# My small city is the best **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 20, 2012, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-small-city-is-the-best/632057 "2012-08-20T14:46:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-small-city-is-the-best/632057/1 "2012-08-20T14:46:32Z")
Well at least according to Money Magazine. It was just voted best place to live - Small Cities. I like it here and have to say I agree with them. The funny thing is many of the surrounding communities think we are the most evil and horrible place around. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-small-city-is-the-best/632057/2 "2012-08-20T14:51:16Z")
D’oh… thought I was in MPSIMS. I’ve reported myself for a move. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-small-city-is-the-best/632057/3 "2012-08-20T14:52:21Z")
[Carmel, Indiana](http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/best-places/2012/snapshots/PL1810342.html), is evil? What, are there queers and atheists in all those back office parks? ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-small-city-is-the-best/632057/4 "2012-08-20T14:54:37Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > D’oh… thought I was in MPSIMS. I’ve reported myself for a move. So moved! ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-small-city-is-the-best/632057/5 "2012-08-20T14:57:52Z")
I don’t know which small city you’re in but your profile says Indiana. It seems to me an awful lot of people leave Indiana for \*my \* [small city](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg,_Florida) 😉 (not that that is particularly addressed in the article; I just meet a heck of a lot of Hoosiers) ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-small-city-is-the-best/632057/6 "2012-08-20T15:18:55Z")
Carmel is everything that is wrong with the world. 🙂 -Munch, (Indianapolis) ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-small-city-is-the-best/632057/7 "2012-08-20T15:20:48Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I don’t know which small city you’re in but your profile says Indiana. It seems to me an awful lot of people leave Indiana for \*my \* [small city](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg,_Florida) 😉 > (not that that is particularly addressed in the article; I just meet a heck of a lot of Hoosiers) You meet _everybody_ in St. Pete. Everybody but people from the upper midwest, anyway. They prefer to sunbird it in a dry climate. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-small-city-is-the-best/632057/8 "2012-08-20T15:27:12Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I don’t know which small city you’re in but your profile says Indiana. It seems to me an awful lot of people leave Indiana for \*my \* [small city](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg,_Florida) 😉 > (not that that is particularly addressed in the article; I just meet a heck of a lot of Hoosiers) Doug is right… it is Carmel, IN. I know many of our residents relocate to the area near you at least for one week in the spring. As far as being evil… we are fairly receptive of diversity (at least by Indiana standards). We also tend to do things that aren’t normally done elsewhere in the state (Hoosiers are typically very conservative and hesitant to change) like changing stop light intersections to round abouts, and investing heavily in the arts. Another reason for some of the hate is that Indiana is really into High School sports, and we tend to dominate. This tends to form a rivalry which means they are practically required to hate us. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-small-city-is-the-best/632057/9 "2012-08-20T15:29:58Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Carmel is everything that is wrong with the world. 🙂 > > -Munch, (Indianapolis) Hey Munch… I’m sure you believe the stereotype that we are all rich snobs. You really should come up and visit our town sometime. PM me when you want to come up and I’ll send you the gate code 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-small-city-is-the-best/632057/10 "2012-08-20T15:39:47Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I don’t know which small city you’re in but your profile says Indiana. It seems to me an awful lot of people leave Indiana for \*my \* [small city](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg,_Florida) 😉 > (not that that is particularly addressed in the article; I just meet a heck of a lot of Hoosiers) Over 244,000 people is a _small_ city? Since when? I mean…yeah, it’s clearly not a large city, but I’d say it’s pretty much “average” city-sized. Besides, if you include the whole St.Petersburg/Tampa area, you’re well over 2 million. Hell, I just looked at _Money’s_ listings, and it didn’t even _consider_ any cities with populations less than 50,000! The Hell? How does that work? “Oh, we’re ranking small cities, but not _actual_ small cities…just regular cities that don’t break half a million.” Because of that, the [**actual**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlington,_vt) best city in the US didn’t qualify. 😛 Do they consider anything under 50,000 just a “town”? I guess growing up in a rural area conditions you to think under 10,000 (possibly only 5,000 if it’s a real rural area) is a town, and over that is a city. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-small-city-is-the-best/632057/11 "2012-08-20T19:07:50Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > Besides, if you include the whole St.Petersburg/Tampa area, you’re well over 2 million. Perish the thought. I don’t know what actually constitutes a “small city”; I was just having fun. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-small-city-is-the-best/632057/12 "2012-08-20T19:48:55Z")
I’m quite surprised Bend, OR isn’t in the list. I love that place. Redmond’s inclusion kind of surprised me. Yeah, it’s a nice place, but it’s kind of hard to tell where Redmond ends and the rest of Seattle begins.