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Eh. I think most suburbs except for maybe the newest ones are continuous. At least, describes where I grew up. Suburbs separated by lots of open space don't sound normal to me.
Some outer suburbs in Eastern MA are separated by open space, but that is because there are somewhat dense old towns that form the centers of suburbs and in between is open space or low-density housing.
In lots of the East Coast, the towns can be pretty far apart. For example in PA, SC, NC this is pretty similar. Some towns are contiguous, but there is a good deal of green space between and at the boundaries of the city.
In my experience, towns are usually lower in density and less continuous. As someone else mentioned, there's usually open space between towns. I suppose you could say that a town is (usually) a less dense city neighborhood with no other connected neighborhoods (or less so). I suppose you could consider a city a grouping of dense towns that are connected and more urban in feel with a single LARGE downtown to consolidate them all.
I totally agree with you. Except not all cities were grouping of dense towns.
Ha ha here is the dictionary definitions:
town: a thickly populated area, usually smaller than a city and larger than a village, having fixed boundaries and certain local powers of government.
city: a large or important town.
and the two other definitions for a town are:
2. a densely populated area of considerable size, as a city or borough.
3.(especially in New England) a municipal corporation with less elaborate organization and powers than a city
I think in the English language and the USA we have agreed that a city is based on density standards. I think to be considered a city you have to have 500,000 population surrounding a town within 20 minutes.
The bolded line is what I never referred to as a town (assuming big doesn't necessarily mean big, but more as "defined"). I always referred to a town when it seemed to have some sort of definitive center and surrounding community. Here's a prime example of what I think of when I say "town":
Yea, I think that's a better definition but I use the other one too because that was how it was used where I grew up.
I grew up in Long Island, where the entire area is subdivided into townships. Each township provides for most of the local services , sets building and zoning codes, etc and vary in population between from 100,000 to 750,000 (ones in the more rural eastern part maybe lowers) The suburbs are continuous and there is no distinction or change when crossing boundaries. Density decreases as you go further east until at some point (about 60 miles from the city) the suburbs are scattered and large parts rural. Anyway, any resident in Long Island can say they are part of the "Town of ..." even though it is just continuous suburbia. Confusingly scattered with the "Towns" are walkable pre-automobile centers that people may also refer to as towns.
You're missing the magic. Part of the value of the random encounter is meeting people you don't know, and opportunities for networking between individuals--close friends, acquaintances, business associates, political associates, or customers (current or future.) If your only friends are your acquaintances at work, you should probably get out more--and the advantage of a walkable neighborhood (whether it is a small town, a streetcar suburb, or a central city) is that getting out more is generally very easy.
Lol. I have plenty of friends that have nothing to do with my job, easily the majority of them. Maybe it's because I've lived in a few places so small that everyone knew everyone else, running across someone I know during the course of my day just doesn't register with me as something that's at all significant. Seems to be a big deal to some of the people here though so I guess maybe it's more important if you're accustomed to being a face in a crowd.
I totally agree with you. Except not all cities were grouping of dense towns.
Ha ha here is the dictionary definitions:
town: a thickly populated area, usually smaller than a city and larger than a village, having fixed boundaries and certain local powers of government.
city: a large or important town.
and the two other definitions for a town are:
2. a densely populated area of considerable size, as a city or borough.
3.(especially in New England) a municipal corporation with less elaborate organization and powers than a city
I think in the English language and the USA we have agreed that a city is based on density standards. I think to be considered a city you have to have 500,000 population surrounding a town within 20 minutes.
You're probably right, but it's strange to me when a major city has a population density of 1,000 ppl/sq mile (on average).
Yea, I think that's a better definition but I use the other one too because that was how it was used where I grew up.
I grew up in Long Island, where the entire area is subdivided into townships. Each township provides for most of the local services , sets building and zoning codes, etc and vary in population between from 100,000 to 750,000 (ones in the more rural eastern part maybe lowers) The suburbs are continuous and there is no distinction or change when crossing boundaries. Density decreases as you go further east until at some point (about 60 miles from the city) the suburbs are scattered and large parts rural. Anyway, any resident in Long Island can say they are part of the "Town of ..." even though it is just continuous suburbia. Confusingly scattered with the "Towns" are walkable pre-automobile centers that people may also refer to as towns.
Yeah, I understand what you're saying. The bolded text is kind of what's always been the criteria for me (because of where I grew up). If a place is continuous in its development I at least envisioned an area that had a walkable nature at its core. Maybe because I always associate towns with a place that was, at one point, independent and had some sort of business center to it. I do realize that there are many places in the US that are towns and don't meet this criteria though.
I totally agree with you. Except not all cities were grouping of dense towns.
Ha ha here is the dictionary definitions:
town: a thickly populated area, usually smaller than a city and larger than a village, having fixed boundaries and certain local powers of government.
city: a large or important town.
and the two other definitions for a town are:
2. a densely populated area of considerable size, as a city or borough.
3.(especially in New England) a municipal corporation with less elaborate organization and powers than a city
I think in the English language and the USA we have agreed that a city is based on density standards. I think to be considered a city you have to have 500,000 population surrounding a town within 20 minutes.
There is a colloquial definition of town, as above, and the legal definition, which varies from state to state. Here is Colorado's:
Lol. I have plenty of friends that have nothing to do with my job, easily the majority of them. Maybe it's because I've lived in a few places so small that everyone knew everyone else, running across someone I know during the course of my day just doesn't register with me as something that's at all significant. Seems to be a big deal to some of the people here though so I guess maybe it's more important if you're accustomed to being a face in a crowd.
Not really, for most city people it's just automatic and assumed, it doesn't really register as significant until you notice its absence (often referred to as the "boring" aspect of suburban life) or its presence (sitting back and watching the dance of people in cities.) Only nerds like me who spend a lot of time studying and thinking about cities really take note of it.
Efficient functions tend to be unconscious and automatic--that is part of what makes them efficient. In small towns, the effect of close networking in a walkable neighborhood is the "everyone knows everyone else" effect: because there are a limited number of people to know, you get used to seeing the same people and being aware of what they are doing. In large cities, where one would expect to just be a face in the crowd, the same thing happens but in a different way. There are too many people to know to know everyone, but because people encounter each other, social networks often have great depth as well as breadth. As populations grow, the depth and breadth of those networks have synergy--they add up to more than the sum of their parts.
But yes, it's pretty much unconscious to people actually living in that city, as it is also taken as a given in small towns--and often conspicuously absent in places that are low-density and car-centric.
There is a colloquial definition of town, as above, and the legal definition, which varies from state to state.
The definition 3:
3. (especially in New England) a municipal corporation with less elaborate organization and powers than a city
is fairly close to the legal definition of towns in Massachusetts and to a lesser extent in New York. It was what I was using in some posts.
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Maybe it's because I've lived in a few places so small that everyone knew everyone else, running across someone I know during the course of my day just doesn't register with me as something that's at all significant. Seems to be a big deal to some of the people here though so I guess maybe it's more important if you're accustomed to being a face in a crowd.
