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Althouth I'm a GaTech grad and hate to rep Athens, it really does have one of the nicest downtowns in the part of the southeast I live in, for a small town. Other really nice southeastern small town downtowns include Franklin, TN, Aiken, SC, and Wilmington, NC.
Those are awesome pics of La Crosse. I traveled there years ago, and always really liked that city a lot. Seeing those flickr pics reminds me of how much I hope to travel again back there, someday.
Also, those Moose Lake, MN pics aren't bad that you linked to. Reminds me, a few years ago I traveled to Starved Rock State Park west of Ottawa, IL, and really liked what I saw of nearby North Utica, IL's downtown. I agree with the earlier mention for Staunton, VA, as I briefly visited there on a vacation a few years ago, and really liked it a lot!
Others(apologies if a few have been repeated from other posters):
GA
Athens
Milledgeville
TN
Chattanooga
Knoxville(only have looked on Google street view, and not quite visited this one in person yet)
VA
Charlottesville
Richmond(one I've unfortunately never visited, but street viewed it)
KY
Bardstown(wish I could've spent much more time here, while on a trip late last year)
IN
Richmond(struggling, but it isn't bad)
Valparaiso(just street viewed it and haven't exactly visited here, but it looked nice from what I saw)
Crown Point(ditto here)
Bloomington(how could I come close to forgetting this one?)
MI
Ann Arbor
Jackson(only saw it via traveling on Amtrak, but it looked nice from what I could see from the train. and I love their historic train depot, that's still used for train service)
Kalamazoo(another one I got a good impression of, from seeing it through my train window on an Ann Arbor trip)
Dowagiac(ditto here)
IL
Bloomington
Champaign
Peoria
A lot of the various Chicagoland ones off of Metra train stations have really nice ones(i.e. Naperville, Downers Grove, La Grange, Geneva, Elmhurst, Oak Park, Woodstock, Barrington, Park Ridge, Evanston, Lake Forest, Waukegan(more in the struggling but has potential category, but yeah I liked this one), and I have to be forgetting more that are good. one of the several story tall buildings in its downtown(Karcher Hotel), was recently restored). Oh, and Skokie has one that isn't bad(off of CTA Yellow Line) but is somewhat struggling, and hopefully it'll improve over time, since the Oakton 'L stop opened in only 2012.
WI
Milwaukee
Madison
Kenosha(I liked it, despite that I wish it had more life and slightly more shops in the south part of downtown)
Racine
Lake Geneva
IA
Dubuque
Burlington
Iowa City
MO
Saint Charles(just street viewed this one, not visited it)
Kirkwood(ditto)
Hermann(ditto)
Kirksville(ditto)
Saint Joseph(ditto, and I'd say this one is underrated. there are a bunch more I've been meaning to look at on street view, and haven't yet...)
The city I workmen has a good functional downtown.
Population is about 100k: San Mateo, CA
I work at the edge of downtown. It doesn't have much shopping, but has all the important basics. Walgreens, post office, movie theater, train station, grocery story, ethnic grocers, hardware store, produce stand, park with green space and tennis courts. There are dozens of restaurants, dry cleaners, shoe repair, a couple of thrift stores, tailors, and lots of office space small and large. Only a fee residences in downtown, but many residences are downtown adjacent.
Another good small city downtown is Walnut Creek, CA, population 80k.
The built an open air mall at the edge of the original downtown. And then other open air malls (which would have typically been strip malls) followed. Not all blocks are great for pedestrian crossing, but you can walk to Safeway, Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Nordstroms, Macys, and a CVS, waiting about 10 minutes of the original downtown. And still get the indie shops and restaurants and entertainment you need. They also added an art center recently.
They have those nice live info parking signs that tell you the number of spots per floor, and most parking is consolidated to garages instead of on the surface. There are still 60s era strip malls with surface parking, but anything from about 1990 on has a parking garage. It is pretty mixed use for shiny new suburbia.
Portland, ME for sure. Bangor, ME has a decent downtown but could use a bit of work. It is the commercial center of Eastern and "Northern" Maine. (Everyone has differing opinions over whether Bangor is in Northern Maine. If it's not, that leaves Presque Isle, with a population of less than 10,000, as the largest city in Northern Maine.)
I'm going to give a shout out to where I'm moving this summer:
Flagstaff, AZ.
Colorado has a bunch of great little mountain towns, but they all have "quaint little mountain town" pricing, meaning you can't afford to live there. I've got a friend in Aspen -- beautiful place, no idea how he can afford it. Flagstaff is like your typical "Colorado mountain town", just in Arizona.
It's got a population somewhere around 60,000. It's a university town, with Northern Arizona University just a half mile south of downtown. Flagstaff is about 2 hours north of Phoenix, so there's pretty easy access to a large international airport, big box retailers, and baseball spring training. Also within 2 hours, you've got the Grand Canyon, Sedona (via Oak Creek Canyon, a beautiful drive), Antelope Canyon, Lake Powell / Horseshoe Bend, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon (well, the southern most entrance at least), and more. It's got an Amtrak station, a greyhound station, and an airport (though, it only offers flights to Phoenix, so it's kind of useless). Just 15 minutes north of downtown is Arizona Snowbowl -- the local ski area.
Downtown is centered around Heritage Square. On any street, you'll find bars, restaurants, local shops, and much, much more. Seriously every time I go downtown, I find another hidden gem. Between the storefronts of just about every building downtown, you'll find a door that leads to a hallway, with even more stuff. It's incredible just how much you'll find around downtown.
The narrow streets and large sidewalks definitely slow traffic down, and make it a pedestrian-friendly area. From an urban planning perspective, the only "issue" is that downtown is disconnected from the southside and the university by Route 66 -- but there are several wide crosswalks, and signals don't take long. Traffic along Route 66 usually sticks to around 35-40mph, so it's not a huge barrier. Cost of living is more expensive than most other places in Arizona, but it's definitely affordable. There's not a very huge job market though, but there are a couple big employers in town (the university definitely being one of them).
Someone earlier mentioned Asheville, NC. A severely underrated town. Beautiful downtown, amazing scenery (right in the Appalachians). The Blue Ridge Parkway passes right outside of town... Definitely another small city with a great downtown.
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