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Metro divisions for cities and CSAs for metropolitan areas? They measure different things, but the larger one will likely have more internal variations with the primary city making up a smaller proportion of it than they would in the metropolitan division.
Sometimes a city is split between two MSA’s. It works for most places most of the time. CSA’s don’t have such outliers.
The problem with CSAs is that they get the overlap and then some.
Like Harvard, MA is as much a Boston suburb as Boxborough, MA despite being in Worcester’s MSA. However Athol, MA which is in Worcester’s MSA is absolutely freaking not a suburb of Boston (and honestly it’s not really a suburb of Worcester either).
Orange and Riverside aren't even the same city on a MSA level. Riverside is inland empire and very far from core LA like Sacramento to Bay Area
Not by a longshot.
Riverside / San Bernadino is highly connected by commutes...that's why it's part of the CSA. It's also much closer. And development is continuous.
Same in the business community. A company would be much more likely to have one office, warehouse, etc., cover the whole area, vs. separate operations in each city.
On the broader topic, CSAs do have problems. Sometimes they envelop other full-service cities like the Baltimore area or Providence. Other times they make sense, like greater LA or SF.
Part of that's the role these places play. A big suburban area like Orange County exists because it's in LA's orbit...put differently it's defined by its roles in a larger city. Baltimore would be similar regardless.
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