What a bummer. The place I consider my childhood hometown came in second place! I have always felt that Springfield, IL fit the mindset of the show despite it lacking key geographic features: mountains, a desert, a pier and a clearly visible nuclear power plant. When I was living there as a kid (1979-82), it had plenty of Simpsonesque characters, namely the bullies; a rough and dangerous section; a local kid show with a clown host (channel 55). But the local sports team (the Redbirds) tended to be victorious unlike the Isotopes and the significant number of residents were Catholic (45 percent), not an ambiguous Protestant sect. One could also argue for Jebediah being a poor surrogate of Lincoln yet I feel the statue of Everett Dirksen has more in common with “Diamond” Joe Quimby.
I’m puzzled over how a small town in Vermont beat out a small city of 100,000. My immediate guess is all those Northeasterners with vacation homes there and a lack of help from Chicago.