How big is the town or city you were raised in? (living, largest)

[Observation]

The one where you spent most of your childhood?
How do you think it shaped you?
And do you now prefer a larger or smaller cities than the one you were raised in, if so, why?
Not metro, but city.

I grew up in a decent sized city of 500K+
Me personally I prefer cities either right around the same size as the one I am from, or slightly larger.
I like visiting, but not living in cities with more than 1 million people.


EDIT: Damn, I forgot to add the 500K-1 million option.

[davidals]

I grew up in Charlotte. This would be the 1970s and 80s. At the time, it was very dull. Safe but dull. I was really into art, punk rock, old school rap, and things like beat writers (I was a weird, weird teenager), and at that time at least Charlotte was a city of no quirk, no funk, no nothing but suits, suburbs, traffic, big boulevards that were smooth as glass. The city has come a long way since then - even from a distance, it has been very cool to watch it grow and evolve.

I went from there to living in an Appalachian town (Boone) of 15,000 for 12 years, and that was a truly fantastic experience. The winters were dreadful, though there was a nice "we're all in this together" quality about them. Living in valleys off in the woods in rugged mountains was a great things however; there are parts of Northwest North Carolina that are some of the most beautiful land in the world. And it was far from isolated, even in the (slightly) pre-internet years of the late 80s and early 90s - if you were into film, art, music - you had plenty of time to explore your interests, network with friends. So even in an out-of-the-way town far from most people's radar, the creative community was tight and very, very smart.

Since then I've been somewhat underwhelmed by the NC Triangle. It has its' good points, but it certainly has its' bad points as well. Chapel Hill is really, really uptight.

[ogre]

I was raised in a metropolitan area of several million, but the suburban town where I grew up falls in the 10k-25k range. It's a leafy suburb with little to do outside of school activities for the kids. I may have reacted against this, as I prefer towns with more stores and entertainmnet options, even if it's basic stuff.

However, in some ways I may feel comfortable with the kind of setting that surrounded me in my home town, because it's also true that I prefer somewhat smaller communities. Not really small, but not so large as to lose the hometown feel. My ideal place to live would be in a town of 20k-50k, give or take, close enough to a large city for the city to be accessible yet far enough from the city to be its own independent town rather than a suburb, which was the service and commercial center for its local area, so that it would be the town with all the basic shopping and entertainment for the local area, right there in town.

[lammius]

I grew up in a city that, at the time, had a population of 266,000. I always thought of it as a small town. Nothing ever seemed to happen there, nobody seemed happy to be there, and I couldn't wait to get out. I went to college in a smaller town of about 40,000, and it was the largest "city" within 100 miles. I couldn't believe people traveled an hour or more to shop at a rinky-dink mall that had little more than JCPenney and Spencers. You could not escape the smell of cows---. I began to think of my home town as a huge metropolis by comparison. I had fun in college, but knew that there was nothing else there for me. I had to go to a big city. I wanted New York, but found an opportunity in New Jersey, and actually I'm glad for it. I now live in a city that's about the same size as the one I grew up in. The difference, however, is that this small city is located next to a really, really big one.

[1208]

this is like the other thread, but with more precise population figures. I'm interested to see how this will pan how.

for the record, im from a city of about 150K. sort of felt like it was in that in-between of small town and city. When I left I was surprised that nobody hardly ever mentioned my town, and would frequently make fun of it as small and podunky. To me, it had seemed like the center of the world

[krystalkones]

m raised in a decent city with cool environment and people. M so glad to be a citizen of my nation.

[Thomas R.]

Under 1K, not near a metro.

[BruceTenmile]

Yeah, I grew up in 1 town of 28,000 and the a village of 4,000. I do like a small town feel, but I also do like big cities, but the only ones I've been to with over 300,000 are Denver and London, and not for long so I'd need more time to make sure. the smaller cities around Denver seem like my cup of tea.

[Craziaskowboi]

. <-- actual size

[TheWereRabbit]

I grew up in a town of about 20,000

Although only about 8 miles from the center of a 4.5 mil metro