And it’s politics are to the left of Marx:rolleyes:.
May I suggest West Bend, Wisconsin. 35 miles North of Milwaukee, but not considered a suburb of it. Much industry, including world headquarters for the Gehl company, Amity, and the West Bend Company. 2 colleges, University of Wisconsin, and Moraine Park College. Very mellow town. I lived there for over 20 years, moving only because my job took me elsewhere.
Reno has a sign over the strip - Biggest Little City in America". Speaks for itself.
I refrained from comment the last time you brought this up, because I honestly couldn’t recall noticing the billboards; thought I’d reserve comment until after I’m there again and can look the place over with your comments in mind. However, the fact that I’ve never noticed it, over the course of at least five or six trips there in the last four years or so, several of which have been overnight trips, argues that either I’m an unobservant clod or the situation’s not as grim as you maintain. I suspect the answer is that I tend to blot out the entire area around the interstates – I don’t really consider myself in Chattanooga until I’ve exited the freeway, and the freeways probably are about as bad as you suggest. The Hamilton Place Mall area certain seems nearly as sprawl-ridden as parts of Atlanta. When I’m in Chattanooga, however, I tend to remain in the downtown area – I rarely get east of Engel Stadium or south of I-24.
Generally, MSA boundaries are county boundaries, and MSAs incorporate all of any county that’s defined as being within the MSA. In the case of Ann Arbor, the MSA includes all of Livingston, Washtenaw, and Lenawee counties.
But… I’m a capitalist! Madison’s just diverse. Like this message board. Where else can a student sit in a classroom literally fifty feet from an operating fission reactor, hear a lecture from an astronaut-turned-Republican US Senator-turned-professor, burn leaded aviation gasoline, or eat meaty BBQ pork ribs with an officer of a NOW chapter… all in the course of one day? 
It’s a great place to start a family… low cost of living, good schools (public school system and a pair of two-year colleges), hardly any crime; not so great a place if you’re young, college educated, and looking for things to do locally. West Bend simply isn’t very culturally, politically, or religiously diverse. Yes, it has a handful of museums, but you’re not going to find live music, ethnic restaurants, or anything really exciting unless you drive to Milwaukee. Same goes for the bulk of the professional jobs in the region.
Well, since I live there, I’ll put in a vote. Qualities?
Population around 50,000
Very low crime
Beautiful scenery (mountains, rivers, nice lakes)
The University of Montana (granted, not the best school, but not bad)
Progressive politics (but if you’re not progressive, just move in 10 or more miles outside of town!)
Good restaurants (although the selection is somewhat limited…no good Mexican, for instance, and only one good example of several other cuisines)
Very friendly people
Economy…hmm…There’s the sticking point. Montana recently passed Mississippi for lowest average wage in the country. Jobs are a problem. Lots of people take any job they can find just so they can keep living here. But something almost always turns up if you’re persistent enough.
Plus, our civic motto is (I kid you not) We Like It Here!
Man, you guys are going to start thinking that I get kickbacks from the Santa Cruz city council.
Santa Cruz, CA (pop. 50,000), is simply heaven on Earth. Half the kids who move here for college (UC Santa Cruz- home of the Banana Slugs) never make it out. This summer I know people who visited Maui, Washington, and Japan and every single one of them said the same thing when they got back- “The rest of the world is nice- but it doesn’t quite measure up to this place.”
Why do I love Santa Cruz so much? First off, the place is damn progressive. In fact, it is sometimes ridiculously progressive. There are as many peace flags as there are American flags. Santa Cruz is a nuclear free zone. There is only one joint in town (Starbucks) where you can buy coffee that isn’t fair trade certified. The streets are filled with bikes, pedestrians and all kind of happy non-car traffic. Half the town is vegetarian. It is great! I consider myself an outright leftness and sometimes the liberalness of this place make me chuckle indulgently.
Santa Cruz also oozes charm. Sometimes I go on walks just to look at houses. They are all so damn charming- little beach cottages brimming with flowers, stately craftmans with porch swings, and old victorians painted strange colors. Independent shops line the streets- you have no excuse to shop at chains here (although if you really need to go to Target there is one just a town over). Family owned pizza joints flourish and our independent bookstores are giving the much contested (and much vandalized) Borders a run for it’s money. There are also countless art gallerys, jazz houses, theaters and other retreats of the cultured. You get all the benefits of a small town, but none of the isolated hick-dom that plagues them.
If charm aint enough, you got beauty. Being a beach town, we have…beaches. We have SoCal style beaches with sunbathers and volleyball courts. We have friendly family beaches with ice cream stands and bonfire pits, and we have a wealth of wild isolated beaches. If the water doesn’t make you happy, we also have majestic redwood forests. In a matter of minutes you can be transported from the sunny beaches up rolling hills (largly grazing land) into the woods. I can’t even get started saying how beautiful the Santa Cruz mountains are. For urban greenery, there are plenty of parks within walking distance of almost any part of town. and even natural areas (like gulches and lakes) set right in with the houses.
And there is a lot of…civic cohesion. Everybody goes to the farmer’s markets on Wednesday. There are community events galore. When one of the street people isn’t seen for a while the papers run articles about them. Unlike some cities I’ve known, the authorities encourage the local color. Street musicians (ranging from students doing their music homework to people singing opera and fully costumed dance troupes) line the streets in a friendly and well regulated way. The cops smile and pick up any trash they might see as they walk by. When people get off the bus (which is part of an awe-inspiring transit system) they thank the bus driver.
And if you get need a break, San Francisco is an hour and a half north.
Okay, there is one bad point about Santa Cruz. No one can afford to live here. This place is as expensive to live in as New York, San Francisco and probably even Tokyo (okay, maybe not quite Tokyo). Silicon Valley millionaires would udnerstandably rather live here than San Jose, and their loads of cash have thrown the economy (especially the houseing market) out of whack in a major way. I am yet to see a house of any sort sell for less than half a million. Heck, I know parts of town where you can buy a million dollar trailer. We all make sacrifices to live here (mine, lately, has been not eating on a regular basis) but damn it is worth it!
Alright, well I am off to go find the mayor because I figure after this spiel he owes me at least five bucks for the good PR.
Placentia, CA
-Area high schools rank tops in state for academics, baseball program, and theatre program.
-Breeding ground for loads of celebrity types
=Olympic swimming champ Janet Evans
=Retired MLB players Bob Boone and Dan Petry.
=Active MLB Phil Nevin, Bret Tomko, Matt Luke.
=Soap star Christy Clark of “Days of our Lives”
=Aaron Bailey from the LA Real World
-41,000 strong.
-Means ’ pleasant place’
And when people say “Oh, youre from Placenta. Ha, ha. I’m from afterbirth. Ha-hee.” You can say, “Yeah, it took me nine months to get here.”
BA-BOOM!
Yeah, I’ll give you that. 25 years ago it was better because not as many people were college educated and there were more professional jobs. But it’s far away enough from Milwaukee to avoid the crime, yet 28 minutes on a 65mph freeway and you’re back in the big city.
Thanks for some good suggestions.
I didn’t want to say if a city had 100,001 people it would be disqualified. But if I just said “small city”, someone from L.A. might have in mind San Diego and Phoenix as suggestions. Maybe 200,000 would be a better cut off point.
I have heard of a few like Madison and Reno. But a lot of the places in California or the East Coast are unfamiliar because they are in the shadow of the bigger cities, so they are sort of unknown. Also I didn’t even have the “South” in mind, since I always thought of it as having either little no-name towns, or big cities I would want to be in. But I suppose there are medium places there too, they are just not as familiar to me.
You could check out Chapel Hill, NC. It’s got UNC in town, and Duke across the line in Durham. Raleigh, the state capitol, is a 45-minute drive, and NCSU resides there. There’s also Research Triangle Park, lots of restaurants and a very active music scene. You are only a couple hours’ driving distance to either the mountains to the west or the beach to the east. The biggest city in NC, Charlotte, is also about 2 hours away. We’ve got world class medical care and a variety of sports, though the only major professional team is the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team. But there are two minor-league baseball teams and plenty of college stuff.
I’ll probably get flamed for this, but ----the Salt Lake City area. Yeah, I know, lots of Mormons, but the area is culturally diverse, lots of restaurants of all types, cultural activities every weekend, a healthy, increasingly high-tech economy, four seasons, lots of outdoor recreation, big universities and small colleges, etc. I worked there last summer/fall, and it was great. The place is getting crowded, and is conservative politically, but parts of the valley are still pretty small-town.
Population of 30,000.
Can’t find anything about the crime rates, but the book “Home Town” by Tracy Kidder has parts where he goes on patrol with some of the local cops. Pretty quiet, by the looks of it.
Nice scenery? This is Western Massachusetts, baby. God’s own vision of what New England is supposed to look like. Look Park is the main recreational area in N’hamp, and it’s a great public place. Couple of lakes, miles of trails, an outdoor theater, a restaurant (I think it’s still in operation), paddle boats, a small zoo, and last I checked a miniature train to ride.
Colleges and universities out the wazoo. Northampton itself is home to Smith College, in nearby Holyoke is Mt. Holyoke (both of which are women’s colleges),and UMass Amherst is further out but still close by.
With so many colleges around, you can bet your sweet bippy there’s all sorts of things to see and do. With all sorts of people coming from across the country to attend MHC and Smith, you’re bound to find the populace quite tolerant and open. Far as I know N’hamp has its own brewpub, too - dandy place to meet folks.
Now comes the only part I can’t speak to - a healthy economy. I’m pretty sure things were on the upswing last time I was in the area, but there are several larger cities in the area - Springfield, Amherst, and Worcester come to mind - so it’s pretty likely you will find a decent job that’ll keep you going while you settle in.
How’s that for some civic boosterism?
Well, Amherst is considerably smaller than NoHo, but otherwise you’re pretty accurate. Lots of students in the area so you get student-type crime – vandalism, car theft, and the occasional crime o’ passion. The economy is pretty much college/university-based which is a mixed blessing – everytime the economy blossoms, developers do their best to pave over the place, but fortunately there aren’t enough jobs to support really dedicated suburban sprawl. On the other hand, there’s no high tech out there, so if you don’t work at the colleges/University, you pretty much have to head to the Big City to get a job.
Aside from having at least one of every kind of ethnic restaurant you’d want, NoHo boasts some great music venues, particularly the Iron Horse Coffeehouse.