How far do the suburbs in your city/metro area go? (schools, subdivisions)

[MattDen]

I was wondering how far the suburbs in your city/metro area go from the downtown area of the central city?

[RaleighRob]

Way way way too far! I wish they'd stop! I'm literally disgusted by all this sprawl.

[jdavid93225]

In Los Angeles, the suburbs stretch out as far as the eye can see. I live about 70 miles north of downtown L.A., and would consider the area where I live to be part of the suburbs, even though it's somewhat isolated within the National Forest. There are other areas that are further out that I would also consider suburbs, such as the "Inland Empire" which extends up to about 80 miles east of L.A., and the "High Desert" that includes Palmdale, Lancaster, Rosamond, Victorville, Adelanto, Hesperia, etc., which also stretches at least 80 miles from downtown L.A. If you head the other directions, you have Orange County to the southeast, and Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties to the northwest, which could also be considered suburbs of L.A. All in all, I would say that the suburbs of L.A. tend to extend about 80 miles in every direction they are able to, with the only exception being into the Pacific Ocean.

[The Dissenter]

In the DC area, there are people who commute from Baltimore to DC and NoVA, WV to DC, Fredricksburg to DC, Annapolis to NoVA. That's how carzy this area is.

[dullnboring]

Like Alanboy says, the DC area sprawls out of control and there are suburban-ish parts with commuters who work in D.C. that technically qualify as part of the metro area, as far away as West Virginia and south central Pennsylvania, in addition to swallowing almost the entire state of Maryland. I would say however as far as the "core" suburbs go, where suburban development and all of it's trappings of strip malls, new subdivisions, overcrowded schools, traffic, etc. is the norm as opposed to the exception; these I feel go out about 40 miles from D.C. By my own definition, this part of the D.C. area "ends" at Leesburg to the west, a few miles south of Manassas to the southwest, around Quantico to the south, Waldorf to the southeast, and Frederick to the northwest. It doesn't really "end" going north(east) as this is where the D.C. suburbs merge with the Baltimore suburbs (although both are technically part of the same Metro area, at least the CMSA, even though most people who live in both places don't consider them as part of the same area).

[Bhaalspawn]

Originally Posted by Alanboy395

In the DC area, there are people who commute from Baltimore to DC and NoVA, WV to DC, Fredricksburg to DC, Annapolis to NoVA. That's how carzy this area is.

I lived in NoVA for a couple months a couple years ago and I don't want any part of it, at least not without a nice 6-figure income. I grew up in the Midwest and even though I've lived in large cities before, I had never ever seen population density close to what I'd seen in the D.C. area.

One of the issues is how you define what a "suburb" is. I guess a rough definition would be populated areas within a certain commuting time of the primary city's downtown. In terms of where people who commute into the city live, it seems like the "suburbs" keep getting further and further out every year as people are increasingly willing to tolerate longer and longer commutes in order to be able to afford land and a home.

[friendnc]

The suburbs here in the Charlotte area go out about 30 miles or so in most directions.

[christina0001]

The entire state of NJ is classified as NYC-metro; in reality at least 3/4 of NJ is 'burbs for NYC and Philly.

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by Bhaalspawn

I lived in NoVA for a couple months a couple years ago and I don't want any part of it, at least not without a nice 6-figure income. I grew up in the Midwest and even though I've lived in large cities before, I had never ever seen population density close to what I'd seen in the D.C. area.

One of the issues is how you define what a "suburb" is. I guess a rough definition would be populated areas within a certain commuting time of the primary city's downtown. In terms of where people who commute into the city live, it seems like the "suburbs" keep getting further and further out every year as people are increasingly willing to tolerate longer and longer commutes in order to be able to afford land and a home.

I second that.

[SteelCityRising]

I can't tell where Scranton's southeasternmost suburbs end and where
New York City's northwesternmost ones begin! People are now asking me if a commute from Moscow, PA, just twenty minutes south of Scranton would be feasible for daily commutes to North Jersey or Manhattan. At the same time, some people from the Poconos commute into Scranton for work. I wonder sometimes if Scranton/Wilkes-Barre will be "swallowed" by the NYC exurban growth the way the Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton area was?