Do You Live In An Urban, Suburban Or Rural Area?

[KittyWampus]

My own definition of urban v rural depends on extent an area has high or low population density, can feed/water itself and can process its own waste.

But there are certainly more scholarly definitions.

[kestrel91316]

1. Urban, because of the easy access to mass transit, though many call this area suburban.

[KittyWampus]

3. that is an extremely important component and thanks for mentioning.

[intheflow]

53. Me too.

I'm in the City of Denver limits, near public transportation, but my neighborhood is definitely sub-urban. I'm in the working class 'burbs.

[Raine]

91. Same here

I live in a suburb of Los Angeles but really it's more urban than suburban. :think:

[Critters2]

2. What do you mean "can feed/water itself"? nt

[KittyWampus]

4. well water, ground for growing veggies, woods for wild game hunting or waterways for fishing.

[Critters2]

5. Thanks. nt

[TexasEditor]

6. This used to be rural, now it's suburban...

McKinney, Texas, north of Dallas.

[virgogal]

7. Suburban===can't afford urban.

[Igel]

29. In our case,

suburban = can't afford rural.

[Walk away]

46. Suburban=finally wanted to own a decent car.

I just got tired paying more $$$ to keep my car in a garage than most people pay to rent an apartment. My parking garage was nine blocks from my apartment and my car was broken into twice and stolen right in front of "parking security".

Now I have a driveway and it's free! And a garage with an automatic opener. When I come out of my house it still has tires and I don't get that sinking feeling looking for auto glass on the ground before I get in.

I lived on West 57th St. in a nice neighborhood but my poor car lived on a bad block.

[defendandprotect]

97. k i c k

[Earth_First]

8. Semi-rural...

This is one of the cases where the definitions get blurred a bit.

We have a total population in the town and village of 2,128 (per 2000 census) however we have village sewer and water that we are taxed on to maintain. The only reason that we would be considered "suburban" is our proximity to the much larger surrounding suburbs and the city nearby (15 minutes tops). The only reason that we remain such a "semi-rural" area is the lack of county utilities at the road outside of the village.

Time will tell.

[pipi_k]

10. That's how it is in my town too...

There's the village with piped in water and sewers and streetlights, so it's semi-rural.

Then there's the outskirts of the village where I live...dirt roads, no sewers, no town water, no streetlights. Nothing but trees and farms everywhere, so we're rural.

Total population around 1500.

[pipi_k]

9. Rural. Thick forest, Lots of wildlife. Well water. etc. n/t

[Johnny Noshoes]

11. New York City

As urban as it gets baby - home sweet home :-)

[Flabbergasted]

12. Fascinating that we divide into equal thirds. Now what does that say about the democratic Party? n

[KittyWampus]

15. So far, I'm a bit surprised. Thought Urban/Suburban would be a clear split from Rural.

:)

[ManiacJoe]

25. 100 votes is hardly representative of DU.

[Flabbergasted]

31. Yeah but we will likely end up with roughly the same percentages with a thousand votes. nt

[Blue_In_AK]

13. I live five minutes from downtown Anchorage

but I grow veggies. We have a lot of trees around here, and there are fishing streams here in town, moose and bears. I would still say "urban" though.

[KittyWampus]

16. So I guess "urban" can really be a relative term

[intheflow]

51. I'd say you were definitely urban.

For Alaska. :hi:

[Blue_In_AK]

72. And I know just where you took that picture.

:)

[intheflow]

95. Yes, my memory is that it was taken right outside Anchorage.

But I thought the same thing about Portage photos I took, but when I google-mapped it out, I saw Portage is about an hour outside Anchorage! I guess it's all relative in a state so big. Plus, the time flies for tourists with so much beauty to look at while driving. :)

[Blue_In_AK]

96. Actually I think that's down by the Exit Glacier

outside of Seward. Remember we drove back that road and took some pictures from a pull-out of that glacial river running below.

[intheflow]

98. Actually Ithink this was from our trip out to Valdez.

I have photos of it when it was cloudy (can't see the mountian tops), and then we stopped on the way back because it was sunny and beautiful. My memory of this site is that it was a pretty big rest stop, not just a little pull-out by the side of a road. But I could be wrong. I was pretty depressed and out of it when I was up there. :(

[proud2BlibKansan]

57. Can you see Russia from your porch?

:)

[taught_me_patience]

14. I live in a condo in Long Beach

small footprint baby...

If it's good enough for Snoop Dog... it's good enough for me.

[Odin2005]

17. Urban, but grew up in a rural area.

[baldguy]

18. Urban

Within walking distance of my house I have two - no three Chinese take-outs, two pizza parlors, an upscale Indian restaurant, a sushi bar, McD's, Dunkin Donuts, four other sit-down restaurants, five bars and three liquor stores.

I like to eat.

[KittyWampus]

68. what, no nail parlors?

[baldguy]

71. I don't know. Probably.

I chew on my nails, so that wouldn't be a business I would normally patronize.

[KittyWampus]

92. I was kidding. In Manhattan there's a nail parlor every 5th storefront.

:)

[DefenseLawyer]

19. I live in a relatively small town, 40,000 people

About 45 miles from Indianapolis. Not exactly rural but definitely not a suburb. Where does that fit?

[Maru Kitteh]

20. very, very, rural

[Ghost in the Machine]

21. Deep Rural - we get our sunshine piped in from the next town over..

I live on 12.5 acres out in the middle of nowhere. I'm 15 miles from town in 3 different directions...

I wouldn't trade it for the world

Peace,

Ghost

[BarbaRosa]

22. Suburb of a small town.

[Brickbat]

23. Very rural, but can't grow own food because of the weather and poor soil. But I got me a brand-new

septic tank last year. :eyes:

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

24. Rural. Needs 2 more RECs to get to greatest so more will participate.

[Speck Tater]

26. Rural but a mile from town of 900 and 15 miles from city of 150,000

Rural and not suburbs because I have a couple acres and I'm surrounded by corn fields and hay fields rather than rows and rows of McMansions like other areas a similar distance from a fair-sized city..

[alcibiades_mystery]

27. Grew up in New York City...live now North Side of Chicago

Urban.

[underpants]

28. Suburb, Volvo, NPR ...thank you

[Ocracoker16]

30. Urban

[Walk away]

32. I live in a sleepy Suburb that is 5 miles west of Midtown Manhattan.

To paraphrase Sarah Palin...I can see N.Y.C. from my kitchen window!

[Hepburn]

33. Not sure....

....:shrug:

[debbierlus]

34. I don't know enough about the definitions - town of 6,000 -

Definitely not urban...

Suburban, maybe....

Seems a little large to be rural but a little small to be suburbs....

[NMDemDist2]

47. how far to the largest city and how do you get there? n/t

[debbierlus]

82. 1/2 hour to the largest city which has a population of 45,000

[tammywammy]

35. A city of 300,000+ with no mass transportation n/t

[Bettie]

36. I guess we're rural

We live in a small town. We've got a grocery store, a Pizza Hut, a couple of gas stations, but the sidewalks roll up at 9 pm.

But we're in town still and our town isn't the smallest in the area, we've got 3,000 people or so.

[tosh]

37. Rural.

Two and 1/2 hours' drive to a major metropolitan area, 25 miles to commuter flights.

Eighteen miles away from the nearest Sqawl-Mart - not far enough for me.

[bvar22]

38. Farther out than "rural".

We have to drive 10 miles toward town to get to a "rural" area. (kidding, but only a little) :hippie:



Clear, clean, cold water from an underground spring

Surrounded by National Forest

[Walk away]

42. I am only allowed to visit places like that.

I grew up in NYC. when I go to visit my friends who live in "god's country" I look weird wearing my black clothes head to toe in the day time and walking my dog on a leash. People usually treat me like I am lost even when I'm not. Everyone is always nice but they seem sorry for me.

[mopinko]

39. chicago, but i have a yard, with a garden.

one of the few neighborhoods with this much room, but shonuf city.

[KittyWampus]

40. urban gardens are amazing. Manhattan has a few.

[Luminous Animal]

41. Same here in San Francisco.

Next year I am going to put in a gray water system (my landlord approved) for the garden.

[mopinko]

44. illegal in chicago

we are a pretty green city, but gray water is a big nono.

[Luminous Animal]

52. You have to fight for an approved system.

[mopinko]

69. you would lose in chicago

they are open to a lot of rule twisting to be green, but that is their little line in the sand right now. the water reclamation district is trying to be greener than the city now, tho, so....

[proud2BlibKansan]

59. My sister used to live in Chicago

and she would come home to KC and marvel at all the grass. We are definitely greener than Chicago. But hey, green means mowing. I'd also love to have the culture of Chicago. And the pizza :)

[mopinko]

hey, we are pretty green these days.

ritchie daley will plant a flower in anything that doesn't move for 24 hours. lots of people hate him, but we have more green space, better maintained, more downright beautiful than we had 10 years ago. twice as much, at least. including a green roof on city hall.
the public gardens are just gorgeous. really well done, innovative plantings everywhere, including restoring the old system of boulevards with planted medians. and the median strips in a lot of the arterial streets. and millennium park. ooooooooo. what a park.

you and your sis should pay a visit. the pizza is still the same, tho. :-)

[mopinko]

70. gremlins

[anonymous171]

43. Subural. No public transport, lots of trees, but also 30 minutes away from civilization. nt

[NMDemDist2]

45. rural. our county has about 50,000 people and covers 2.6 million acres

that's pretty low population density I guess eh? although I probably should mention only 470,000 acres are private lands......

[The Midway Rebel]

48. Rural here, though transforming into rural suburban aka "ruburban".

Once upon a time, this was the sticks but easy highway access to a major US city brought wealthier suburbanites out this way looking for 10 and 12 acre estate tracts. My property still has a well and a cistern but we've been on city water for 25 years. Still have a stinky old style septic tank.

Wealthy ball playing millionaire's, insurance industry wheels, car dealership owners, pharmaceutical company CEO's and mysterious old geezers that deliver the trash to the end of their long graveled drives with a golf cart started moving in 15 years ago.

The term "suburban" used to mean sub-urban. As in, less than, below, not as good as "urban". Funny how that got turned around.

[proud2BlibKansan]

60. Hey I live in KC!

KS side. Jo Co.

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[The Midway Rebel]

67. Then you should know better than

speeding through Lone Jack!

Wife and I grew up in OP/Lenexa, family and most of my work still there.

Thanks for the welcome, been lurking, reading your post from KC, since just before the November election. I couldn't type for about six months because of bad bicycle wreck in early winter. Glad to be aboard DU and participating.

:hi:

[proud2BlibKansan]

81. I'm in northern OP

I promise to never speed through Lone Jack. Out of state plates. :)

[TransitJohn]

49. Other

Micropolitan. 30k unattached to an urban metro, so not urban, suburban or rural.

[Greyhound]

50. It was rural until a couple of years ago, now it's an exurb. n/t

[City of Mills]

54. Urban - Walkscore 97/100

I'm in the center of the city, we are the regional bus hub of all the surrounding towns, as well as a terminal commuter rail stop coming from Boston. I live and work in the same neighborhood and rarely drive!

www.walkscore.com

[havocmom]

55. Yes

:evilgrin:

[proud2BlibKansan]

56. Suburban

A progressive leaning older burb in a red state hell suburban county.

[Ardent15]

58. Suburban Silicon Valley, CA. nt

[bridgit]

61. Urban, but hubby calls it 'little big town'

[Creena]

62. Suburban. It can get a bit claustrophobic and dull.

But, the more rural areas around here are quite far from everything. I don't know how I'd handle that issue.

[Jennicut]

63. I live in a smaller town in the north west part of CT but its right next to a city

I live in Terryville, with a population of over 5,000 people, right next to Bristol. The town is small but surrounded by enough bigger towns that anything you want is just a few minutes away. Its the beginning of Litchfield County...the "gateway" to the more rural northwest part of CT. I would say Terryville is a suburb but a small one.

[ruggerson]

75. beautiful area

n/t

[Jennicut]

79. I love driving up Route 8

[Lydia Leftcoast]

64. Urban, because I refuse to live in a place where I can't walk to anything

and as someone who works at home, I need to have a real neighborhood outside my door, complete with shopping, hangouts, parks, a bus line, and other amenities.

[Louisiana1976]

65. Urban. I live in an apartment house on 2 bus routes on the edge of downtown.

[Forkboy]

66. Urban

[GReedDiamond]

73. I went with urban...

...because I live right off a major freeway in the Pasadena (Los Angeles, CA), area.

However, the town I'm in, has only ONE fast food franchise (zoning laws prevent any more such franchises from locating here), ZERO traffic signals, and about the same rate of crime. It's very, very, "Mayberry" here, I love it. The town seems to be a fairly successful balance between old hippie/artsy/musician types (like me!), and repugs, along with seemingly low profile Christian conservatives (except that they won't let their kids come to my house on Halloween, but that's another story).

I'm literally a two minute drive to the freeway which connects me to the "outside world," the Los Angeles urban jungle and its environs, for better and worse.

[drmeow]

74. I consider it urban

people who don't know the area think we're a suburb. But our city existed before the "big" city 10 miles away. Being to the west, we've got that "car dependent" situation which can feel more urban than NYC or other east coast/central urban centers. But the city I'm in has good bike paths, sidewalks (I lived in a suburb on Long Island that had not sidewalks - I thought it was the weirdest thing), and decent public transportation (which they are starting to cut due to the economy just as it was starting to get good). I'm about a mile from work, about 1.5 miles from downtown, and a mile from the closest grocery store.

[ruggerson]

76. Urban

I like cities and the country. The burbs make me shiver.

[XemaSab]

77. It was the suburbs in 1950

but it's three blocks from downtown. :shrug:

[Dorian Gray]

78. Brooklyn

Urban here

[lumberjack_jeff]

80. Rural. Sawmill/tractor rural. n/t

[dysfunctional press]

83. somewhere on the cusp between sub-urban and rural.

almost ex-burbia, i suppose.

[Ex Lurker]

84. I live in a town, but

the population is under 10,000, and it's surrounded by semi-wilderness. Is that urban, suburban, or rural?

[dog_lovin_dem]

85. Rural

We live on 40 partially wooded acres about 9 miles from a town that had 6,822 residents in the 2000 census. Most of the factories have closed, though a few are still up and running. There isn't much opportunity for employment in the area and most people are farmers, prison guards, candy factory workers, or associated with the local oil refinery in one way or another (employees or construction workers). I grew up on this land and love the location for the wildlife and privacy. I do love visiting urban areas though I have at least a 2 hour drive to get to one!

[Lucy Goosey]

86. Definitely urban - my condo might be under 700 square feet, but...

I can see the Parliament buildings and the American embassy from my balcony.

[cilla4progress]

87. Rural

12 sweet acres backed up to USFS land. Damn red, but I wouldn't give it up...we have stars!

[diane in sf]

88. Middle of SF, walk score off the charts, nr Muni, BART, freeway, too many drunk drag queens

during the gay high holidays.

[Festivito]

89. Urban: inside Detroit, feels suburban, back yard is rural.

[davidpdx]

90. Urban-Seoul Korea

The city of Seoul is about 10.4 million and the Seoul-Incheon area including suburbs is 19.6 million.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

93. Rural - beach

soil is basically sand.

[Jokerman]

94. A town that was once rural, became a suburb and is now urban.

The sprawl of the city encompassed us years ago but we retained our local schools and government.

Kind of the best of both worlds.