As a non-American, I’m very confused by this. If it’s a town, it’s not rural by definition. Because, you-know, it’s urban.

Also, could we get a definition of town vs small town. Do you not have the concept of a village? (Village in the UK would be a settlement with a population of a couple of thousand, with usually a pub, local shop, maybe a post office and primary school if you’re lucky).

  • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    This is a typical American rural town:

    This is a typical American city:

    ^((That took less than 3 minutes to find and link))

    • tymon@lemm.ee
      0·
      4 months ago

      Respectfully, there is absolutely nothing typical about New York City. There isn’t a single other city in the entire country that even begins to compare to NYC’s size, scale, and complexity.

      A “typical” American city would be something like White Plains NY, Scottsdale AZ, or Richmond VA.

        • Empricorn@feddit.nlEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          I’ll give you the *second image. Like I said, I only spent a couple minutes finding them. But the *first is absolutely typical, in my experience. In small rural towns, the “downtown” is concentrated like this (maybe with 1 fewer floor, and narrower roads). I’ve seen this exact scene in multiple smaller towns, literally all over the US…

          • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world
            0·
            4 months ago

            Narrower roads and shorter buildings is a start, now simplify the architecture, add space between the buildings, get rid of the “downtown” apartment buildings, definitely ditch that bike lane, is that a traffic light in the distance, lol. If you can’t imagine the smell of livestock shit permeating the air, you’re not really looking at rural America.