Living in a small city makes it really difficult to get PokéStops added in unlike larger cities, PokéStops are not placed randomly—they depend on player submissions and approvals. In my area, there are fewer players actively submitting locations, which means there are not many new PokéStops being created.
Another reason it is so hard is because there are fewer places that meet the eligibility criteria. Most PokéStops need to be places that encourage exploration, exercise, or social interaction, such as parks, community centers, or local landmarks. In a small city, there simply are not as many of these types of locations compared to bigger cities that have more public art, historical markers, and attractions.
On top of that, even when a location is submitted, it has to be reviewed and approved by other players. Since there are fewer reviewers in smaller areas, the process takes longer and submissions are more likely to be overlooked or rejected. This makes it frustrating because even good locations might never become PokéStops.
Overall, living in a small city creates a disadvantage when trying to get PokéStops because of the lack of eligible locations, fewer active players, and a slower review process.
By posting here you have found a community of experienced wayfinders who will be happy to help you to find and submit wayspots. That will help provide a better gameboard.
So I am going to move this to nomination support as that is what we can help you with that will be the most effective.
The first step we need to know is which town this is and the approximate area that you want to have help with. Some of the wayfinders here just love to go over an area looking at google for wayspot potential.
The other part that will be useful to know is more about what you have submitted. Have you had wayspots accepted? Or do they get rejected by the automatic process? If you can show some examples that will help.
Knowing both of these once we find things we can help improve the way you putting your nominations together to stand the best chance of success.
The community has started a topic with suggestions of points of interest for less urban areas that might have some ideas you hadn’t considered: Tips for Rural Nominators
Are you willing to post details about your community? For example co-ords for your local park. We may be able to look around and see if there is anything that could be suitable. Some of the information that we may see could be out of date, but it may help you identify what could be eligible in your area.
Speaking from past experience, smaller towns have faster voting times than a crowded city. There are few exceptions: isolated locations like in the Pacific islands. Review bonus location can be used to add an additional location to review at a time, maybe people here can do that in your area.
There are other methods (not accessible to players like us) of game object input that are less tied to objects/places like Testing New Wayspots in Pokémon GO - #2 by NianticTintino . This one assumes there are streets and bus stops, so is still tied to some form of infrastructure.
I’ve also asked myself with how we can solve this problem. The solutions I see is to have a personal game object for each rural player or make change outside. The former is subject to each game’s development team. The latter can be achieved with a community, funding, and coordination. POIs are tied with real objects/places, it is a trend that changes only when reality does too.
Depending on what you mean by “small” city, I also live in one. I’m basically in a suburban area within the corridor of a major interstate. Go ten miles away from it and there is almost nothing. Yes, it can be frustrating. Your playing area won’t look like that of major cities. That given there may be some hope to be had.
As others have also suggested, if your comfortable doing so, let us know the general area where you’re located (no specifics, please…. city/town is good enough). Many here are glad to scan Google Maps to look for possible ideas for you.
That there are fewer people (or even just yourself) in your area who is submitting nominations can become an advantage. You minimize the likelihood of duplicate submissions. You can communicate and plan submissions with other wayfinders (or just yourself). You can study the map and learn where best to place submissions. Submissions must always be place where the wayspots are located. However, for larger objects there are often multiple correct locations for the wayspot can be pinned, some of which are more beneficial for games players. (never deliberately misplace a wayspot nomination)
Local reviewing areas are rather large. For example (I’m in the US), mine includes parts of West Virginia in the northwest corner and coastal South Carolina in the southeast. That is done to reduce manipulation by reviewers as well as to cast a broad net and increase the pool of reviewers. Upgrades can expand the reviewer pool further. Lack of reviewers isn’t as much of a problem as it once was unless you’re in a very isolated area or country.
In my experience I have found that my rural nominations would get approved faster than ones in more urban area. There is some rural preference built into how reviews are served up to reviewers. Also in more urban areas you can find a greater imbalance between those submitting and those who review, which will slow down the process. With the implementation of a machine learning “bot” things have improved.
There are certain types of places in small cities that people don’t tend to think about.
Do you have any dance/martial arts studios that offer classes to adults as well as children?
Have all the cells in your local library been filled?
For churches, while the building can be a wayspot, you might get a second from statuary, stained glass or multipurpose rooms inside used for social functions.
Your local bowling alley, if you have one, is likely eligible
As with everyone else, if you give us a rough location to poke at, I’ll help see what might be in wait.
Almost every town, and certainly somewhere as significant as a city will have cafes and restaurants that are popular places to socialise- those are usually good things to nominate even small villages usually have at least somewhere to meet up and eat or drink together. Those kinds of places where you’d enjoy spending time are the idea kind of thing to nominate
I find its quite good to look at nominating in and around places where I spend my time, so when I meet a friend for coffee, I’ll nominate the cafe or restaurant, when I go to the gym, or other sports venue, I consider what I can nominate there. If I’m out for a walk, I keep an eye out. I live in a village which has kind of merged with a large town nowadays, and the village centre and parks are absolutely packed with PoIs now after several years of wayfarer-ing.
even small villages usually have at least somewhere to meet up and eat or drink together. Those kinds of places where you’d enjoy spending time are the idea kind of thing to nominate 