4 ms·

Tyler is the county seat of Smith County; that's why it has 100,000 people. For comparison, the Tyler/Longview (nearest city of size that isn't a suburb of the

Tyler is the county seat of Smith County; that's why it has 100,000 people. For comparison, the Tyler/Longview (nearest city of size that isn't a suburb of the other) area has about 415,000 people. The population of the next-nearest major area in Texas? Dallas/Fort Worth at 6.6 million people. The question of what makes up "small town America" is somewhat fuzzy, but Tyler, compared to an 70 minute drive (not at all unreasonable for a state the size of Texas) west, fits the bill. The other point from anamax about the city slicker teaching the yokels how it should be done is very apt. There is a reason why hackers gravitate towards Silicon Valley: people like to be with other people who are doing the same thing. Tyler is by no means dumb. As the author--who admittedly also posted here that he didn't want to debate the article--points out, there are two universities (University of Texas-affiliated, I might add) and two junior colleges. The area is also home to pipe and robotics companies. It is also very insular, especially when it comes to "being shown how things are done" because the Dallas area has been the older, wiser brother to Tyler for decades. Oh, and "nothing about local politics?" I guess the reporting from KLTV, the oldest television station in Tyler, doesn't count.[1] 1 - http://www.kltv.com/category/74361/politics http://www.kltv.com/category/74361/politics

pnathan 15y ago
Erm, 100K is not small town America. I grew up outside of a town with 5K people; it was the largest town in a 50-mile radius. Small towns have under 1K people, at least where I come from.
- semanticist 15y ago
  I live in Scotland, where the entire country has less people than Dallas/Fort-Worth - and even here 1k people isn't a 'small town', it's a village. The town I grew up in had a population of ~35k, and it was definitely a 'small town'. These things are all relative to your local norms, but I think demanding that 'small towns' have at most four people and a lame horse is excessive.
  - somabc 15y ago
    It has an urban population of 96,900 that is fairly large by Scottish Standards. Inverness and Stirling have ~70,000 each and they are cities.
    - thingie 15y ago
      In Europe (at least continental), there is a clear distinction between "village" and "town", because historically, "town" was a legal status granted by the king or church (city would be perhaps the town where the archbishop would have his seat), but it wasn't necessarily distinguished so much by its size, they'd be all very small. Personally, I'd but the line between "town" and "city" to having some kind of rapid rail transit. (That'd mean, for example, that in the country where I live is just one city.)
    - semanticist 15y ago
      Yes, but it's not in Scotland. My point was that the size of a 'small town' varies by context, and that a town of 1,000 would be tiny even in the context of a place that doesn't have many people. Also, 'city' in the UK is to do with a special government/crown-granted status, not really the population per se.

pnathan 15y ago

Erm, 100K is not small town America. I grew up outside of a town with 5K people; it was the largest town in a 50-mile radius. Small towns have under 1K people, at least where I come from.

semanticist 15y ago
I live in Scotland, where the entire country has less people than Dallas/Fort-Worth - and even here 1k people isn't a 'small town', it's a village. The town I grew up in had a population of ~35k, and it was definitely a 'small town'. These things are all relative to your local norms, but I think demanding that 'small towns' have at most four people and a lame horse is excessive.
- somabc 15y ago
  It has an urban population of 96,900 that is fairly large by Scottish Standards. Inverness and Stirling have ~70,000 each and they are cities.
  - thingie 15y ago
    In Europe (at least continental), there is a clear distinction between "village" and "town", because historically, "town" was a legal status granted by the king or church (city would be perhaps the town where the archbishop would have his seat), but it wasn't necessarily distinguished so much by its size, they'd be all very small. Personally, I'd but the line between "town" and "city" to having some kind of rapid rail transit. (That'd mean, for example, that in the country where I live is just one city.)
  - semanticist 15y ago
    Yes, but it's not in Scotland. My point was that the size of a 'small town' varies by context, and that a town of 1,000 would be tiny even in the context of a place that doesn't have many people. Also, 'city' in the UK is to do with a special government/crown-granted status, not really the population per se.