I grew up about 20 minutes from the flagship state university (University of Maryland College Park) and, I mean, that also means 20 minutes from Washington, DC with the Smithsonian, and about an hour from everything in Annapolis and Baltimore, and my dad's family lived near Boston so all the historical sites there were just a family trip away; Mom's family is in Virginia so everything there was easily accessible. I wanted riding lessons? Maryland isn't quite the horse country Kentucky is, but Pimlico's right there, so feeder tracks and breeders and plenty of good stables. Except for winter sports, because lol snow in DC, whatever I needed was just there. I actually grew up in the shitty county, relatively speaking, and our libraries were fantastic (I mean, they aren't a patch on the one I have now, living in a community that is heavily slanted to a group that is known for its intense love of learning, but still!!!!).
The university thing is amazing and I agree with you that the spread-out nature is great. Sure, you could get some efficiencies of concentration, but having lots of little nuclei spread out is great for diversity of thought and experimentation as much as it is the local troupes and music lessons and things like that, too. University libraries! The restaurants and shops that spring up to support a college town! the sheer entertainment of watching colleges fight with their towns! (okay, yes, I'm that popcorn girl.)
Plus, locals (especially local retirees) being able to take classes? My alma mater has a program where local retirees take classes in random stuff, and the student center offers evening classes taught in niche subjects for non-credit by professors who just wanted to wax rhapsodic about, idk, a really gentle overview of the history of porcelain without having to grade papers and shit, and you pay like $200 and get a ten-week course, and it's great. Or a casual writing workshop where the students get the advantage of a college professor giving them some gentle guidance and the professor gets a break from a bunch of college students all wanting to be the next Hemingway.
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Date: 2020-05-29 07:20 pm (UTC)The university thing is amazing and I agree with you that the spread-out nature is great. Sure, you could get some efficiencies of concentration, but having lots of little nuclei spread out is great for diversity of thought and experimentation as much as it is the local troupes and music lessons and things like that, too. University libraries! The restaurants and shops that spring up to support a college town! the sheer entertainment of watching colleges fight with their towns! (okay, yes, I'm that popcorn girl.)
Plus, locals (especially local retirees) being able to take classes? My alma mater has a program where local retirees take classes in random stuff, and the student center offers evening classes taught in niche subjects for non-credit by professors who just wanted to wax rhapsodic about, idk, a really gentle overview of the history of porcelain without having to grade papers and shit, and you pay like $200 and get a ten-week course, and it's great. Or a casual writing workshop where the students get the advantage of a college professor giving them some gentle guidance and the professor gets a break from a bunch of college students all wanting to be the next Hemingway.