Ahoy!

I'm wanting to work on some cities, to go along with the regional area I'm mapping in that forum. While the tutorials are easy enough, they don't really tackle things like .. how BIG the city should be.

For example, the first city I want to map is a port town, and the capital of the region. Checking the sources, I'm getting population reports of 17,200; 21,000; and 27,300. Knowing the size of the city is half the battle. Unfortunately, I'm really at a loss as how big I should make the city, in terms of square mileage, concentration, or even the layout.

I've been google-mapping small-ish towns at roughly that size, between 15k and 30k people, and I haven't found anything particularly inspiring. Most of those are part of a larger metropolis, and the rest seem to be a small center, with a large quantity of farming.

Anyone have any pointers, tips, ideas? I would love to hear/read them.

Thanks!