User:Skysmith/Small communities

There are dozens of articles about smaller communities that have very little information or are just based on census figures. In order to facilitate their expansion, I thought I could put down some suggestions.

Articles about the community could be the right place to include all the smaller details, including prominent churches, schools, shopping malls, what have you, that would not require their own articles. They would flesh out the article about the community beyond the dry census data, grid goordinates or couple of short sentences. These details could include:

• History: At the very least there should be a date when the town was founded (if there is any verifiable record of that). The communities have usually grown around certain kind of places - easily defensible hills, easy crossing of rivers, around some accessible resource. Some communities have grown around features like mines, factories, academic institutions, military bases and even prisons.

• Historical events: Connection to various historical events and conflicts (United States Civil War, Thirty Year's War in Germany, French Resistance in France, Australian gold rush, Sengoku period in Japan, etc).

• Parts of community: Neighborhoods and suburbs, commercial or educational districts.

• Festivities: Local annual or periodical festivities like parades, thematic fairs and markets (Tattoo festival of Wat Ban Phra in Thailand, Firle Bonfire Society, Jack-in-the-Green Festival in Hastings, England)

• Landmarks: That could include the schools, high schools and colleges but also churches, amusement and other parks, out of ordinary museums, stadiums and auditoriums. Maybe even unusual stores.

• Media: Local newspapers, radio and TV stations and affiliates. This could be the place for the local bands.

• Administrators: current heads of town hall, law enforcement and other relevant institutions. Of course, somebody would have to keep the information up to date

• Pictures: Pictures of the local city hall and other prominent buildings, local landmarks and even statues (like the Jolly Fisherman in Skegness). If there is a local group of historical re-enactors or something similar, maybe they could help.

• Local laws and ordinances: Some places are famous for having unusual laws - now or in the past.

And there are bound to be local legends as well.

Local school could even try to start a class project to expand the article about their town into something that better represents the place where they live.

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