'Dreamtowns' offer refuge from big cities

You better have a couple million in US government treasuries before moving to Bozeman. There's not much there for an economy and the old school owns what is there. You will need a new 4x4 to feel like a real mountainman living in the country. Within five years, you'll see why 80% of the people leave as you are following them out of town.

Last time I checked Lexington Park was the butt hole of Southern MD. I live in Lexington Park. Sure its great if you love crack heads women that turn tricks for crack and alcoholics. Plenty of unemployed here, tons of abandoned stores in shopping centers in the heart of the LP. I wonder if the author of this article knew where to score the crack in the LP because he must be smoking something to think this is such a great town. Next time look into Doylestown, PA; New Hope, PA; Lumberville, NJ or Lambertville, NJ.

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I hate to be negative but...these are all cold places! Sorry, my warm southern climate wins out.

All these towns are in cold climates. That kid on the bike will only be able to ride for a couple of months. I ride all year round in my southern town. Article seems biased.

I have friends and family in Bozeman so I've spent a lot of time there. It was a nice town until it was californicated. I rarely visit anymore.

LAST TIME I CHECKED A CITY ONLY HAD ONE STATE....LEBANNON IS LOCATED IN N.H. NOT VT OR BOTH

Look, i live in Lexington Park Maryland and i have to agree with the only post up there, this place cannot be one of the best small towns....if is, then this country has bigger problems than rising gas prices. As for cold climates!?!?! Uhh, this place is far from cold...it gets cold for about 3 months out of the year then its blazing. This is coming from someone that has spend the majority of his life in Florida. Look, for those of you interested in visiting one of these "small town hot spots" do NOT come to lexington park....unless of course you are homeless and into coke, crack, meth, x, alcohol, blow, snow, green, or what have you....and if this is the case, your probably in no position to read this message capable or not.

First of all, 190,000 people is not a small town. It is a small to mid sized city. Unless you live in a town with less than 10,000 people, you are not really going to get a sense of community. In anything larger, people just drive into their garages and never really interact with their neigbors. I have lived in several towns with 50,000- 500,000 people before moving to Chicago, and I think living in a neigborhood on the north side of Chicago allows me to interact with my neighbors and have a sense of community more than any mid sized town/city like these so called "dreamtowns", because we are all so physically close to each other and pass each other on the street or train.

Sencondly, the locals in these small towns generally don't want a bunch of big city jerks moving into their town. The reason they live there is to get away from people like you.

Hmmm... the article identifies Stevens Point as the smallest "dream town" with 67,484. As a Bozeman native, I can assure you the population is around 35,000. They can't possibly be considering the entire county... can they? (population probably in the 80,000 range) Gallatin County is over 2,500 square miles, a couple hours from top to bottom, a good bit larger than Deleware. *scratching head*

LEXINGTON PARK, MD???!!!!! Are you freakin' kidding me!!!!!!!! I live in Lexington Park, MD and let me tell you, it is one of THE WORST PLACES TO LIVE on so many levels. I totally agree with morningbell & Keith_Aviation, whoever listed LP Crack City as the #3 greatest small town to live in obviously forgot to mention his grading criteria included the greatest #of hookers, drug addicts, and wannabe thugs per square mile. Besides all of the drug and gang related activity, the housing is overpriced, the movie theater and bowling alley are expensive, dirty, and rundown, and there is NOTHING to do here besides score some drugs!!!!!!!! I really am worried for the rest of America if this small town is listed as #3. Please MSNBC, do some sober research before posting your articles. Me along with everyone else in Southern MD just lost all respect for MSNBC.

Lexington park MD as a Dreamtown???? Maybe Nightmare town, obviously the author has never visited here and doesn't have any appreciable frame of reference. I moved here from San Diego and can't wait for the day to get the hell out of here! Here was the rating criteria for apparently how this made number #3 on the list.

The highest scores went to well-rounded places with light traffic, healthy economies, moderate costs of living, impressive housing stocks, strong educational systems, and easy access to big-city attractions.

Traffic takes me 30min to go 12miles all due to the lovely Southern Maryland rolling roadblock. Horrible infrastructure here. One main road that's it.

Healthy economies, not here, tons of low rent stores, I have to drive to DC to go to the mall. Marshalls is the closest thing to a clothing store, well and Dress Barn!

Cost of living? Way more than the national average.

The educational system sucks here as the general IQ of the local population is well below average, the only thing bringing up the local IQ are the outsiders that move here and work on the Naval base, which if the base left the economy would be crushed, because that is the only industry here and the only reason people actually move here.

I will give you easy access to big city attractions. DC, Annapolis, Baltimore, Phili are all within 2.5 hours drive.

Restaurants in Lexington Park, well I have Applebees, Cheeseburger in Paradise, Bob Evans, and Outback ... these definitely set this town apart from all the others in the US.

ohh and housing market, sure there is ton if you add all the houses next to Section 8.... and wait do trailers count!

I'm trying to figure out what the author of this article could have possibly been thinking when he picked Lexington Park, MD to be on the list. Maybe he thought since it's surrounded by water it must be great. Well, yes it is pretty. But as soon as the weather gets warm enough to enjoy it, it is infested with Jellyfish. So swim at your own risk. Then I thought, well maybe he thought since it's a small town, the people are friendly. Wrong again... The people here have a name... Southern Maryland Inbreds (SMIBS). They have a lower than average I.Q, lack social skills, and don't smile much. As a group they don't seem very happy and this attitude transfers into their work. Don't expect much from those working in the service industry. And one more thing... They know who their fellow SMIBS are and if you aren't one of them, you automatically don't belong.
Some other things that make me count down the days until I can get out of here... There are really only about 2 weeks where the weather is comfortable. The summer is extremely hot and HUMID (I'm from Phoenix and now I understand that dry heat is much better), the bugs are as big as my dog, the traffic is awful mainly because there is one road, a traffic cop about every 10 miles, and SMIBS do not understand that THE LEFT LANE IS FOR PASSING ONLY!!!! The nearest airport is about 2 hours away so it's not even convenient to escape! I have to beg my family and friends to come visit me.
So please fellow Americans... Do not waste a plane ticket or your precious vacation time to visit Lexington Park, MD or any other city in Southern Maryland!!! The author has obviously never been here unless he is a SMIB himself. Do your research MSNBC!!!
On a positive note, you can get some good crab here! But don't expect your waiter/waitress to serve you with a smile.

LEXINGTON PARK !?!?!?!?! You have gotto be kidding? The business are is not too bad during the day hence it customers are from people who work on the navy base or for the naval contractors. Don't go to the business or housing areas after dark. I grew up in Lexington Park in the 70's and 80's and now as an adult wouldn't walk the streets at dark as I did as a teen much less don't really care to drive through the area after dark. It turned into one hell hole in the 90's.

Lexington Park. Definitely not #3 but "it could be worse". Maybe that's based upon being a glass half full kind of guy. And after growing up in NJ and spending 22 years in the Corps, I've seen some of the REAL armpits of America (and the world). Drugs? Yup, we've got 'em but so does just about every other small town in America anymore. BIG room for improvement, but I think our new sheriff is at least making an effort. Our close proximity to DC and PG County thuggery doesn't help. Traffic - define bad. Try Orange County, CA. 10 lanes in each direction and it's still a parking lot for 12 hours a day. Or the NJ Turnpike. Our work week traffic is MILD by comparison. Weather Hot & Humid? Yes, but North Carolina is much worse. Thrown in a couple of hurricanes and enjoy some real swampy weather there. The local folks - (I refrain from using the "S" word) can be a little clannish, but once they realize you're not a carpet bagger and you get involved in the community, then they're "just folks" like everyone else. It's still fairly rural and if hunting/fishing is your gig then it's pretty damn good. Schools - my kids are in college so I have no experience on that issue. Politics - well.... I'll give you one there, this is the Peoples Republic of Maryland. Taxes way too high as well. Concur on the airport issue. But overall, it ain't half bad.

Lexington Park: It's funny how this article made itself fodder at the new bar opening last night in Leonardtown. 90% of the faces you saw there are the young and the "how the hell did I end up here" crowd. Almost everyone at one point in the night mentioned how ridiculous this article was.

New bar you say? Ah yes, well with the abundance of nightlife in the area, including my pride and joy hotspot, the doublewide trailer with a bar, ( $5 dollar cover), a bar opening can be an "event". So all the hopeful young to middle aged working professionals shuffled out to see if there might be a hope or glimmer of something that vaguely reminds them of DC or Baltimore. For the record, the new place is clean, and is better than most. At least it wasn't the TIKI bar $5 can of beer.

Last night was funny, everyone's incredulous looks as the word passed that "The Park" was named one of the best small towns.

Amongst the nervous laughter and the shaking of heads, you could almost see the angst and worry in the beads of sweat on the partiers. The article hung like a monkey on the backs of some, whispering in their ears….."your gonna get stuck here….your gonna go loooocal….your never gonna leave….."

I digress…

Personally fraggin love it here.

Where else can you find a multi million dollar home, nestled cozily in with a trailer park?
Where else can you read about a pimp shooting his hoe with a bow and arrow in front of a Checkers?
Where else does every business establishment known to man close at 10pm or earlier?
I'm personally thankful that there are no middle sized homes around, only sheds for $200k, or estates that get passed in wills.
Lets be honest folks, if "old money" didn't own and run this town, who would go through all the trouble of making sure no new and progressive businesses opened here? Where else can you watch Jimmie Johnson reincarnated as a soccer mom race every day on "the" highway? Taking out unsuspecting motorcyclists and meek engineers alike…those crazy local drivers!

So in the end, maybe article will shine some light on the biggest little tobacco stain town in the east. Hopefully you'll realize what a wonderful quirky place it is to live, and decide to move here. Look closely in your rearview, and you just might be able to make out my UHAUL, and me, smiling as I leave this dump.

Be Easy.

Top _— things to do in Lexington Park and surrounding "cities".

-Go on animal safari's at your local Wallmart. The wildlife is incredible.

I hate to jump on the band wagon with the LPMD bashers, but the author of this pseudo-masterpiece forgot to do this homework. Lexington Park represents, in it's purest form, the degeneration of American Society.

I paid twice for my house what I would have paid in bundle of top rated US cities (Houston, Charlotte, etc...) in terms of real estate investability, employment opportunity and education quality.

The economy here is completely driven by the Navy via the Air Station. All the money in the area is reserved with those with electrical engineering degrees, Navy retirees and government hookups.

What they didn't tell you is that most of the money in LPMD (hoo!) commutes from either Calvert county or from Leonardtown (miles down the road) or even as far as Waldorf and Upper Marlboro leading to some serious traffic on the main arterial super highway in the Park.

The movie theater and bowling alley are festering cesspools that shouldn't be allowed to operate. Drugs and thugs run unchecked by the joke they call the St. Mary's County Sherriffs Dept. (America's first sherriff, hooray).

If you move into Lexington Park Proper, get a huge mean looking dog... It working for us.

However, there are some pluses...

We live close to the Chesapeake bay and the area provides great sailing, fishing and hunting opportunities. We're only 2 hours from DC, Baltimore and Annapolis... 3 from Philly and Richmond... so getting out of the area can be very recreationally rewarding.

If you are a federal government veteran, military (navy especially) retiree you can make some real bank out here.

For my money... go to Calvert County or Leonardtown, but leave Lexington Park for the degenerates.

Be Easy

TOP THINGS TO DO IN LEXINGTON PARK...

SMIBA cup for the beerpong enthusiast... great time

Rosies... for the naughty gentleman of the area

Any bar... Or Degeneration Stations as we call them... Get your fizzy yellow beer up...

Be Easy

Padre Grau so totally nails it in the spot with his comments! I've been here in THE PARK for 5 years. At first, I hated this place back then... and now I'm startin' to like it. Being previous military, I learned that living in any "armpit" is such so because it's actually what and how you make it out that makes it count. It is true the money here is comes from the navy station here. I recently was promoted to an electrical engineer position along with my wife who herself got lucky and is starting out with a full time govt. job and most of our co-workers live out of the st. mary's county, and some as far as DC, dunkirk, dahlgren.... Some of our nicest friends are SMIBS!!! believe it or not....and we always exchange favors every once and a while especially when it comes to hunting, fishing, golfing and other family oriented stuff...
I bought a nice 1800 sq ft rancher on 1/2 acre of land for $180K back in 2004 here in the PARK...Yes, I know the house would cost maybe $100K in most places I have been to...and yes I might be generally surrounded by trashy people, but in my cul-de-sac it is too quiet seeing the same cars drive by and waving..most of them have jobs on base and have lived in the culdesac for more than 10 years.....Only once has there been a county-mounty come knock on my door asking if i heard gunshots...turned out he was in the wrong part of the county...
It's pretty easy to stay away from the trashy areas of the town and especially avoiding the people who just walk up to you in front of one of the grocery stores here and asks for a dollar to ride the STS(st mary's transit)...
Traffic here is so like no other in the entire world....I always feel being rushed going down the roads here... I dunno where to start but in my opinion the whole infrastructure here was not ready in the first place for such a huge industrial boom... this place will exactly be like Waldorf on US 301 sooner or later...
The weather here is bearable especially the hot humid summers...
There is alot of family stuff to do...that is....outside of THE PARK..haha...joining the scouts, enrolling the kids in sports, lots of parks within 30 minute drive....lots of theme parks within a days drive(yes, it is worth it) g dominion, b gardens, great wolf lodge, nice golf courses, deer hunting, trolling for rockfish, trotlining blue crabs, watching the Ravens, Orioles, bay sox, watching concerts...etc...
I enrolled my daughter in a private school because of such a bad reputation the public schools here have especially in THE PARK public school district... It is just hard to believe that THE PARK is rated the 3rd best small town in the USA, it doesn't even elaborate about THE PARK.

I live in Shangri-la because it was the only place that I could afford as a single mom. The main street, Missouri, is never without 20 people milling around on it at any time of the day or night with their alcohol. Or the drinking bicycle riders. Those are funny to watch. Or how many people stop to ask you for a smoke or to borrow something of yours that you worked for. On my days off, I get to watch all the people we working folks support with our taxes, doing nothing but drinking, smoking and throwing trash. I have to police my little bit of heaven everyday for the garbage and cigarette butts these folks throw. Paid 200 dollars for a vet because someone broke a beer bottle in my fenced yard and my dog cut her paw on it. Get to witness police/sheriff cars at least 3 times every week plus a few ambulance visits. And the love of waking up almost every night to the sound of the deaf drivers that must play their boom boom music on the highest volume when they are driving 40 miles an hour through a 25. Happily, sometimes the lovely music vibrates the stuff on my walls. The children are nasty also. They do not know how to respect adults or their surroundings. I will not go out at night unless I have someone else with me. Yeah, one of the best places to live. (If they would clean the area up)

Lexington Park is a hell of a lot better than most places I have lived throughout the US, great crabbing, fishing, hunting, homes, etc. Now for the bad part, Great Mills Road after dark, seems when the lights go out the cockroaches come out too. It never seems to amaze me that after 24 years in the US Navy, every Naval base gets surrounded by the career welfare recipients and degenerates who take no personal responsibility for their own lives and do nothing but point fingers and keep checking there mail box for the check that will give them a free ride till next months check arrives. Overall there are some good hard working people down here in the Park doing the right thing. And their are wonderful places around here to live that are still in the Park, just farther away from Great Mills Road. Don't be so narrow minded about your assumption of Lexington Park, makes you sound ignorant in your post!!!

And for you no loads, education, hard work, personal responsibility, self respect, and integrity will set you free, not a government check!!!