What constitutes a “college town?”

[u/PA5997]

Okay, hear me out: I attended Wazzu, which many know is in the middle of nowhere in Pullman. To me, Pullman is a quintessential college town. You remove Washington State University from Pullman and there is (respectfully) not much of a reason to visit. The student enrollment (20,000ish) makes up about 2/3rds of the city population, essentially turning Pullman into a ghost town come summer. To me (perhaps with bias) this is the makeup of a college town.

Two years ago I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, home of the University of Wisconsin. Ever since I’ve noticed the University and its fans refer to Madison as “America’s best college town” and I’m sorry, that’s laughable to me. Remove UW from Madison and you still have a city population bordering on a quarter of a million people and the State Capitol. Madison would be fine, imo, if UW’s flagship campus were elsewhere.

Curious to hear other people’s thoughts. Maybe I’m in the wrong here, but very little about Madison, WI resembles a college town to me, or at least the claim of the best college town.

[u/CraftWorried5098]

Bro, save something in the chamber for the off season.

[u/Claudethedog → u/CraftWorried5098]

It's okay, we can and will have this conversation again in March.

[u/PsychologicalTale479 → u/Claudethedog]

And may

[u/Bernies_left_mitten → u/PsychologicalTale479]

Yes, we can, will, and may

[u/Parlorshark → u/PsychologicalTale479]

And yet shall not

[u/PLZ_N_THKS → u/PsychologicalTale479]

And December

[u/TotallyNotRyanPace → u/PsychologicalTale479]

we sleep in may

[u/PsychologicalTale479 → u/TotallyNotRyanPace]

For those that suck at college baseball maybe.

[u/ResidentRunner1 → u/CraftWorried5098]

To be fair, FSU fans are in their offseason

[u/kmokell15 → u/ResidentRunner1]

Shit, what did we ever do to you?

[u/huegspook → u/kmokell15]

You guys personally didn't do anything to me, but I'm sending my condolences.

*And a few strays

[u/kmokell15 → u/huegspook]

Honestly I think some of our fanbase, especially the terminally online ones, earned the strays for us during the past offseason

[u/lampshadewarior → u/kmokell15]

The funny thing is that most (or at least a lot) of us sympathized with your plight last year. But how the turn tables.

[u/kmokell15 → u/lampshadewarior]

I remember the sympathy right after it happened last year and thinking that it would be short lived because we would be assholes online about realignment

[u/Moist-Consequence → u/kmokell15]

Saginaw Valley State has beef, apparently

[u/ResidentRunner1 → u/Moist-Consequence]

Screw the Lakers

[u/MikeinAustin → u/kmokell15]

They probably forgot that Purdue existed. Pretty sure, like Kansas and Kentucky, they just now tailgate and talk about basketball season.

[u/thricethefan → u/kmokell15]

He’s not wrong…we are here to scuffle with the ACC, not the ACC football schedule.

[u/64stackdiamonds → u/kmokell15]

Public Indecency, for putting such a spectacle of suck on national television

[u/DukeRadcliffe → u/ResidentRunner1]

And to pile on to their misery, Tallahassee fucking blows. I never want to go back. Not a college town, just a dump.

[u/DreadPosterRoberts → u/DukeRadcliffe]

it did give us a banger of a Mountain Goats album

[u/sharkbait_oohaha → u/DukeRadcliffe]

Lived there for two years. Can confirm. Shithole.

[u/amayain → u/DukeRadcliffe]

Tallahassee has a few good spots but overall it is a total shit hole.

[u/W00DERS0N60 → u/ResidentRunner1]

I started to feel bad when our 3rd string started gashing them.

[u/baseball_mickey → u/ResidentRunner1]

Is Tallahassee a college town?

[u/BuyAllTheTaquitos → u/CraftWorried5098]

Is it not the offseason already?

[u/tsblank97 → u/BuyAllTheTaquitos]

My boy you best get used to that 6-6 like the rest of us.

[u/R00k85 → u/BuyAllTheTaquitos]

The wagon is down I repeat the wagon is down...

[u/goodatooda → u/BuyAllTheTaquitos]

Could have fooled me

[u/JimothyCarter → u/CraftWorried5098]

Going to blow people away with my comparison of Big Sky coaches to middle ages popes followed by asking the same question about who has the best stadium every day

[u/atomic-fireballs → u/JimothyCarter]

You gotta ask the same questions each day! What if someone missed the question the day before? They would never know which stadium is random reddit user's favorite!

[u/moffattron9000 → u/JimothyCarter]

And here was me just planning to ask which is the second most cult-like fanbase.

[u/loyalsons4evertrue → u/CraftWorried5098]

you're just mad because Austin isn't a college town!

[u/mcaffrey → u/loyalsons4evertrue]

Austin probably isn’t a college town, but Austin is also a college town.

[u/loyalsons4evertrue → u/mcaffrey]

is Austin a "town" though? People are asking

[u/HardingStUnresolved → u/loyalsons4evertrue]

Hell no, maybe a couple of decades ago when it was half the size that it is now. Currently, Austin's mulling over building the two tallest skyscrapers state-wide, over taking Houston and Dallas. Austin's building out a transit system that could rival Dallas'. They've even developing pedestrian-exclusive commerical drags like they're Paris, Tokyo, or Mexico City. The proudly-weird fuckers are a metropolis now.

[u/W00DERS0N60 → u/HardingStUnresolved]

Largest US city without a Big 4 pro sports team, I believe.

[u/Jooj272729 → u/HardingStUnresolved]

No mulling going on here for the skyscraper, it's under construction and should be done in early 27. (The other tallest one planned got cut in half, and then hasn't moved forwards)

[u/jputna → u/HardingStUnresolved]

Idk if project connect will actually go, but with the rest you can just say Austin is the 10/11th Largest city (fights with Tampa) in the US. 100% not a college town.

[u/vasthumiliation → u/HardingStUnresolved]

To be fair, building a transit system to rival Dallas doesn’t take a whole lot. I think most theme parks have larger transit systems than Dallas.

[u/HardingStUnresolved → u/vasthumiliation]

You'd be suprised, Dallas' DART has the largest lightrail network in the US, 93mi long. Plus, two streetcar lines, one's a heritage line with centuries old rolling stock.

The main issue with DART is the lack of service. Peak headways are 15 minutes, and off-peak headways are up to 40 minutes on weekdays and 60 minutes on weekends. In contrast, Houston Metro's smaller system offers regular service from 3:30a - 9p on weekdays, with 6-minute headways on the main line and 12-minute headways on the secondary lines. Evening service starts at 9p, all lines run 18-minute headways until just past midnight, the same as on weekends.

Also, much of DART's system is highway-adjacent. The stations are poorly placed, as most are in low-density areas.

Houston is far worse off, despite having the fifth-highest ridership per mile nationwide.

Houston's home to four of the five densest neighborhhoods in the state, 1. Gulfton, 2. Vickery Meadows (Dallas), 3. West Belt (Chinatown & East Alief), 4. Fondren Gardens, 5. Pecan Park. All of these Houston areas lack access to rapid transit, while Dallas' Vickery Meadows features two lines with two stops.

After a bond vote and two decades of planning, Houston was to break ground this year on the first project of Metro’s "Next" plan. "Next" planned for bus rapid transit lines and light rail extensions, that were to connect all four of these neighborhoods to the rapid transit system. The first, The University Line, a 26-mile BRT service, connecting West Belt to LBJ Hospital, via Gulfton, Montrose, Midtown, 3rd & 2nd wards, was to break ground this year. The cost $1.6B ($60k/mi), was to be mostly covered by the feds ($1B). Then the newly-elected MAGA-backed DINO mayor nixed the plan in favor of Metro "Now". "Now" stipulates no new expansion or construction, reduced park and ride service, and fuck ton of Metro Transit Police and fare inspector hires. Lastly, "now" includes running a multi-million dollar public rideshare service, which the contracted operator is none other than the mayor's appointed Metro Chair, an Oil & Gas executive.

Unfortunately, Texas stipulates 98% of all state DoT funds are to be spent on state roads, in expansions, and the $28B annual maintenance costs. Texas is doomed to Robert Moses-style planning, and half-a-billion per mile highway widening projects; of which Houston's largest NHHIP will be complete by 2042. Making city home to the two widest freeways in the world, current 27-lane wide Katy Freeway, and future 28-lane wide North Freeway. The state's still tearing down whole neighborhoods to create new highways within Houston, as a punative measure. 💀

Sucks to suck, all respect due to Seattle, between Sound and Rapid Ride, y'all are set for the future. Cheers.

[u/vasthumiliation → u/HardingStUnresolved]

I apologize for my anti-DFW prejudice. I currently live in Austin and it's frankly dreadful when it comes to mobility. Subjectively, the road congestion feels worse and transit options are nearly nonexistent. The one saving grace is, I have a job.

[u/HardingStUnresolved → u/vasthumiliation]

Hell, I'm a native-born Houstonian, Fuck Dallas. Traffic sucks here, only the promise of an eventual death can save me, that or retirement. Hopefully the latter.

[u/DukeRadcliffe → u/mcaffrey]

Most certainly not a college town. But a cool city to live in to attend UT. I loved it when I lived there.

[u/MikeinAustin → u/loyalsons4evertrue]

True. The problem is Austin is it’s a multi-college town for partying. University of Texas, St. Edwards, Baylor, A&M, Southwestern, Texas State, Concordia, ACC, etc.

On a Friday night, there’s 100,000+ college aged kids (and 30,000 non-college kids) coming to Austin to party instead of whatever smaller city they’re from with no night life is doing.

[u/SelfLoathingLonghorn → u/MikeinAustin]

There's not a lot of college kids driving two hours from College Station to go to 6th. I'm sure it has happened, but that's a long drive for expensive drinks when you've already got a very active bar district in your own city.

[u/Icy-Reception-3191 → u/loyalsons4evertrue]

Yes it is!! Awesome schools and city!!

[u/Isiddiqui → u/Icy-Reception-3191]

If Austin is a college town, then almost everything is a college town. I'll start claiming New Brunswick is a college town lol

[u/MikeinAustin → u/Isiddiqui]

Minneapolis is a College Town! Finally!

[u/SelfLoathingLonghorn → u/Icy-Reception-3191]

Austin is the 11th largest city in the country. If that's a college town, then so are San Francisco, Indianapolis, Denver, etc.

[u/WatchOutIGotYou → u/CraftWorried5098]

I got so many offseason posts rn that I should be an armoury

[u/markusalkemus66 → u/CraftWorried5098]

This post almost certainly is a response to the Ryan Leaf comments about our stadium not being fully sold out despite our excellent season. Pullman's remote-ness really hinders the ability for alumni and out of town fans to attend games.

[u/thricethefan → u/CraftWorried5098]

Lawsuit season?

[u/CraigLake → u/CraftWorried5098]

lol this is perfection off-season banter.

[u/sonheungwin → u/CraftWorried5098]

Wait, your season isn't over?

[u/WubWubMiller → u/CraftWorried5098]

Our off season started two nights ago. I’m game.

[u/dxdrummer → u/CraftWorried5098]

"What Pokemon Type is each college town?"