How does your city's suburbs divide into regions? (low income, home)

[manitopiaaa]

Originally Posted by kidphilly

For Philly I would say as follows


Main Line (Main Line suburbs with parts in Montco, Delaware, and eastern Chester counties)
S Jersey (yep you guessed it S Jersey burbs across the river)
Northern burbs - Mostly Bucks county has a little different feel and little more New York exposure
Western Burbs - Chester and Montco
Delaware County - Sort of its own thing; most of Delaware county sans the Main line parts
Delware State burbs - Includes Wilmongton and parts around it, maybe a little of the Brandywine valley in Chester County and also maybe a little bit of Cecil county MD

Montco is considered West of Philly? I always thought of it as the Northern suburbs.

[2Easy]

For LA

San Fernando Valley - “the Valley”
South Bay - southern beach cities
San Gabriel Valley - Pasadena to Claremont
Inland Empire - Riverside, San Bernardino
Orange County - Disneyland and beaches
SE County/Long Beach area - longe beach, Lakewood, Cerritos
East side - between LA and the IE but south of SGV
Westside - Santa Monica, etc

[moshywilly]

Originally Posted by edsg25

What are the geographic areas that make up your city's suburban area. What distinguishing characteristics do these areas have?

For example:

• New York: Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey

• Chicago: North Shore, North Suburbs, Northwest suburbs, West suburbs, Fox Valley, Southwest suburbs, South suburbs, NW IN

• San Francisco (for this...not so much suburbs but Bay Area regions): The Peninsula, Silicon Valley/San Jose, Oakland and the East Bay, Marin, Wine Country

NYC Metro Area is HUGE. It is the tri-state area for a reason. Well NYC is in the smallest area of the state of New York. and it spills its contents deep west into the northern half of NJ, deep east into Long Island, and a little bit up north into CT. There are a lot of different "vibes" and sections in the North Jersey suburbs.

The difference between the NYC contents in the metro area is:

Long Island:
1. More traffic
2. More crowded and less space available
3. More crime and issues that land on the news
4. More head on collisions

North Jersey:
1. Suburbia here is much more peaceful that Long Island
2. Barely anything bad happens in the suburbs here
3. Driving here in NJ is a bit safer than Long Island
4. More land offering more woods and outdoorsy things to do
5. Offers more counties and more neighborhoods and there are even many distinguishing vibes and sections within EACH county. It's pretty cool. Long Island only has Suffolk and Nassau County and those places look like they don't offer much variety in sections and vibes/charms.

[ReadytoMoveByBike]

Originally Posted by manitopiaaa

Montco is considered West of Philly? I always thought of it as the Northern suburbs.

I think it could go either way. For example, King of Prussia is in Montco (if not counted as Main Line) is west of the city. I would definitely call Pottstown west. However, Jenkintown is more easily described as north though.

[manitopiaaa]

Originally Posted by ReadytoMoveByBike

I think it could go either way. For example, King of Prussia is in Montco (if not counted as Main Line) is west of the city. I would definitely call Pottstown west. However, Jenkintown is more easily described as north though.

Interesting. So Montco is the West for the 700,000 or so in NE/NW Philly.

Delco is the West for 900,000 elsewhere in the city.

I usually picture Philly as an upside down T, so Montco is always North for me, Bucks is East, Delco and Chester are West and New Jersey is South. In reality, Philly is more of a sideways T than an upside-down one.

[ReadytoMoveByBike]

Originally Posted by manitopiaaa

Interesting. So Montco is the West for the 700,000 or so in NE/NW Philly.

Delco is the West for 900,000 elsewhere in the city.

I usually picture Philly as an upside down T, so Montco is always North for me, Bucks is East, Delco and Chester are West and New Jersey is South. In reality, Philly is more of a sideways T than an upside-down one.

Most of Delco is west for most of Philly. Parts of Montco are West or Northwest of parts of the city. What I was trying to say is that either classifying Montco as Western or Northern can be considered correct.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by the topper

Correction: SJ is not a suburb of any municipality just like Chicago not being a suburb of Milwaukee

Topper, did you even read what you quoted of my words where I actually wrote that in the Bay Area, these regions are not really suburbs. You managed in one short quote to completely negate what you were trying to assert?

Of course, there would be no Silicon Valley if there had been no Stanford, so I think technicalLy that makes San Jose a suburb of Palo Alto, the genises of Silicon Valley. San Jose really is in the shaddow of Palo Alto in technology.....just like San Jose is in the shaddow of East Lansing in Spartan Stadims.

But cheer up, Topper, San Jose will become the greatest city in California.....as soon as Sarah Winchester adds a 100 more rooms to her house.

Chicago actually is considered a suburb of Milwaukee, so you are really wrong on that one. Milwaukee is a great city...we’re proud to be its suburb.

Always love your input, Topper: it’s priceless.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by TheTimidBlueBars

Chicagoan here, and here's how I perceive the characteristics of the regions you listed:

- North Shore: educated, rich, more progressive (as opposed to union-Democrat), whites are mostly Anglo-Saxon

- (Inner ring) west and north suburbs: large black and Hispanic communities but very racially balkanized (besides OP/FP), ranges from working-class (Maywood, Bellwood) to affluent (OP/RF, La Grange, Western Springs), most densely populated region outside the city (street grid with houses and apartments on small lots, few to no subdivisions), left-leaning

- Lake County/NW Cook County (north/NW suburbs): extravagant WASP wealth dotted by some more working-class white/Hispanic towns (Waukegan, the Round Lakes, etc.) and, at its northern fringes, some borderline-rural communities (Fox Lake, Antioch) that may not identify much with Chicagoland, leans somewhat liberal


- McHenry County (NW suburbs): a similar dynamic, but less of the WASP wealth and more of the rural parts, somewhat conservative

- DuPage County (west suburbs): also very WASP and wealthy, traditionally religious-right (cf. Wheaton College) but now moving leftward as more educated lakefront Chicagoans have moved in, contains a lot of corporate headquarters (clustered in the Itasca/Schaumburg area and Oak Brook) as well as numerous malls and shopping centers

- Fox Valley: more visibly Rust Belt (very old buildings, many in states of decay, traditional street grids), large Hispanic community that coexists peacefully with whites

- SW suburbs: more conservative (but still only moderate overall), mostly white-ethnic, more insular

- south suburbs: economically depressed, large black population (and growing, as blacks flee the city's South Side), currently undergoing white flight

- NW Indiana - industrial, lots of ex-Illinois-side Chicagoland natives who fled across the border for a lower cost of living, more conservative, starkly divided between violent towns (Gary, E. Chicago, parts of Hammond) and safe, quiet ones that maintain a rural character

Wow, a lot there. Some great observations. I would say that on the North Shore, whose roots were waspish, there was a very noticable overlay of Jews after WWII. And while what you describe in your Fox Valley comments would seem to apply for bigger cities, Elgin and Aurora, between the two is a long stretch of what might be considered the “Charm Belt” in places like Geneva and St. Charles.


I’d also say that both Evanston and Oak Park are outliers in their regions, these once conservative communities having both basically done a 180 and are the most liberal bastions in suburbia. Also very diverse.

You covered all regions I did (even dividing the west suburbs into DuPage and west Cook...give move on your part) except for “north suburban”. So I would find your spin on that region (Lincolnwood, Skokie, Glnvw, Nbk, Morton Gr, Deerfield, etc)

[FirebirdCamaro1220]

Originally Posted by 2Easy

For LA

San Fernando Valley - “the Valley”
South Bay - southern beach cities
San Gabriel Valley - Pasadena to Claremont
Inland Empire - Riverside, San Bernardino
Orange County - Disneyland and beaches
SE County/Long Beach area - longe beach, Lakewood, Cerritos
East side - between LA and the IE but south of SGV
Westside - Santa Monica, etc

This is usually called the "Gateway Cities" region; i.e. Bell, South Gate, Maywood, Paramount, Bellflower, Downey, La Mirada etc

[FirebirdCamaro1220]

For Phoenix:

Phoenix proper=the city of Phoenix between Baseline Rd and Peoria Ave

North Phoenix=the city of Phoenix north of Peoria Ave

Laveen=the city of Phoenix south of Broadway Rd and west of 27th Ave

Ahwatukee=the city of Phoenix south of South Mountain Park (i.e. the South Mountains)

The East Valley=Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Apache Junction (sometimes Ahwatukee is included)

Southeast Valley=San Tan Valley, Queen Creek, Florence, Coolidge, Maricopa

"Scottsdale"/North Valley=Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Fountain Hills, Cave Creek, Carefree, Anthem (Anthem is going to be annexed by the city of Phoenix in 2020)

Northwest Valley=Glendale, Peoria, Sun City, Youngtown, Sun City West, El Mirage, Surprise

West Valley=Tolleson, Avondale, Goodyear, Litchfield Park, Buckeye, Verado (Verado is in Buckeye but considered it's own community)