fort Bragg, CA-a tiny little town 4 hours north of San Francisco. We are right on the coast and the ocean and the redwoods are dazzling. It was definitely a shock to the system and I spent months acclimating, but you know what? The people are generally super-nice and incredibly helpful, there is very little traffic, the DMV is actually a pleasant place to go, and life is just, well, easier in a LOT of ways than it was in New York City. We are moving to Detroit in a month which is a whole other kind of small-town/city hybrid situation. I am really going to miss small town life, which surprises me to no end.

I moved to my home just outside a small town five years ago and have never regretted it.

JEZBOT77 posts a good idea, above, about college towns. If you want the peace and quiet and lower real estate prices of a small town, but don't want to miss out on the cultural amenities of a larger city, it's a great idea to situate yourself near a town with a large enough college to attract national touring performers, authors and other special events. Plus there are all the bookstores and cafes that usually are near a college. And possibly bike lanes. And classes to take. (Also a lot of cheap, not very good restaurants, in some cases, but you can't have everything.)

Also, for those who miss big-city restaurants, there's the whole movement now toward "underground" dining, high-quality food carts, more farmers markets and more organic foods, "urban homesteading," private at-home dining events, pop-up restaurants, foraged foods, Urban Eating League events, etc. Those are probably all more common in larger cities, b ut between Meetup, Facebook, Twitter and whatever else, I wouldn't be surprised if the dining scene were getting more diverse in small towns, too.

We found a solution: we moved to small town NC for my job and were able to afford a home and a kid. But we spend 2 months during the summer and Xmas back in San Francisco. Thus far we've been able to make it work because we can cheaply rent our friends' place in SF while they are away. I'm a teacher and my partner telecommutes, so our work life is flexible. We get our city fix (amazing coop grocery, our 10 favorite coffee shops, beautiful parks for kids, and our extended family) for 1/4 of the year, and during the academic year, we buckle down, don't shop much except for food, and cook at home for friends. I like living out of a suitcase for a big part of the year, going to awesome theater and museums, seeing old friends who are making interesting art in the city, and I'm always glad to get home to our small town backyard and neighborhood where I can concentrate on my own art, because there's nothing else to do.

I grew up in a big city and lived in a big city all my life. I moved to a small city (it's bigger than a town) for my husband's sake. It took me sometime to appreciate the good life here. Now it is a lot of fun. Work is easier as everyone knows everyone and good word spreads fast! :) I love not having to tackle peak hour traffic and I love tea-time at home :)

I find it interesting that a lot of commenters have simply justified the life choices that they have made: urban vs. rural, densely vs. sparsely populated, etc. Ultimately, I think that people can adapt and thrive in a lot of environments. I was born and raised in New York, and now live here as an adult. I love it immensely. With that said, I think I could probably adapt and live in another environment (although maybe not forever).

More than anything, these choices are about sacrifice. In New York, I recognize that I have sacrificed access to unadulterated nature and outdoor space as well as cheap housing. However, in small towns you sacrifice access to efficient public transport and a wide array of ethnic food. The question is: what combination of sacrifices will make you happy? Personally, I can live with using the park as my yard if it means that I can take the subway 24 hours a day and know where to go when a craving for Tibetan food hits.

I currently live in a small city but recently moved from a small town of less than 5,000. Both have their pros and cons and I am really quite content in either. Larger cities like Boston and New York are fun to visit for a day or two but I can never imagine living there.

Here's my list of what I enjoy about living in a small city/town:
1.) I can sit outside in my back yard and outside of my neighbors a few hundred feet away, I don't have to put up with anyone or any thing. No kids blasting music. No constant horn honking or endless construction work.
2.) I'm in the Berkshires. Those who say we don't have culture need to take a trip to Williamstown or North Adams or Great Barrington and check out the great museums there. Hancock has the Shaker Village museum as well. Albany isn't that far away.
3.) Living in the small town makes you appreciate the awesome parts of the big city without experiencing all the negatives on a regular basis.

Yeah there are things I miss and have to plan out (my wife and I are planning a road trip to Sur La Table and Ikea this summer) but not having to pay a lot of money for a tiny apartment when I can own an acre of land is a fair trade in my eyes.

I live in a state with more pigs than people. I found my way out of the farmland to root myself between two major universities which is perfect for quality of life (great food, plenty of art, music, recreation) and easy access to everything. When I travel I notice that people are pretty much lovable or loathsome everywhere. Moving seasonally would be ideal. Can't stop fantasizing about a move to the northwest after a trip last month.
My grown up kids think it would be boring to live isolated in a rural place, but my childhood was an ideal of close family, riding my pony, reading, making things, and "boring" was not a word I ever heard there. But as someone said, the internet levels the playing field.

"10. Parking and traffic are not a big deal. I've lived in big cities before, and mall traffic is the worst. We don't have mall traffic because we don't have a mall. And I'm pretty much 100% guaranteed to find a parking spot, probably relatively close to the doors of the place I'm headed. And it's never more than a 15 minute drive anywhere."

The underlying assumption in this point--that a car is needed in the first place--is a deal-breaker for me. I'm in Chicago yet parking and traffic are not a big deal for me. I don't deal with mall traffic here either: there aren't many malls my neighborhood (just Century Mall). The secret: being car-free.

There are small towns and small towns. Shelburne Falls, MA, Woodstock, NY, or Blue Hill, ME, Peterborough, NH - well, no one would say those towns are conservative. And that's leaving out Vermont entirely! But there are plenty of conservative small towns, too. What makes a small town appealing to me is easy access to nature/wilderness while still enjoying a walkable community.

I love this small town. Grew up here, moved to Memphis for 10 years after college, and moved back a few years ago. I'll never miss the commute, the pollution, the city noise, the stress of a big city. This is heaven. I know my brilliant daughter will want to get out of here ASAP, and that's cool, but this is a great place to be from.

Just last night while waiting for our train, my husband and I saw a giant rat on the subway platform, which is a bit unusual, as they keep mostly to the tracks. We watched as it brazenly sauntered up to sniff the shoe of a man standing there unaware. We and several others shouted at the man to warn him and he was amazingly unfazed when he saw it so close to his foot. The rat scampered away, down into the tunnel. Can you see that in a small town? I think not! :) Still, I love being car-free. (But gosh I love to get out of town to the country sometimes!)

We only really see rats when the wildfires drive them into town. Otherwise it's just skunks, bats, coyotes, and armadillo.

Malls!!! Rats!!!!

I live in Empress, Alberta. Population 138.
We don't have rats....not a single one.
We have rattlesnakes.
I seldom see one because I don't go looking but I expect some twelve year old boy could find a specimen in less than ten minutes if asked.

As for malls....on a cold Sunday evening evening last winter, a newcomer came into my shop quite distraught. His furnace had quit, he'd identified the malfunctioning part, but it was seven o'clock and the closest furnace store wouldn't open for another 13 hours. He wanted to borrow an electric heater to prevent the pipes from freezing.

My husband suggested that they go to the mall instead. The newcomer tritely explained that the city was two hours away and it was Sunday and everything was closed at that time of night anyway.

:Not that Mall", said my husband. "The Empress Mall!"

Then he got a couple of flash lights from the drawer, a screwdriver and a thermos of coffee and took our new neighbour to the Empress Dump....affectionately known in times of crisis as The Mall.

Of course they found the EXACT part they needed for the thirty year old furnace and had it installed within the hour.

I own/operate one of the funky stores you city folk like to visit. It used to be a bank so I have my very own working vault. My husband had to drill through two feet of reinforced concrete that was sided with 1/2" steel on both sides to install the plumbing for our new public washroom. I'm about to advertise that the bank in Empress once again takes deposits...but I don't do withdrawals.

Love your site.

A lot of the things you find charming about small towns apply to big cities as well. I'm probably closer to a big chain store than you are, but they're such a hassle to get to from the city that most of us would prefer to shop locally or online. I love my Amazon Prime membership! And yes, we do a lot more perusing of flea markets and yard sales for the perfect items (of course, we probably do pay a lot more for them than you do. :)

I was born and raised in a small town. Did not like it so much in my high school years; however after moving away to a very very small town for five years; I returned with my young brood for another few years. I still live in a small town ; although we have Walmart and Target ;>) and I would not trade it for anything. We can still walk down the streets at night without worrying about getting blown away. "vintage" shops line the streets and I gladly buy anything i want /need on the internet. Saves me lots of legwork and getting dressed! One last thing: there is nothing like the smell after a good thunderstorm or the smell (and sight) of the leaves changing colors. Most of my grown brood have left town and moved to BIG cities. I love to visit them, but after a couple of days of hussel and bussel to get anywhere I am glad to return to Small Town USA!
PS: I live in a small apartment as well.

Um... Tiny town Kansas checking in. we do have charm in our town, so HCL [or was that HLC] generalization about the midwest is insulting.

We have a number if antique stores, mom and pop restaurants, two gas stations (one with Red Box), and still manage to have historic homes with brick streets.

I get annoyed when I travel for work and people say, ”oh you must be happy to be away from Kansas.” Not really, I like where I live, moron. It is why I live there.

When I saw the 'Cream City' sign, I knew the picture had to be of my own home town (and current residence.) I am a frequent visitor to Apartment Therapy, and was so surprised to see a picture of the very town in which I live! Everything the author mentions is all true (although I have to say that these antiques and farm tables are not found with the most affordable pricetags (IMHO), usually. This is not a teeny-tiny, one horse town; but it is also not a big, metropolitan area. At approx. 30,000 people it is a nice, in-between size; not too big, not too small. It's a college town, giving us a pretty good mix of people, and also, I think, more people than is actually reflected in the population total. We do have a Super Walmart (but alas no Target), and mutiple elementary schools, a large high school, and we just had to build a new, larger middle school. But for me, considering the size and population, I think we could have more to do. We do have a 12 screen movie theater, but depending on your interests, entertainment can be somewhat limited around here. But what it does offer is a great mix of both small and bigger city living. Compared to other smaller towns, we have a fairly large selection of restaurants, stores, healthcare, schools and houses and apartments to choose from. All with less traffic and crime than you'd have in a larger area. Plus we have a lower cost of living and have even been on lists as one of the cheapest places to retire. All in all, not a bad trade-off.

I forgot to mention that you can be "out in the country" in a ten minute drive, which is fantastic, as well. Plus, no smog!

I agree with " janet UWS."
...............Oh the quietude, the peace, the way my ears adjust themselves to the sounds of silence when i go to small towns. In the city, my brain just can't filter "it all" anymore. It just seems, I don't know, not natural.
I'll trade West Elm, and trendy overpriced jeans shops and Trader Joes any day for a Walmart sitting in the middle of no where.
Give me closed-mindedness, gas guzzling pick-ups, and greasy diners, and at the same time, give me, the oxygen, the trees, the smells of dirt and water and sky, and the sounds of birds, and creatures unseen, and the inner peace that says that this is where humans belong. Not in a high rise box with the only sound being the T.V. I need to move to a small town........

I'll say 'like' instead of love, and while the OP's love is heavily on shopping, the #1 plus is reasonably sane traffic; even in the local Wart-Mall parking lot. And, currently I can walk to most anything in the downtown area; groceries, restaurants, entertainment/art culture etc. except for said Wart-Mall (which I'm not above frequenting). Makes my 12 year old car seem like a good hybrid.

Have actually had good luck scoring 'good design' finds; $30 or usually much less; though like most places, much is overpriced crap and yard sales are nothing but old paperbacks, plastic stuff and just generic big box junk that might have been Black Friday specials a few years back; ie what was a Christmas present a few years ago; now in the yard sale heap. No farm tables & wouldn't want one.

This woman loves living in a small town because of shopping-related matters? Is that what we love a place for, that you get a great buy on a farm table there? How many of those do we need; and does access to a great farm table make life good?
Only for a few minutes.
Not one word about people: Neighbors who know your animals and will step in if something happens to one while you're away. Neighbors who will alert you if you've left your purse on the roof of your car because you forgot it when you finished unloading the groceries. Neighbors who will be there for you when your husband-- or dog or horse or kitty-- dies. Local merchants who will tell you to pay next time you're in, when you don't have any money with you. The mail lady who looks out for the wobbly elderly gentleman who lives two doors down from you, and will do the same for you when your turn comes.
Add fresh air, real weather, open space and room to breathe, and a slower pace of life.
Issues of home decor and collecting stuff are way behind all of that.

I have lived on both sides of this argument- in both Glasgow, Scotland and Milwaukee, WI (both just shy of 600,000 people), and Houghton, Michigan (just under 7,000 people). I am currently in Milwaukee, and went to school in Houghton. I desperately miss being so 'isolated'. A lot of my college classmates argued that they 'had to' shop at Walmart, which was absolutely not the case. I was able to go years living there with out ever stepping inside of the store. I joined the co-op, enjoyed the small farmer's market in the summers, wandered around the local hardware store in the cute downtown. Everything necessary was a walk away. One of my housemates went her four year college career without a car at all. Living just too far from the major downtown to walk wherever in a reasonable amount of time has been awful on both my pocketbook and my body. Having any store I could ever want just a short drive (short mandatory drive, rather) away is fun at first, but then I realized I just want all of these unnecessary things. I wander stores for fun instead of wandering along the path that follows the water downtown, or grabbing my cross country skiis and being able to hop onto trails only a mile from downtown.

Some of the cultural events are nice, I admit, but I would much much rather travel to them and live a simpler life than only get to really enjoy the outdoors the way I would like to when on vacation, rather than put it into my daily routine.

Some small towns are dead, and Walmart might seem like the only store, but only because we let it happen. If the people would turn their backs on the big box stores and support local co-ops, furniture stores, fabric shops, etc., the 'cute' downtown could come back.

I had the situation of growing up in a small thriving town, then Walmart came in when I was young, and ever since it's been a desolate area where all the charming shops are long gone, there's one local grocery struggling to stay in business against Walmart, and any other options require a half hour of driving just to find throngs of chain stores. It's sad, really. I had to move much closer to the city (Chicago) to find the small shops, local stores and antique/thrift stores. Granted, there's mall traffic too, but at least there are options.

I think I might miss diversity if I lived in one of the US' smaller, more isolated towns. Far off towns with starlit skies and cows grazing in pastures. It sounds lovely, but I wonder about things like noodle houses, or where you'd go to have Indian food or beauty treatments, Korean spas, mariachi bands for hire. Can you order THAT on Amazon?

I am selling my place in VT b/c the thought of having to drive to montreal all winter in order to find a hairdresser who can actually do thick, curly AA hair w/o resorting to awful relaxers and the fact that no matter how long i live here my skincolor marks me as an outsider has finally gotten to be too much.

i find all the romanticizing of small towns utterly bizarre. maybe people have watched Baby Boom and Newhart entirely too much. Small town charms seems only to be accessible to the people with money who move to them in search of an "authentic" small town life. (as a "have" in a state w/ lots of "have nots" I constantly had this thrown in my face) Never mind "authentic small town" life has a lot of insular thinking, staggering levels of poverty. neighbors all up in your business and people who have never seen an interracial couple before EVER feeling the need to share this information with anyone in earshot.

I too was fooled by dreams of a "small town' life when I moved to VT and now I've wised up and moved to a thriving mid size city with a world class university (gooooo orange!!!), diversity and incredibly smart, kind, welcoming nice people. So basically I had to move to a city to get the "small town life" I expected to find in VT.

Living in downtown Vancouver, the traffic is minimal if you know the local tricks. I have seen worse in a town of 120,000. There's a farmers market right downtown with the same people every week- a great sense of community. After a bit of reading one sees that well-planned cities are an environmentally sustainable way to look after a lot of people. I still head to the hills in my spare time- its a balance between the 2 worlds. And a 'normal' job allows me an awesome lifestyle with a great place right downtown- there are so many ways to do it affordablely- it is such a misconception that it is so expensive. I love my city :)

My small town is terrible. When you're bored, you go wander around the Wal-mart. Everyone here is awkwardly conservative, all work at the same factory and have never really wanted to be anywhere else. All the young people run away from this place as fast as they can. The factory takes advantage of everyone who stays by only hiring seasonally for years and making everyone who gets hired on feel so grateful. There are no cute shops or diners. There are on the other hand 3 Chinese places, 4 subways, a McDonald's, burger king, taco bell, wendy's and somehow a family video, I mean how?!?