San Luis Obispo - suburban or urban? (Los Angeles, San Diego: college, living)

[the city]

Which is San Luis Obispo more considered, urban or suburban? What about the region of San Luis Coast (south county) - suburb or country-side? Country-side of LA or ex-urb (way outer suburb) of LA? Or is it a suburb of Santa Maria or suburb of Bakersfield or a suburb of Salinas?

[sav858]

neither, it's just a small college town basically. It's somewhat isolated and self contained so I wouldn't consider a suburb of any city.

[the city]

I think the San Luis Coast region is a ex-urb (way outer suburb) of the LA metro.

But, then again. As I was talking to the mayor today. SLO is more like a small urban city with surrounding small suburban and rural cities and then has rural fringe w/ the paso robles valley. Same deal with Santa Maria Valley with the rural fringe of the santa ynez valley. and the same deal for santa barbara with the rural fringe of the lompoc valley.

[BobsGL1800]

[quote=the city;4672127]I think the San Luis Coast region is a ex-urb (way outer suburb) of the LA metro.

Some way out suburb. LA is about 190 miles away. I would not even consider Nipomo as a suburb of LA.

Where do you dream up this stuff?

[the city]

Hmm, what about San Luis Obispo being an ex-suburb of Bakersfield?

I think it's more likely to say Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, and San Luis Obispo are mini-urban cities.

[sav858]

is any significant # of people in SLO commuting to LA or Bakersfield for work? If not then it's not an exurb at all....

[Sassberto]

OP seems to be looking to redefine the term "urban"

I would suggest consulting the census, alternatively a dictionary.

Anywhere a significant amount of people live can be considered "urban".

SLO is not an exurb of LA. It's just a little city. The region, the collection of little cities (including Santa Barbara), makes the area economically feasible.

[FresnoFacts]

Originally Posted by the city

I think the San Luis Coast region is a ex-urb (way outer suburb) of the LA metro.

Originally Posted by the city

Hmm, what about San Luis Obispo being an ex-suburb of Bakersfield?

Here are the commute patterns in and out of San Luis Obispo County.
http://www.calmis.ca.gov/file/commut...nlucommute.pdf
The largest numbers are between Santa Barbara County. Many are probably between southern SLO County and northern SB County. But still it represents less than 10% of SLO County's labor force.

There are only a few hundred people commuting between SLO County and Kern County, probably also those people living along the county borders.

Likewise only a tiny number going to Ventura/Los Angeles/Orange/etc Counties.

So SLO is not an exurb of Bakersfield or Los Angeles, it doesn't supply a significant work force to either.

[the city]

Well, apparently there seems to be 2 different urban types: urbanized areas and urban clusters. Urban clusters seems to be like the five cities (grover beach, arroyo grande, avila beach, pismo beach, and oceano) which is like a suburb of san luis obispo. san luis obispo is the urbanized area.

Like I said before I think SLO is a "mini" urban city like Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, and El Centro.

Urban cities:
Los Angeles
San Francisco
San Diego
San Jose
Fresno
San Bernadino
Orange
Sacramento
Bakersfield
Stockton
Modesto
Oxnard
Salinas
Redding
Vallejo
Santa Maria
Santa Barbara
San Rafael
Santa Cruz
San Luis Obispo
El Centro

And then, commuter towns or nearby cities that look to these urban cities to function (suburbs or suburban communities)
Temecula
Roseville
Irvine
Long Beach
Santa Ana
Ontario
Oakland
Roseville
Davis
El Dorado Hills
Yuba City
Lancaster
Palmdale
Northridge
Santa Clarita
Santa Monica
Malibu
Pomona
Ventura
Santa Clara
San Mateo
Newport Beach
Mission Viejo
Anaheim
Huntington Beach
Merced
Thousand Oaks
Simi Valley
Monterey
Hayward
Madera
Moreno Valley

And then rural fringes (low population density, less than 150,000 population within 20 minutes of each)
Victorville
Eureka
Susanville
Gardenville
San Benito
Ukiah
Clearlake
Red Bluff
Cedar Ridge
Crescent City
Bishop
Lompoc
Paso Robles
Mammoth Lakes
Big Bear Lakes
Yucca Valley
King City
Victorville
Napa
South Lake Tahoe
Barstow
Nevada City
Ione
Orland
Colusa
Fort Bragg
Weed
Yreka
Chico
Visalia
Tulare
Hanford
Truckee
San Andreas
Porterville
Dinuba

[FresnoFacts]

I don't agree that the type of retail store should be part of the defiinition. But if you want to use it then you have classification problems.

For Example:

**(suburbs or suburban communities in which have costcos in area): a lot of these do NOT have Costco.

**Rural Fringe - Victorville, Eureka, Visalia, and Chico all have Costcos.