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Comment by buckbova | Hacker News Reader

Most have lake, rivers, or access to an ocean. If not this, they have mountains or other natural features. If you're living in a barren wasteland, I suggest you get outta there!

Let's take a typical american city, cleveland ohio.

Plenty of trails:

http://www.traillink.com/city/cleveland-oh-trails.aspx

Beaches:

http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2015/06/the_10_bes...

Parks:

http://www.clevelandmetroparks.com/Main/Recreation/Hiking-an...

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What makes a typical American city? One could argue that the second largest city in Ohio is not a typical city.

You're not wrong, but then again, the typical American doesn't live in a typical city (where typical = median).

The average American city/town has a population of 20,000, yet 80% of the population lives in a metropolitan area.

(http://www.newgeography.com/content/00242-america-more-small...)

If that's counterintuive, imagine the extreme case of a country with 100 cities of 10,000 residents, and one city of 10 million residents. The median city has 10,000 residents, yet 10 out of 11 millions live in the big city.

If you are interested in the experiences of people as opposed to statistics about cities, the sort of city a typical American lives in is more interesting than a typical city.

Cleveland doesn't have much going for it, but our parks and trails are truly incredible. The Cleveland Metroparks are a definite source of pride for North East Ohio.

Tennessee Williams certainly agreed with buckbova: “America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.”

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