The most spread-out major city in the US. (home, living in)

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by AZLiam

I understand. Is there a site that lists the sq miles of the actual urban areas for these cities rather than just the MSA's?

The individual Wikipedia pages for each city sometimes include the urban area statistics...are they published by the Census Bureau? If so, that would be a good site to check.

[cpterp]

Jacksonville easily. while very low density is the norm for Southern cities, JAX takes it to the extreme. It's so funny when you pass the city limit sign on I-95, it's another hour until you actually get to the city. IIRC what happened is that they annexed the mostly rural surrounding county to the city, making it technically the largest city in the country.

[DeaconJ]

Originally Posted by cpterp

Jacksonville easily. while very low density is the norm for Southern cities, JAX takes it to the extreme. It's so funny when you pass the city limit sign on I-95, it's another hour until you actually get to the city. IIRC what happened is that they annexed the mostly rural surrounding county to the city, making it technically the largest city in the country.

Jacksonville and Duval County consolidated the city-county governments into one, which currently encompasses almost all of Duval County. Nashville, Louisville, and several other U.S. cities have done the same thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_city-county

[little bean]

So the poll was just for cities not for the whole surround areas?

[tcmouse]

Originally Posted by LAnative10

Im not even showing that. According to mapquest, its 33 miles from Wilmer, TX (the Southeastern side of Dallas county Southeast of Dallas) to Carrollton, TX (the Northwestern side of Dallas county Northwest of Dallas). Its 35 miles from Desoto (South Dallas County) to Plano (in Collin County).

If you want to talk the furthest south suburb to the furthest north suburb in Dallas (Desoto to Frisco), the distance is 43 miles.

Again, I was using exit numbers and lengths of toll roads from NTTA. However, the entire point to this was "approximate" after you pointed out a potential error in facts. Google, Mappoint etc IMAO are not the best sources for marking distance. So rather than split hairs, lets just say you were right from the beginning, and I was remiss in not have exact facts to speak from. Somehow I thought this was going to be about assisting others in gaining knowledge versus who could push their point the furthest. This is my last comment in this string. PERIOD.

[tablemtn]

The Dallas metro area is at least 50 miles north to south. Frisco is not the northernmost suburb of Dallas; that would probably be Denton. The southern suburbs extend past Desoto down to Red Oak. Red Oak Valley golf course is over 60 miles by road from northern Denton, and 55 miles miles by road due north to Prosper.

[AZLiam]

I find it interesting to look at the maps of the city lights from space. That gives you a better idea of a city's urban footprint.

SFA - City Lights

[AK123]

Originally Posted by tcmouse

Houston has the least person per square mile rating.

Originally Posted by AK123

Where are you getting that?
Just looking up some of the major cities in Texas on city-data:

Houston - 3870 people per square mile average
Dallas - 3736
San Antonio - 3316
Austin - 3012

Originally Posted by pw72

Houston, with its minimal zoning, creates by definition extreme sprawl.

Interesting, how Houston was the only city in the state to have a neighborhood named in a top 10 urban neighborhoods list.

//www.city-data.com/forum/11083488-post1.html
"The qualities cited in the award for Montrose — its walkable street grid, carefully preserved historic districts and eclectic mix of homes and businesses — reflect Houston's preference for private rather than government-imposed planning, experts said."

[vb_guy]

I think it depends on what you perceive as "spread out." If you're talking about the square footage in the proper city, Oklahoma City, Jacksonville, Phoenix, and San Diego come to mind rather quickly. If you're talking about metropolitan area, then you begin looking at Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Chicago, LA, New York, and Miami (for example - I'm sure there are others you can include here). I don't think you can really honestly answer this question, because, by using common sense, we can say that the larger cities have more homes in the metropolitan area, and we can say that smaller cities can have fewer people per sf. So, what do we mean by "spread out?"

[bchris02]

Atlanta, GA. The metro region starts at around mile marker 86 when driving west on I-20 and goes until you hit the Alabama border. Thats 86 miles or suburban wasteland. What a waste of space.