Small urban cities within an hour and a half off big cities (houses, theater)

[mwalker96]

St Augustine to Jacksonville both in the same Metro (roughly 45 min to an hr apart) but yet both have district idenities. St Augstine is much smaller and more Urban than Jacksonville but yet it's treated as it's own separate city. Many people don't include St Augstine as apart of Jax tourists attractions. St Augustine is seen a young and hip while Jax is seen as a farm town. To travel from Jax to St Augstine by bus you'll have to go to the avenues mall (far southern part of Jacksonville) to transfer while the other counties downtown is all transferable in downtown Jacksonville.

[march2]

Hickory and Charlotte

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by ckhthankgod

Ann Arbor has an urban feel in its Downtown, but its residential is largely standard SFH, with some exceptions. It does sprawl a bit too.

Hagerstown is interesting, because it is in its own metro, which it shares with Martinsburg WV.

Yes, York would fit, as you do start to feel that it has a closer connection to Baltimore than Harrisburg does.

I’m surprised that Reading hasn’t been mentioned yet.

I also wonder about Wheeling WV.

An area of Wheeling that fits what the OP usually looks for: https://www.planning.org/greatplaces.../northmain.htm

https://goo.gl/maps/8NBpw4CWTDtQxEHW6

Another neighborhood that would appear to be a relative fit: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0581...7i16384!8i8192
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapli...toric_District

Downtown Wheeling: https://goo.gl/maps/rWHvXXzALZndmBEv7

More: https://wheelingcvb.com/

https://www.mainstreet.org/mainstree...-item/wheeling

https://www.elocallink.tv/m/v/player...7_wel_rev1_iwd

Home - Ohio County Schools

[ChrisMT]

Carson City, Nevada --> Reno, Nevada

The 30 minute drive is a show stopper

[walker1962]

Originally Posted by RaleighSentinel

Santa Barbara to LA
Santa Cruz to the SF Bay Area
Rockford to Chicago
Almost any small city in Connecticut to NYC
Macon to Atlanta
Lakeland to Tampa Bay
Waco or Tyler to DFW

Waco, tts 90 miles from DFW and but not all that attractive. Tyler is actually farther, over 100+ miles east but I'd prefer due to beauty but not location. Santa Cruz is great being only 73 miles from SF and 35 from San Jose. Huntsville, TX to Houston is a good as its 50 miles north of Houston or even Galveston, 40 miles from downtown.

I'd also say for Texas, New Braunfels to San Antonio, a distance of 32 miles and a population that is now over 95,000 or San Marcos to Austin (31 miles) with a population of 66,000. San Marcos is also only 20 miles north of New Braunfels. The growth of New Braunfels has been top 20 in the nation the last decade. In 2010, it was 58,000, so its grown nearly 66% in 10 years. I last visited earlier this year from Dallas. Rolling hills, deer in people yards, updated downtown.

I lived in Atlanta and Macon is a good 90 minutes, sometimes longer.

[walker1962]

Originally Posted by ncstateofmind

just continuing my previous post (I didn't get time to dive in more, interesting topic IMO) with more spots... Salem, OR, is in the Portland CSA but anchors its own MSA and functions as its own place given its the state capital. Only 45 minutes from downtown Portland which is better than any mentioned on here so far... urban wise it kind of reminded me of Portland with mostly SFH close together on a grid...
Bellingham, WA isn't in any CSA and is about 80 miles to Seattle and 50 to Vancouver... It's in its own area and functions as its own place. About 100 thousand people live in the area. Urban wise pretty strong and home to Western Washington University
In addition to the ones I found earlier, I've found more spots than I thought I would find, interesting...

How about Olympia, WA which, like Salem, is the state capital but also within 50 miles of Seattle?

[dcb175]

Portsmouth, NH --> Boston
New Brunswick, NJ --> NYC
Denton --> Dallas

Of the regions that I've lived in as an adult. Each of those has it's own "center of gravity" and a regional downtown but is within 1-1.5 hours of the core city. Incidentally, 2 of the 3 are also college towns.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by ckhthankgod

Or Philadelphia...Easton is about an hour and a half from Philadelphia and NYC.

https://goo.gl/maps/HNmfCYMy2Ai6nfMt5

https://goo.gl/maps/Qjkq4v1MEjCP9PAn7

Bethlehem and Allentown, which are in the same metro, are also close.

Maybe parts of Poughkeepsie and Newburgh north of NYC.

A part of Poughkeepsie that looks like a good fit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_...psie,_New_York)

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.7037...2!9m2!1b1!2i37

Other streets in between the Hudson River and Downtown have a similar built environment.

Parts of Newburgh: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5070...2!9m2!1b1!2i37 (South Street seems to be somewhat of a dividing line of sorts)

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5043...6!9m2!1b1!2i37

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5104...6!9m2!1b1!2i37

Kingston's Broadway: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9199...2!9m2!1b1!2i37

[paytonc]

The Appalachians are good for this -- mountains limit sprawl.

Asheville NC or Greenville SC to Charlotte NC is about two hours.

Chattanooga to Atlanta is under two hours; can reach the outer limits of sprawl in less than an hour.

Staunton VA is two hours to Richmond or Manassas (rough outer edge of DC sprawl); Charlottesville is one hour to Richmond

Morgantown to Pittsburgh is 1.25 hours.

[Ivanjr]

greenville s.c in the middle. of two monsters. atlanta. and charlotte greenville continues to shine and soaring. and growing properly in the middle of those two giants