My town of approximately 8000 poppulation is the county seat and has a beautifully restored 1890s courthouse. At one time we were an antique shoppers mecca, but now there are only a couple of antique stores left. We've had several attempts at revitalizing the downtown, but as others have mentioned, there are still lots of vacant stores. Although several have been converted into offices of one kind or another. And the upstairs of several of the pre 1900s buildings have been converted into living areas.
There is a real emphasis on athletics for the kids, but if your youngster is not athletically inclined, they're out of luck.
We have a community college and it offers dual credit classes for HS juniors and seniors that allows them to pretty much do their freshman year of college while still in HS.
We are basically a rural community, with a bit of industry. Several of our plants relocated to Mexico, partly because at least one of them kept getting in trouble for having too many illegals.
The face of our community has changed in the last few years with much more ethnic diversity than when I was growing up.
Jobs are scarce unless you are wanting to do fast food or work at one of the nursing homes.
We are in an excellent location, about an hour from the DFW metroplex, less than that to a large lake for fishing or boating.