Endless sunshine & beaches but..

[shootingstar]

As an example of the city I grew up in which did make it livable.

When I was an early teen Waterloo, Ontario population was approx. 30,000+ but we lived near the downtown core where there was regular public transit bus system that ran buses into Kitchener. There were and still are 2 major universities all connected by buses.

We were a 15 min. walk from a shopping mall downtown plus independent smaller stores, several different banks, pharmacy. Library and park with playground was a 20-25 min. walk. At that time, Seagram's distillery was operating at full capacity, located downtown, later turned into a incredible museum, then shut down for reasons I'm not clear. City hall was/still is downtown too. Near our street, were several historic homes and buildings. Primary school was 15 min. walk, middle school was 1/2 hr. walk and high school was 40 min. walk a different direction. Dentist and doctor was 15-20 min. walk. Area has and probably still does have some identifable historic roots because of the Mennonite base also. Farmer's markets --2 highly publicized (probably because of Mennonite roots), 1 accessible by bus in downtown Kitchener and the other, at edge of Waterloo. As a teenager, I took the bus with mother to the Kitchener Farmer's Market to help her carry groceries onto bus, etc.

Some light factories were located in the downtown areas of both Waterloo and Kitchener, businesses long established for several decades before they peetered out or manufacturing became cheaper elsewhere outside of Canada. Of course, livability includes injection of new income sources at the edge of town..which became high tech for Waterloo with its university research high tech company incubators..of which one is famous, Research in Motion--source of your Blackberry PDAs.

By the time, I left home, population grew to 100,000+.

Yes of course, the population was predominantly German-based but changed quickly in its demographic mix, during my late teens and up.

So just because a place has a small population base means you can't have variety and well-balanced services that are accessible for all population segments.

Note: I lived in London, Ontario for 3 years after I left home, which is larger than Waterloo or Kitchener, but at that time, I found it way more boring, WASP than Waterloo. City didn't seem to have the historic warmth as K-W. The salvation of London was its natural park greenbelt along the Thames River that ran through the heart of the city.