Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
It seems to me that the main contributing factors are:
Capital city status
A tourist destination
An artists' colony
Having a university
Or any combination of these.
|
This is a large part of what makes a sophisticated small town - no question.
There are other factors though, and mostly this has to do with whether or not a town has a healthy economy and a strongly held sense of place.
Sussex NB strikes me as such. It is not a capital city (like Fredericton), it is not a tourist destination or artists colony (like Saint Andrews by-the-Sea) and it isn't really a university town like Sackville (although it is home to Kingswood University, a very small Wesleyan seminary).
Sussex however has a robust economy, based on a long agricultural history, natural gas and being a regional services center - an economy robust enough to allow the town to survive the recent potentially devastating closure of the local potash mine. Sussex has a strong sense of place, based on being in a very scenic agricultural valley, surrounded by sizeable hills (including a popular ski hill) and a favourable location smack in the middle of the triangle between NB's three major cities.
Because of it's location and strong economy, Sussex is able to retain it's young people, giving it a vitality missing in a lot of other similar sized small towns (regional about 8,000 people). This vitality allows the community to retain a sense of optimism rather than hopelessness and despair. Because of this optimism, entrepreneurs feels confident enough to open new small businesses including interesting shops and eateries.
So, in addition to the factors
Acajack enumerated, I would like to add:
1) - location
2) - sense of place and community
3) - optimism and pride