You need a box of matches and a swiss army knife to survive! Ha, you wuss.
You need a Zagats guide and a subway map to survive! Ha, you wuss.
Good rant, and a fine reply from the Smith chap.
I love big cities, which is a shame, because I only live in a small one.
I love that in big cities, I don’t have to talk to people unless I choose to involve them in my life. I don’t have pesky shop-keepers trying to discuss things with me every day. Maybe, if I’m really lucky, the shop-guy won’t even speak English and I can hand him my money, take my stuff and get the hell out of there.
I love that there’s a little bit of ethnic diversity. All the different cultures intermingling is delightful and I know that seems a little paradoxical given my last point, but it’s not.
I love that when I want something I can go get it.
I love that I’m not expected to have a bond with everyone I pass on the street and that I can just ignore them.
I love that there’s tall buildings. Those things are just magical.
I love that I can get anywhere when I want to because there’s public transport all over the place. When I lived in a small county town, if I wanted to get anywhere I had to ride my bike for half an hour (didn’t have my license at the time). In the city I get on a bus or a train and in ten minutes, I’m there.
I love that when a band comes I can just go see them. No elaborate planning. Go downtown, see band. Simple.
I even love that when you’re coming from out of town you can tell that bar isn’t dodgy by the fact that it’s able to charge you $5 for a beer.
Meanwhile, this is my idea of hell.
I’m just the opposite of the OP.
I hate small towns.
I hate that my neighbors think they need to know me, everything about me, and all of my business.
I hate that the cashier at the grocery store will tell me what brand of shampoo my neighbors use and how much money they spend.
I hate that everyone in town has memorized my schedule and at least 3 people ask me why I wasn’t home from work on time if I stop to have a drink with a friend.
I hate that my neighbor’s wife is such a busybody that she looks in people’s windows (that’s probably due to her being an asshole more than the small-town, but it’s the small-town gossip mentality that contributes to her wanting to know just what Six is doing in the livingroom).
I hate pollen, trees, grass, mowing the lawn, and wildlife under my car.
I hate that I cannot leave my house without my neighbors asking where I’m going.
I hate that going to the post office takes four times as long as it should because the post office clerk wants to ask me about every aspect of my day and then give me a 30 minute dissertation on the weather.
I hate that there are no pizza, chinese, or any other delivery places that will deliver to my house.
I hate that I hear about my business from people who have no reason to know it.
So if anyone in a big city wants to trade for my small town, I can be out by Monday.
I’ve done both. I’ve lived in big cities, and I’m currently living in a town small enough that the new grocery store opening filled all of page 3 of the paper. Give me small towns any day. It’s quiet here. I can sleep. I can see a lake from my window. It’s great. I hate cities. I’m not impressed by the great works of mankind - give me a nice mountain any day of the week.
Like Smeghead, I’ve lived in both and I now think I have the best of both worlds as I live on 19 acres in BFE (between Fedor and Elgin)
I’m 6 miles outside Tiny Town Texas. No one knows me (except the care repair guy, the feed store people, and the vet) and that’s just fine.
If I’m gossiped about-well, good on 'em.
I don’t attend any of the local churches and I don’t have a child in the school district so I’m totally out of the loop.
My neighbors are helpful but distant. We give each other lots of space because we have lots of space. I know that if I had a serious problem I coould always call on them.
When I need a good Thai fix or want to see a movie or do some heavy shopping, Austin’s just an hour down the road.
jlzania, I know where you are! Gosh, that’s utter nowhere. 19 acres…that sounds wonderful.
Living in Southeast Austin in a big house, moving to Northwest Austin into a 1-bedroom (but large) apartment. Even that’s culture shock…moving from the barrio to Yuppieville.
I was a dedicated South Austinite for 17 years ** Little Plastic Ninja**.
Why the hell are you defecting to Beemerville?
We’re going to revoke your bubba rights-you do know that don’t you?
Sad but true…I’m just sick of getting robbed three times in eighteen months. Got my laptop stolen, my CD player stolen, my lawnmower stolen.
And the house is falling apart. And I can’t afford the rent now that my housemates are leaving. And I can’t afford rent in South Austin in a decent neighborhood, unless I take a tiny ancient apartment in which I’ll make up the balance twice over in my utility bills.
I wanna live in Travis Heights, but I just can’t afford it. 
Also, I work at Braker and Mopac (named, so a dear friend said, after the Mopac Indians who used to live in the Austin area), so my cheap but new apartment at Lake Creek and 183 is soooo much closer than Riverside…
But I will hang out in '04 and take long walks down South Congress, and I will sigh sadly as I do so…
I feel your pain.
I also know how much fun driving in Austin rush hour traffic is these days.
Smart move on your part.
And it must be consoling to know that you’ll now be able to bond with the spirits of those departed Missouri and Pacific Indians
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Well I must say, this has turned into an interesting thread.
And it gives me a whole new perspective on the, “What if all the Dopers were stranded on a desert island?” thread. Obviously, there’d be two factions:
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The Swiss Army Knives
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The Zagats/Bus Map/Cell Phones
Whistlepig
I like both. I grew up in Nebraska but don’t live there anymore. I miss the sky. That huge, huge, sky. I miss hearing the farm report every morning. I miss seeing the acres and acres of corn. I miss the safe feeling of being in a small town, the ease of getting anywhere, and being able to park–for free, usually!–with few problems.
I live in a small city. I love the variety of people and stores. I like being able to go to funky movies and bookstores that are open until 11 pm. I like all the restaurants. And I like that in my work neighborhood, it still has a small-town feel because I frequent the same stores and coffeeshops and see the same cops and panhandlers and hot dog vendors every day.
I like to visit the big city, although I feel like a rube sometimes. It has all the things my small city has, plus so much more. I like the big buildings and urban architecture. I like the unexpected pockets of nature. I like seeing people and wondering about their lives which must be so different from mine.
It looks like many people here have some misconceptions about small towns - I live in a town of less than 10,000 people, and I have never run into the nosiness mentioned here. I recognize some of the grocery store cashiers and post office workers, but aside from their nametags, that’s all I could tell you about them - and I’m sure none of them know anything about me, either, aside from the fact I buy lots of cat food and ship eBay packages out occasionally.
I am a private person, and I have never been bothered by everyone knowing my business. It’s simply not always like that in all small towns. There are bad, nosy neighbors in other places, I have just had the good luck to not have them living next to me.
I think I need to clarify what I said about a ‘small town’ then.
I live outside the boundary of the nearest incorporated town, which consists of less than 300 homes and less than 700 people in an area of less than one square mile surrounded by farms. The next nearest town is about 800 people, five miles away. The closest town with 1,000 people in it is seven miles away, and the closest town with 10,000 people in it is nearly 20 miles away.
There are no lines painted on the road, there is no stoplight, there are no police officers, there is no grocery store, there is no restaurant, no book store or library, nothing but a post office and houses, not even a school. It’s a place where if you knocked on any door in the town and said ‘I am looking for Cat Six.’, the person there would tell you what street I live on, what color my house is, what car would be in the driveway, what time I got home from work, and which door you should knock on since I’m probably on the computer and that door is closer to my computer room.
Compared to where I live, 10,000 people is a small city.
Well, I lived in the Bronx for the first 30 or so years of my life, and it was still an adjustment and a half when I got my first job delivering reports for a small computer company in Manhattan.
Most people from outside NYC probably wouldn’t know this, but the Bronx is actually inhabited by mostly normal people. Manhattan, on the other hand, is an entirely different story.
My first day delivering those reports, on foot & subway, were an experience. And I used to travel two buses & a subway to get to junior high, so it’s not like I didn’t know how to get around or was inexperienced at doing so.
It’s just that it seemed like I ran into another wacko every 10 feet or so, shouting about his pet peeve to the world in general. By the time I got back, the first thing I said to my boss was, “Damn, this city is full of crazy people.”
Today, I live in suburbia, and I still vividly remember my first day out here in the sticks. I was lying in the backyard of the house we were renting, and marvelling at how quiet it was. I quite literally couldn’t sleep for about the first two weeks, 'cause it was too damn quiet. I’m used to it now, of course; these days a mere mockingbird could wake me up.
I can’t imagine what it would be like over in catsix country. I got discombobulated enough when I got into my first traffic jam caused by geese crossing the street.
I hate the small town because unless you are baptist (in the southern places I have lived) there are few ways to have a rich and varied social life and meet different people and do different things. I do enjoy visiting small towns and the country but would not want to live there.
I hate the suburbs because you have to take a car to get anywhere. Everything is the same and bland. Many do not have sidewalks and if they do no place worth going. I hate yards, though I love parks and green spaces. You often do not meet many neighbors and the only time you see each other is backing out of or into the garage.
I like the big city for many of the reasons stated above.
I’ve also lived in cities and small towns, and I can’t handle big cities at all.
I’d rather deal with someone knowing all of my business than fearing that I could drop dead and the neighbors wouldn’t care until the smell got too bad.
I hate always being around people, yet they could care less about my life. I’d rather be interrupted by neighbors requesting sugar than by neighbors blasting their stereo at full blast, not caring about anyone else. I’d rather that ten people ask me where I’m going than nobody ever ask.
I hate going to the grocery store and not knowing who the cashier is, where s/he went to school, who his/her spouse/children/parents are, where s/he lives, and having no recollection of us interacting outside the store. They’re just a random face and they don’t care who I am. It bothers me to no end.
I like strangers waving at me. I like wildlife. I can live without diverse food. I like the cozy solitude of the outlying areas. I like to see stars at night. I don’t care if I never have another drink in my life. I don’t care about pizza delivery. I’m fascinated (if still a bit terrified) by cows. Security is completely alien to me – I’m used to people inherently trusting each other.
If someone could now just put the Bible belt in the desert, with mountains, I would move there in a heartbeat.
[Snicker] Yeah, they used to be called the Tribeca Nation, before they got kicked out of New York…
Cities are an addiction. I’ve lived in suburbs (outside DC), medium cities (Seattle), small cities (Fargo) and small towns (Northfield, MN), and, well, I’ve lived longer in New York than any of those other places. 12 years. Most I would do would be to move to Baltimore or Philly.
I love being able to walk everywhere. I love the sense of the “lonely crowd” - some seem to find it depressing, but I find it totally pleasant. I love that there’s always something new happening, someone new arriving. Sure, there are costs - my apartment is driving me nutty and having to shop at four different stores to get the grocerying done gets old. But that’s minor.
Another hundred people just got off of the train
And came up through the ground
While another hundred people just got off of the bus
And are looking around
At another hundred people who got off of the plane
And are looking at us
Who got off of the train
And the plane and the bus
Maybe Yesterday
It’s a city of strangers, Some come to work, some to play. A city of strangers, Some come to stare, some to stay
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P.s. Mopac is named for the Missouri Pacific railroad. (Local connex: My grandfather lives just off of Ben White - my mom went to Travis High and UT.)
Bwahahahahahaha!!! (big city).
The population in the City of Cleveland is nearly 500,000 making it the 30th largest city in the country.