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River or no river Cambridge is more seamlessly integrated into downtown Boston than most other examples of cities to their respective downtowns on this thread. As an example Cambridge is more seamlessly integrated into the fabric of Boston than Evanston for Chicago and on and on..
There is seem its called the Charles River. If you said northern Brookline blends in it does.
All I'm saying is nobody says "I wonder when I've gone from Boston to Cambridge" It's very clear. Cambridge to Somerville sure. Boston to Coolidge Corner in Brookline sure.
All I'm saying is nobody says "I wonder when I've gone from Boston to Cambridge" It's very clear. Cambridge to Somerville sure. Boston to Coolidge Corner in Brookline sure.
Cambridge was listed as an example by the op for the thread topic. Of course it's clear because you know Cambridge is north of the Charles. If you didn't know Cambridge was north of the river it may not be so obvious. The two cities interact as one.
Almost all of Miami-Dade County acts like a city. The suburbs are more like neighbourhoods and its nothing but sprawl with no natural landscape in between. But then you cross 997 and all of a sudden its nothing but Everglades and Indian reservations until Naples.
Many other metro areas have the suburbs broken up by a bit of countryside. Even DFW, which is known for continuous sprawl has some countryside between suburbs like Weatherford and Denton. The I-35E corridor in DFW is more developed than the I-35W corridor that runs from Fort Worth to Denton.
Still, I see Boston as being a weird city. It's not like the majority of the country where the entire urban core, plus some suburbs are part of the city. It goes back to the 1800s, when Brookline voted to remain separate from Boston. Because of this Boston did not annex any further northern suburbs other then Charlestown.
So you've got many places north of the city, Somerville, Cambridge, Malden, Medford, Cheslea, Revere, etc that are very urban and easily accessible to downtown Boston. Without looking at a map you'd think that they are part of the city. However due to historical events they are not. Then you've got some places further out in Boston like West Roxbury or Hyde Park, which are pretty suburban in nature and not at all easily accessible to downtown Boston.
Readville, the southernmost neighborhood in Boston, is 9.9 miles away from downtown Boston as the crow flies. There are 18 separate municipal city halls located closer to Boston's city Hall then Readville (Quincy, Milton, Brookline, Newton, Watertown, Waltham, Cambridge, Somerville, Arlington, Medford, Belmont, Chelsea, Revere, Everett, Malden, Melrose, Saugus, Winthrop). If Boston went on an annexing spree like most other cities in the country did it would be over double its current size. That's why its population of around 675k people is misleading, the urban core of Boston is much larger. Plus most people within 128, when they visit other states, just say that they're from Boston even though they live in dense suburb one or two municipalities removed from Boston proper.
I think that's what the OP was referring more to. Areas that aren't technically part of a city, but for most practical and non-governmental purposes are.
Almost all of Miami-Dade County acts like a city. The suburbs are more like neighbourhoods and its nothing but sprawl with no natural landscape in between. But then you cross 997 and all of a sudden its nothing but Everglades and Indian reservations until Naples.
Many other metro areas have the suburbs broken up by a bit of countryside. Even DFW, which is known for continuous sprawl has some countryside between suburbs like Weatherford and Denton. The I-35E corridor in DFW is more developed than the I-35W corridor that runs from Fort Worth to Denton.
But the change usually isn't abrupt. Aside from street signs saying the municipality, you don't really know when you hit what, since Dallas isn't just the urban core and is primarily suburban like its neighbors.
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