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Once upon a time I lived in a 500 sq ft "shoebox" as suburbanites might say in uptown San Diego on University Avenue. No parking, above a bar, unbearable street noise, etc.
I got an eye ulceration, to the point where I was having difficulty seeing. Using voice commands on my phone, I located an optometrist, made an appointment, stumbled three blocks down the street with heavily compromised vision, and they fixed the problem.
I often wonder what the outcome of that would have been had I lived in the suburbs.
I moved to the suburbs with a husband. We always made at least one or two friends. There were always a couple of other really nice people who would have driven me there. We once in a while said to each other, "If you need anything, let us know. Anything." My husband did get up out of bed a few times in the middle of the night to help people.
It's technically a city of 30,000 but is more like a city of 50,000. Bristol TN (30k) and Bristol VA (20k) are technically two cities but act as one, with the state line going through the middle of downtown. In addition, it's part of the greater Tri Cities area of NE TN/SW VA with well over a half million people and has the retail and other amenities of a half million population metro area. It is absolutely not like a typical rural city of 30k.
Pictures from wikimedia.
Downtown Bristol. Tennessee on the left and Virginia on the right.
The state line in the middle of the street.
A few things need to be noted here.
Yes, Bristol is basically a combined city in terms of retail attraction, etc., but each government operates independently, and sometimes in conflict with each other. That's not even counting the lack of regional cooperation with the other governments (Johnson City, Kingsport) in the CSA. That certainly isn't Bristol's fault - as each city government wants to operate as its own fiefdom.
If you look at the stats, yes, Bristol (TN/VA) is around 50k people. That's a decent mid-sized city. For groceries, we have the bad (Food City) regional grocery, a dumpy Kroger, Aldi (which is expanding in low income communities nationwide), and whatever you can find at Sam's/Walmart/Target. The Target grocery selection is small, as the Target is small. The Bristol Target has been the least profitable Target regionally for years now.
Airport? Sure, it's lightly used and convenient - but you're only going to Atlanta/Charlotte (to connect to other flights) or a handful of direct destinations - Dallas (because of Eastman demand), and some seasonal flights to certain parts of Florida.
There's no way any road warrior could make do with this airport. Anywhere you need to go, you're basically taking a regional can to Atlanta or Charlotte, then going on from there.
They wrote they are a mile from the beach (presumably Atlantic Ocean beach). Being a couple miles from a level 2 trauma hospital makes it possible to narrow them down to somewhere around Neptune, NJ, the location of Jersey Shore University Medical Center.
Id rather live in the country and live 6 months less then live in the city. Unfortunately I do live in the city. Its still not essential though. If it was then no one would be able to live in the country.
Not necessarily. The counties with the highest life expectancy are rural, and the counties with the lowest life expectancy are also rural. The difference seems to be wealth, lifestyle, and even DNA (although no one likes talking about that). In general, the counties with the lowest life expectancy have one or more of the following in common: poor, large prisons, Indian reservations, high percentage of AA. Most are in SD, KY, WV, MS, and AL. Baltimore is also in there as are counties right outside of Memphis.
Conversely, those counties with the highest life expectancy tend to be wealthy and (don't shoot the messenger) white. Most are certainly remote and nowhere near large population centers with big hospitals. But the one thing that most have in common, in addition to DNA and wealth, is the popularity of active outdoor lifestyles.
We lived in Great Falls, MT for several years. It's a large town of ~60K, and you would think the medical center could cover all or most medical issues. My wife developed temporomandibular joint pain (TMJ). There were no dental specialists providing TMJ care in Great Falls. We had to drive ~200 miles to Bozeman to see a specialist. She also had a pituitary tumor removed in her teens and needed to see an endocrinologist once or twice a year for basically medication refills that her PCM wouldn't prescribe. We had to drive the ~220 miles to Billings to see an endo doc. Fortunately insurance paid the mileage and for a hotel room for each trip. Now that we live outside of Boise all that care is in town. So, I'd say access to a wide selection of healthcare is very important, especially as we All age.
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