I live in Athens, Georgia (University of Georgia location) and when we talk about townies, we mean the old 60s 70s hippie guys who are still in the town. And yeah, townie is VERY derogatory. Which is why I hate the "everyone who lives in the town and doesn't go to college there" definition. Screw you college students, I've lived here my whole life, THIS IS MY HOME, you go somewhere else if you have a problem with that. (Not that I hate all the college students, or even most of them, a lot of them are cool guys/gals. I do hate the incoming freshman who can't figure out that you need to stand at the crossing signals and ONLY GO WHEN IT SAYS GO. I have no idea how many times I've had to slam on brakes from people crossing randomly in the middle of downtown, or just ignoring lights at the crosswalks)
(Granted, after 10 years as a building contractor, I am back in school, but not at UGA. Also, the students wouldn't dare say anything bad about you when you are fixing their plumbing/roof/etc.)
EDIT: Does it just, occur to anyone else that Padma, even if what she is saying is 100% ACCURATE is just... really flippantly rude.