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I also wonder how many offer the walkability and affordability that many are looking for?
Isn't by default that most of them do? Most micros are centered around towns that are two or three miles long at most along the longest axis. At that size, you pretty much just need to maintain sidewalks and have means to bypass natural obstacles to be walkable. That's not really too high a bar for most places (exceptions always exist).
Isn't by default that most of them do? Most micros are centered around towns that are two or three miles long at most along the longest axis. At that size, you pretty much just need to maintain sidewalks and have means to bypass natural obstacles to be walkable. That's not really too high a bar for most places (exceptions always exist).
It is true that micro areas often do better than suburbs in terms of density and walkability, but there are some issues they might have for someone who wants a "walkable" lifestyle:
- Fairly dead downtowns
- No public transit, or it has limited hours or frequency or is unreliable
- Few jobs if you don't work remotely
- Low variety in experiences (e.g. maybe a dozen restaurants in the town core, a handful of parks, maybe 2-3 cafes that all close by 3 pm)
- A culture that is at odds with the typical kind of person who specifically wants walkability (conservative, religious, often marries younger, less health-conscious, etc.)
I'm honestly glad someone made this thread. There's just not enough conversations about viable micropolitan areas.
I talk about Micropolitan areas from time to time. I consider them to be the Goldilocks of areas. Metropolitan areas are too big, while rural areas are too small.
It is true that micro areas often do better than suburbs in terms of density and walkability, but there are some issues they might have for someone who wants a "walkable" lifestyle:
- Fairly dead downtowns
- No public transit, or it has limited hours or frequency or is unreliable
- Few jobs if you don't work remotely
- Low variety in experiences (e.g. maybe a dozen restaurants in the town core, a handful of parks, maybe 2-3 cafes that all close by 3 pm)
- A culture that is at odds with the typical kind of person who specifically wants walkability (conservative, religious, often marries younger, less health-conscious, etc.)
Durant Oklahoma is a micro area growing rapidly and steadily with good jobs too. It would be interesting to see the next 50 leading growth areas too. I’m not savy enough to do this from the raw data. Durant has a small state regional college but tons of restaurants due to a large Choctaw casino nearby. In addition to jobs at this casino which has doubled in size twice in 10 years, there is a micro steel recycling mill and a glass manufacturing plant in town. These plants and some warehouses located in durant for accessibility to DFW but for some reason preferred Oklahoma vs options in nearby fast growing shaerman and Denison micro area in Texas.
The daily flow of traffic is into Oklahoma for jobs not the other direction. Durante county is the fastest growing ****y in Khama that is not part of Tulsa or okc metro.
Sherman will be a very massive growth story as TI is investing $37B in microchip facilities on the south edge of Sherman. Start up for phase 1 is 2025. Watch this space as that investment is 10 times the current property tax base in Sherman.
Seaford looks to be too big to still be sitting at the kiddie table.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Borntoolate85
The biggest population center in that micro, which is basically all of Sussex County, is actually the coastal portions, with the Lewes-Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach being the most populated, followed by the Bethany Beach-Ocean View-Millville-South Bethany cluster, with a third cluster (Fenwick Island-Williamsville) full of development that spreads several miles inland. There's a fourth sizeable cluster on the western and northern sides of Rehoboth and Indian bays along DE Route 24 between Rehoboth and Millsboro, with lots of retirees. Seaford is in the more rural western side of the county, where there's less sprawl and a lot of farms right outside each town's corporate limits. Then you have Delmar in the SW corner that's partially in Maryland, and that is basically the northern limit of the Salisbury MSA's sprawl.
Seaford also just got separated in the latest delineation from Salisbury MSA.
It's still a uSA since the "core city" (in this case, Seaford) is too small. Overall it's just a weird county with a bunch of towns with 5000-ish people that are close, but separated enough from one another except maybe Seaford and Laurel, along with the beaches. Georgetown? Millsboro? Both are its own thing.
I also wonder how many offer the walkability and affordability that many are looking for?
Besides college towns that was mentioned earlier, micropolitan cities that are located on the interstates and not too far from large metros should met some of those measures.
Isn't by default that most of them do? Most micros are centered around towns that are two or three miles long at most along the longest axis. At that size, you pretty much just need to maintain sidewalks and have means to bypass natural obstacles to be walkable. That's not really too high a bar for most places (exceptions always exist).
Absolutely not. Micro cities vary in size like metros. Using my current location in Tupelo, it's close to the size of St Louis in sq miles if iirc. But Oxford on the other hand is same size of Compton.
Many in the next 50 in terms of growth are college towns and some are military towns.
I point people to that list from time to time. Whenever I think about moving, that list is where I start.
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