Poll: Population Density

[Actaeon]

It is possible that such a poll has been conducted before, but as the demographics of the board are plastic, I see no harm in posting this.

 

There is, I'm told, a innate desire in most human beings to move to the city, a place that, they say, is full of possibilities. I don't see it, but I suspect I'm the odd man out.

 

So I'm curious. Where have you ended up? Is it where you would have chosen for yourself, given a choice?

 

 

[Soul of Wit]

I like to live urban and vacation in the middle of nowhere (or anywhere with good food and good conversation.)

[Randomizer]

All the comforts of urban civilization without those annoying people.

[Slariton]

It would be interesting to also ask if you HAVE a choice, and which places you have lived in, and to look at the data together.

 

I'm willing to bet that a substantial portion of our suburbs-dwellers are teenagers who do not have an actual choice, and who also have never lived anywhere else. That will surely have an impact on, and therefore correlate with the answers to, the question of which is most appealing.

 

Myself, I've lived in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Each has their appeal and their problems, but I am most troubled by the isolation of rural areas and most pleased by the activity of a city. (This, even despite being hugely misanthropic and introverted.)

[Actaeon]

The second question is, admittedly, not terribly well thought out. Experience helps some, "urban" can be Rome or it can be Pittsburgh. Small towns range from Maycomb, Alabama (or a nonfictional counterpart) to Aspen, Colorado. Perception plays a huge roll, and polls are helpful for measuring perception.

 

If Slarty had designed the poll, I'm sure it would be more complete. As it is, I will rely on the forum itself to explore the nuances of the terms.

[Alorael at Large]

I've lived in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Rural is too isolated for my tastes. Suburbs can either be blighted wastelands or lovely areas, and they can either be distant sprawl or merely extensions of an urban center.

 

—Alorael, who would prefer to stay urban or suburban (periurban, really). He'd pick urban in a nice city, and (usually) suburban in a bad one. And not New York.

[Actaeon]

After several years in Boulder, I have come to appreciate small town life even more. The absence of chain stores and restaurants, the easy walk to everything (grocery store, dentist, vet, etc), the tendency to run into people you know in the store or on the street...

 

I'm spoiled, though. Proximity to Aspen gives me access to a range of arts and culture to rival most small cities, without having to live there. I'd probably be more down on rural life if it were otherwise. Although the public land would probably win the day, even so.

 

Edit:

[Dikiyoba]

I alternate between a semirural area and a city right on the urban/suburban line. I prefer semirural areas; you can get to the city when you need to without it being an ordeal, but the population density is low.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Callie]

I live in an urban area, although it's not a huge city, hence why it styles itself as "The Biggest Little City in the World." When I'm not in school I live in a rural town.

 

I prefer urban mostly because of the size and things to do; however, urban areas tend to have much worse air quality and not as many bike trails.

[Lilith]

i am boring as dirt irl and therefore live in a suburban development where i belong

[Sudanna]

I have a boiling hatred of suburbs, due to both philosophical and emotional reasons. I live in a decaying urban area, and like it. Rural life appeals to me as well, but I suspect I'd end up hanging myself if I weren't forced to be around other people from time to time. Also hate commuting.

[keira]

I live, as many know, in a rural part of Montana. Not quite tinfoil-hat crazy people living in the woods, but close. I know those people, if it counts.

 

You may think the country is nice, people, but it isn't. Stay in Suburbia and/or your apartment. You have no idea how annoying it is to have to drive thirty miles to buy stuff.

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

i am boring as dirt irl and therefore live in a suburban development where i belong

^

[A less presumptuous name.]

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

All the comforts of urban civilization without those annoying people.

Originally Posted By: Dantius

Originally Posted By: Lilith

i am boring as dirt irl and therefore live in a suburban development where i belong

^

That about sums it up. I like the availability of interaction, but I don't want to be surrounded by people 24 7. That said, as Slarty pointed out, I'm still living with my parents. I would prefer to live somewhere a bit more familiar, though. I think what's wrong is not so much location, however, as time. Those nice suburbs where all the kids are out playing and the parents all know each other and talk daily? What happened to those? Do they still exist? Here in my part of Maryland, it seems as though people are afraid to be out of their house unless it's for work or their children's school/sports.

[Arch-Mage Solberg]

I live out in the country. Out in the boondocks. I live (by road) some 9 or 10 miles from the city of Manchester, TN. I like my privacy, but I live close enough to enjoy a trip to town every now and then.

 

Post #626

[Nicothodes]

Originally Posted By: Master1

Here in my part of Maryland, it seems as though people are afraid to be out of their house unless it's for work or their children's school/sports.

When I lived in Maryland, I was afraid to go outside. To be fair though, I think I lived in a more city-ish area, and strangers had a tendency to yell at me when I did. Then I went to uni in a tiny town on top of a mountain, which I liked, and probably would have appreciated more if I knew how to drive/had a car. Now I'm living in a smaller city, and it's definitely my favourite so far. I haven't had any strangers yell at me and it's very pretty.

[nikki.]

I live in the unwashed elbow of England. Its about 10 miles to the nearest city, though there are a handful of small towns littering very pretty country.

[VCH]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

i am boring as dirt irl and therefore live in a suburban development where i belong

[Micawber]

Perhaps someone can explain to me what exactly distinguishes suburban from urban. Because I am having some difficulty deciding how to classify my current address.

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: Micawber

Perhaps someone can explain to me what exactly distinguishes suburban from urban. Because I am having some difficulty deciding how to classify my current address.

I classify a location as suburban if your place of residence has land that you own and can use as you like- like a yard.

So an apartment wouldn't really count as suburban, even if it was in the "suburbs".

[Actaeon]

I have also noticed that most areas that seem, to me, distinctly "suburban" are largely residential with very centralized commercial centers. No corner drug store or butcher in the suburbs. That could be a vast generalization, though.

[Niemand]

Originally Posted By: Acteon

No corner drug store or butcher in the suburbs.

That makes no sense. I just drove home through an area consisting mostly of houses on their own plots of land and passed both of those things. The drugstore was a chain drug store (and they tore down my preferred gas station to build it), but still, light commercial areas are a perfectly normal thing to have in suburban areas.

I think your characterization is overly narrow and probably based observing housing developments built in the last few decades. These are frequently vast areas containing nothing but private homes, and inside one you can be a number of miles from the nearest business. This is very different from the suburbs where I grew up, which were built about a hundred years ago with a much finer granularity of districting. In fact, I think the nearest business to my parents' house in an architecture firm, which occupies the old train station about five blocks away. The nearest grocery store was in a commercial area about eight blocks away for many years, until the chain to which it belonged was bought out by another and shut down.

I would say that Dantius is on the right track with his definition, but it still needs a bit more refinement, since, for one thing, it encompasses rural areas as well. (After all, if you live on a farm you definitely have land of your own which is like a yard, but larger. You probably have a yard, too.)

[Randomizer]

Suburban areas are usually considered towns that spring up around a large city and dependent upon it. Most are self contained, but the jobs the workers go to are in the city.

 

The distinction blurs a bit with more modern cities that have expanded in the last 50 years. When you have an old established city like New York, Chicago, or Washington, D. C. the lines are clear cut between the city and the suburbs. Then you have the weird twin cities that expand towards each other like Minneapolis-St. Paul and Dallas-Fort Worth with their own collections.

[The Mystic]

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

All the comforts of urban civilization without those annoying people.

Sounds good to me. It's been my experience that as population density increases, so does the density of the population (pun intended).

[Alorael at Large]

Suburbs are the regions that the urbanites look down on. Urban areas are the regions that have urban cred. And tautology is good for you.

 

—Alorael, whose favorite suburb, using the term loosely, is Brookline. It's almost totally enveloped by Boston. It's definitely urban. But it's not the city itself, so what could it be besides a suburb?

[Slariton]

Of course, we can talk about what is "officially" a city versus "officially" a suburb because it is next to a city. But really what we care about is what is FUNCTIONALLY a city or a suburb.

 

I think this is a case where there is no cut-and-dry definition, but nonetheless there are few areas that would be on the fence about being city or suburbs. I think the following characteristics are all true of MOST urban and MOST suburban areas: thus, a given suburb might have one or two city characteristics but would likely have mostly suburban ones.

 

URBAN

- High population density

- Buildings are set very close to each other

- Most residences are apartment buildings or multi-family homes

- Public transportation exists on most major streets

- Commercial staples such as grocery stores within walking distance of most residential areas

- Not everyone relies on cars, but cars seem to be everywhere due to the population density

- Sidewalk is everywhere

- Most adjacent cities/towns are smaller

 

SUBURBAN

- Low to moderate population density

- Houses may have more than one driveway's width between them

- Residential areas have mostly single-family homes

- Public transportation may exist but it is limited

- Commercial staples may not be within walking distance

- Most adults rely on cars to get around

- Sidewalk likely on most streets

- Most adjacent cities/towns are of similar size

- Shopping malls / strip malls

[Slariton]

Originally Posted By: Change world? Change mind.

—Alorael, whose favorite suburb, using the term loosely, is Brookline. It's almost totally enveloped by Boston. It's definitely urban. But it's not the city itself, so what could it be besides a suburb?

Parts of Brookline have mansions and giant houses, are indistinguishable from Newton, and are definitely suburban. Parts of it have close-set apartment complexes and a subway line and are no less urban than large Boston neighborhoods like Dorchester or JP.

[Micawber]

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S

I think this is a case where there is no cut-and-dry definition

That's what I thought. What makes it difficult is I recently moved not much more than 1-2 miles away, and 'instinctively' I would describe my old address as suburban but my new address as urban, just due to the character of the two places. Happily this ties in with nearly all the indicators Slarty listed. Those same indicators explain why I prefer to live urban than suburban. Plus it's cheaper.

[devilkingx]

i live in one of the biggest cities in the world(NYC) and i love it

[Skwish-E]

Originally Posted By: Arch-Mage Solberg

... I live (by road) some 9 or 10 miles from the city of Manchester, TN...

I lived just outside of Readyville, Tn for a while. I loved it. When I needed to go to the store I went to the 1 store in Readyville, When I wanted to go to town for groceries, I went a little farther to Woodbury. If I needed a town with a Wal*Mart, I went a little farther to Murfreesboro, and if I wanted to get to the city, I went all the way to Nashville.

Now I live outside of Poulsbo, Washington but ride a motorcycle and a ferry boat to get to work in Seattle.