What will be the first suburb to reach 100,000 people? (Rochester: apartment complex, condos)

[Kid Cann]

Originally Posted by emcee squared

Right on. I've always been curious about the whole lack of annexation thing in this area. A few of those places you mentioned also have a consolidated city/county government. Just imagine Minneapolis encompassing all of Hennepin county. I know that some of the larger suburbs have there own feel to them, different than Minneapolis or St. Paul proper. But at the same time many of the smaller ones near the borders of the big cities can definitely be lumped into one big entity or become part of Mpls or St. P. (Robbinsdale, Crystal, New Hope, Falcon Heights, Columbia Heights, ect.) There is no reason for all those small cities to run their own government/fire/police. Hell, Robbinsdale, Crystal, New Hope can become one new city (Robbstalhope?) for that matter.

I always have the feeling that people think the Twin Cities are tiny because the central cities are so small in comparison to other major cities in the nation. Minneapolis is the 40-something largest in the country only, relatively dense by American standards.

Minneapolis used to be the 14th largest city in the USA in 1950s when it had over 525,000 people. And.. before the Sun Belt blew up. I like to use the simple equation of (City Pop.)/(Metro Pop) and that %-age = amount of people that make up the city out of the total metro...

So, 390,000 (MPLS) / 3,300,000 (Metro) = about 11%. So MPLS makes up only 11% of the metro area. Miami is similar in the sense that MIA only makes up about 7% of the Miami-Dade Metro. Compare that to Milwaukee where it's roughly 20%

[Kid Cann]

Originally Posted by Radical_Car

Ya and Minneapolis is only around 55 square miles and St. Paul is also only around 50-55 square miles. Minneapolis is the 48th largest city in terms of population and St. Paul is 67 according to Wikipedia. If Minneapolis and St. Paul were one city they would be the 20th largest(How I found this out is I took the populations Wikipedia has listed for both of them and got 666,804. Memphis is at 19 and is listed at 676k and Boston is at 20 and listed as 645k, so if Minneapolis and St. Paul were one city it would be around the 20th largest)
List of United States cities by population - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Or how about this:

Combine Golden Valley, Robbinsdale, Crystal, and New Hope and since GV and Robbinsdale both border MPLS, all of them could be annexed into MPLS.

23,000 - Crystal - 6 sq miles
+
21,000 - New Hope - 5 sq miles
+
14,000 - Robbinsdale - 3 sq miles
+
20,000 - Golden Valley -10 sq miles

that's 78,000 more people and only 24 more sq miles. MPLS would be about 460,000 and have 79 sq miles.

The 3 boundaries north of the red box (which is Golden Valley)
File:Hennepin County Minnesota Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Golden Valley Highlighted.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[srsmn]

Originally Posted by west336

Just check it out....it's very impressive for a suburb.. I drive there every once in a while and they are now going VERITCAL! It's fun to watch!

Well, I'm not going to drive forty minutes to check it out, but I was curious about this very dense neighborhood at 42 and galaxie. So, I bing mapped it:

http://www.bing.com/maps/#JnE9LjE1MD...E0Mzk0MDE1MDg=

Needless to say, that isn't as impressive as I was led to believe. Especially when really structurally dense neighborhoods in the Twin Cities suburbs look like this:

http://www.bing.com/maps/#JnE9LmRvdW...IxNTk4NTE3Mw==


Or this:

http://www.bing.com/maps/#JnE9LnNuZW...MyOTMwNTExMjM2

Or, particularly, this:

http://www.bing.com/maps/#JnE9LjUwdGgrYW5kK2ZyYW5jZSU3ZXNzdC4wJTdlcGcuMSZiY j00NC45OTI5NTIyMDgzMzElN2UtOTMuMTY0NjU3OTY0NzY3OSU 3ZTQ0Ljk5MDQ3OTIxNTgyNDMlN2UtOTMuMTY5MDgxNTc2NTI0N w=

And just to drive the point home, 8,000 people per square mile in a suburb doesn't look anything like the intersection of 42 and galaxie. It looks more like this:

Bing Maps

There are other areas of the Twin Cities suburbs that are markedly denser than 42 and galaxie, either structurally or by population. The area around the Galeria in Edina comes to mind, or some of the pockets of apartment complexes in Eden Prairie. Or, pockets of BC or BP, particularly along 94. Whether any of those neighborhoods amounts to 8,000 people per square mile, I couldn't say....

[emcee squared]

I like St. Minnebloomingfield... Obviously, Crystal, New Hope, Golden Valley, Robbinsdale would be much easier annexed. 78k in 24 square miles is the density we like around these parts. Maybe we could just combine a whole bunch of those small, dense suburbs and create that 100k 'burb we've been yearning for. I have a hard time calling the suburbs to begin with, in any city further south they would long be part of the central city.

[emcee squared]

Originally Posted by srsmn

There are other areas of the Twin Cities suburbs that are markedly denser than 42 and galaxie, either structurally or by population. The area around the Galeria in Edina comes to mind, or some of the pockets of apartment complexes in Eden Prairie. Or, pockets of BC or BP, particularly along 94. Whether any of those neighborhoods amounts to 8,000 people per square mile, I couldn't say....

And look at the density within the city limits of Atlanta. Unfortunately, it makes me feel AV is 'dense'

[west336]

Originally Posted by srsmn

Well, I'm not going to drive forty minutes to check it out, but I was curious about this very dense neighborhood at 42 and galaxie. So, I bing mapped it:

Bing Maps

Needless to say, that isn't as impressive as I was led to believe. Especially when really structurally dense neighborhoods in the Twin Cities suburbs look like this:

Bing Maps


Or this:

Bing Maps

Or, particularly, this:

http://www.bing.com/maps/#JnE9LjUwdGgrYW5kK2ZyYW5jZSU3ZXNzdC4wJTdlcGcuMSZiY j00NC45OTI5NTIyMDgzMzElN2UtOTMuMTY0NjU3OTY0NzY3OSU 3ZTQ0Ljk5MDQ3OTIxNTgyNDMlN2UtOTMuMTY5MDgxNTc2NTI0N w=

And just to drive the point home, 8,000 people per square mile in a suburb doesn't look anything like the intersection of 42 and galaxie. It looks more like this:

Bing Maps

There are other areas of the Twin Cities suburbs that are markedly denser than 42 and galaxie, either structurally or by population. The area around the Galeria in Edina comes to mind, or some of the pockets of apartment complexes in Eden Prairie. Or, pockets of BC or BP, particularly along 94. Whether any of those neighborhoods amounts to 8,000 people per square mile, I couldn't say....

Nope....this is denser than the Galeria (I live right near there). Just get your lazy a** over there whenever you have the power and just check it out for yourself before calling me a charlatan. I drive around the city frequently looking for things just like this, and this is the best example of urbanism I've seen in the suburbs, at least the outlying suburbs. And, FYI, I'd bet the Galleria area has roughly 6000-7000 psm, but that's also including a lot of retail, lakes, etc. that is sandwiched between.

[west336]

Shakopee is also going denser than most suburbs and there are pockets of moderate to high density there as well, but still not quite to the level of Apple Valley between 150th and 160th and Galaxie Ave. I'd take pictures and upload them but honestly, I don't know how to do that on this website and right now my wife has the camera and she's out of town. Maybe another time though...

[Govie]

Woodbury has nothing but room for growth (east). It's true the structure of the town/city is a mess, but I'd say Woodbury. One of the places I'd consider moving if I was making 6 figures right now.

[Kid Cann]

Originally Posted by Govie

Woodbury has nothing but room for growth (east). It's true the structure of the town/city is a mess, but I'd say Woodbury. One of the places I'd consider moving if I was making 6 figures right now.

I'd say the SOUTH has more room for growth

[emcee squared]

East of the Woodbury city limits is all farmland, too (Afton, I believe.) One day we will see continuous sprawl all the way to Wisconsin.