Urban vs Surburban vs Rural

[viking]

I recently made a comment that Turbos home was , in my opinion, a rural community. He replied perhaps it was in the eyes of a New York City boy. I suspect that some of us have differing opinions about what constitutes a a urban/cosmopolitan environment versus a city/town/village. For me a city like New York, Chicago, Rome, Paris, Moscow would certainly be considered a cosmopolitan or urban environment. And I think a larger community which has closely spaced homes, with sidewalks, in a block like setting with main streets very close near by for shopping, and close to a major city to be surburban. A town with larger parcels of land, further away from a city, smaller in population, smaller in overall size (population and/or square miles) to be rural and anything way out there like a home in the corn belt where you need to drive 30 minutes for some milk to be farmland or very rural.

Does anyone have a better definition to describe these attributes? How would you describe where you live?

[SANDRO43]

A town with larger parcels of land, further away from a city, smaller in population, smaller in overall size (population and/or square miles) to be rural and anything way out there like a home in the corn belt where you need to drive 30 minutes for some milk to be farmland or very rural.

The last one would be closer to its etymology, since "rural" comes from Latin rus, ruris meaning countryside, farmland, etc. i.e. an area where agriculture is prevalent.

However, its English usage is somewhat flexible/variable: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural.

[jb]

Viking,

Have you ever been to northwestern Kansas?  I could show you places where the nearest neighbor is 8-10 miles away.  Better yet, south central Nebraska, or southern central South Dakota, believe me, there ain't much out there holding the country together.  Yet those folks are among the best this country has to offer.  I'd take them any day over New Yorkers.

Just my opinion.

[viking]

JB

Yes I have. I have driven cross country perhaps 6 times, round trip. Been to every state except Alaska.

And i have met some wonderful people no matter where I stopped. BUT, this topic is not about people but how you would describe a specific living environment. How would you describe your area?

[jb]

How would you describe your area?

Paradise.

[viking]

Anybody else care to answer this question in the manner if which it was asked?

[siberia]

Well, we live in a, what i would call city of 100,000 with a major metro area 20 mins away and suburbia filling all between, but my Russian husband calls where we live a village. His city in Russia had about 2 million.

[Jet]

Anybody else care to answer this question in the manner if which it was asked?

Perhaps the best way to convey the type of area in which one lives, in a way that women of the FSU can easily understand, is to look to the Soviet classification system:

Urban localities

Город (gorod), translated as either town or city. The Russian language offers no distinction between the words "town" and "city". Officially, towns are classified by their population count. Towns can also be classified by their level of jurisdiction within the Oblast. In translation, the word "city" is usually applied to the towns with a population of at least 100,000.
         

• Superlarge (сверхкрупные города): over 3,000,000.
• Larger (крупнейшие города): 1,000,000–3,000,000.
• Large (крупные города): 250,000–1,000,000.
• Big (большие города): 100,000–250,000.
• Medium (средние города): 50,000–100,000.
• Small (малые города, городки): less than 50,000.

Посёлок городского типа (posyolok gorodskogo tipa), translated as "urban-type settlement", is a type of smaller urban locality. There are several subtypes of urban-type settlements:
         

• Urban-type settlement proper—mostly urban population of 3,000–12,000.
• Work settlement (рабочий посёлок)—mostly urban population occupied in industrial manufacture.
• Builders' settlement (посёлок строителей)—mostly urban population occupied in construction.
• Suburban (dacha) settlement (дачный посёлок)—typically, a suburban settlement with summer dachas.
• Beach settlement (курортный посёлок)—mostly urban population occupied in beach services.
• Station (станция)—mostly urban population occupied in transportation industry.

Rural localities

Посёлок сельского типа (posyolok selskogo tipa), or simply "посёлок", translated as "rural-type settlement". The "rural-type" (сельского типа) designation is added to the settlements the population of which is mostly occupied in agriculture, while posyolok (посёлок) proper indicates a mix of population working in agriculture and industry.

There are also several other types of rural localities:

   

• Larger rural-type localities, with population of 500–3,000:
• Село (selo)—translated as "village".

• Smaller rural localities, with population fewer than 500:
• Деревня (derevnya)—translated as "village".
• Хутор (khutor)—translated as "hamlet" or "farmstead", a rural settlement of one or several families.
• Рыбацкий посёлок (rybatsky posyolok) —translated as "fishermen's settlement", a shore settlement of the rural type with the population occupied in the fishing industry.

         
   

[Turboguy]

Well at least by Jet's definition I make it out of the village category.   I think it is a matter of what we are used to.   I grew up where you stayed Viking and places like New Castle and Beaver Falls seemed almost like the big city and places like Pittsburgh were a metropolis.    At one time I lived in a place called Ebensburg which is not too far from where Anastasia lives and that was a village.  There were two restaurants and a bowling alley and that was about it.  Our fun thing was to go get ice cream at the only custard stand in town.

[Jet]

Well, we live in a, what i would call city of 100,000 with a major metro area 20 mins away and suburbia filling all between, but my Russian husband calls where we live a village. His city in Russia had about 2 million.

One of the things my wife found fascinating here is the phenomenon of the Megalopolis which doesn't really seem to exist in Russia. There, cities, towns, and villages all have clearly defined boundaries with areas of forest, fields, or swamps in between the end of one town and the beginning of the next. For her, it seemed like Fort Lauderdale was the center of a hundred mile long city stretching from North of Palm Beach to the Florida Keys.

It also seems that for Russians moving to the US the transition from smaller to larger is generally easier than the other way around. Lil came from a small town of about 50,000 (though not far from Nizniy Novgorod - pop. 1.5 million) to FtL and has adapted to city living beautifully, but I've heard many horror stories about women moving from Large Russian cities (Ekatrinburg, Piter, N. Novgorod, Moscow) and going absolutely nuts with the relative boredom of suburban life in the states.

[Gator]

Viking,

Some idle chatter.

City planners probably differentiate the three terms by population density.  I think of the traverse from urban areas (large, densely populated cities) through suburbs (outskirts of cities) to rural (farmland, forest, desert, prairie and other sparsely settled land).

With regard to Turbo's home, all Pennsylvania counties are divided into townships, each a separate political entity with its own government.  Cities and boroughs have separate governments from townships.  Villages are unincorporated settlements.  I would say that Turbo lives in Indian Country.  If I recall correctly, the great Indian fighter,General Mad Anthony Wayne, was boiled in that region.

In the South where I live, counties have no separate governments other than cities.   One would logically think that my house is part of the Tampa suburbs even though I reside within incorporated city limits and have wild boar and bobcat on my property plus some dangerous reptiles.


In Russia because of ancient feudal practices followed by soviet communes (or whatever the collectives were called), farmers reside in villages with homes close together.  The same is especially true in Asia, where farm villages have a high population density.

For those interested in American rural life in the 1940s, I have vivid memories.  Most of the members here will not believe it.  For sure RW that I have discussed it with don’t believe it is possible.  Different POVs of old country boy vs. younger city girl.

[wxman]

It's all a matter of perspective. If you go to a larger city than you live, you will think of it as an urban city. Smaller and you will think of it as a village. 

[Turboguy]

I think wxman hit the nail on the head.   I think it is all a matter of what you are used to.   Even in topography.  When I drive in the midwest it seems boring as all get out since it is tabletop smooth.   I have had visitors from that region that say they get claustraphobic in our hills and it feels closed in. 

You are right about the governements in PA Gator.  I can also relate to American rural life in the 40's.  Some of the things I recall are getting up in the morning and throwing coal in the furnace after banking it before going to bed, the ice man delivering ice for the ice box.  (We loved to steal chunks on hot summer days) and laying by the radio and listening to Inner Sanctum and the Green Hornet since there were no TV's in those days.  Now I am making myself feel old.

[2tallbill]

I live in Newark California which would be considered a small city with about 50,000 people in it comprising mostly of suburbs. Newark is in the San Francisco bay area which
is a major population center and its either the 3rd or 4th largest metropolitan area in the US. When I describe where I live to an RW I explain the everything I just said and often even send a map with Newark pointed out in it.

Just my dva (two) kopecks

Bill

[Gator]

Turbo,

Few of us know what you are talking about.  Everybody else is thinking "huh".

We did not have an indoor plumbing, although I was too young to need it and by the time I did we had moved to a house with plumbing.

My grandmother cooked on a wood stove into her mid 70s.  Then TVA arrived with that modern invention - electricity.

[catzenmouse]

According to my wife America is just one big village.