What Is A 'Town' Anyway?

"This month, Money magazine declared Claremont the fifth-best "Great American Town" in the country, based on "the best combination of economic opportunity, good schools, safe streets, things to do and a real sense of community," plus points for diversity and relatively (emphasis on the relatively) low real estate prices.

...Having spent the first 18 years of my life in Claremont, I never thought of myself as hailing from a "town."...and, Claremont's proximity to an actual big city at least qualifies it as a suburb, and it means that I can tell cloistered East Coasters and impressed foreign relatives that I grew up "near L.A."

..."town" seems to refer to a tight, small community - indeed, its Old English origin meant an enclosed group of homes...small, rustic, managing to stay somewhat isolated and focused on their own population in the age of sprawl, housing booms and highways.

Instead, Money's list is filled with suburbs and exurbs which, even if they possess "a real sense of community," owe much of their survival and identities to nearby big cities and their former residents. Only two of the top 15 have a population in the four digits, and all of them are within 40 miles of a fair-sized city.

...Claremont and these many other best places aren't really towns. Even if their boundaries are tighter and populations smaller, these places are connected to big cities - and they're starting to feel more like them. The "Great American Town" isn't what it used to be."