Since the penitentiary is a federal institution, I don’t see how the Government of Saskatchewan made that decision. It would have been made by the federal government.
Saskatoon got the university because Regina got the capital.
Sure that’s not an urban legend? I’ve heard variants of the same story about many states in the US. For example, there was a coin flip when a territory was granted statehood to decide where the university and prison would go, and the loser would get the university. Another variant: two communities were fighting over who would get a new insane asylum, and the community that didn’t land it get the state land grant university or normal school as a consolation prize.
So what you’re saying is, thanks to the Saskatchewan government, you’ve got a can in Prince Albert.
I found several in New York:
Alfred - population 3954
Alfred University - student body 2300
Alfred State College - student body 3200
Annandale-on-Hudson - population 295
Bard College - student body 1801
Aurora - population 320
Wells College - student body 630
Brockport - population 8103
SUNY Brockport - student body 8742
Delhi - population 2583
SUNY Delhi - student body 2825
Morrisville - population 2148
SUNY Morrisville - student body 3356
Paul Smiths - population 786
Paul Smith’s College - student body 850
I’ve heard that Bozeman was a contender for the capital of Montana, but got the university instead (and ended up much better off for it). I’d never heard a version with the state prison, though.
I heard the “prison vs. university” story between Deer Lodge and Missoula, with Deer Lodge choosing to have the prison.
Austin, Texas is much like that. It too is a large city that also happens to be the state capitol, but life very much revolves around UT. That description you gave here of Baton Rouge could easily apply to Austin.
The university also seems to be the main the reason the city is so liberal in an otherwise very conservative state. In fact that could probably be another sign that you’re a college town - if your politics vary greatly from those of the surrounding area.
My understanding, whch I hope will be clarified and/or corrected, is that pre-Katrina, Baton Rouge was much smaller and in consequence even more heavily culturally dominated by LSU.
My head just exploded.
It was smaller, but it was still a fairly large sized city (over 100K people). It was the second largest city of the state, after New Orleans. Before Katrina, it was already a spreading, splaying, growing monster of a city. Katrina just increased/accelerated that, if only for a while.
Certainly after Katrina it has grown, but even before and after, LSU dominates the city.
Written by someone who was in Baton Rouge before and after Katrina.
Mine too, especially after another resident told me a while back. We both dislike Athens, GA. She went to visit her friends doing residency in Auburn.
She: “Athens is a cultural mecca and modern metropolis compared to Auburn!”
I look at her with a surprised look in my face, eyes wide open
She: “I KNOW! I did the same thing!!!”
So at least we both know we could be in a worse place…
Not an urban legend (well, maybe the coin flip part) and certainly a part of the horse trading that goes with the formation of a new government. In Missouri, Jefferson City got the capitol and Columbia got the university; in Arizona, it was Tucson vs. Phoenix; Iowa City was Iowa’s first state capitol – it lost the government but kept the university. There were jobs to be distributed and a) everybody wanted their share while b) no one trusted putting all the jobs in one place.
I’ve heard rumors about you and your friend. Up until now, I thought you were like Sasquatch or the Boogy Man.
Crazy talk.
Stillwater, Minn. got the prison, and Minneapolis had to settle for the university. There was also the plot to steal the state capital from St. Paul and give it to St. Peter.
Blacksburg, VA is a good example of a college town. When I was there in the early to mid 90s, most of the town’s economic life was focused on the University. The town has a population of 41,796 and Virginia Tech has 30,739 students. Most of the businesses in town are geared to students and there is a large number of bars catering to the students. The University is connected to the Downtown.
Williamsburg, VA is interesting in that the students compose a large chunk of the population but the businesses in town aren’t really geared towards the students. Williamsburg has an approximate population of 12,000 and the College of William and Mary has approximately 7900 students. However, it seems like for the most part, the students stay on campus and rarely venture out into town. There were only three bars that had students as their main clientele. The other difference is that most of the shopping centers and commerce was located away from the school and didn’t really cater to the students.
See: Lawrence, Kansas.
Yea well, for better or worse, most of the nonwork people I interact with dislike this town. We may be a minority, but we’re real…
Cambridge was not founded as a satellite city. While the city is nowadays well-connected to London, this was not how it was established. Cambridge was originally a small settlement until the University was founded in the early 13th century by scholars fleeing Oxford.
Nowadays, Cambridge holds around 18,000 students (I am one) in a population of 100,000. It is very much a university town: student life dominates the local culture; the economy of the surrounding area is influenced by university research; even the architecture of Cambridge’s constituent colleges dominate the cities.
It may just be. Wikipedia states what I said, but the cite they give just says that PA got the pen.
I think part of the “college town” phenomenon, circa 1300 or circa 1850, probably had to do with scholarly or religious types founding a college away from the bustle of the big city to create a life of uiet contemplation for the students. In Englande as in the USofA, however, there was alway a pub just over the hill.
I think part of the “no college town” phenomenon in Canada has to do with the fact that until 1900 Canada was pretty sparsely settled, except maybe Quebec. Even Ontario didn’t have much in the way of settlement until the early 1800’s. Consequently, the colleges tended to be established near the larger centers before they were larger, since the smaller centers at the time would be a crossroads and two buildings. We don’t seem to have the huge “donor giving to alma mater” tradition back when it would have been important, before WWII.
The Prairies were pretty much deserted before the big settlement push in the 1890’s and early 1900’s following the Canadian-Pacific Railroad. Even more reason to put a college near the bigger centers; you need to be near a railroad stop. As pointed out elsewhere, you need to have the people to support the college, and housing for them, etc. Unless your college can afford to build housing for the maids, groundskeepers, stable boys, blacksmith, etc - not to mention their own supply warehouse etc. - you needed to be near some moderately-sized town.
BTW, Kingston, Ontario got both the colleges and the prisons. It’s debatable which institution dominates the culture and comes to mind in the rest of Canada. Or what Canadians think of when you say “We’re Queens’ folk”?