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Gilgamesh18
Herbivore Man

Registered: 03/01/12
Posts: 11,671
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Can suburbs be cities?
#20299688 - 07/20/14 08:14 AM (9 years, 7 months ago) |
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I've been thinking about how cities expanded in the past versus how they expand in the present. In the past, cities grew from nothing and expanded by annexing farmland and constructing a continuous city grid. Nowadays, cities expand instead by annexing unincorporated suburban settlements and/or leaving new infrastructure development to private developers (who usually construct closed-off subdivisions connected to the rural road grid). It doesn't seem like cities really "grow" anymore, they just gain suburbs. The growth is quasi-independent from the town/city in question-it relies on that town for growth and economics, and yet still grows separate from the city itself as a private development rather than a fully infrastructurally integrated portion of the city.
Typing that thus led to this next, and more important train of thought. The question is, can suburbs be cities? Yes, they can be in the legal sense, they can incorporate and have their own services and schools and all that stuff. But can they be cities, in the sense that they are centralized (to some degree) concentrations of employment and residence, and serve as a economic, cultural, and possibly political center to a region of any particular size and population, with a "downtown" or otherwise central core area serving as a hub of activity?
I personally think that suburbs, or at least the modern car-centric suburb cannot be a city, simply because of its nature. First off, the car encourages decentralization, which is inherently against the nature of a city. Second, a city is a collection of people, and a community focused on cars instead of people cannot thrive as a true city, as a community of individuals, as it is not focused on those individuals (rather, it is focused on those individuals' transportation).
So what do you think? Can a suburb truly be a city? Can it turn into a city? Why or why not?
(Note: suburb for this post implies the modern postwar car-centric suburb. Streetcar suburbs do not qualify, as they usually have a centralized core of some sort. Also, "city" in this case means any kind of town, small and large, not just the big cities with metro areas of several million).
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psi
TOAST N' JAM


Registered: 09/05/99
Posts: 31,465
Loc: 613
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I guess it's probably possible, but I I don't know how often it happens. I live in a very car-oriented suburban "city" where a lot of people seem to commute to the real downtown core by car or commuter train. In the vicinity of the train station there is maybe one office building and one condo building that are pretty recent, and a big mall. There are other suburban municipalities in the region with a bit more of a mini-downtown of condos and offices, but they don't really seem to have the spark of a "true" downtown even compared to a small stand-alone city of similar population.
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Bassfreak
ManBearPig



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Re: Can suburbs be cities? [Re: psi]
#20299799 - 07/20/14 09:01 AM (9 years, 7 months ago) |
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prettttty sure being a city is based on population. and that city can decide if they want it to be a city or not if theres enough people
so i think that a suburb could potentially be a city
-------------------- Tom Brady is a God Free Tom Brady
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Gilgamesh18
Herbivore Man

Registered: 03/01/12
Posts: 11,671
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Re: Can suburbs be cities? [Re: Bassfreak]
#20299829 - 07/20/14 09:13 AM (9 years, 7 months ago) |
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I personally think what suburbs lack is density and good public transit. These two things more than anything else are what make a city.
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psi
TOAST N' JAM


Registered: 09/05/99
Posts: 31,465
Loc: 613
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Re: Can suburbs be cities? [Re: Bassfreak]
#20299882 - 07/20/14 09:30 AM (9 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Bassfreak said: prettttty sure being a city is based on population. and that city can decide if they want it to be a city or not if theres enough people
so i think that a suburb could potentially be a city
Yeah there are definitely quite a few suburbs that technically are cities. I think what he's asking is whether they can progress from just being primarily "bedroom communities" where most commute elsewhere to work, to something that resembles a stand-alone city more.
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Gilgamesh18
Herbivore Man

Registered: 03/01/12
Posts: 11,671
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Re: Can suburbs be cities? [Re: psi]
#20302732 - 07/20/14 07:25 PM (9 years, 7 months ago) |
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bump
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Prisoner#1
Even Dumber ThanAdvertized!


Registered: 01/22/03
Posts: 193,665
Loc: Pvt. Pubfag NutSuck
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Re: Can suburbs be cities? [Re: psi] 1
#20302746 - 07/20/14 07:28 PM (9 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
psi said:
Quote:
Bassfreak said: prettttty sure being a city is based on population. and that city can decide if they want it to be a city or not if theres enough people
so i think that a suburb could potentially be a city
Yeah there are definitely quite a few suburbs that technically are cities.
actually. quite a few cities are suburbs
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NotTheDevil
Transhuman


Registered: 01/08/13
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Re: Can suburbs be cities? [Re: Prisoner#1]
#20302843 - 07/20/14 07:46 PM (9 years, 7 months ago) |
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I would never want to live in an urban city. I would kill myself at some point if forced to do so for the rest of my life.
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psi
TOAST N' JAM


Registered: 09/05/99
Posts: 31,465
Loc: 613
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Re: Can suburbs be cities? [Re: Prisoner#1]
#20303146 - 07/20/14 08:45 PM (9 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Prisoner#1 said:
Quote:
psi said:
Quote:
Bassfreak said: prettttty sure being a city is based on population. and that city can decide if they want it to be a city or not if theres enough people
so i think that a suburb could potentially be a city
Yeah there are definitely quite a few suburbs that technically are cities.
actually. quite a few cities are suburbs
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morrowasted
Worldwide Stepper



Registered: 10/30/09
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Re: Can suburbs be cities? [Re: psi]
#20303158 - 07/20/14 08:48 PM (9 years, 7 months ago) |
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if an electron can be in multiple "places" simultaneously then
i am gonna go with yes
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