Not the original commenter, but as they mentioned "college town" I would offer up Evanston, IL (home of Northwestern University) as a good example. ~75k populat

Not the original commenter, but as they mentioned "college town" I would offer up Evanston, IL (home of Northwestern University) as a good example. ~75k population according to Wikipedia, so a little bigger than the target, but lots to do within walking/biking range and you can take the L into Chicago if that's not enough.