Most Urban, Largest, Farthest, and Connected Suburban Cities in America? (people, Boston)
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They're not as notable as Lawrence (not the primate city in the area) but maybe they'd just consider themselves a suburb of Lawrence or would they rather associate with Boston?
Whether Haverhill is a suburb of Boston is up for debate, but it’s in NO WAY a suburb of Lawrence. No more so than Lawrence us a suburb of Lowell or Lowell a suburb of Nashua.
I don’t understand the distinctions that you’re making by excluding Long Beach but including Irvine. I get that Long Beach is a city in its own right even with its own suburbs, but Irvine is like that too. I think that it’s really hard to do something like this for LA because it’s so developed everywhere and cities and the roles that they play don’t stay within political boundaries.
The concept of not existing without the primary city is very confusing. LA was the first city incorporated in LA County so why exclude the others? The other cities were all separate cities at one point that grew together. The entire region grew because of geographic features like the port, oil deposits, and the LA river. Because of weather and Hollywood and other things. But they would have all grown no matter what the political boundaries were.
Santa Ana would be a much better choice than Irvine.
Seems to me Irvine is considered a "suburb of L.A." mostly by people observing from other parts of the country, not by people in Irvine or Los Angeles (like San Bernardino or Riverside). Santa Ana had a similar growth trajectory and more culturally tied into L.A. than O.C. LA Metro rail is being brought to its doorstep.
Santa Ana is nearly twice as dense as Irvine as well, with its own defined downtown with a central market.
Santa Ana would be a much better choice than Irvine.
Seems to me Irvine is considered a "suburb of L.A." mostly by people observing from other parts of the country, not by people in Irvine or Los Angeles (like San Bernardino or Riverside). Santa Ana had a similar growth trajectory and more culturally tied into L.A. than O.C. LA Metro rail is being brought to its doorstep.
Santa Ana is nearly twice as dense as Irvine as well, with its own defined downtown with a central market.
Good choice. It also has frequent Metrolink and Amtrak service and a streetcar opening soon.
Whether Haverhill is a suburb of Boston is up for debate, but it’s in NO WAY a suburb of Lawrence. No more so than Lawrence us a suburb of Lowell or Lowell a suburb of Nashua.
It’s just a big string of really close cities.
Lowell is bigger than Nashua. Idk I mean was Haverhill a suburb of Lawrence for a while when Lawrence was thriving. I just say so because it’s smaller and more suburban than Lawrence and next to it.
Santa Ana would be a much better choice than Irvine.
Seems to me Irvine is considered a "suburb of L.A." mostly by people observing from other parts of the country, not by people in Irvine or Los Angeles (like San Bernardino or Riverside). Santa Ana had a similar growth trajectory and more culturally tied into L.A. than O.C. LA Metro rail is being brought to its doorstep.
Santa Ana is nearly twice as dense as Irvine as well, with its own defined downtown with a central market.
The topic of this thread is most farthest and connected suburban city. Santa Ana is like Riverside or San Bernardino, a county seat and grew separate from LA. It is also like Pomona, Long Beach, or Pasadena in that they really were independent cities that grew as LA did but eventually got surrounded by the sprawl.
It has its own traditional core that it grew around before Los Angeles sprawl got there, unlike Irvine which essentially didnt exist. The two biggest reasons why Santa Ana is denser than Irvine is that Irvine has a bunch of protected lands and home sizes are larger in Santa Ana.
Thats why I said Irvine because it was empty fields until 60 years ago and grew up because of its proximity to LA. Once it got large enough, it sprang up new business districts and eventually became an economic center. While doing so it got denser, is developing walkable areas, has diversity in restaursnts, etc.
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Originally Posted by 2Easy
Good choice. It also has frequent Metrolink and Amtrak service and a streetcar opening soon.
Irvine also has metrolink and amtrak service at the irvine station, in addition to bus service city wide (OC Transit).
The topic of this thread is most farthest and connected suburban city. Santa Ana is like Riverside or San Bernardino, a county seat and grew separate from LA. It is also like Pomona, Long Beach, or Pasadena in that they really were independent cities that grew as LA did but eventually got surrounded by the sprawl.
It has its own traditional core that it grew around before Los Angeles sprawl got there, unlike Irvine which essentially didnt exist. The two biggest reasons why Santa Ana is denser than Irvine is that Irvine has a bunch of protected lands and home sizes are larger in Santa Ana.
Thats why I said Irvine because it was empty fields until 60 years ago and grew up because of its proximity to LA. Once it got large enough, it sprang up new business districts and eventually became an economic center. While doing so it got denser, is developing walkable areas, has diversity in restaursnts, etc.
Irvine also has metrolink and amtrak service at the irvine station, in addition to bus service city wide (OC Transit).
If anything Irvine would be a suburb of Santa Ana, and the LACMTA light rail extension towards OC is going to be called "West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor."
Santa Ana naturally flows from the Los Angeles Gateway cities, whereas Irvine is just its own thing sitting there.
Irvine is "part of the Los Angeles area" mostly in the mind of some guy from Danbury, CT who went to a video game convention there, flew home and told people he "went to L.A. for the weekend."
If anything Irvine would be a suburb of Santa Ana, and the LACMTA light rail extension towards OC is going to be called "West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor."
Santa Ana naturally flows from the Los Angeles Gateway cities, whereas Irvine is just its own thing sitting there.
Irvine is "part of the Los Angeles area" mostly in the mind of some guy from Danbury, CT who went to a video game convention there, flew home and told people he "went to L.A. for the weekend."
As someone who has lived in Irvine for years, it is in no way a suburb of Santa Ana because Santa Ana almost doesnt exist for most Irvine residents. It is Irvine, Newport, Laguna, south OC, or LA quite literally. Only time Santa Ana exists for an Irvine resident is if they want some Mexican food, they wanna hit up a dispensary in the industrial area of SA, or they happen to be at South Coast, which most of that is Costa Mesa anyway. Many Irvine residents when they go into LA County use the 405 so they miss Santa Ana entirely.
When I used to commute, Santa Ana was never used as the last stop on the metrolink OC line no matter the time, but Irvine often would be (and sometimes the Aliso Viejo station). Typically the last stop is Oceanside but there is a reason Irvine would be used often so the train could quickly turn around and head back to Union to pick up more OC/Irvine residents working in LA. Amtrak also had a special express service that would stop at only a handful of stations. Of course Irvine was one of those stations Amtrak didnt skip because (at least back then) Irvine had a lot of traffic heading to/from LA in the work week. I can tell you no one got off at the Santa Ana stop from Irvine. We were all piling on to get to LA.
I also dont think Santa Ana blends into the gateway cities as easily as you say. For one there is still a bunch of north OC cities to go through and the vibe changes.
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