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I don't live in the city (New York), but Jersey City and all of Hudson County is a dense, urban place. I don't have a car, but we have good train and bus connections to suburban areas farther out.
I have to go to a suburban town for business meetings once a month or so. Otherwise, when I leave the urban core of the metro area, I'm usually going past the suburbs to get to places to hike, ski, bike, camp, pick apples, go to breweries, etc., out in the countryside.
All of the stores/shops I need are either here in JC, in NYC, or online, so the last time I went out to the burbs to shop was maybe a trip to IKEA in Paramus two years ago.
I don't have to leave Raleigh for anything, but because of the spread out layout of the city, traveling to different destinations around town is damn near like going on a road trip...
I don't have any practical reason to go the Durham side more than about once a month...
When I lived in Virginia Beach, I left the city limits more often but mostly because Virginia Beach and Norfolk are essentially the same city. Borders blend together in several areas, I worked in Norfolk most of my time there, and there were different events utilized in Norfolk...
But I think what's unique here again, is I imagine VB-Nfk functions in much the same reality as Minneapolis-St. Paul. There is some unnecessary provincialism here but there are literally many examples I could give for why they feel like the same city, so even though you knew when you were in Norfolk, it didn't really feel like you left town...
Outside of the VA twin cities, I went to Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Newport News, Hampton, maybe two to three times a month, if that...
Not counting going to the airport or for work purposes. Also not counting the once or twice I went to check out certain areas and only counting places I would venture out of the city for.
City and neighborhood I was in.
Chicago - Lincoln Park/Lakeview - only to go to Evanston
NYC - East Village - only to go to the Hamptons or the beaches
Atlanta - Midtown - never
SF - Noe Valley - all the time. Berkeley, Napa, hiking
DC - Adams Morgan/Shaw - mostly to see friends since the area is my hometown and for ethnic foods that suck in the city such as Annandale and Eden Center. Also went to Old Town a few times a year.
The rest dont count since I lived/live in a suburb.
Lived in LA City and - all the time
Pretty much any tourist does the same- the average tourists probably visits 6-8 cities outside of LA city during a 4-5 day visit. Including LA, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Burbank (warner brothers or Ellen show), Culver City, Malibu, Universal City, Anaheim (Disneyland). Some would go to Pasadena, Long Beach, Huntington beach, laguna beach, Manhattan beach, Hermosa Beach, Compton, Inglewood, Santa Clarita (Six Flags), Glendale
Most locals in the LA Metro go around to other parts to LA often for restaurants, shopping opportunities, museums, concerts, special events, sports games.
In the warmer months I take bike rides to suburban Seattle. There are a lot of good routes that involve going around half of Lake Washington, and maybe getting out past Lake Sammamish though I don't do that much anymore. Mercer Island has a convenient and very scenic loop for a moderate-length ride.
I work for a general contractor that builds all over the metro, though the majority is close-in. I visit most of the major sites at some point.
Maybe once a year I'll take a ferry to Bainbridge or Bremerton, usually with visitors.
Otherwise, it's an occasional visit to see friends.
In cities with small city limits it's almost impossible not to leave the city for certain services. I don't think it's possible to never leave St. Louis' 61 sq miles, when it's barely 10% of the region's bi-state metro population. With that said, I think it's easier for somebody to live on the Missouri side of the metro and never go to the Metro East (Illinois) or to live in the suburbs and only go to the city for sporting/cultural events. The city is just so underserved from an amenity aspect. It's changing, but to go to a mall, Walmart, Airport, etc. Leaving the city is mandatory. In Tampa it's somewhat similar, but urban and suburban living is more or less the same in Florida. It's just strip mall after strip mall, after apartment complex after gated community as far as the eye can see. There is also way less stigma from suburbanites towards the central city in Tampa. I guess it's because you don't go from nicely manicured ranch homes to crowded, two and four family flats simply by crossing a certain street like you do in St. Louis. There is also not the same level of racial and class segregation in Tampa that you get in legacy cities like St. Louis.
I think with this thread you will get totally different answers from Cities like Chicago and NY vs. say an Atlanta I'm sure.. People in the Bigger cities seem to not have to leave the inner city and more or less consider the rest of the metro's suburbs to be an entirely totally different entity while cities like Atlanta likes to claim every thing from here to Timbuk2 as it's own and utilizes the entire metro on the same thought process due to amenities scattered. Not that the city doesn't have a good bit of amenities in it's own right but it's just different. Miami is a super prime example of this with it's extremely small city limits
I think with this thread you will get totally different answers from Cities like Chicago and NY vs. say an Atlanta I'm sure.. People in the Bigger cities seem to not have to leave the inner city and more or less consider the rest of the metro's suburbs to be an entirely totally different entity while cities like Atlanta likes to claim every thing from here to Timbuk2 as it's own and utilizes the entire metro on the same thought process due to amenities scattered. Not that the city doesn't have a good bit of amenities in it's own right but it's just different. Miami is a super prime example of this with it's extremely small city limits
You can greatly see the differences between the cities. I don’t think has anything to do with the size of the city, because LA is huge, but like someone else has mentioned; it’s almost impossible to visit LA for over a week and not go into several suburb cities like Long Beach, Santa Monica, Anaheim, etc.
I think it depends on how expansive a city’s metro area is. Cities like Dallas, Atlanta, LA, Miami, San Francisco, Tampa, and etc. utilizes their entire metros.
You can greatly see the differences between the cities. I don’t think has anything to do with the size of the city, because LA is huge, but like someone else has mentioned; it’s almost impossible to visit LA for over a week and not go into several suburb cities like Long Beach, Santa Monica, Anaheim, etc.
I think it depends on how expansive a city’s metro area is. Cities like Dallas, Atlanta, LA, Miami, San Francisco, Tampa, and etc. utilizes their entire metros.
You have some good points but you also have to take in account the Chicago and NY metros are expansive as well,, so much so they are in other states as well.
Lived in LA City and - all the time
Pretty much any tourist does the same- the average tourists probably visits 6-8 cities outside of LA city during a 4-5 day visit. Including LA, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Burbank (warner brothers or Ellen show), Culver City, Malibu, Universal City, Anaheim (Disneyland). Some would go to Pasadena, Long Beach, Huntington beach, laguna beach, Manhattan beach, Hermosa Beach, Compton, Inglewood, Santa Clarita (Six Flags), Glendale
Most locals in the LA Metro go around to other parts to LA often for restaurants, shopping opportunities, museums, concerts, special events, sports games.
I live in LA, work in LA, and I only leave city limits once a month or so. My area is fairly amenity rich, and traffic is a big enough pain that usually I don't want to deal with it. Glendale is probably the most common place I go, usually for shopping at some chain that isn't in my part of LA, but probably only once every couple of months. Many of the other places you mention I go rarely, often only if I have friends visiting from out of town. I bring my kids to Disneyland maybe once a year. Even the beach we tend to go to is in LA City limits.
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