(no subject)

[derien]

I finally got my paint for the car! And I got my black sandals cut down so they fit my feet better! Okay, it's not a perfect job, there's a bit of a corner, but it took the shoe repair guy like 2 minutes and he charged me $4, and now I don't have a mile of sole sticking out in front and behind my feet. So, Yay! :) I can probably sand off that bit of a corner easily if I want to bother. Now I know that a razor knife is NOT the way to go with these foam sandal soles - he said a power sander was the thing to use.

And now that I know where the shoe shop is I'll probably go back with other things. I can't believe it's taken me so long to get around to finding a shoe repair shop. I need to make a list of things a small town needs, so that if I ever get around to building my own town I'll be able to plan in everything. (Okay, I probably won't be able to build my own town for real, but maybe I can write about a town. ;))

Help me out, here, what do we need? The perfect town to live in would have what?

- General Store
- Shoe Repair
- Seamstress/Tailor for alterations on clothes.
- Coffee/Tea hangout
- Breakfast all-day restaurant (Open 24-hours, per ladyfalcon.)
- Dancing
- Public transit

ETA
- Bar/Pub: quiet, conversational place (mollyrazor)
- Book Store(s) (littleredhead)
- New Books (per ladyfalcon.)
- Used Books (per ladyfalcon.)
- Library
- Park/Public Gardens (littleredhead)
- Candy Store (littleredhead)
- Non-sleazy Adult Store (littleredhead)
- Laundromat (open 24 hours)
- Lots of ethnic restaurants (ladyfalcon)**
- A fair proportion of things within walking distance (ladyfalcon)*

I notice nobody offered
- Hardware Store (but it's vital to Eor's creative outlets)
- Lumber Mill***
- Skilled Trades: Bricklayers, Carpenters, Plumbers, Electricians (I'm not sure how these should be organized in a small town - perhaps with a shared space?)
- Car Repair (I was going to put them with the other skilled trades, but they need a space to work on the cars, they can't do all their work on-site like the others.)

And I further notice nobody offered
- Lawyers
- Real Estate Agents

Can we do without them?

*"...things withing walking distance" This point is vital to me. Not just within walking distance, but set up for walkers, because there is a difference. For instance, where I work is easily 'within walking distance,' but just as I come to a bridge (Stroudwater) the sidewalk ends on the side of the road that I need to be on. Meaning that if I want to walk on sidewalk I have to cross the busy, fast-running, four-lane road, and then cross it again right after the bridge. In the summer there's still enough space on my side of the road that I can just walk in the margin across the bridge, but in the winter the snow gets banked up, sometimes. And, in the winter, I can't be sure that even the sidewalk is going to have been cleared so it's a decent walking surface. It's more than just unpleasant, it's ridiculously dangerous to walk to work in the winter.

**"Lots of ethnic restaurants" I totally want lots of ethnic restaurants, because there's little that makes me happier, but I'm not sure how many "lots" can be. I wasn't specific that I was trying to make this a fairly small town. But I also can't imagine how to decide which ethnic restaurant would be given preference. If I started with revamping a small Maine town there would already be Chinese. I swear there must be an organization that keeps track of where there aren't yet Chinese restaurants and recruits people to go start them. :)

***"Lumber Mill" Yeah, this might just be me clinging to images formed when I was a kid, and it might not be at all practical, these days, to transport the whole logs and cut them in the town where they're going to be used. But then there's free sawdust for kids guinea pigs! And it smells lovely. :)