What Makes a Small Town Great

As the song goes, "I was born in a small town...".

I grew up in Freeport, IL and I consider Freeport a small town. Sure you can look at surrounding towns and communities and think I'm crazy. What about Pecatonica, Lena, Winnebago?

According to Livability a small town is under 20,000 people. O.K. so Freeport is roughly 25,000ish but still a small town to me. The question is how do you make it in a small town, or better yet how do you make a small town attractive to businesses and more importantly the people that live there?

Take a look at this list put together of the 10 Best Small Towns in America. This list was put together asking if the town is:

• Healthy
• Active
• Affordable
• Diverse
• Also is the town growing
  

Here are the Top 10 Best Small Towns in America according to Livability:

• Sitka, AK
• Canyon, TX
• Ellensburg, WA
• Louisville, CO
• Amherst, MA
• Los Alamos, NM
• Lebanon, NH
• Sebastopol, CA
• Dobbs Ferry, NY
• Traverse City, MI

Having a community rally around the town they live in, is amazing. Those that are willing to go the extra mile to grow the community is what small town living is all about. Take a look at this video about a group in Freeport that are doing just that.

FREEPORT, IL from Dreibelbis + Fairweather on Vimeo.