Do you live in a small town?

[Talamasca]

I just came back from spending the long weekend on Manitoulin, where the largest town has a population of a whopping 1200. I had a good time. The place was nice and relaxing but I noticed young people as I was driving around and I couldn't help but wonder what they thought about living somewhere so small. It just seems so different compared to somewhere like the GTA. I think there are more than 1200 people living on my street alone.

I would exclude little kids, seniors, and married people from my question as kids are too young to care, seniors love their quiet, and married people seem to have these insular and content lives regardless of where they live.

But for those of you who are unmarried, from about 14-30 years of age, live in communities of 25,000 or less and well away from any major metropolitan area, what do you like and dislike about where you live? Do you think about moving to the "big city" or do you see yourself living in Pleasantville for the rest of your life?

[Roseburger]

No... I mean I live in Toronto.. I can't call where I am living a "town"... I mean.. this is an urban city.

[3weddings]

I suppose we do, Georgetown is still reasonably small...for now :(

I love that you pretty much know everyone! I love that the feeling of community is alive and well. It's not Pleasantville though, try getting to a store, try getting your hands on a Roti! Ok we have a Bubble Tea cafe now, but it's not very good. We just went through all kinds of trials over our tiny local movie theatre shutting down for good, because we apparently need a bigger Dollarama!

No Starbucks, but a couple of great FreeTrade coffee joints. Dining is getting better, but it still can't compare to the fine dining Torontonians find on almost every corner.

So why did we move here (I from harbourfront, hubby from midTown), we got so much more house and land for what we could have gotten in T.O. (My 1000sq foot condo sold for what we paid for our first 2500sq foot home in 1993!) It is an easy commute via Go to Union Station. Mississauga is 15 minutes away! We are 45 minutes to amazing food shopping in Kitchener!

Do my kids love it here, yes! They do rely on us for a lot of driving around, but I can honestly say they are growing up like we did, with a lot of freedom.

[Bree]

My hometown is a small town in SK of about 2000 people.

[dealstime]

no

[jason9945]

I do, its callled Ottawa. It sucks. :cheesygri

[Bazooka Joe]

I've lived 2/3 of my life in towns <75,000 people. A couple were a few thousand or less. The furthest I've lived from an airport was about 4 hours. I have lived in two separate towns where the nearest veterinarian was 3 or 4 hours away respectively. You're out of the way if you don't have an airport. If you don't have a veterinarian you know you're in the middle of no-where and people can't even farm the surrounding area.

Growing up in a small town is generally pretty good. Getting into trouble consists of beach parties, bush parties, alcohol and fist fights. It also gives you a feeling that you have to get out and figure out the real world, which tends to make people pretty adventurous. Anyone who wants any form of education pretty much has to leave once they finnish highschool. You also tend to learn basic automotive, mechanical, outdoors (fishing, hunting, etc) and home building/renovation skills without any effort.

Moving to a small town as a single young adult is considerably worse. The people who have stayed are firmly entrenched in their lives. It's easy to make aquantainces, but difficult to make good friendships. When people have friends they've known all their lives it takes serious effort to join in their groups. Many other singles you will meet are either divorced or with children, even in early 20's.

As for moving to the "big city", some do it out of boredom. Others do it out of necessity. If you're from a town of 2500, and go away to university or college, it's unlikely that your home economy will support your career choice when you're ready to join the workforce. You will often find people from smaller towns moving to where work is instead of complaining that they can't find a job. It's a way of life that's popular on the east coast, rural quebec, and increasing northern ontario.

I dunno if I've answered the question at all, it's definitely something worth experiencing at some point in your life. Smaller towns are very communal and you have to work together with others to get even simple things done.

[dealstime]

I do, its callled Ottawa. It sucks. :cheesygri

Been there once. By 6 the entire city vanishes from the streets :cheesygri

[rosebud]

no.

close thread.

[Talamasca]

I dunno if I've answered the question at all, it's definitely something worth experiencing at some point in your life. Smaller towns are very communal and you have to work together with others to get even simple things done.

Great answer, thanks for the insight. I guess it really is a different world. I don't think it would be for me, though. I agree with the Ottawa comments above and that's a pretty big city by Canadian standards. Manitoulin was really nice and all to visit but I think I'd die of boredom if I had to live there permanently. Mississauga is on the dry side as well but at least it has all the amenities you need and it's right next to T.O.

You said you've lived most of your life in a small town. Are you still in one now?

[Gunz16]

I think Toronto's population is tiny compared to true global cities ..

ugh, troll is back.

[Tijuana]

ugh, troll is back.

irrelevant reply? He is right. LA has a population almost that of Canada

[kgeorge78]

no its not, LA's population is 8 mill, canada's is 30 million.

I have travelled all over the world and Toronto does classify as a world class city in more ways then one.

I live in a small town about 30,000 but only 1/2 hour from windsor and 35 min from Detroit so it's more like a suburb than a small town.

Everyone does know everyone which can be good or bad.


I do love where I live, yes.

[Bazooka Joe]

Great answer, thanks for the insight. I guess it really is a different world. I don't think it would be for me, though. I agree with the Ottawa comments above and that's a pretty big city by Canadian standards. Manitoulin was really nice and all to visit but I think I'd die of boredom if I had to live there permanently. Mississauga is on the dry side as well but at least it has all the amenities you need and it's right next to T.O.

You said you've lived most of your life in a small town. Are you still in one now?

It's not so much "still" as it is "back", but yes, I'm living in one now.

irrelevant reply? He is right. LA has a population almost that of Canada

What's 20 million people here or there? Pretty much the same thing.

IMO the difference is more significant going from 1000 to 1 million instead of going from 1 million to 10 million. The largest city I've ever lived in is only 6 million people though.

[drucillica]

I live in Seattle now.. I guess coming from Toronto, it's a small town :|

[matdwyer]

from orillia, ontario (30gs) to downtown TO was a huge shock... so I do know what you were talking about. Never saw crack till my first stroll in regent park lol

[beerbaron105]

not enough opportunity in a small town hours from a large city, i am happy to live in Milton, ON!

and i was raised in a small town of less than 2500 people for the majority of my life, fun consists of drinking, sex, hooliganism lol

[robertalan]

not enough opportunity in a small town hours from a large city, i am happy to live in Milton, ON!

and i was raised in a small town of less than 2500 people for the majority of my life, fun consists of drinking, sex, hooliganism lol

I'd be scared to raise my kids in a small town for those very reasons.

[abu_sme]

I grew up in a city of 10,000, but there was a town of 30,000 people about 10 minutes away (at 130 KM/h the entire way) and about 45 minutes away was a town of 100,000. Small town, but I was able to go to a larger place to do all of my shopping.

[sw1ft]

I grew up in a small town called Rockwood (http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=rockwood,+on&ie=UTF8&ll=43.624271,-80.14389&spn=0.052563,0.11673&z=13&iwloc=addr), (15 mins E of Guelph). Population size was about 2100 by the time I left (7 years ago) and I found it was a great place to grow up.

As 3weddings noted, everyone knows everyone. I can recall walking into the local post office, then realizing that I left my (P.O. Box) key at home. The clerk at the time was like: "Oh hi Alan, would you like me to grab your mail for you? Box 26, right?" (I had no idea who she was at the time, but it turns out that it was my childhood friend's mother. :lol: ). Then again, I was the only Asian family living in the town...

Here's my list of notable differences when living in Rockwood (as opposed to Toronto):
- everyone knows everyone
- the air was fresher
- community spirit was higher
- children played outdoors more frequently (high speed internet was unheard of until about 5 years ago).
- commute times of 30 mins were considered "short"
- neighbourhoods look like they came out of Hollywood (pleasant, clean-looking communities, with sunny skies, and kids on the street)

"I used to walk 30 mins every morning, uphill, in 3 ft of snow to get to my bus stop", literally. :lol:

[TheCheez]

I'm 26 and a big fan of the small town for a number of reasons including short commute, cheap housing, friendly people, no traffic, closer to prov parks/camping and clean air. If you do it right you can go to a big city get your education, experience and a girl to settle down with and get out.

Here the lake is down the road, work is around 8 min drive, box stores are 20 min away in the next town over the only trouble is getting to Pearson 2 hrs away and I use it probably 8-10 times a year. Other things I miss are food variety and good radio but at least I can afford a house.