Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You can't have those types of factories you have in Chelsea in true suburbs- that's why its in Chelsea. This same thing applies to places throughout the northeast. At the very least those facilities are employment centers characterized by urban spaces.
I cannot imagine the industry in Chelsea anywhere in MA that isnt a satellite city.n urban If they were they certianly would look very different.But on top of that, you can have triple-deckers, rowhomes, and 5 over 1s in suburban settings too. You can have SFH in suburban settings too. Or that office buildings are fine in suburban areas too. Just because you can find something in a suburban area doesn't mean it isn't urban.
Bridges in Chelsea are toll-free and one of them has sidewalks and is legit walkable.
At the ends of the smaller bridge you mentioned, there is housing quite literally right there. On both sides
If you leave Chelsea at 8pm tonight a 12-minute drive from Chelsea to Chinatown will take you by the Bunker Hill Monument, through the West and North ends of Boston, the Waterfront and Leather District. Super urban with tunnels, bridges, and surface roads and the skyline backdrop from different angles. I understand you see my point- I was just sort of outlining the level of connection and proximity to other highly urban areas.
There are most certainly factories in suburban settings in the US. It's likely a majority of US factories by volume of goods produced. However, factories aren't the only things that are industrial. Marine terminals are also in modern times often not in a very dense areas. That's certainly not the crux of the arguments about contiguous-ness so much as there being no development on bridges (usually), but certain industrial developments especially with a lot of empty space or parking lots in general could be an argument for assigning a lower "urbanity" score. I think it's good to acknowledge a few things. One is that there can be an argument for what's the threshold for contiguous and for urban and that will change the blob that's created for each of the respective urban areas. You talk about housing or development starting, but is it contiguous? I can see an argument for that it is not. This doesn't mean that that's final, but it in pretty literal sense is not contiguous. The other is that as you loosen the thresholds for contiguous and for urban, this also likely means you create a more urban blob for the other urban areas as well so it's likely the overall rankings don't shift that much. I do think that Chelsea probably should be included even when using a "higher" threshold for contiguous than something like Arlington County. Finally, there's no plot against Chelsea happening here because there wasn't a very involved breakdown for all the other portions of the other cities mentioned.
One interesting bit that occurred to me which is more about walkability than urbanity directly is that the foot of the bridges as there access points being even further inland even as the bridge starts traversing developed land is in some ways a greater disconnect / discontinuity as the effective division between development on both sides of the bridge is actually then even further than the body of water separating them. This in terms of walkability makes some sense as a greater barrier alongside if part of that includes a larger "hump" in elevation to traverse.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 01-09-2023 at 01:26 PM..
Factories in urban and suburban settings are pretty different still too. The ones in the city are usually older, more rundown looking and also very compact which makes it harder for trucks to navigate. Suburban factories are typically newer, modern state of the art designs that's very spacious with more green landscaping from what I've seen.
Factories in urban and suburban settings are pretty different still too. The ones in the city are usually older, more rundown looking and also very compact which makes it harder for trucks to navigate. Suburban factories are typically newer, modern state of the art designs that's very spacious with more green landscaping from what I've seen.
Chelsea has both. But it has next to no grass whatsoever and is absent of any landscaping really.
But Chelsea also has some buildings that are technically highrises. There are many office buildings there, including the FBI field office for Boston. So its definitely a really dense, industrial area, with some offices as well. Not a real bedroom community. Chelsea has had 2 "Great Fires" that resuted in some of its renovated suburban plots and some of its urban blight.
I'd say the average American would be familiar with Boston and Cambridge but likely not the other cities of the Boston area. Maybe Somerville and Brookline as well. Plymouth, Salem, Lexington and Concord for history buffs also.
Not trying to be argumentative but the average American that lives more than a 5 hour drive from Boston has never heard of Somerville or Brookline. Why would they? I think that even Cambridge is somewhat niche and not well-known by most. There's probably only a couple/three dozen satellite cities/suburbs that most Americans know and most of those are in the LA or NYC metro.
Not trying to be argumentative but the average American that lives more than a 5 hour drive from Boston has never heard of Somerville or Brookline. Why would they? I think that even Cambridge is somewhat niche and not well-known by most. There's probably only a couple/three dozen satellite cities/suburbs that most Americans know and most of those are in the LA or NYC metro.
Yeah that's why I said maybe. I agree most wouldn't have heard of those places. I think a decent amount of people know Harvard is in Cambridge however.
Important to note that 5 hours from Boston is CT, NY, NJ, PA. That's a lot of people.
It’s a lot of people, and most of them probably do know about Brookline and Somerville. I think that poster’s point still stands.
I sincerely doubt that most people within 5 hours drive of Boston know about both Brookline and Somerville, especially the former. I think most people just don't really dig into this sort of thing very much and aren't going to come across it unless they're in pretty close proximity.
Yes for the reasons I listed. It’s close to Somerville but it’s not a college area by any means albeit Chelsea has turned around significantly and has some gentrification and trendiness going for it.
I’m a a bit struck by how much people seem to know about various area of the top 4/5 cities. Seems like people know very little about 98% of Greater Boston. But people for all of LAs vastness can tell you about the Valley vs South LA vs Dolan vs Koreatown. People can tell you the vibes of all these pockets of SF and Chicago and NYC. That starts to waver in DC a bit but falls off a cliff for Boston. I think people are even more familiar with the inns and outs of Seattle, North Jersey, and Atlanta…
I would think people would know it just based off how close it is to downtown if they visit. Or just when they look at a map/google map.
I think that you're probably correct. Could it be because the average American really only knows pop culture and aside from sports Boston isn't trendy in that way? It's popular with educated white people. Even in sports it probably punches below its weight in national fans considering how many championships the city has over the last couple decades. I think that it's seen more as a city to become educated and make money and less as a place to have fun.
I think that you're probably correct. Could it be because the average American really only knows pop culture and aside from sports Boston isn't trendy in that way? It's popular with educated white people. Even in sports it probably punches below its weight in national fans considering how many championships the city has over the last couple decades. I think that it's seen more as a city to become educated and make money and less as a place to have fun.
That’s a shame it’s a complete city with a lot of different things going on. The mental block is real. It’s not known as a place to have fun-but most cities in the US aren’t known for that -and I guess that’s why it’s not much more well understood than a mid size metro.
Not trying to be argumentative but the average American that lives more than a 5 hour drive from Boston has never heard of Somerville or Brookline. Why would they? I think that even Cambridge is somewhat niche and not well-known by most. There's probably only a couple/three dozen satellite cities/suburbs that most Americans know and most of those are in the LA or NYC metro.
+1; but 1/3rd of the country lives in bos-wash so they are still well known by many (most ?).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
