Big city vs small town living

In My Humble Opinion
41

The same is true for every place except you are only presenting one side of it. I have been to Chicago a few times and while it isn’t my least favorite place on earth, I am not a fan either. You know what they say, Chicago was founded by people that thought New York City was almost ideal except it isn’t cold enough and the crime rate was too low. I have literally had nightmares about being forced to live in NYC too. I could survive there and get a high paying job just fine. I just wouldn’t want to even if I was paid to live in Manhattan for free.

That is the point. City people preach tolerance as long as you choose to have the same lifestyle as they so but they don’t seem to understand that are vast parts of the population that do not. It isn’t that those of us who don’t want it aren’t ‘enlightened’ enough. Large city life feels the same way to us as you might feel being forced to live ranch in the middle of nowhere.

42

I live in a small town (actually, at about 10,000 it’s considered a large town on the eastern shore of MD!). When my sister and parents visited me they were very amused that the staff at all the restaurants we visited seemed to know my name, could anticipate what draft I would like, etc. I haven’t driven to the grocery store without seeing someone I knew in over a year probably. My hometown in PA is only slightly larger (maybe 15-20,000), but there I’m more or less anonymous (even when I lived there full time). I could go out to eat, go to the store, get gas, etc and not expect to see anyone I knew. Honestly, if I took a new girl out to dinner and a movie in my current town, every one of my friends would know within 24 hours. If I had a girlfriend it would be virtually impossible for me to cheat on her without her finding out within a few days unless I went out of town.

Edit: Not that I’d want to cheat on my girlfriend. Word gets around quickly in my town is what I’m saying!

43

I lived a couple blocks from the beach for awhile. It’s nice and all, but it’s not “nature” as I think of the term. It’s quite urban. Can you have a bonfire? Fall asleep to insects chirping? See the stars? Take a piss wherever you want? The only thing the Chicago lakefront and a lake in rural MN have in common is that they’re both water.

44

So…Winterpeg? :smiley:

I think rural Canada can be a lot different than rural US. I think it’s more tolerant. I mean, if you’re liberal and hippy enough that people in San Francisco raise their eyebrows at you, it’ll be weird, but you won’t be the gossip of the town forever if you come out of the closet. Being an atheist won’t make the townspeople shun you. Getting caught with a joint won’t haunt you for the next 30 years of your life. So living in a rural area doesn’t bother me as much as some of the Americans on the board.

45

My dad grew up in southside Chicago; we kids were born in Vermont, and moved to Chicagoland <haha; St. Charles> when I was 8. We spent the next 8 years going to lakes and forest preserves and…just about every place is fake. Not fake, but…full of tourists, and people, and crowds and…it’s not real. Even as kids, with little recollection of Vermont, we knew it wasn’t the real thing. And apparantly it got on my dad’s nerves as well, because when I was 16 we picked up and left for Idaho and neither of my parents, or any of the kids, has regretted moving to the PNW. It’s just an entirely different ball game.

But it really is a matter of preferences. I prefer my city trips in small bits; some poeple prefer their countryside trips in small bits. And that’s fine with me :slight_smile:

46

I love living in a big city. Heck, sometimes I feel like NYC is a little too small for me! I love not needing a car to get where I am going, I love having everything I could ever want to do a short train ride away, and I love the feel of the city when you are out and about. We are currently considering moving out of the city to a nearby suburb and we refuse to be more than 2 or 3 train stops away from Manhattan because we are absolutely city people at heart.

This summer we lived in a million dollar beach house in CT (long story) and I hated every minute of it. I know lots of people would give their right arm to live in a gorgeous house right on the water but the whole experience was just loneliness, mosquitoes, and boredom. Walks on the beach stop being interesting on the 3rd day and then there was nothing. I had to walk two miles to the nearest non-residential location or I could take the car and drive for half an hour or more if I wanted to go somewhere special like Wal-Mart.:rolleyes:

I know a lot of people love having lots of space and lots of land and I’m glad that they are able to do so. For me the ability to grab a bus or a train to the museum or choose from literally 500 restaurants within walking distance of my apartment makes all the difference in life.

47

You’re very welcome! :wink: I thought perhaps you had forgotten.

And I get what people are saying, there are ingrained preferences that certain personalities can only expand their tolerances so far. Like Shagnasty is definitely not a city guy. He also knows that and lives his life accordingly. I wish others would try to do that, rather than trying to shove a square peg into a round hole and then complaining about it the whole time.

I grew up in the far west edge of the suburbs, out amidst corn/soybean fields, frequently horseback riding, camping, and being outdoorsy. My grandma had a ranch and there are still two farms in the family. I get it. I also seem to have “outgrown” it for lack of a better word. I do miss the stars occasionally; I don’t miss dark, unmarked country roads at night. I’ll probably be moving to Oregon or Washington when I’m closer to retirement age and my family roots here have thinned. Though it’s yet to be seen whether I choose to dwell in the largest cities they have to offer or someplace with some acreage and space to garden. Though that might mean I’ll have to mow grass and maybe shovel snow once in a while. Hmm. I heard Albuquerque is nice, too.

48

Ignoring any possible undesireable connotations of the word “outgrown”, I agree that the same person can prefer different settings at different stages in their life. In fact, it is probably desireable that most peope experience different settings at different points.

When I was young, I loved crowds, noise, and excitement - whether fighting to the front of a concert at Soldier Field or the Brawlroom, at a ballpark or Chicagofest, or wherever. Now, not so much.

I guess I have become comfortable in what I value. In the process, I have become more comfortable with my own company, and less interested on diverse other people and scenery for stimulation. (Trying to be more pleasant than describing myself as a cranky old fart! Yeah, and today IS my birthday!)

So long as I have access to a decent grocery store, I have access to good (and inexpensive) food wherever I have a kitchen. Which touches on another point - in many respects, living a “simpler/slower” rural life can be much less expensive than urban living. Many (not all, of course) city folk find they have to work harder and be more stressed in order to afford their chose lifestyle. Having lived a few decades, I know what gives me enjoyment, and not much of that depends on large concentrations of people. Not to say I am not open to new experiences, just that I am not willing to give up what I KNOW I enjoy, to increase my proximity to “diversity.” Having said that, it does not please me that this is the “whitest” place I have ever lived - including the western burbs.

Oh yeah - whoever characterized cities as aving a greater percentage of welfare recipients? I work in the “entitlement” area, and believe me, there are at least as great a percentage of “takers” in smal town and rural settings as in big cities. :rolleyes:

Chicago ad Cook County are fantastic in terms of the amount of natural areas that have been preserved. I’d be surprised if many other cities of that size have resources to match the lakefront and the forest preserves, not to mention the many large parks (thank you Mr. Jensen!) But as someone else observed, they are at best a poor substitute for the resources elsewhere.

Living in a smaller town, I find I have more time to simply live my life, as opposed to traveling to where I need to go to live my life. I know I’m not being clear. I guess I should simply say I am very content with a slower pace of life.

And having said that, I would not be at all surprised if I eventualy move back to the western burbs. Why? My oldest daughter lives there, and is planning on starting a family Never underestimate the lure of grandchildren! :wink:

49

City folk are good people, I like my association with them. But there’s just so many of them in one place that it’s a little stressful for those of us who aren’t familiar with the layout of the land. Too much traffic, too much of everything, gotta make quick decisions. I can do that but it’s no fun for me.

A small college town, something along the lines of Harrisonburg, Va., is looking pretty good as a retirement destination for me.

50

I know this seems really, really hard to believe, but it’s borne out by evidence: generally speaking, the larger the city, the safer your kids are.

If you have kids, as I do, you keep them safer by movin to a larger city. (Assuming a similar quality of n.) Sounds crazy, but it’s true, and makes a lot of sense if you really think about it.

So there’s one advantage to the big city, if you’re a parent.

51

I live in a city of millions, I have lived in a big mining town of 100 000 and a small town of a couple thousand. I wouldn’t swap the city for any of the others. I like having my choice of restaurants, cinemas, theatres, shops while also having nature right there too. Of course, my city is unusual for having a bloody great mountain in the middle of it, but not that unusual.

52

Once I have access to more than 2 or 3 of any given “thing” I am good to go. Those things would include stuff like Mexican resteraunts (and various other ethnic foods), malls, hardware stores, sporting good stores, and so on an so on. And they don’t have to be close. So, I suppose 30 minutes outside of a city/population center of 100k give or take does the trick for me.

And since the Holiday season is nearly upon us its time for airing of grievances.

Small town people. NOBODY outside your town knows where the hell it is. If you are visiting a far away land and you mention your town, please give at least state what state it is in, and preferably what part of the state or the nearest bit town its near.

Big town people. NOBODY outside of your big town knows all the fricking suburbs or satellite towns surrounding your big town. If you are in a far away land telling people about where you live, don’t say “Del Boca Vista” and expect them to have a clue about what you are talking about. Say “Del Boca Vista, on the north side of Miami”.

Time to go dig out the Festivus Pole.

53

I agree with you but I don’t know if it’s for the same reasons you’re thinking.

The way I see it, in a big city there are just so many opportunities for kids to stay busy. I think a kid growing up in a small town is MUCH more likely to turn to drugs, alcohol, etc at an early age out of boredom. “Hey, what do you want to do tonight?” “I don’t know, hang out at the water tower and chug this FourLoko?”

Now, obviously there are undesirable elements no matter where you are but the one thing a kid in a city will never suffer from is boredom or a lack of options for things to keep their time filled.

54

For what values of ‘safe’? I’m not sure what you’re getting at here.

I guess I was less safe out on the farm because if I had wiped out in the field while biking and broke my ankle it would take longer for someone to find me. Then there was that time my dad told me to stay in the yard because someone saw a bear in the fields.

But in terms of child predators, I felt much more safe, since we’d notice anyone who drove into our yard and you knew who owned which vehicles in a 3-mile radius.

As for small-town alcohol problems, we had much more relaxed attitudes towards teen drinking. People got it out of their systems at bush parties on someone’s farm during high school, so by the time you were 18 you knew how to handle alcohol, school and work at the same time. Plus drinking no longer had a forbidden allure.

I do realize I’m going to the other extreme, you’re talking about large cities and I’m talking about rural areas. If you’re really trying to say ‘2 million is better than 200k is better than 20k’ then okay.

55

I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma called Shattuck.
Population about 1200. No stoplights in the town (main street business are only 10 blocks long). I loved growing up there, and it would be a great place live again if I could telecommute, although more than once my son has told me; “the best thing you ever did was move away from here.” There’s not exactly a big IT job sector in Shattuck. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s a good place to live because I’ve lived in big cities; and can appreciate it for what it is. On the other hand, I look at my sister and brother who still live there; and they like it for all the wrong reasons. :slight_smile:
Like chacoguy, growing up we didn’t have keys to our house. As a matter of fact, my mom would leave the keys in the car ignition so she wouldn’t lose them.

56

I don’t know about safer. Are we talking about “stranger danger”? Drugs? IMO, kids are pretty safe wherever, and many/most parents overstate the threats wherever they are.

But I do believe it can be EASIER to raise kids in the burbs. Just for silly reasons - hauling babies and toddlers and their stuff around is much easier if you are loading and unloading a car from your attached garage, as opposed to on and off a bus or train. It is nice to be able to simply tell your kid to play in the back yard, where you can check on them out the window, instead of needing to walk them to the park. That sort of thing.

Also, I’m aware of the excellent magnet schools city kids can compete for, but as a general matter, in many suburbs your local school will be better than the average Chicago neighborhood schools.

57

Yep. This is the exact reason we moved to Evanston before our daughter started kindergarten. We could have gone the magnet/charter schools route in Chicago but just didn’t have the stomach for the process.

58

I love living in a small city: city pop half mil, metro area 2 mil.

Affordable as hell, super convenient commute, mountains and lakes nearby, fantastic cultural offerings.

Growing up in a very small town I hated the gossip and the profuse drinking and drug use.

Now, a small college town is the exception to my “small towns suck” rule, because they often have an ethnic restaurant or two and a college symphony/choir/night activities and such.