What do you consider a town? A city?

Beads921

I grew up in a small town (think 2500 people, which isn't even small by a lot of people's standards), and to me a place with 30,000 people is a city. Not a big city, but a city none-the-less. I know a lot of people would still consider that a town. I now live in a city of 500,000. It feels massive to me, but to many people it's still tiny.

What do you consider a town? A city? What got me going was that people think Justin Beiber is from a small town. He grew up in a city of 30,000, which by my standards is NOT a small town. 

calindi

I wouldn't say he's from a small town, but a city to me is more of a feeling than a population, like how it's laid out and with tall buildings, and if there are walking areas and public transportation.  Urban vs. suburban vs. rural, I guess.  My parents live in RI, and I don't like calling Providence a city (and will often call it a mini-city) simply because it doesn't feel much different than any suburban area in the state.  Sure, there's about a 4 block square radius of tall buildings, but it just doesn't feel like a "city" except for that.

I've lived in DC, Shanghai, Sevilla (Spain), and now Miami.  Obviously those are all big cities technically, but I probably would have referred to Sevilla as a town.

And technically I live in a city as my address is Miami, but we live in a house with a yard, so thus it doesn't feel like a city to me.

Does any of that make sense?

Hazel_B

I know Stratford, if Canada classifies it as a city than it is a city to me.

I do know what you mean other people have very different ideas of sizes. It gets even more confusing when you go really small like villages and hamlet size. I never get those straight.

Hazel_B

Cate - Sevilla totally felt like a town to me when I was there. Valencia felt much more like a city.

Beads921

Yep, it makes sense. I think having lived in such a small town, any place with a wal-mart will feel like a city to me, regardless of the way people act, the size of my yard, the height of the buildings (over 2 stories = skyscraper in my home town) etc. 

PaigeMcC

I live in a municipality with a population of about 370,000.  I consider us a city.  However, there are parts of my municipality that I would consider a small town...weird? Yeah, I know.  I think the lines can blur easily now-a-days...you can have a town in a municipality (which is actually a city in and of itself) or you can have a city in said municipality orrr they can stand alone.  I think what defines it is the mixture of population, the general feel of the place, and if it is suburan or not.  I consider some places in NS/NB to be towns but really, if you look at their population their cities.