Define “small.”
Yeah… Montpelier/Helena small or Des Moines/Albany small?
I really enjoyed living in Olympia, WA. Population was literate, educated and politically active. Lots of decent schools and enough art to keep things interested. Often the best choice where to live in many states.
Of course, your definition of “small” is pretty diverse. Des Moines has about half a million folks and is the biggest deal in Iowa. Montpelier has under ten thousand folks and is the nation’s smallest capital city.
I did define small, but my post dissappeared. I meant less than 50,000 or so people, like Montpelier, Carson City, Dover, Frankfort, and so on.
I lived and worked in Pierre, SD for a summer and it has a population around 14,000–is that small enough? IIRC, it is the smallest state capital.
It was like living in any other small South Dakota town with the exception that most people worked for the state and seemed to be a bit more educated…err, maybe that should be it had a higher education per capita. Other than that, the classic activities were: Summer-fishing, boating, and softball; Fall- hunting; Winter- bowling; and drinking, heavily, throughout the year.
One of the more endearing activities was to start drinking in Pierre and at closing time to go across the Missouri to Ft. Pierre to drink for another hour (the Missouri is the dividing line between CST and MST). After the bar closed in Ft. Pierre, you would then run the gauntlet of city, county and state law enforcement going back across the river.
If you’re curious here is a link to Pierre’s demographics from the 2000 census: http://pierre.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm
Lived in Concord, NH several years ago (pop. <40,000). Wonderful city at the time (now I think it’s getting a bit sprawl-y for my taste). Many resources, because it’s the state capital, but not a lot of people competing for them. You get the b-i-i-i-g DMV with many workers, easy access to state agencies, etc. Good number of job opportunities, if you don’t mind working for the government.
BUT! I swear, the downtown rolled up the sidewalks at 5 pm, when the state workers went home. If you worked these hours, it was hard to enjoy any of the quirky (non-chain) downtown stores. Also, traffic and parking could be bad when the workers were about.
I’m a Frankfort native. Work there now, live about 15 miles from town out in the country. I grew up here and in another small town of about the same size.
What Lily said about state workers. (I’m one). Probably an abnormal level of interest in state politics.
Frankfort is nice because you have the best of both worlds. It’s a small town, with the advantages that can provide. But larger cities are nearby. Lexington (250,000) is about 30 minutes away and Louisville (~1,000,000) is about 45 minutes - hour away.
If you like history or politics, it’s the place to be.
Was there a particular state capital you’re interested in, or would any of them do?
I live near Harrisburg, PA, population 48950.
It’s nice because, as LilyoftheValley pointed out, all of the main state offices are here, so it’s easier to get things done all at once. It’s also fairly close to major cities like Philly, Pittsburgh, and Washington, so it’s possible to do a lot more in a weekend than in a more isolated city.
And it’s also close to Hershey and Carlisle (where I actually live), so Lord knows there’s a lot to do. Hershey is fun to visit on a rainy Saturday afternoon, and we have car shows in Carlisle regularly.
Robin
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MsRobyn, I quasi lived in Carlisle while dating a guy who worked at the Sentinel. Is the Back Door Cafe still in existance? We ate there quite a bit, but the name always cracked me up.
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I lived in Richmond, VA for a while, but that’s not small by any definition. It was amazing though that whenever I mentioned it to people, they’d ask “oh, do you know so-and-so?” No, I’m sorry, I don’t know all 200,000 people that live here.