Well, one of the points of that link seemed to be that there are nice little ethnic restaurants even in strip malls in Indianapolis. I know that many smaller cities are perfectly nice places to live in--especially for those who don't want either a bustling metropolis or a rural location. But it doesn't mean I'll visit there for no particular reason especially without a car to get around easily.
You might find yourself surprised at how many of these smaller cities are good to visit for no particular reason! Indianapolis does have more than just little ethnic restaurants in strip malls. Of course, you may run out of things to see and do there sooner than you would in NYC, but who really has time to travel that much, anyway? ;-)
You have a point about needing a car in any number of such smaller cities in America, but even in those places there is a central core that remains relatively walkable.
>You have a point about needing a car in any number of such smaller cities in America, but even in those places there is a central core that remains relatively walkable.
They're often pretty small though. I'm not familiar with Indianapolis specifically, but there's one smaller city I visit semi-regularly for work. It has a nice (relatively gentrified) downtown but it's, to be generous, maybe 15 x 10 blocks. And beyond that you mostly need a car. I'll have a day to kill there in a month or so and I'll probably end up renting a car for the day.
I also worked downtown of a similar city about a decade ago. Same thing. (And both old mill towns.)
I honestly didn't realize it has that large a population. Although the city I was referring to in another comment with a small downtown core has half that metro population, so not a lot smaller. Cities can have large metro populations and still have a fairly small area that's what people consider a walkable downtown.
