It's less of a problem for Reno than for Washington, because not very many people live in that 170 mile long county, except those living near Reno. Imagine defining the Washington metro area as going all the way to North Carolina, because one county extends that far. It's 160 miles from the District of Columbia south to the North Carolina border, through the entire state of Virginia. Reno, NV-a community realistically about the same size as Winston-Salem, NC-formally extends 170 miles north to the Oregon border. The Riverside, CA metro area formally extends all the way to the Arizona state border, through more than 100 miles of virtually empty desert. But look at the west, where counties are often larger than entire eastern states. In the eastern part of the country, where counties are relatively small and relatively uniform in size, they provide a decently reliable base unit. This map shows the metro area boundaries, as the US Census defines them. Metro areas are based on county borders, and thus still rely on arbitrary political lines. ![]() When people want to include the suburbs of a central city and describe the built-up area of a place, they often say “metro area.” Metro areas are indeed a better comparison method than official cities, but they're still bad. If you want to compare cities to other cities, you need a method that doesn't rely on arbitary political borders. One city may include many of its suburbs (as Jacksonville does), while another may not include many of them. Thus, what type of development is included in one city versus another is completely arbitrary. Literally inside the City of Jacksonville, FL. Jacksonville's official border simply extends far out beyond the edge of development. Meanwhile, this photo is 100% inside the political borders of the City of Jacksonville, Florida. Only one side of this image is in “the city” as political borders define it, but both sides are equally urban, equally legitimate parts of the built-up region. This difference is apparent all along the District's political border, where the development on the Maryland or Virginia side is virtually indistinguisable from the development on the District side.įor example in Friendship Heights. Rather, it's defined by the built environment itself. The District of Columbia is one, and what land falls inside the District's borders versus outside its borders is well-defined.īut that well-defined “city” is a completely inaccurate representation of the population cluster that is “Washington.” The built-up city, as people inside and nearby experience it, isn't defined by the political borders. “Cities” are a terrible way to compare citiesĬities, officially, are political units with political borders. This map shows the urban areas in the 48 contiguous states, with each dot scaled to represent the population of one urban area. The most apples-to-apples method is a US Census method called “ urban areas,” which are clusters of development that meet a minimum population density threshold. ![]() ![]() How do you compare the population of cities across the country, correcting for the randomness of political borders? You can't use official city populations, and metropolitan areas are only a little better.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |