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Using a metro area you are familiar with:
Louisville, KY
The city has a population of 701,500 (2000 census)
The metro area has a population of 1,356,798 (2000 census)
And actually covers two states.
A metropolitan area usually combines an agglomeration (the contiguous built-up area) with peripheral zones not themselves necessarily urban in character, but closely bound to the center by employment or commerce; these zones are also sometimes known as a commuter belt, and may extend well beyond the urban periphery depending on the definition used.
The metro area is more important because that it is what defines the entire city, the total area (the "big picture"). The city limits is "limiting".
You said it for sure. City limits are not only just limiting, I think they are outdated and should just be thrown out, and the cities redefined as their metro areas. Most cities these days are big enough that they don't really end outside of their limits...they just keep on going and going...no not forever...anyways...back to the main point...metro areas to me are essentially the modern and much more accurate definitions of city limits these days. Cities a long time ago ended at their city limits...nowadays they extend far beyond them. So I like to think of metro areas are nothing more than the city limits redefined to better represent cities today. City limits are for people living 100 years in the past IMO. Like the piston engined airliners gave way to the jets 50 years ago, so should city limits now give way to metro areas. The big picture counts more than the small picture and tells the full truth about a city.
City limits are not only just limiting, I think they are outdated and should just be thrown out, and the cities redefined as their metro areas.
Actually city limits are a way to tell which city is the powerhouse of the region and its importance within and beyond the region. If it was just by metros alone, it's like a doughnut; the center being nebulous.
I can make metro areas bigger by adding counties to no end.
oh. I guess I just didn't understand because I just simply don't really RELATE to the surrounding areas. Thanks all for the explanation.
Most people don't live that way, or do they?
Let's take my hometown in Michigan. I know guys that went K-12, and college, all in the same city and its most adjacent neighbor. I swear that visiting me in Ann Arbor was a ROAD TRIP for them (60 miles away, barely outside metro Detroit, if at all, depending on your definition)!
I swear that visiting me in Ann Arbor was a ROAD TRIP for them (60 miles away, barely outside metro Detroit, if at all, depending on your definition)!
That's a daily commute ONE WAY for many residents in the greater NYC area, stretching from Central NJ, to NE PA, to the eastern tip of LI to Southern Connecticut. Overall, the NYC metro area, with a population of about 22 million in 3 states, is home to 1 out of every 14 Americans.
Actually city limits are a way to tell which city is the powerhouse of the region and its importance within and beyond the region. If it was just by metros alone, it's like a doughnut; the center being nebulous.
I can make metro areas bigger by adding counties to no end.
You could, but then you'd ultimately wind up with the CSA, and I can't think of a single metro area that pushes the term "metro area" way out of line (meaning they go so far as to include counties that are complete wilderness and little to no population). If you add enough counties on, what you wind up with is the same thing as a CSA. Metro areas, as their definition indicates consist of the immediately surrouding counties right around the city limits which experience full-force the sprawl of the city and essentially are fully-tied to the city in almost every way. I don't see how definitions of the St. Louis metro area oversteps any distance boundaries or breaks any rules. St. Louis City would still be a part of St. Louis County had it not taken the unusual step of seceding, and is only 60 square miles...if you think the city just ends outside of those limits, LOL at you. Metro areas are the powerhouse of a city, not the city itself. The Metro Area helps power the city, and in a MAJOR way it does. Not the other way around. So in my view, that makes the metro area the same thing as the city, and also limits the definition of how many counties you can add on. And according to your donut analogy, say this donut had frosting on it...LOL...the frosting could be considered the suburbs...it is touching the donut, therefore I think it makes sense to call it a part of the donut because it adds flavor to the donut, just like a metro area adds power to a city. I guess there is more than one way to look at it, but i believe in the metro area being the more legitimate way to represent a city in this day and age.
I swear that visiting me in Ann Arbor was a ROAD TRIP for them (60 miles away, barely outside metro Detroit, if at all, depending on your definition)!
60 miles, that's a one way commute for people in the greater Los Angeles area, stretching from coastal Ventura's Oxnard to the Inland Empire's San Bernardino down the coast again to Dana Point. Counting those nasty illegals that L. A. is infamous for, that's almost 21 million people. Unlike New York, these are well within one state. Not counting San Diego. Here we come! Oh, snap!
60 miles, that's a one way commute for people in the greater Los Angeles area, stretching from coastal Ventura's Oxnard to the Inland Empire's San Bernardino down the coast again to Dana Point. Counting those nasty illegals that L. A. is infamous for, that's almost 21 million people. Unlike New York, these are well within one state. Not counting San Diego. Here we come! Oh, snap!
The Ann Arbor thing I think has to do with how big Detroit is. Detroit and Chicago and New York are so big that the sprawl of their metro area goes on for 60 miles or more. They are VERY large cities, so IMO the metro area still makes sense to define as the city...although I'm not sure Ann Arbor should be considered part of Detroit I feel like that is overstepping the boundaries there. They say the larger the city, the greater the sprawl, unless you happen to live in a place where the city seceded itself from its own county But St. Louis even after it seceded from its county was a very big city, one of the largest in the United States for a very long time (nearly 1 million people in the city limits alone)...so its not that surprising its metro area is the size it is.
Let's take my hometown in Michigan. I know guys that went K-12, and college, all in the same city and its most adjacent neighbor. I swear that visiting me in Ann Arbor was a ROAD TRIP for them (60 miles away, barely outside metro Detroit, if at all, depending on your definition)!
Quite a few.
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...anyways...back to the main point...metro areas to me are essentially the modern and much more accurate definitions of city limits these days. Cities a long time ago ended at their city limits...nowadays they extend far beyond them. So I like to think of metro areas are nothing more than the city limits redefined to better represent cities today. City limits are for people living 100 years in the past IMO. Like the piston engined airliners gave way to the jets 50 years ago, so should city limits now give way to metro areas. The big picture counts more than the small picture and tells the full truth about a city.
But St. Louis even after it seceded from its county was a very big city, one of the largest in the United States for a very long time (nearly 1 million people in the city limits alone)...so its not that surprising its metro area is the size it is.
