I get to play both sides of several streets here. I was born in a small Nova Scotia town, grew up in Detroit, earned my grad degree while living and working in a town of 297 (smaller than my son's graduating class), and now live in the sprawling D.C. suburbs.

Small town versus big city is a bit of a false dichotomy. By Harold's tongue-in-cheek definition, Halifax is a small town, though I'd choose it over many larger places. And it's not hard to think of metropolises that you wouldn't want to live in.

A smaller place can have narrower points of view, but a larger place just means it's easier to get away from those narrower points, not that they don't exist.

Daniel, I have to say the notion of someone walking to Wal-Mart strikes me as curious. More seriously, not everyone wants their town (or city) to be "exciting."

I very much agree with Joe about the value of some institution acting as a magnet to attract new residents and new ideas (like a university, perhaps like some kinds of major employers, perhaps some nonprofit).

And here's Vachel Lindsay talking about (of all places) Springfield, Illinois:

Let not our town be large -- remembering
That little Athens was the Muses’ home;
That Oxford rules the heart of London still,
That Florence gave the Renaissance to Rome.