Small Towns/Villages vs Big Cities

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I grew up in Houston Tx..i have lived here my whole life, save for a brief attempt at living in New Orleans. The size of Houston does not bother me..there are just parts of Houston that I never see, and the neighborhoods are kinda like towns. Houston sprawls out in all directions. I rarely leave the inner loop of the city and I ride my bike everywhere. I would not mind living in a sufficiently artsy, unpretentious low cost of living small town if I had a reason to move there, but I don't know. i have gotten teased by old friends for never having left here.

Big cities are definitely my kind of environment. I voted large city, but a regular city or very big city would be just as suitable.

I love the anonymity, the fact that nobody gives you a second look, people are to busy to talk to you (even if you live right beside them), there's less chance of running into somebody you know and sitting on your own in a cafe/park/wherever isn't seen as strange. Oh, and then there's the chance for people watching! I also like the constant hustle and bustle and the idea that 'the city never sleeps'. More to do and always somewhere to go at any hour.

Small towns are hellish. And I wouldn't even want to imagine what it would be like stuck in a village.

Where is the "I am legend" - Very Large City (0 people or less) choise?

I currently live in a town with 100K people in it. I have lived in a small town and it sucked because it had no stores or anything and you had to take a bus to another town to be able to buy things. Only restaurants in town was a pizza place.

I prefer big cities (even if they have too many people in them) because of all the fun things you can do. There are sidestreets that one can take to get away from people..

I find college towns quite comfortable. The large floating population provides a certain level of anonymity unavailable in an ordinary small town. Interesting people, decent range of resources. Less sensory overload than big cities.

A picture of the city I like best: Amsterdam. I didn't take the photo myself. I just thought it was a good looking aereal photograph of THE city. The city itself is quite small, between 700,000 and 800,000. It has just the right size and everything (almost that is) is woithin walking distance: theaters, museum, night life etc. The region of Greater Amsterdam has app. 2 million residents. I live in a small town (75,000) which now has almost become a suburb in its own right, 30 min. from Amsterdam's city center.

Give me a small town any day, with nearby forests. I hate the urban jungle and the glaring desert landscape.

I said " Large City " just to say something . I don't know , a part of me wants to be in New York City...1973-1983 ! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! I guess S. F. is not quite " large " , population-wise ?????

Either a Regular City or a moderate sized town close to a Regular City. Orange Park Florida is ideal for me. Its a fairly small, yet quite modern, town so close to Jacksonville than some think of it as an extention of Jacksonville thats in another county. Orange Park has very little crime, has a very nice sized mall, Both Target and Wal-Mart for General Discount Retailers, a Hooters, A Dog Track, etc. Yet, even if you can't find something to do in Orange Park, Jacksonville is not too far away. Even St. Augustine is a short trip from Orange Park.

Where I'm at, on the other hand, is your typical Small Town thats stuck in the past. Thomasville and Orange Park are comparable in size, yet Wal-Mart is the Wal-Mart, Target, and Mall for this town, if you get what I mean. The only thing I'm interested in thats here is a nice Slot Car track. The Movie theater normally skips most Sci-Fi movies ( won't be surprised if they don't do Star Trek), the Wal-Mart here has a monopoly, and therefore the selection sucks, nothing new gets built, there's no jobs reguardless of the national economy, and people seem to really think highly of themselves here. They will constantly bash Large Cities "Because look at how dangerous Atlanta is". I HATE Thomasville, or all of SW Georgia for that matter, because its the same old story throughout this region of Georgia. The nearest fairly decent Cities are Valdosta, which is more in South Central Georgia, and Tallahassee, which is in another state, both of which are about 50 miles away.

BTW, the powers that be around here won't seem to let anything in that will create more jobs, yet, they have a Lawyer for a stupid half dead Oak Tree thats being supported by bracing and cables! Hows that for priorities!

The largest city I lived in was Sunnyvale, California. At the time (early 80's) it was about 100000 population although it was just a set of lines on a map splitting up silicon valley so it seemed like a much larger city.

Since then I have moved to smaller and smaller towns until I ended up in Estancia, New Mexico for four years. It only had a population of about 1000 and just couldn't support decent shopping or activities. At that point I knew how small was too small.

My current location is a few miles outside of a city of 2000 people. There is a neighboring smaller city less than 1km away and with all the people who live up in the foothills like I do I'm guessing the population at 4000 - 4500. It has a decent supermarket along with hardware and lumber stores, restaurants, county fairgrounds, etc.