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Top 10 “coolest” small towns
May 29th, 2009 by Mike Knutson
How cool would it be for your town to be named one of the “top 10 coolest” small towns in America? That’s exactly what 10 lucky communities experienced when voters selected them for the honor at BudgetTravel.com’s online contest.
It was even “cool” enough news for The Early Show at CBS News to pick up the story:
It’s disappointing (but not unexpected) to see only one community (Grinnell, IA) in our region on the list. Of course, what’s “cool” and what’s “small” both have debatable definitions. Budget Travel used a definition of “small” as under 10,000. Wouldn’t it would be fun to see a contest for communities under 3,000?
Note: Just as interesting to me is how information like this travels. I first read about it in the Daily Yonder blog, clicked on a link taking me to a story at the Chicago Sun-Times, which in turn took me to the BudgetTravel.com site. Three sites before I got to the original, but each story was worth the read. There’s something good to be said about how information is shared in the social media world.
Related Links
“Americas Coolest Small Towns, Circa 2009″ @ CBS News
“Grinnell third in website poll of “coolest small towns” @ Radio Iowa
“Americas Coolest Towns: Budget Travel Magazine (Video) @ The Huffington Post
Tags: coolest small towns, Grinnell IA, Iowa, tourism
Posted in In the News, Rural | Comments (
1 )
May 31st, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Something I liked about this CBS story is how it defines “cool” not only in terms of visitor experiences, as is often the case with lists like this, but also in terms of residents’ experiences. For example, the story says it’s cool to live in a place where you take pride in being part of the community, and where you would feel like you missed good opportunities if you moved to an urban setting. It is implied that you can’t be cool without thinking of the future, and of course that happens only when a community is retaining and attracting younger residents.