Memphis metro has a population of 1.3 million and definitely has small tons within 30 minutes of downtown. However the “no bad commute” could derail this as there are only two bridges across the river. But 30 minutes into Arkansas will have you into very rural areas.
Hi, Sunny Daze. Morgan Hill-ian here. When did you live in Morgan Hill?
I think the horses in downtown are a thing of the past. There’s construction up the wazoo now in the two or three oldest blocks. We have a multi-story parking garage, a trio of restaurants being built, and hipster apartment housing close to the train station to accommodate commuting techies - both newly constructed and ongoing construction.
It’s still smallish here and farmland is five minutes away, but it’s growing. No wonder, as few can afford Silicon Valley housing prices anymore.
Apex maybe? Pittsboro meets the charming standard but is well outside the 30 minute one unless you have a helicopter.
That’s an effect of the land use laws here in Oregon. They tend to make the cities compact. And Eugene is a university town, so there’s probably lots of hi-tech jobs there. It’s much smaller than what the OP was asking about, though.
On your typical work day, thirty minutes from downtown Portland means you’re still stuck in the [del]parking lot[/del] freeway. Portland is an exception to the compact city rule, because it grew out before the land use laws went into effect. It’s more compact than, say Kansas City, but that’s not saying much.
Now if you could find a job in the outer suburbs, Hillsboro for example, you could get out of there in 30 minutes. Not sure I’d consider any nearby towns to be “charming”, though, but that’s up to the person thinking of living there.
There’s a SEPTA station within 10 minutes of my house. When I do go into the city, I sometimes take the train, and it takes a little more than an hour. It’s not suicide-inducing or anything (I’d probably just read the internet the whole way) and I could totally do it, I just REALLY want to shave commute times down as far as possible. I’d of course have to get to the station 10 minutes early so I didn’t have a panic attack about missing it, so we’re talking about 3 hours of my life each day. I obviously do not live in my idealized charming rural town either.
Milwaukee has plenty of small towns within a half hour, especially if you look north. Cedarburg, Thiensville, Germantown are all fairly “small town” while still being within about a half hour from Milwaukee. As you go south, you get more towards the medium sized cities, since Milwaukee and Chicago are slowly growing towards each other. Even still, Racine and Kenosha are smaller, but still fairly close to both Milwaukee and Chicago. Even as you approach Chicago, there are some smaller suburbs that are nice while not being too far from Chicago. But since Chicago is larger, they are further from city center.
Interesting, thank you. I may have to expand my knowledge of Milwaukee beyond Laverne and Shirley. 
I need to at least visit Eugene, there is so much there I want to see. 
Crownsville, MD. 1/2 hour from Baltimore, 45min from DC, 15 min from Annapolis which has about as quaint a downtown as you’ll find for a state capital. You got Chesapeake Bay and Severn River constraining growth, it’s decidedly rural when you get out towards Long Point (Herald Harbor section), it’s quaint.
It can get rural pretty quickly outside Baltimore. Westminster may be an option. I visited a couple of times this year because one of our sons was considering going to college there. It has a nice main street.
Any mobile development? Would Radnor work? Right off the Blue Route.
::Looks at the date of this post:: Yeah, you’re celebrating today’s, umm, ‘date’ if you think that’s true. :o
I was thinking on the east side near the artichoke fields
I moved out a little over a year ago. I visit all the time (monthly at least) for various reasons, including my parents are there.
I see guys riding horses on Monterey Highway around Cochrane all the time. I also see them crossing over 101 on Main. Not quite down the 3 blocks of downtown, but definitely down the main road. I think they’re nuts, by the way. There’s a lot of traffic on that road.
It’s definitely growing fast, even down to Gilroy. The traffic is horrific. I hope they add more trains and start making other commuting options more viable.
Right now I am drinking coffee in Deleware, Ohio, which is 23 miles north of Columbus. A very charming place, though I am not sure if I would define it as “small.”
Birmingham, Missouri is very close to Kansas City, yet very rural. It’s in a farming and woodsy bluffy area north of the Missouri River that was bypassed by suburban development.
nashville with all the burbs is pushing a million people. Franklin is just 20 miles south and seems to be adorable (in a 75k population way).
Really. At least update to That 70’s Show.
I second north or west of Milwaukee. Going east is a bit wet. Watertown, Jefferson, & Oconomowoc are outside the 30 minutes but are close to halfway to Madison also. I didn’t list all the one and no stoplight farm towns in between. Milwaukee to Madison is <90 minutes per google maps. and from what I recall of Mke rush hour traffic, it usually is within the last 5 miles of the downtown before it slows much.
Thanks. Never been to the areas you mention, but I can believe it.
What made NY State different from what I saw in California was that while the latter certainly had rural areas there was none of the emptiness I saw in NY, it was still a rural area you might see elsewhere in the world. Last stretches of NY seemed devoid of human habitation, the only other place in the US I saw like that was North Dakota.
One of the things which is interesting is that the US population is based upon clusters* of cities and metro areas, with sparsely populated areas in-between. Clusters like the East Coast, the Great lakes, the Pacific Coast, the South, etc.
You guys don’t have isolated major metro areas like Perth or Riyadh or Novosibirsk do you?
*And now that I think of it, Long Island to Buffalo is, in fact, moving from one cluster to another across aforementioned empty spaces.
Maybe Las Vegas?